UNIVERSITY OF THE CORDILLERAS

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Psychology
Baguio City

Psych 108: Physiological Psychology

Module 1: Introduction to Physiological Psychology

I. TEACHING-LEARNING OUTCOMES AND LIST OF TOPICS

A. TEACHING-LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:

1. Define physiological psychology and explain its goal and importance in

understanding behavior and bettering human behavior.
2. Differentiate the other neuroscientific disciplines related to biopsychology.
3. Discuss the methods used in physiological psychology.

B. LIST OF TOPICS

a. Definition and Nature of Physiological Psychology

b. Goals and Importance of Physiological Psychology
c. Biological Roots of Physiological Psychology
d. Biopsychology and Other Disciplines
e. Methods and Strategies of Research in Physiological Psychology

II. TEACHING-LEARNING ACTIVITY (LESSON PROPER)

I. DEFINITION AND NATURE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

➢ PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY OR BEHAVIORAL

NEUROSCIENCE

o A field of psychology that connects behavior and mental processes to

bodily processes, and to the functions and actions of the brain, the brain
in turn affects behavior and mind.
o It stems from an ancient philosophical position that people (and other
animals) behave as they do because of their physical constitution.
o The simultaneous study of the brain and of the behavior it produces.
Behavior is organized and controlled by the brain; the central question
to be answered is on how the brain accomplishes this control and
organization.
o The physiological approach to psychology focuses on the human
biological make up, and the events that occur in the human body that
causes behavior.

➢ STRENGTHS OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL APPROACH

o The approach revealed that several areas of the brain have specific
functions.

▪ E.g. The HIPPOCAMPUS was found to be crucial in memory of

landmark and routes for taxi drivers.

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 o The approach is very scientific, it performs very carefully controlled
experiments which are therefore likely to be replicable and produce
reliable results.

o It takes advantage of sophisticated equipment such as PET and fMRI

scanners which provide an objective and precise way of measuring
brain structures.

➢ WEAKNESSES OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL APPROACH

o Even though this approach tries to be scientific, it is often impossible to

directly observe the psychological processes that researchers want to
study.

▪ E.g. An INCREASE IN BLOOD FLOW may not be the same as a

change in thought processes.

o The researchers’ limited ability to study brain processes directly and

objectively means they often must rely on self-report data, and so
demand characteristics may be a problem.

▪ E.g. In Dement and Kieltman’s study could have subjects who

could falsify reports about whether they are dreaming or falsified
the content of their dreams.

II. GOALS AND IMPORTANCE OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

A. SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION: GENERALIZATION VS. REDUCTION

1. GENERALIZATION

➢ Explaining specific instances of behavior as examples of general laws,

which is deduced from experiments.

e.g. Pathologically strong fear of dogs as an example of Classical

Conditioning.

- Presumably, the person was frightened earlier in life by a dog. An

unpleasant stimulus was paired with the sight of the animal and the
subsequent sight of dogs evokes the earlier response: fear.

2. REDUCTION

➢ Explain complex phenomena in terms of simpler ones.

e.g.
• Physiologists: Explain the movement of a muscle in terms of the
changes in the membranes of muscle cells, the entry of particular
chemicals, and the interactions among protein molecules within these
cells.

• Molecular Biologist: Explain muscular movement in terms of forces that

bind various molecules together and cause various parts of the
molecules to be attracted to one another.

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 • Anatomic Physicist: Describe matter and energy themselves and to
account for the various forces found in nature.

3. TASK OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

➢ Explain behavior in physiological terms.
➢ Understand “psychologically” why a particular behavior occurs before
understanding the physiological events that caused the behavior.

➢ In practice, the research efforts of physiological psychologists involve

both forms of explanation: generalization and reduction.
o Ideas for experiments are stimulated by the researcher’s
knowledge both of psychological generalizations about
behavior and of physiological mechanisms.

B. BIOLOGICAL ROOTS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY

1. ANCIENT CULTURES
➢ Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, and the Greeks
➢ Considered the HEART to be the SEAT OF THOUGHT AND EMOTIONS

2. GREEK SCHOLARS
➢ HIPPOCRATES (460-370 BC): Concluded that the SEAT OF THOUGHT AND
EMOTIONS should be assigned to the BRAIN

➢ ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC): Disagreed with Hippocrates and claimed that

the brain served to cool the passions of the heart.

➢ GALEN (130-200 AD): Concluded that Aristotle’s role for the brain was
“utterly absurd” and thought enough of the brain to dissect and study
the brains of cattle, sheep, pigs, cats, dogs, weasels, monkeys, and apes.

3. TREPHINATION

➢ 950 - 1400 BCE (Mesoamerica), 5000 BCE (China), 6500 BCE (France)

➢ A surgical intervention where a hole is drilled, incised, or scraped into

the skull using simple surgical tools thereby exposing the dura mater and
causing no damage to the underlying blood vessels, meninges, and
brain.

➢ Used to treat health problems associated with intracranial diseases,

epileptic seizures, migraines, and mental disorders by relieving pressure.

➢ It was used as a primitive form of emergency surgery to remove

shattered pieces of bone from fractured skulls after receiving a head
wound and cleaning out the pools of blood that would form
underneath the skull.

4. RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650)

➢ The Father of Modern Philosophy

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 ➢ His speculations about the roles of the mind and brain in the control of
behavior provide a good starting point in the history of physiological
psychology.

➢ He assumed that the worlds were a purely mechanical entity that, once
having been set in motion by God, ran its course without divine
interference.

➢ Based on his observations, some movements of the human body were

automatic and involuntary.

o REFLEXES (from the Latin word reflectere, “to bend back upon
itself”)
▪ Reactions that do not require the participation of the mind;
they occurred automatically.
▪ Energy coming from the outside source would be
reflected through the nervous system to the muscles,
which would contract.

➢ He was the first to suggest that a link exists between the human mind
and its purely physical housing, the brain.

o He believed that the mind controls the movements of the body,

while the body, through its sense organs, supplies the mind with
information about what is happening in the environment.

o PINEAL BODY: A small organ situated on top of the brain stem,

buried beneath the cerebral hemispheres where the interaction
between the human mind and the brain.

o VENTRICLES: Hollow chambers of the brain that are filled with fluid
that is under pressure.

o DESCARTES MODEL:
▪ When the mind decides to perform an action, it tilts the
pineal body in a specific direction like a little joystick,
causing fluid to flow from the brain into the appropriate
set of nerves,
▪ The flow of fluid causes the same muscles to inflate and
move.

5. JOHANNES MULLER (1801-1858)

➢ A 19th-century German physiologist who was a forceful advocate of the

application of experimental techniques to physiology.

➢ He insisted that major advances in the understanding of how the body

works would be achieved only by experimentally removing or isolating
animals’ organs, testing their responses to various chemicals, and
otherwise alerting the environment to see how the organs responded.

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 ➢ DOCTRINE OF SPECIFIC NERVE ENERGIES

o Muller observed that although all nerves carry the same basic
message, an electrical impulse, humans perceive the messages
of different nerves in different ways.

o Because different parts of the brain receive messages from

different nerves, the brain must be functionally divided: some
parts perform some functions, while other parts perform others.

6. FRANZ JOSEPH GALL (1728-1828)

➢ Proposed that the extent to which various mental abilities and

personality traits were manifested depended on the development of
specific parts of the brain, and that differences in regional brain
development were reflected in the shape of the skull.

➢ PHRENOLOGY
o Great numbers of people, most of whom presumably believed
that their behavior was determined by an immaterial soul, had
their skull bumps read by phrenologists in the early years of the
last century,
o The shape of the skull was a poor indicator of the relative sizes of
different brain regions, and anecdotal or subjective reports were
unsatisfactory grounds for accessing mental faculties.

7. JEAN PIERRE FLUORENS (1794-1867)

➢ EXPERIMENTAL ABLATION
o Removal of various parts of animals’ brains and observing their
behavior, by seeing what the animal could no longer do, he was
able to infer the function of the missing portion of the brain.

➢ Claimed to have discovered the regions of the brain that control heart
rate and breathing, purposeful movements, and visual and auditory
reflexes.

8. ANTONIO EGAS MONIZ (1874-1955)

➢ Pioneered psychosurgery through frontal lobotomy for refractory cases

of psychosis.
➢ Frontal lobe leucotomy (removal of a part of the frontal lobe) to treat
mental illness such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, and
insomnia.

9. PAUL BROCA (1824-1880)

➢ A French surgeon who applied the principle of experimental ablation to

the human brain and observed the behavior of people whose brains
had been damaged by strokes.

➢ In 1861, he performed an autopsy on the brain of a man who had a

stroke that resulted in the loss of the ability to speak.

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 ➢ BROCA’S AREA: The portion of the cerebral cortex, on the left side of the
brain performs functions necessary for speech.

10. LUIGI GALVANI (1737-1798)

➢ Used electricity to demonstrate that muscles contain the source of the
energy that powers their contractions.

11. GUSTAV FRITSCH (1838-1927) and EDUARD HITZIG (1838-1907)

➢ Used electrical stimulation as a tool for understanding the physiology of
the brain.
➢ They found that stimulation of different portions of a specific region of
the brain, PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX, caused contraction of specific
muscles on the opposite side of the body.

12. HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ (1821-1894)

➢ Contributions:
o Devised a mathematical formulation of the law of conservation of
energy
o Invented the opthalmoscope (used to examine the retina of the eye)
o Devised an important and influential theory of color vision and color
blindness
o Studied audition, music, and many physiological processes.
o First to attempt to measure the speed of conduction through nerves;
found that neural conduction was much slower than the speed of
light at about 90 ft/s.

➢ He opposed that human organs are endowed with a vital nonmaterial

force that coordinates their operations, he believed that all aspects of
physiology are mechanistic, subject to experimental investigation.

13. 20th Century Developments in Experimental Physiology

➢ Sensitive amplifiers to detect weak electrical signals
➢ Neurochemical techniques to analyze chemical changes within and
between cells
➢ Histological techniques to see cells and their constituents

➢ KARL SPENCER LASHLEY (1890-1958)

o First person with a psychological training to become actively
engaged in the study of brain mechanisms in learning and other
mental functions.
o Worked with neurologist, S.I. Franz, who was using the technique
of cortical ablation to study the localization of learning.

C. CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY

➢ PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY ENHANCES UNDERSTANDING OF THE:

o Biological causes of aggression and mental illness.
o Impacts of brain injury on memory
o Localization of function in brain; damage to specific parts of the brain
have specific behavioral effects
o Effects of hormones and genetics on our behavior.

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III. BIOPSYCHOLOGY AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

A. BIOPSYCHOLOGY
➢ The scientific study of the biology of behavior. (Dewbury, 1991)
➢ Combination of principles from psychology and neuroscience, the study of
the brain and behavior.
➢ The study of how the brain and the rest of the nervous system determine
what humans perceive, feel, think, say, and do.
➢ ADVANTAGES:
o Discoveries in the field are relevant in the treatment of brain disorders.
o It can be applied in the study of behavior.

B. BIOPSYCHOLOGY AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

1. PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
➢ Manipulation of neural activity and behavior with drugs.

E.g. To improve the memory of patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, it

would be beneficial for them to increase the levels of Acetylcholine in
their brain.

2. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
➢ Study of the psychological effects of brain damage.

E.g. Patients with Alcohol-Induced brain damage have difficulty in

remembering recent events.

3. PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY
➢ Study of the relationship between psychological activity that produces
physiological responses.

4. COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
➢ Study of behavior using an evolutionary perspective.

5. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
➢ Development of theories that explain brain-behavior relationships.

6. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
➢ Study of the neural bases of cognition or higher cognitive processes
such as thought, memory, and attention.
➢ Use brain-imaging technology to observe the changes that occur in
various parts of the brain while human volunteers perform cognitive
tasks.

IV. METHODS AND STRATEGIES OF RESEARCH IN BIOPSYCHOLOGY

A. DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS IN BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

1. HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN SUBJECTS

➢ Human subjects can follow directions and can report subjective

experiences.

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 ➢ Non-human subjects have a simpler nervous system and studying
various species make it possible to use the comparative approach with
fewer ethical constraints.

2. EXPERIMENTS, QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES, AND CASE STUDIES

➢ EXPERIMENTS
o The experimental method is used by scientists to find out what
causes what.
o INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Difference between the conditions of
an experiment
o DEPENDENT VARIABLE: What the researcher measures in an
experiment.
o If conditions of the experiment are carefully controlled, there
should be only one possible explanation for any effect observed
in the dependent variable: the effect of the independent
variable caused it.

B. RESEARCH METHODS

1. LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION
➢ Use of drugs, removing parts of the brain or stimulating the brain to
observe its impact on a person’s behavior.

a. EXPERIMENTAL ABLATION
➢ Removal or destruction of part of the brain of an experimental
animal.

b. LESION STUDIES
➢ HUMAN LESIONS
o TRAUMA: The Case of Phineas Gage

2. LABORATORY OBSERVATIONS
➢ In a controlled environment, researchers can observe brain activity in
relation to different human activity as in Sleep Studies.

3. CORRELATION
➢ Measure the relationship between two (2) variables to see if there is a
pattern or trend.

E.g. BRAIN ABNORMALITIES IN MURDERERS INDICATED BY PET-Scans

o The purpose of the study was to see if people charged with
murder and have claimed “not guilty due to insanity” have a
dysfunction in the brain areas associated with aggression.
o The results of the study showed that the murderer’s brain have
less activity in areas associated with aggression, self-control, and
inhibitions, specifically in their Prefrontal Cortex, Corpus Callosum,
and the Amygdala.

4. BRAIN IMAGING TECHNIQUES

➢ CT-Scan (Computerized Axial Tomography)
o Used to diagnose blood clots, tumors, etc. that would indicate
the need for neurosurgery.

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 ➢ PET Scan (Photon Emission Tomorgraphy)

➢ SPECT (Single-Photon Emission Computerized Tomography)

o Produces images that show how organs work i.e. how blood flows
to the heart, areas of the brain that are more active or less active,
etc.
o Used in the study of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

➢ EEG (Electroencephalogram)
o Study of brain waves
o Useful in the diagnosis of epilepsy, brain tumors, and assessing the
stages of sleep and wakefulness.

➢ MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

o Provide an excellent picture of the structure of the human brain
as well as the location and extent of damage

➢ fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

o Detects changes in blood flow to specific areas of the brain and
provides both an anatomical and a functional view of the brain.

➢ Angiography
o Provides an image of the blood vessels of the brain.

III. ANALYSIS/ ENHANCEMENT ACTIVITY: THINKING THINGS (30 points)

INSTRUCTION: Illustrate a thinking brain that specifies a human behavior that you are
interested in understanding more of. Your output could either be in a form of a comic
strip, a sketch, a cartoon, etc.

RUBRIC:

30 – EXCELLENT 20 – VERY GOOD 10 – FAIR 0 – POOR

The presented The presented The presented The presented
output is an output is an output is an output was not
original work by original work by original work by well-thought-of
the student with the student with the student with and lacks
relevant some information few information information about
information on the about the about the the behavior the
behavior s/he is behavior s/he is behavior s/he is student is
interested in. interested in. interested in. interested in.

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IV. APPLICATION: WORD PLAY (40 points)

INSTRUCTION: Complete the words in Column A based on their descriptions found in

Column B.

COLUMN A COLUMN B
The study of normal functions of living
1. P _ _S _ _ _ O _ _
organisms and their parts.
The use of general laws to explain
2. _ E _ _ _ A _ _ _ A _ _ _ _
behavior.
The use of simple terms in explaining
3. _ _ D _ _ T _ _ _
complex phenomena.
The study of bumps in the head to
4. P _ _ E _ _ _ O _ _
explain behavior.
The small organ in the brain associated
5. _ _ N _ _ _ _ _ D _ with the link between the human mind
and the brain.
The Greek Philosopher who insisted that
6. H _ _ _ O _ _ A _ _ _ the brain is the seat of thought and
emotion.
The Greek Philosopher who believed
7. _ R _ _ T _ _ _ _ that the brain functions to cool down the
passion of the heart.
He initiated the study of the shape of the
8. G _ L _ skull to explain mental abilities and
personality traits.
He used electrical stimulation to study
9. _ _ _ T _ _ _
brain physiology.
He was a pioneer in the study of nerve
10. _ _ _ L _ _
energies.
The procedure of removing apart of the
11. _ _ _ A _ _ _ N brain to understand its impact on
behavior.
A brain imaging technique used to study
12. _ L _ _ _ _ _ E _ _ _ P _ _ L _ _ _ A _
brain waves during sleep.
Used electricity to demonstrate muscular
13. G _ _ _ A _ _
contractions.
He discovered an area of the brain
14. _ _ _ _ A
associated with speech production.
He discovered the localization of
15. _ A _ _ _ _ Y function in the brain through his
collaboration with a neurologist.
A surgical procedure of drilling a hole on
16. _ _ E _ _ _ _ A _ _ _ _ a person’s skull to relieve pressure and
cure mental illness.
A psychosurgical procedure initiated by
17. _ _ _ O _ _ _ Y
Moniz to help cure hallucinations.
Field of study that investigates the
18. N _ _ _ O _ _ _ C _ _ _ O _ _ _ Y
psychological effects of brain damage.
Manipulation of behavior and neural
19. P _ _ _ H _ _ _ A _ _ _ C _ _ _ _ _
activity through drug administration.
The scientific study of the biology of
20. B _ _ P _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ Y
behavior.

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REFERENCES:

Carlson, N.R. (2005). Foundations of physiological psychology (6 th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. 6-
10.

Irving, J. (2013). Trephination. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from

https://www.ancient.eu/Trephination/.

Milner, P. M. & White, N.M. (1987). What is physiological psychology. Psychobiology.

15(1). 2-6. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03327259.pdf.

Psychtutor (2020). Physiological psychology. Psychtutor.com. Retrieved from

http://psychtutor.weebly.com/physiological-psychology.html.

Tan, S.Y. & Yip, A. (2014). Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955): Lobotomy pioneer and
Nobel laureate. Singapore Med J. 55 (4). 175-176. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4291941/.

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