Bio - Main components Flashcards
What are the three theories of the biological approach?
1) Evoluntaionary Influences
2) Localisation of Brain function
3) Neurotrasmitters
What is the basic principle of Localisation of brain function?
This theory assumes each of the four lobes of our brain serves a different function in our behaviour and how we are.
What is the name of the part of the brain that covers all the four lobes?
Celebral Cortex
Name the function of each lobe of the brain
Frontal lobe is responsible for problem solving (Phineas Gage)
Parietal lobe is responsible for sensory processes such as pain or temperature
Occipital lobe is responsible for interpreting visual information from our eyes.
Temporal lobe responsible for auditory information. Also related to speaking and interpreting speech.
(Carl Wernicke and Broca for evidence)
How do neurotrasmitters work?
An electrical signal will travel down a presynaptic neuron until it reaches the axon terminal. This is where a pre-synaptic vessels will trigger neurotransmitters which will turn the electrical signal into a chemical one and diffuse across the synapse until it reaches the receptors on the post-synaptic neuron.
How does neurotransmitters effect behaviour
The neurotrasmitters involved can be chemicals such as dopamine and serrotonin which can effect our behaviour for instance too much dopamine has been linked to schizophrenia and too little serrotonin is linked to depression.
Describe the ‘Evolutionary Influences’ assumption of the biological approach
This is entirely based on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection which states species survive through adapting to their environment, for instance. Those with a certain characteristic which give it better survival chances will survive based on that characteristic and then live on to produce offspring which will inherit that more desirable characteristic and those without that characteristic will slowly die out. This is also referred to as survival of the fittest.
What is the biological approach to relationship formation?
Triver’s claimed that the formation of romantic relationships is driven by how each sex biologically has investments in the opposite sex suited to ensuring their offspring survives.
Females carry their offspring, so they have the larger investment in terms of the risks to their health and changes to their life when carrying and looking after a baby. Therefore, females are very particular in choosing a mate. The male must have lots of resources for her and her child so a female would prefer a male with ambition, shelter and high earning capacity. The female also looks for a male who is older than her because he is more likely to have such resources.
However, men do not invest much in their offspring. Once the male impregnates the female, there are no risks to him because he is not involved physically in the pregnancy. Therefore, men look for signs of youthfulness and reproductive success in a female, such as smooth skin, white teeth, wide hips and large breasts. These are all signs of good genes and the ability to carry and feed their offspring successfully. Symons believed that males look for females who have high reproductive value meaning they look for a female who is able to have many children, e.g. a female who is very fertile, e.g. a woman aged 23 has high fertility.
What are the evaluative points for the biological approach
Strengths:
Scientific (raine)
Application (khan et al)
Weaknesses:
Deterministic
Reductionist
Nomothetic / Individual difference (tend befriend)
What is one strengths of the biological approach to do with science
1) Scientific approach - means psychologists can conduct scientific research with clear measurable variables. Means we can establish a clear and objective cause and effect between two variables. - as seen in Raine et al with the use of PET scans as these are objective, scentific measures which cannot be influenced by personal biases.
What is one strengths of the biological approach to do with application
2) The approach has lots of real world application and has led to many forms of treatment for mental disorders such as drug therapy. Drug therapy produces rather mixed results because drugs affect people differently. However, it is a particularly popular form of treatment because it is easy and enables many to live with mental disorders to live relatively normal lives outside mental hospitals. Drugs shown to be more effective than placebos as seen in Kahn et al, a study done over 8 weeks on 250 participants finding that BZ’s are significantly superior to placebos at reducing anxiety.
What is one weakness of the biological approach to do with determinism
1) The approach is Deterministic and suggests that we have no free-will over our behaviour as it is simply determined by our biology such as neurotransmitters. This is a weakness of the approach as a deterministic could cause people such as criminals to feel helpless over their behaviour and suggests that they are not responsible for their actions / crimes.
What is one weakness of the biological approach to do with nature
2) Nature over nurture - mental illness has multiple causes, yet the biological approach focuses on just biology, tending to ignore life experiences and psychological factors such as how people think and feel. For example, the approach to explaining schizophrenia is concerned with abnormal levels of certain neurotransmitters rather than with how patients feel about their illness. The biological approach to treatment is therefore concerned with adjusting the abnormal biological systems rather than talking to patients about how they feel.
What is one weakness of the biological approach to do with individual difference
3) Individual differences - The biological approach is a nomothetic approach looking to make generalisations about people and find similarities. It tends to ignore differences between individuals. For example men have fight or flight while women have tend or befriend
Biological research often focuses on just a few individuals and assumes that everyone’s biological systems behave in the same way.
