How Do Psychologist Examine Behavior and Mental Processes

Introduction This essay will examine and compare the different ways in which psychologists examine behaviour and mental processes and will make reference to cognition, behaviourism, psychodynamics and neuroscience. According to Gerrig and Zimbardo (2002) behaviour can be described as â€Å"the actions by which an organism adjusts to its environment† and behaviour is said to involve mostly the frontal lobes more than the hypothalamus and is influenced greatly by external stimuli. Examples of behaviour are sexual behaviour, curiosity, food preference and reading. Mental processes are described by psychology dictionary (2014) is an umbrella term that would be used to describe any process, whether it physiological or psychological which occurs in a person’s mind for example the process of thinking and remembering. In order to fully achieve this I will have to explain each of the approaches in full details. Neuroscience Neuroscience is a branch or Biological psychology and according to Gerrig et al. (2002) neuroscience is â€Å"the scientific study of the brain and of the links between brain activity and behaviour†. As previously stated before, behaviour is an important part in all the theories of psychology. In general we have two types of behaviour which are regulatory and non-regulatory behaviour. Psychology dictionary (2014) describes a regulatory behaviour as the efforts that an organism makes which are aimed at achieving a balance physiologically by maintaining the basic needs whichShow MoreRelatedThe Biological Approach : Mental Processes And Behaviors1356 Words   |  6 Pagesbiological approach examines mental processes and behaviors by focusing on genetics and physiology. Psychologists who use the biological approach believe that mental processes and behaviors are caused and explained by activity between the nervous system and the brain. 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