Question: Do you believe that psychology can explain many more biological processes and should be considered more when performing a scientific investigation?

Heather McKee answered on 22 Jun 2010:

Good question! I totally agree, psychology is massively under considered within many scientific investigations, for example the origin of an individual’s obesity can very often be linked to a certain trigger point (e.g. childhood bullying) or psychological issue (e.g. depression). However if scientists ignore these issues and just aim to treat the obesity they will never get to the root of the problem and thus will be unable to break the cycle. However when one considers the psychological reasoning behind the issue they can then start working on this and ultimately become twice as effective in the battle against obesity.

I think communication in science is paramount if we-biologists, psychologists, physicists-etc. work together we can tackle a problem from a number of angles and thus increase the likelihood of success tenfold.