Biological Psychology: An Introduction to Behavioral, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience

by Mark R. Rosenzweig, S. Marc Breedlove, Arnold L. Leiman

Biological Psychology is a comprehensive survey of the biological bases of behavior that is authoritative and up-to-date. Designed for undergraduates enrolled in Biological Psychology, Physiological Psychology, or Behavioral Neuroscience, the book continues to offer an outstanding illustration program that engages students, making even complicated topics and chains of events clear. The book offers a broad perspective, encompassing lucid descriptions of behavior, evolutionary history, development, proximate mechanisms, and applications. New coauthor Neil V. Watson brings his expert knowledge of the field and the course to the Fourth Edition. This edition is designed to make the book even more readable. Each chapter has been made more concise and now begins with a brief narrative relating the topic to the human condition. The new edition boasts hundreds of new references, including research students may have encountered in the popular media. Yet critical thinking skills are also honed as the reader is alerted to the many widely-held myths about the neuroscience of behavior (different parts of the tongue detect only certain flavors, dogs are color-blind, sleep deprivation makes you crazy), and educated about facts that sound so unlikely to the uninformed (some people cannot feel pain, in some animals only half the brain sleeps at a time, ears make sounds, some people cannot form new memories, experience alters the structure of the brain). Thorough and reader-friendly, Biological Psychology reveals the fascinating interactions of brain and behavior.

Key Features

* The book has an outstanding full-color art program, including hundreds of original drawings that make it easy to understand structures, mechanisms, and processes in the brain.
* Each chapter opens with a brief narrative illustrating an important aspect of behavioral biology that will be made clear to the student by reading the rest of the chapter.
* Chapters end with a summary of the main points and offer recommended reading for students who want to learn more.
* Icons alert students to important methods, clinical issues, competing hypotheses, and instances in which genes, evolution, or neural plasticity are at work.
* Every copy comes with Learning Biological Psychology, an electronic study referenced from CD icons throughout the text.

Genres: Neuroscience, Psychology, Textbooks, Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Reference

654 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1996

Reviews

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Initially, the material seemed fairly daunting as I flipped through the pages of my newly rented Biopsych textbook. But as I actually dove into the content, it was wonderfully illustrated with fascinating images and diagrams of concepts accompanied by marvelous, in-depth explanations. I will confess that at a certain point, the details might get a tad overwhelming, but nothing a good tea/coffee break from reading will not fix. Overall, a joy to read for fun, as well as a most valuable resource for my Biopsychology course.

[Jurij Fedorov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book on the brain that will change your worldview. I could hope for a more simple version of this book as this book can get hard in some parts. All chapters start off with being very easy to understand and read and will tell you about the science on the area. Then slowly the chapter will become harder but still understandable and end off with hard statistics and studies on neurons that only biologists will get. There is something for all in this book and it's still one of my most memorable book experiences in my life. I still meet people who say that the brain is a big mystery and that psychology cannot say anything about the brain, sex differences and such - well, it can't if you refuse to look into it. It is right here, the modern science of the most positivistic psychology we have. This is psychology basics and something everyone interested in talking about psychology should read. Neuropsychology and evolutionary psychology is the 2 areas where psychology gets positivistic and the only 2 areas that discover the nature of man - it's the future of all psychology. The authors have done an excellent job. I look forward to reading it again, I can't wait. This is a treat for all interested in how the human brain works!

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent primer on basic behavioral, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience. Particular emphasis on neuropharmacology, evolution, and hormonal/affective response.

Even a non-scientist idiot like myself can make sense of this stuff with this book.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible textbook.

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't the best psychology textbook I've ever read, but it's still better than a lot of the linguistics textbooks. The companion site to this book is very helpful, with a series of fill in the blank/multiple choice questions for each chapter. I found this invaluable for studying. However, it was very annoying when I would spell something correctly and it would say I got the wrong answer because it only accepted American spelling. I also liked that they had definitions for the important terms right on the side, that weren't always explained well within the text. Organizationally I would prefer better colour coding for divisions within chapters, so it's clear when they begin a completely new section. Instead all of the headings were in black and would vary with size.
One of the main reasons I would only give this textbook three stars is the poor choice of gender normative language used in the chapter on sex organs and behaviour. Even though the chapter goes into extensive detail on different biological abnormalities that lead to mixed sex organs that can lead to people identifying with a gender that differs from what is societally prescribed, I feel that the authors did a poor job of using non conformist gender language to describe sexual behaviour. There was a lot of attention given to masculine and feminine behaviours, and how people either act masculine or feminine, and it was unclear whether they were making a sweeping generalization about all behaviours or meant it more in a specifici regard to certain sexual responses. I felt this ambiguity should have been addressed considering the edition I was reading was published in 2010.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

neuroscience makes people stupid. I have never wanted to kill as many people as I do in my neuroscience class. also all the pages are falling out of this book. that maybe why I think they are stupider than me.

well I've learned a lot in this class, reading too much as a child fucks up eyesight, every medical procedure that includes brains is freaking horrifying. And my teacher probably never read the textbook.