Biological Approach

Question 1

What are the assumptions made by the biological approach?

Answer 1

Behaviour is a product of genetics and physiology including the biochemistry of the brain and neuroanatomy
Humans have no free will

Question 2

What is genetic inheritance?

Answer 2

It comes from our parents we have 50% of our mother’s genes and 50% of our father’s genes. This explains why we may share both physical and psychological characteristics with our parents. However, although genes contain the blueprint for particular characteristics, how they develop in an individual depends on the complex interaction between nature and nurture

Question 3

How do psychologists study nature vs nurture in genes?

Answer 3

Twin studies - look at concordance rates between mz and dz twins

Question 4

What is a monozygotic twin?

Answer 4

Twins that are identical and shared 100% of eachother’s genes

Question 5

What is a dizygotic twin?

Answer 5

Twins that are non identical and only share 50% of genes (the same as siblings)

Question 6

What did Gottesman study?

Answer 6

He studied the concordance rate in mz and dz twins for schizophrenia and found that there was a 58% concordance rate in mz twins compared to a 12% concordance rate with dz twins

Question 7

What is a genotype?

Answer 7

The genetic code written into the DNA of individual cells e.g blue eye recessive gene and a brown eye dominant gene

Question 8

What is a phenotype?

Answer 8

Phenotype is the physical appearance of that individual e.g eye colour

Question 9

What are the two major systems in the nervous system?

Answer 9

The central nervous system

The peripheral nervous system

Question 10

What is in the central nervous system?

Answer 10

Brain and spinal cord

Question 11

What is in the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 11

Somatic and autonomic nervous system

Question 12

What do neurons do?

Answer 12

They transmit impulses in the form of electrical signals. Much of our behaviour is determined by neurons e.g breathing, eating etc

Question 13

What are the parts in the human brain?

Answer 13

Frontal lobe 
Temporal lobe
Spinal cord
Parietal lobe 
Occipital lobe
Cerebellum

Question 14

What is the frontal lobe responsible for?

Answer 14

Speech
Thought
Learning

Question 15

What is the temporal lobe responsible for?

Answer 15

Hearing and memory

Question 16

What is the parietal lobe responsible for?

Answer 16

Sensory information e.g touch taste pain

Question 17

What is the occipital lobe responsible for?

Answer 17

Visual information

Question 18

When is a neurotransmitter released?

Answer 18

When an electrical nerve impulse reaches the end of a neuron

Question 19

Where are hormones produced?

Answer 19

Endocrine glands (such as the pituitary gland)

Question 20

How do hormones work?

Answer 20

In response to a signal from the brain, hormones are secreted directly into the blood stream by the endocrine glands where they travel to their target cells and exert their influence by stimulating receptors. The presence of a hormone causes physiological reaction in the cell altering its activity

Question 21

What is Darwin’s evolutionary theory?

Answer 21

Darwin suggests that organisms become adapted over time to their environment by a process known as natural selection e.g for example the peppered moth - they were lighter in colour then due to industrial pollution they were easier for predators to see so that means the darker coloured moths were the ones that survived and thusly reproduced their genes

Question 22

What are the strengths of the biological approach?

Answer 22

Scientific - highly controlled - brain scanning such as fmris and eegs, family and twin studies and drug trials - repeatable and reproducible

Practical applications - clear predictions about behaviour e.g the effects of a certain neurotransmitter, certain areas of the brain that may be damaged and the consequences of this and the impact of genes. This means we are able to put in preventative measures in place for individuals who may be at risk of developing atypical behaviours. E.g in the form of drug treatments

Question 23

What are the weaknesses of the biological approach?

Answer 23

Reductionist - e.g the biological approach would explain many mental disorders by claiming abnormal amounts of certain neurotransmitters (too much dopamine for schizophrenia) this is problematic as it may be that schizophrenia is a result of other cognitive, emotional, cultural and environmental factors for example stress.

Difficulty separating nature and nurture. Identical and non identical twins and members of the same family all have genetic similarities. Therefore the biological approach argues that these similarities are down to genetics. However there is a confounding variable as they are all also exposed to similar environmental conditions which means this could nurture instead of nature