Biological psychology



Biological psychology

Biological psychology is described as the study of experience and behavior in terms of evolution, physiology, and genetics. It caters specifically to physiology of the nervous system. In reality, the field of biological psychology makes use of biology as a complete approach to understanding behavior of animals and humans. In order to have a thorough understanding of biological psychology, the historical development of this area needs to be known, and the major theories and relationship of this field with other fields in psychology is also very important.

When it comes to comparative psychology, animal behavior is the metaphor which is used for human behavior. This is because human beings have psychological mechanisms which are similar to those of other species, and it is assumed that the psychological mechanisms are shared within different species. There are individual differences that exist besides cultural differences, and those are not usually taken into consideration when the talk is about this metaphor. Even though human beings belonging to different ethnic and racial groups are biologically similar, they still use their biological features and resources in various ways for the purpose of responding to different situations.

Three Areas where Biological Psychology Is Relevant To a Multicultural Approach in Psychology

All human beings have verbal and cognitive tools which fall in the category of biological tools. In order to understand this, it is important to note that humans and animals have evolved as a result of the changes that took place in their environment and they use this evolving for the purpose of securing their survival. They have the ability to change so that they can suit to their new surroundings. This explains how psychology and biology are closely linked and provide great insight into understanding human behavior.

Genetic psychology

Race and ethnicity is an important aspect of multicultural psychology and genetic psychology is an area which is significantly relevant to multicultural psychology approaches. The biological tools which the human beings use are almost the same across individuals and groups. Human beings are same genetically but particular genes are linked with psychological disorders such as antisocial behavior or schizophrenia, which create the need to have gene therapies. However, the genes are not associated in particular with any behavior and there is no single genetic variant that can categorize populations of humans into categories based on race. It is important to note that the concepts of racial groups are of particular importance in biological psychology.

Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology is also an area of biological psychology that is related to multicultural psychology as Evolutionary psychology is the study of how human adaptations can contribute to enhancing survival of species. Cultures can only be formed, evolved and studied if people are able to survive through the passing times. As time passes, people evolve and new cultures are formed. This is why evolutionary psychology is important because it includes study of adaptation, and that refers to the changing of creatures in order to become better suited to the environment around ...

Defining clinical psychology as a profession



Defining clinical psychology as a profession

Introduction

It is considered as the most effective type of psychology that to decrease the psychological distress of the people and aim to improve the general psychological situation of the people (Routh, 1994). In modern world, people are coming across various psychological situations like increase of depression, tension, anxiety, problems in person and official life, and various other health problems that have become prominent in current period. The process of clinical psychology comprises of various techniques that psychologist used to effectively remove the element of psychological diseases. Some of most common techniques are observation of behavior, interviews, close monitoring for longer period of time, and several other psychological test (Boyle, 1997).

Need of clinical psychologist have increased in this competitive and tension environment where 4 out of ten people are going through above defined mental problems. Professionals of this field are normally found in the entire small and large health care centers of the country. For example in American the services of these professionals are mostly seek by army officers that have came from war. Professional of these filed work normally work in relation with several departments including medical practitioners, various health care institutions, and mental clinic.

Discussion

Differences of clinical psychology with other forms of psychology

On the other hand, clinical psychology is entirely different from Counseling psychology as it includes experienced psychologist that uses theories of psychology with process of therapy. This type of psychology is relatively new and is in a process of gaining importance, further, it is not easy to become a counseling psychologist, as it requires proper command over the process of treatment, self-control, and experience. Process of treatment through counseling psychology comprises of following key steps (Reisman, 1991).

Firstly, proper and accurate evaluation personal medical conditions, reasons of their status, and other relevant information that is necessary for the treatment procedure. secondly formulation of psychological treatment procedure according to the particular case, implementation of selected procedure, frequent monitoring and appropriate reporting, evaluation of described therapy and future procedure, and several others. Unlike clinical psychology counseling psychology does not work in health care rather they work are available everywhere for instance, in organizations, in sports team, in jails and other places. Further, these professional works with patients on their own rather that clinical psychology that works in relationship with different organizations (Boyle, 1997).

School psychology

School psychology is another type of clinical psychology that uses the concepts of clinical and educational psychology to reduce the problems of children, politicians, and others in the field of educations. Professional of school psychologist carries diversified forms of operations, and are educated in several fields of psychology for instance, education, family, child psychology and various others.

In addition to these, these professional unlike clinical psychologist does not operated from health care centers rather they are found in educational institutes, political offices and in business organizations. They play diversified role in their institutions, for instance in educational institutes they aim to improve the educational performance of children, ...

Historical Influences of Social Psychology



Historical Influences of Social Psychology

Social psychology is a scientific discipline and is older than hundred years. Most of the advancements in this filed happened during the previous five decades. This is what makes social psychology a considerably new area of science. While discussing the history of social psychology, it is important to note that there are two types of social psychologies, one exists in the subject of sociology and the other exists in psychology, and the larger of the two is actually the psychological branch (Tesser, 1995). The main focus of psychological social psychology is the way in which an individual would respond to the social stimuli he is exposed to, while sociological social psychology mainly focuses on societal variables or larger groups, which include socioeconomic status of people, the cultural norms, and social roles of people. Even though the merging of the two social psychologies into one field had been considered, it was realized that they both have orientations that are quite different and that is why it is unclear that the merging would be viable.

Wundt and the beginning of a Scientific Discipline: 1862-1894

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1921) was a German psychologist and is also widely known to be the founding father of psychology. He also played an integral role in the early development of the area of social psychology. In the year 1862, Wundt had stated that there is a need to have two different branches of psychology; social psychology and physiological psychology (Myers, 2006). Even though Wundt had a lot of influence over the shaping of social psychology context in the area of Europe, his ideas exerted little influence on the social scientists of America as his concept of psychology was related to the science of the mind, which was totally incompatible with the behaviorist perspective which had newly emerged in the United States during the 20th century.

The Initial Years: 1895–1935

Norman Triplett, who was an American psychologist, is deemed responsible for conducting the first empirical study on social psychology. In his study in the year 1895, Triplett asked children to wind line quickly on a fishing reel alone or with the presence of other children. According to his prediction, children ended up wounding the line quicker when other children were present. His study is thus given credit as it introduced experimental methods into the field of social sciences. Even though the study he carried out was quite significant, it still took researchers a long time to comprehend the dynamics behind the study and to study the social psychological aspects of the findings of Triplett’s study. William McDougall and Edward Ross published texts in the year 1908 and according to McDougall, an individual was the main unit of analysis in this new field of science whereas Ross felt that people needed to be studied as groups just the way they are studied in the contemporary perspective of social psychology (Tesser, 1995).

After passing of many years, Allport proposed a concept of social psychology when ...