Approaches: The Biological Approach Flashcards
What are the THREE main Biological Influences?
- Genes
- Biological Structure
- Neurochemistry on Behaviour
What does Genotype refer to?
Refers to the genetic information within an organism. (i.e its nature)
What does a Phenotype refer to?
Refers to the characteristics (physical, mental, behavioural) of the organism (I.e its nurture)
What is a criticism of the Biological Approach?
It’s problem with twin studies. The assumption underlying twin studies is that a set of MZ and DZ twins will differ in their level of genetic similarity (100%=MZ , 50%=DZ) but will have similar environments. However, this assumption may be incorrect as critics of the biological approach have argued that genetic similarity of MZ twins may actually lead them to experience a more similar environment. E.g if twins look identical they will be more likely to be treated the same by people in the environment. This introduces a confounding variable into twin studies , as not only would MZ twins have a more similar genotype but also more similar experiences. Consequently, making it impossible to know whether higher concordance rates for MZ twins were the result of genes, the environment or both, undermining the internal validity of twin studies as a mean of investigating the genetic basis of behaviour. On the Contrary, twin studies do appear to be a valid way of studying the genetic basis of behaviour as in rare cases DZ twins do look identical. These types of DZ twins don’t tend to have a higher concordance rate than typical DZ twins, indicating that being viewed as identical has very little significance on concordance rates. Therefore, these issues may not ultimately be significant.
What is a Strength of the Biological Approach?
It’s scientific credibility. A good illustration of this is the use of the twin studies to investigate the genetic basis of behaviour. Twin studies involve observing and quantitatively measuring the behaviour of twins, making the research empirical, due to observation of behaviour, and objective, as concordance rates are measured and quantified. Twin studies can also be used to falsify theories. Therefore, biological research demonstrates that the biological approach has scientific credibility as it utilises the key features of science in its research.
What is a criticism of the biological approach’s explanation of human behaviour?
In terms of evolution relating to the reliance on ‘just so’ stories . A “just so” story is a speculative explanation of doubtful or unprovable validity that is put forward to account for the origin of something when no verifiable explanation is known. Some critics have argued that explaining human behaviours as having evolved through natural selection is a ‘just so’ story as there is no way of testing the claims as evolution was thousands of years ago. Therefore the evolutionary explanation of behaviour is not falsifiable and therefore not scientific. On the other hand, evolutionary psychologists have rejected this by pointing out that many scientific theories explain things that happened years ago, eg the Big Bang Theory.
How can the Genetic Basis of Behaviour be studied?
To investigate whether a persons genotype has an effect on their phenotype is twin studies. The procedure of conducting a twin study is by comparing concordance rates (levels or similarities between a twin pair on a given characteristic) on monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
How has evolution influenced behaviour?
Many of the genetically influenced behaviours of modern humans have been inherited because they helped our ancestors survive. This means we evolved to display certain behaviours because genes linked to these behaviours that were naturally selected.
Explain an example of the effect of Evolution on behaviour.
One example to illustrate the link between evolution and behaviour is that a fear of spiders is common among modern humans as a result of our ancestors developing fears of spiders thousands of years ago due to a survival advantage. Humans linked the idea that spiders in the environment were dangerous many years go with the idea that average unthreatening spiders now are dangerous. Consequently, the Genoese that conducted a fear of spiders would have become dominant in the gene pool meaning modern day humans still have this innate fear even though they present no danger to us.
