“If you want to understand the secrets of universe, think of energy, frequency and vibration.”
- Nikolas Tesla
In the future the branches of all sciences will be concentrated on energy, frequency and vibration according to the most celebrated and famous scientist Nikolas Tesla.
In ancient time psychology was the study about spirit. After the passage of time the concept of ‘spirit’ was rejected by mainstream science, because it was highly abstract in nature. Then psychology became the study about mind and it was also rejected due to the abstract nature and lack of empirical evidence. Then psychology became the study of consciousness, which was also discarded due to same reasons.
Now psychology is the study of behaviour and mental process of a living creature. The evolutionary stages of psychology later transformed (or remained) as the branches or approaches to psychology (Eg; Structuralism, Functionalism, Gestalt psychology, Psychoanalysis etc.). The branches approaches such as humanism, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology are prevalent now.
It is possible to say that, “physiological psychology is psychology”, because in deeper sense physiological psychology attempts to explain and predict behaviour. Physiological psychology is concerned about anatomical structure, cells, neural transmissions and electro-chemical signaling process in a living creature and it investigates how the system of body works as well as behaviour. Physiological psychologist observes internal, external, overt and covert behaviour of an organism by using scientific methods with or without the help of technology. In nutshell, physiological psychology is concerned with the structure and function of the body, i. e., how its organs work.
THE METHODS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Every scientific study has a scientific method. This is how the investigator approaches the ‘truth’ or ‘problem’. The important methods of physiological psychology are listed below:
1. Stimulation
2. Electronic recording techniques
3. Ablation
4. Anatomical method
5. Clinical method
Let’s have a closer look:
1. Stimulation
In this method, nervous or even parts of brain are stimulated artificially by using small electrical signals (pulses) or chemical stimuli. Here parts of the nervous system may stimulate at will. It may be done in animal under anesthesia and desired parts of the nervous system may be surgically exposed to what happens while it is stimulated by tracing where the nerve impulse travels. In some other cases, electrodes are implanted in the parts of the nervous system of the organism. In chemical stimulation chemical stimuli is transferred by using small tubes planted in the brain or desired areas such as glands.
2. Electronic recording techniques
In this method electrodes are placed in parts of the brain or nervous system in a temporarily or permanent fashion to record excitation. The animal may be anestized or awake.
3. Ablation
Systematic observation is taking place before and after destroying certain parts of the brain or glands to understand change in the behaviour in the animal. The change in the activities, learning or behaviour is attributed to the destroyed part or structure. There are chances of error in this method due to the interaction based functioning of different structures.
4. Anatomical Method
The anatomical method, studies about the anatomical structure of the animal closely and precisely. In anatomical study the animal is killed in order to confirm precisely where artificial electro-chemical signaling (stimulation method) or recording (where electrodes were placed) techniques applied. A close examination of the structure is conducted in this method to make knowledge out of.
5. Clinical Method
The case study of Pheneas Gage is a perfect example for clinical method.
The behaviour and neural connections of human is more complex than of animals. So the studies conducted in animals and generalizing it toward human beings is limited and lacks validity in many aspects. This is one of the major criticisms faced by animal studies and physiological psychological knowledge out of it, but clinical method of physiological psychology can shed some light into this darkness. Occasional unfortunate accidents are occurring in human beings that Central Nervous System (Brain and spinal cord), Peripheral Nervous System (roughly outside the skull and parts that are not the spinal cord) injuries. Some of them may survive and some others may die. While a clinician or physician treating them or helping them to recover, as considering them as cases, he or she is making knowledge out of physiology and contributing it to physiological psychology directly or indirectly. Clinical method can produce results in the field of physiological psychology as ablation, anatomical method or sometimes stimulation method taking place in animals.
In the next session we will discuss about Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) and its sub classifacations.
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