This paper will examine five different aspects of how the human body works. It will look at the relationships between biology, physiology and behavior; define "scientific method;" explain the psychosomatic and somatopsychic construct; define genotype and phenotype; and discuss homeostasis.
1. Biology is the science of life and living things. It includes the study of plants and animals and all their subdivisions (Taber, B-28). Physiology is the science of the functions of cells, tissues and organs within living organisms (p. P-82). Behavior is how the organism as a whole reacts to its environment. The biology of an organism covers an array of different characteristics associated with it, such as its habitat, what it feeds on, its mating rituals and reproductive habits, where it is found in nature, whether it lays eggs or has liveborn young. In plants, it refers to where they are found globally, what kind of an environment they need, how the seed are fertilized and propagated, how high they grow, what animals feed on them, and are they harvested by man for his own consumption or as a cash crop. Biology, essentially, looks at plants and animals by their externally observable functions.
Using the term "biology" to describe the internal functionings of an animal at the cellular level would be wrong, as would be using the broad term "biology" to describe the flora and fauna of a given area. "BIO' means pertaining to life, from the Greek "bios" and the term biology refers to the study of life in very general terms.
Physiology, on the other hand, looks at plants and animals at the cellular and subcellular level. It examines the constituents of the animal/plant at the cellular level, looking at the chemical, biochemical, and physiological reactions within the organism which help to sustain life. It looks at how nutrients are broken down and used within the body, and how waste products are excreted. It looks at the wo...