Biopsychology

BIOPSYCHOLOGY, or biological psychology, is a scientific discipline that studies psychological functions (the behavior of animals and humans) by the comparative-genetic method and considers them as products of biological evolution. The scope, content, and tasks of biopsychology are not yet finally established and clearly delimited from related disciplines. Biopsychology stands to zoopsychology (the psychology of animals) and to human psychology in the same relationship as comparative anatomy and physiology stand to the anatomy and physiology of animals and humans, i.e., as a general science to particular disciplines. In this sense, biopsychology coincides with comparative psychology. However, the latter term is used in a broader sense; it sometimes designates all psychological disciplines that use the comparative or genetic method, including child psychology, psychopathology, and ethnic psychology. Built on the foundations of evolutionary theory, biopsychology uses the objective-genetic method. This is its most essential difference from traditional empirical psychology, which is based on self-observation. Biopsychology breaks with the anthropomorphism of traditional zoopsychology and seeks to present the development of behavior from animals to humans as a natural process of biological evolution.