I was a fuzzy-headed thinker before I found Bio Psych.
Sadly, it’s true.
When I was in college, I wanted to change the world. Well, first I wanted to be rock-star famous. But after I gave up on that dream, I turned to psychology: you know, saving lives, healing psyches and jumping tall buildings in a single bound.
I switched from one wild dream to another because my thinking was more magical than logical. I envisioned lives miraculously changing without knowing what those changes would look like. I had the right emotion but the wrong mindset.
Here’s what I learned and how it changed my life.
I learned that Biological Psych is absolutely fascinating. It’s all about how your body works. You learn how your brain works, how you feel emotions, how sleep helps your brain reboot, and why you’re hungry at the oddest times.
You explore the workings of neurons, synapses and neurotransmitters. And you see how your body processes medications, handles stress and feels pain. It’s great because there’s nothing more interesting than you!
Topics include:
- Why high blood pressure makes your brain more vulnerable to disease
- Why we know so much about your eye and so little about your pain
- Why brain surgery isn’t painful but seeing your dentist is
- Why it is better to get Huntington’s when you are old
- How to recognize the early warning signs of a stroke
- Why too much glutamate can kill you
I learned more than I intended or expected.
I learned a lot about what makes us tick: our anatomy, physiology, processes and genetic coding. But two things stuck with me over all these years.
First, I learned to think like a scientist. I discovered that psychology can be more than touchy-feely intuition. It can be more than empathy. Psychology can be finding new information that is critical to understanding ourselves. And that discovery changed my life. I came away from the class with a set of mental tools that I still use today. I learned the value of careful observation, clarifying your assumptions, and organizing your facts. And I used that knowledge in my master’s thesis on pupillary reactivity, doctoral dissertation on inductive reasoning, and many years of work as a researcher and consultant.
Second, I learned that challenges can be fun. You’re smarter than most people who study biological psychology because you’re searching for information about the topic and how to master it. You know this isn’t an easy class. You know that you’re not a simple organism. You’ve got a lot of moving parts and complex systems. Consequently, studying Biological Psych is going to require time and effort. But if your experience is like mine, you’ll discover that conquering challenges is fun, and a habit forming.
5 Things You Should Do
1. Set Your Goal
Learning is tied to attitude. A good attitude won’t necessarily help you learn but a bad attitude will hurt you. Get mentally set. Biological Psych is hard but not impossible. You can do it. I’ll help.
2. How this site is organized
Studying biological psych is similar to other material but there are some unique characteristics to it. It is not organized by theorist or history. It is, more of less, organized by parts of the body and topics. This site has 20 lessons you can use or you can scan down the home page for an alphabetical list of topics. Or you can search for whatever interests you.
3. Ask Questions
The best way to get answers is to ask questions. Don’t assume you shouldn’t ask. Ask until someone tells you to stop or you understand the material, whichever comes first.
Got a question for me? You can send it to me at prof@biologicalpsych.com. Put “questions” in the subject line.
I’ll either get back to you, post an answer on this site or combine it with other questions. Maybe I’ll make a video or podcast to answer them.
4. Buy A Study Guide
Biological psych is one of those courses where supplemental material can be better than the textbook. Choose one what works well for you, even if it’s not one I wrote.
I’ve prepared two things for you.
First, I created a Vocabulary Builder. It has 1001 biological psych terms defined for you. Some entries are quite long, so it somewhere between a glossary and a dictionary. Click Here To Buy. $14.95
Second. I’m working on a series of Study Guides for you. The first is on neurons. It covers 7 lessons: research methods, genetics, neural anatomy, neural impulses, synapses, neurotransmitters and drugs. It has clusters, videos, flash cards and a great glossary. The quizzes are new and I talk you through why each answer is the best choice (audio).
I think you’ll like it and find it helpful. Click Here To Buy. $4.95
It’s 40% off if you buy both. Click Here To Buy Both. $11.95
I made them for you, so let me know what you liked best and what you’d like to see added. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.
5. Watch This 5-minute Video
What is Biological Psychology?
And Now…
When you’re ready, here are some choices I think you’ll like:
Welcome. Just to make you feel at home.
Biological Research Methods. This is the first of twenty lessons, each of which contains several topics, videos and infographics.
About Me. Just a bit about who I am and what I do.
Resources. A list of books and materials you might find helpful.
Search. Just enter a topic of interest in the red box below.
