Biological ao1

Question 1

Point 1

Answer 1

Everything psychological is at first biological. Investigates how biological structures and processes within the body impact our behaviour.

Question 2

Evolutionary theory

Answer 2

Evolutionary theory considers genetic influences in common behaviours like phobias. Natural selection and sexual selection.

Question 3

Genes

Answer 3

Genes affect behaviour and influence individual psychological differences between people. Genotype - predisposition. Phenotype depends on interaction of env and genotype

Question 4

Brain and nervous system

Answer 4

Psychologists should study the brain, nervous system and other biological system e.g. hormones.
Brain lobe- frontal lobe= parts of speech
Neurotransmitters - excitatory = dopamine for motivation

Question 5

Parietal lobe

Answer 5

Recognition

Question 6

Temporal lobe

Answer 6

Memory

Question 7

Occipital lobe

Answer 7

Visual processing

Question 8

Hormones

Answer 8

Chemicals produced by endocrine glands into bloodstream to stimulate receptors.
Testosterone - energise and prepare

Question 9

Inhibitory neurotransmitter

Answer 9

GABA for anxiety relief

Question 10

Neurotransmitters

Answer 10

Released from one neutron across the synapse to next Neuron

Question 11

Gottesman and shields twin study

Answer 11

To find out if there is a genetic basis for schizophrenia.
57 schizophrenic patients. 30 males. All had a twin and had been at large London hospital. Assigned each twin pair to either MZ or DZ conditions.
Looked at concordance rates. Twins put into 4 categories.

Question 12

Gottesman and shields findings

Answer 12

Concordance rate when both have schizophrenia was 42%.
Suggests there is a genetic component to schizophrenia cuz the closer the genetic link, the more likely both twins show schizophrenic symptoms. But MZ concordance rates significantly lower than 100%. Despite shared genotype, they don’t always share schizophrenic symptoms. Suggests genetics may predispose person towards schizophrenia but there needs to be an env trigger.

Question 13

Hutchings and mednick adoption study

Answer 13

14,000 adopted male children from Denmark
Both biological and adoptive fathers had criminal records = 36.2% of sons also.
Only Biological = 21.4% of sons also.
Only adoptive = 11.5% of sons also
Correlation between biological fathers and sons for criminal records but concordance rate is no 100% so other factors affect it