Synonyms
Definition
How does our mental and emotional life tie in with the workings of the body? Psychophysiology is the branch of psychology that studies the behavior of the individual in a biological context. It is an attempt to chart the mutual interactions between psychological processes and the workings of the body, giving equal emphasis to both.
Description
A fundamental principle of psychophysiology is that thoughts and feelings cannot exist apart from the body – here we include the brain as part of the body. It follows that a full understanding of psychological processes depends on understanding the biological context from which they proceed. Due to its emphasis on integrating our understanding of mental and physiological processes, psychophysiology has contributed to research methods and theory building in behavioral medicine and also to the neurosciences of cognition and emotion. Psychophysiology finds its place in behavioral medicine by providing a...
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References and Further Readings
Buchanan, T., & Lovallo, W. R. (2019). The role of genetics in stress effects on health and addiction. Current Opinion in Psychology, 27, 72–76.
Carroll, D., Ginty, A. T., Whittaker, A. C., Lovallo, W. R., & de Rooij, S. R. (2017). The behavioural, cognitive, and neural corollaries of deficient biological reactions to acute psychological stress. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 77, 74–86.
Cohen, S., Gianaros, P. J., & Manuck, S. B. (2016). A stage model of stress and disease. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11, 456–463.
Erickson, K. I., Creswell, J. D., Verstynen, T. D., & Gianaros, P. J. (2014). Health neuroscience: defining a new field. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 446–453.
Gerin, W. (2010). Laboratory stress testing methodology. In A. Steptoe (Ed.), Handbook of behavioral medicine: Methods and applications (pp. 633–648). New York: Springer.
Gianaros, P. J., & Jennings, J. R. (2018). Host in the machine: A neurobiological perspective on stress and cardiovascular disease. American Psychologist, 73, 1031–1044.
Gianaros, P. J., Marsland, A. L., Kuan, D. C.-H., Schirda, B. L., Jennings, J. R., Sheu, L. K., Hariri, A., Gross, J. J., & Manuck, S. B. (2014). An inflammatory pathway links atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk to neural activity evoked by the cognitive regulation of emotion. Biological Psychiatry, 75, 738–745.
Lovallo, W. R. (2016). Stress and health (3rd ed.). Sage.
Obrist, P. A. (1981). Cardiovascular psychophysiology: A perspective. New York: Plenum Press.
Steptoe, A., & Poole, L. (2010). Use of biological measures in behavioral medicine. In A. Steptoe (Ed.), Handbook of behavioral medicine: Methods and applications (pp. 619–632). New York: Springer.
Turner, J. R. (1984). Cardiovascular reactivity and stress: Patterns of physiological response. New York: Plenum Press.
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Lovallo, W.R., Buchanan, T.W. (2020). Psychophysiology: Theory and Methods. In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_484-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_484-3
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Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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Chapter history
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Latest
Psychophysiology: Theory and Methods- Published:
- 31 December 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_484-3
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Original
Psychophysiology: Theory and Methods- Published:
- 23 September 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_484-2