If you like biology, you might be interested
in combining it with psychology.
This collaboration goes by lots of names:
biological psychology, physiological psychology
(which I like because of the alliteration),
behavioral neuroscience, or cognitive neuroscience.
The key distinguishing feature of physiological
psychology is the inclusion of a biological
variable.
Either the independent variable or the dependent
variable is biological.
Or both.
In my masters thesis, I used pupillary reactivity
as the dependent variable.
I wanted to know if people's values impacted
their physiological response to visual stimuli.
The independent variable was an internal cognitive
state and the dependent variable was how much
their pupils dilated.
I didn't find any relationship but the basic
issue is at the core of physiological psych:
how does what we think show up in what we
do?
And how does the body impact our thinking?
When studying humans, there is a great emphasis
in physiological psych on computers, MRI imaging
pharmacology, and mathematical modeling.
Computers make it much easier to present stimuli
with great precision.
They also can provide puzzles and tasks for
people to perform while the levels of glucose,
electricity or magnetic patterns in the brain
are measured.
The emphasis is on the hardware of human behavior.
Some study the role of the hippocampus in
learning, neural network models on memory
or how specific neurotransmitters function.
The brain is of keen interest but every part
of the body is considered fair game for study.
Many of the most important questions of the
day can't be directly tested in humans.
You can't randomly assign children to families
with drug addition, disease or socio-economic
levels.
But animal studies can study those conditions
directly.
Baby rats can easily be assigned to parent
rats with various levels of drug addiction
or viral disease.
Socio-economic levels can be approximated
by varying access to food, water, training
and social interaction.
With rats, you can tract the progression of
Parkinson's, Huntington's or Alzheimer's disease,
and then apply what you've learned to humans.
Animal studies provide a broad range of techniques.
In addition to electrical stimulation, drugs
and brain imaging, researchers can disrupt
normal functioning of a neural process, selectively
breed subjects, and genetically alter DNA.
Individual probes (called single recordings)
can be implanted, experimental drugs administered
and invasive procedures imposed.
Animal studies allow random assignment by
genetic markers, precise control of prenatal
environments, and the study of multiple generations
in a short period of time.
In what is an obviously interdisciplinary
approach, physiological psychology often combines
knowledge of human behavior with biology,
chemistry, medicine and even physics.
Practitioners are often skilled at surgery,
mechanically-spatially oriented, and handy
at building or adapting a wide range of laboratory
equipment.
The goal is typically basic research.
Although not opposed to finding practical
applications, physiological psych tries to
uncover the structures and processes underlying
behavior.
Psychologists in this area often work with
animals, mathematical modeling or computer
simulation.
Their work often requires knowledge of neurology,
genetics, and developmental psychology.
Surprisingly, this is not a new area of psychology.
At its founding, psychology used the methods
of experimental physiology to study the processes
of sensation.
So it is no surprise that physiological psychology
is still a major area of interest for psychologists.
Some date physiological psychology back to
Avicenna (about 1000 years ago).
He maintained that mood disorders are caused
by the level of humidity in the skull.
Here's how it goes: Happiness makes you breathe
faster, breathing increases the humidity in
the head (all that foggy air you breathe),
and the result is too much humidity, which
makes you crazy.
Others trace the connection between biology
and psychology back to Descartes (only 400
years ago or so).
He proposed that the pineal gland is where
the body and soul meet.
This small pinecone-shaped gland (hence pine-al)
is the intersect between the intentions of
the soul and actions of the body.
Although physiological psychology can trace
its history back hundreds or thousands of
years, it is much more based on the technology
of our time.
If you like biology, computers, and mathematical
modeling, this might be an area you should
consider pursuing.
Clearly, we need all the help we can get to
explain clinical depression, schizophrenia,
autism, alcoholism, drug abuse, perception,
memory, optimism, and happiness.
