Chapter 1: The Foundations of Psychological Science
Section 1.4: Contemporary Psychological Science & the Biopsychosocial Model
Learning Outcomes:
After reading this section
you should be able to:
 Explain the three
perspectives that
comprise the
biopsychosocial model
 Explain the advantages
of the biopsychosocial
model for explaining
complex behavior
 Explain why early
psychological research
was prone to gender
and culture bias
What questions do you
have about this section that
need to be addressed?
Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca
Making Connections:
In Section 1.3 we introduced you to seven different historical approaches to
psychological research, many of which still play a role in current thinking
about answering the questions posed by psychological scientists. In this
section, we provide a more contemporary approach—the biopsychosocial
model—that incorporates many of the approaches that we saw in Section
1.3, as well as providing a stronger model for some approaches that were
not mentioned there (e.g., neuroscience, evolutionary, and cultural
approaches to psychological research).
Notes:
Take a look at The Big Picture diagram for this section and you’ll be able to
identify the three main perspectives that make up the biopsychosocial
model (see the dark blue boxes and note that each of them is included in
the word “biopsychosocial”). When we use this approach, all three of the
perspectives are included in our thinking about psychological phenomena.
Use the table below to name the three perspectives and describe the
central ideas that underlie each one:
Perspective: Central Ideas:
Putting the Three Perspectives Together:
Advantages of the biopsychosocial model include its ability to help us
explain complex behavior and, relatedly, to understand the full scope of
human diversity in behavior.
Your Turn: Choose one of the following complex behaviors and explain how
each of the three perspectives of the biopsychosocial model might be useful
in understanding it:
 An alcoholic’s decision to continue drinking even though it is
negatively affecting her marriage
 The intellectual development of a child from an abusive home
 An athlete’s decision to start a charity that will assist people in
making healthy food choices
Perspective: Central Ideas:
Biological
Psychological
Social
Chapter 1: The Foundations of Psychological Science
Section 1.4: Contemporary Psychological Science & the Biopsychosocial Model

Use the table below to summarize some of the limitations that were
associated with early research in psychology that prevented a full
understanding of human diversity.
Limitation: Summary:
Gender Bias
WEIRD Science

How does the biopsychosocial model help us to avoid these problems?

More recent approaches to psychological science have sensitized people to

cultural relativity. What does this term mean?

Summary: Try to summarize this section in 250 words or less. Consider comparing your summary with
others in your class to make sure you’ve covered all of the essential elements of this section, and how they
are connected to one another.

Looking Forward: In Sections 1.5–1.7, we’ll see the scientific method that is used by psychological
scientists to answer questions that are of interest to them in a scientific way. As you read those sections
over, think about how psychological research studies might be set up if each of the three perspectives was
going to be addressed.

Do you have feedback about how these guided notes are working for you? Contact the author at tmartini@brocku.ca