Biological Bases of Behavior

Every psychological explanation you will encounter in this course, whether about memory, personality, or mental illness, ultimately rests on biological machinery. This unit argues that behavior is not free-floating: it emerges from neurons firing, neurotransmitters binding, and brain structures activating in specific patterns. You need to understand how heredity and environment interact to shape that machinery, not as background context but as a causal mechanism. The nervous system is not scenery; it is the explanation. Get this foundation solid, and every later unit will feel like it is clicking into place rather than stacking up randomly.

15–25% of exam