Biological approach

Question 1

what is the biological approach?

Answer 1

a perspective that emphasises the importance of psychical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function

Question 2

what are genes?

Answer 2

they make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features and psychological features of an organism which are transmitted from parents to offspring.

Question 3

what is the biological structure?

Answer 3

an arrangement of parts to from an organ system or living thing.

Question 4

what is neurochemistry?

Answer 4

relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning

Question 5

what is a genotype?

Answer 5

the particular set of genes which a person has

Question 6

what is a phenotype?

Answer 6

the characteristic of an individual determined by both genes and the environment.

Question 7

what is evolution?

Answer 7

the changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations.

Question 8

what type of studies are used to determine the likelihood of certain traits having a genetic basis?

Answer 8

twin, adoption and family studies

Question 9

how are twins measured?

Answer 9

through concordance rates

Question 10

what are monozygotic twins?

Answer 10

twins which share 100% of their genes

Question 11

what are dizygotic twins?

Answer 11

twins which share 50% of genes

Question 12

who proposed the theory of natural selection?

Answer 12

Charles Darwin

Question 13

what is natural selection?

Answer 13

natural selection proposes the idea that any behaviour which enhances an individuals survival and reproduction will continue in future generations. Darwin suggested that giraffes evolved long necks so they could reach food that shorter necked rivals could not reach which shows how something physical adapted in response to the environment.

Question 14

one strength of the biological approach

Answer 14

It is highly scientific as it makes use of techniques such as fMRIs and EEGs, drug trials, families twin studies and more. These technological advances makes it possible to accurately measure neural and biological processes which are objective rather than biased. Therefore the biological approach is based on reliable data.

Question 15

Another strength of the biological approach

Answer 15

the biological approach has important real life application value as the increased understanding od the biochemical processes in the brain has led to mostly effective treatment disorders such as psychoactive drugs for depression and schizophrenia meaning that many sufferers can live a relatively normal life rather than remain in a hospital.

Question 16

one limitation of the biological approach

Answer 16

the evidence for explanations of mental illnesses comes from studies that show a particular drug reduces symptoms of a mental disorder so it must be the neurochemical in the drug which has caused the disorder. For example, chlorpromazine is used to lower levels of dopamine which is believed to cause certain symptoms of schizoprenia. As the symptoms improve it shows that raised levels of dopamine must have caused the symptoms which shows an association does not imply causality.

Question 17

another limitation of the biological approach

Answer 17

One weakness of the biological approach is that it focuses too much on the ‘nature’ side of the nature/nurture debate. This can be considered reductionist as it argues that all behaviour is caused by hormones, neurotransmitters and genetics, when this is not the case. One theory is that schizophrenia is genetic, however, twin studies show that it is not completely genetic and the environment has a part to play.