The Department of Psychobiology focuses on the scientific foundations of human psychology by integrating biological mechanisms with mental and behavioral processes. Our work begins with a simple principle: the mind is not separate from the body. Psychological states emerge from dynamic interactions between neural activity, hormones, immune signals, environmental inputs, and learned experience.

We study how physiological processes shape emotion, decision-making, motivation, personality, stress responses, and social behavior — and how psychological states, in turn, influence biological systems. This bidirectional relationship forms the core of a modern biopsychological perspective, bridging classical psychology with contemporary neuroscience and molecular biology.

The department explores topics such as:

• how hormones and neurotransmitters regulate mood and cognition

• how stress and trauma affect the brain, immune system, and behavior

• how learning and memory arise from biological changes at multiple scales

• how social interaction, attachment, and culture influence biological responses

• how consciousness and self-experience relate to neural and bodily dynamics

• how biological and psychological factors together shape mental health

Our goal is to develop an integrated scientific understanding of human behavior that moves beyond traditional dualistic theories. We emphasize mechanistic, evidence-based psychobiology that connects mind and body without reducing one to the other. Through interdisciplinary research, conceptual modeling, and theoretical development, the department contributes to a new generation of psychological science grounded in biology, but always focused on the lived human experience.