Dr. James W. Kalat tells us that "Biological psychology is the study of behavior and experience in terms of genetics, evolution, and physiology, especially the physiology of the nervous system".
When you study biological psychology, it's likely that you will come across a number of related terms and specializations. These include:
Physiological Psychology
Psychobiology
Biopsychology
Neuropsychology
There is also a good chance that you will also be introduced to the field of comparative psychology, which put simply is the study of animal behaviour.
Learn About Biological Psychology
The Making of Individual Differences
The Making of Individual Differences is just one of the many course units you can access for free via LearningSpace. LearningSpace is a truly remarkable resource from the Open University that provides free and open educational resources for learners and educators around the world.
The Making of Individual Differences examines the issue of nature and nurture and how genes and the environment interact in the development of the nervous system to make each of us unique. It is not exclusively about biological psychology, however, the module contains some very insightful related material. For instance, make sure you access the sections on the nervous system and genes and their influence on behaviour.
Please note that you do not have to register to access any of the course material but I strongly recommend that you do. As is pointed out on the site by registering, you will:
Enhance your learning
Discuss a topic in a forum
Write a journal entry
Complete a quiz
Become part of a community
Share your ideas, views and questions with others
Find out about the topics you're interested in
Make contact with other users of OpenLearn
Use the tools in the LabSpace
Participate in a replayable, web-based video conference
Download educational resources and adapt them to your needs
Click Here To Access The Making of Individual Differences
This part of the biological psychology page is dedicated to the move towards what is known as web 2.0. Web 2.0 links people, it's a place where people contribute, share, collaborate and learn. To access some of the links below, you will need to register and/or login.
Yahoo group with over 600 members. The purpose of the group is to share stories the members find over the web that concern Biological Psychology and/or Behavioral Neuroscience. This service is intended to help college level teachers and students keep up with the latest developments in this field.
Biological Psychology by James W. Kalat
Book Description
Dr. James W. Kalat's biological psychology is the best selling text in the market because of its extremely high level of scholarship, clear and occasionally humorous writing style, and precise examples integrated throughout the text. Throughout all nine editions, the goal has been to make biological psychology accessible to psychology students, not just to biology majors and pre-meds. The goal has also been to convey the excitement of the search for biological explanations of behavior.
Kalat argues that biological psychology is "the most interesting topic in the world," and this text convinces many students. Try-it-yourself activities in the book and on-line help illustrate phenomena and procedures described in the text.
An extremely skilled teacher, Dr. Kalat has written a text that not only speaks to today's students but to their professors as well. Accuracy, currency and a clear presentation style have always been the trademark signature of this text and this Ninth Edition has taken these qualities to the next level.