心理学专业外语：The biological approach to psychology

The biological approach to psychology

心理学的生物学研究方法

‘All that is psychological is first physiological ’ Anon.

“所有心理的东西首先起源于生理的。”阿农

Origins and history

1.起源和历史

Sometimes known as the physiological,biopsychological, neurophysiological,nativist(considering nature rather than nurture) or innate approach.

这种方法有时被认为是生理学的、生理心理学的、神经生理学的、先天论者（考虑先天遗传因素而非后天环境因素）或先天的研究方法。

The biological approach to psychological matters has integrated with and run parallel to the rest of psychological thought since early Greek times-the Greek physician Galen suggested that personality and temperament may be linked to the levels of body fluids such as blood and bile in the body.

心理问题的生物学研究方法已经与自希腊早期以来的其余心理学思想融合而且并行存在，希腊医生盖伦认为人的个性和气质可能与体液水平相关联，如人体内的血液和胆汁的不同配合。

As knowledge of human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and medicine developed, important insights for human behaviour and experience were gained.Penfield for example mapped the role of various areas of the

cerebral cortex through microelectrode stimulation with conscious patients. Sperry investigated the effects of splitting the cerebral hemispheres on consciousness and psychological function.

伴随人体解剖学、生理学、生物化学和医学知识的发展，人类对自身的行为和经验有了重要的见解。例如潘菲尔德通过微电极刺激有意识的患者绘制出了大脑皮质的不同区域的作用。斯佩里研究了大脑两半球的分裂对意识和心理功能的影响。The field will progress still further as the technology to isolate the effects of genes and scan the living brain develops.

随着旨在杜绝基因的影响并能审视活体大脑发育的技术发展，这一领域会取得更大的进步。

Assumptions

2.理论假设

Biologically orientated psychologists assume that

生物学取向的心理学家假定：

all that is psychological is first physiological- that is since the mind appears to reside in the brain, all thoughts, feelings and behaviours ultimately have a physical/biological cause

所有心理的东西首先起源于生理的-这是因为，自从人类意识在大脑中出现，所有的思维、情感和行为最终都可以归结为生理/生物学的原因。

human genes have evolved over millions of years to adapt behaviour to the environment. Therefore, much behaviour will have a genetic basis 人类基因已经过数百万年的进化演变来使人的行为适应环境。因此，人类许多行

为都有基因基础。

psychology should, therefore, investigate the brain, nervous system, endocrine system, neurochemistry, and genes

因此，心理学应该研究大脑、神经系统、内分泌系统、神经化学和遗传学。

it is also useful to study why human behaviour has evolved in the way it has, the subject of evolutionary/sociobiological theory

它对于研究为什么人类的行为以这种方式进化，对进化论和社会生物学理论都是很有用的。

Methods of investigation

3.研究方法

The biological approach mainly adopts a nomothetic approach to generalise biological influences on behaviour to all humans with similar physiology, but finds the use of particular ‘special case studies’ very useful. 生理学的研究方法主要是采用常规的研究方法来归纳出对所有具有相似生理特征的人来说影响其行为的生物性因素，但是他们发现使用独特的“特殊案例”的研究方法是很有用的。

Most common techniques include

大多数常见的技术包括：

laboratory experimentation-stimulating, giving drugs to, or removing parts of the body to see what effect it has on behaviour

实验室实验法——刺激、给予药物、或者摘除身体的某部位来观察它们对行为有什么样的影响。