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Biological Psychology

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Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions

Related Terms

Behavioral neuroscience; Biopsychology; Cognitive neuroscience; Physiological psychology; Psychobiology

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Biological psychology can be concisely defined as the scientific study of the biological processes underlying or influencing mind and behavior. In this regard, it is basically a materialistic approach to the human condition since it provides methods and strategies to investigate the natural causes and aims of (human) behavior. It is one of the few scientific disciplines at the crossroad between humanities and natural sciences. Dewsbury (Dewsbury 1991) argued that the synonym psychobiology was probably coined at the beginning of the twentieth century, but some authors have dated its first use many years earlier. Some students of biological psychologymay have used this term or its synonyms to distance themselves from mainstream psychology, which some find insufficiently based on biology or natural science as a whole. American psychologist Knight Dunlap...

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Correspondence to Rudi D’Hooge DSc, Ph.D. .

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D’Hooge, R., Balschun, D. (2013). Biological Psychology. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_240

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_240

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-8264-1

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