Biological Approach Flashcards
What are the assumptions for the biological approach?
Everything psychological is first biological.
To fully understand human behaviour we must look to biological structures and processes like genes and the nervous system.
All thoughts behaviours and feelings have a physical basis.
What do behaviour geneticists study?
Whether behavioural characteristics are inherited in the same way as physical ones.
How are twin studies used to investigate the genetic basis of behaviour?
Twin studies are used to determine if something has a genetic basis by looking at the concordance rates.
What are monozygotic and dizygotic twins and how is the different significant?
Monozygotic twins share 100% of their genetic material whereas dizygotic twins share only 50%. This is significant as it means that if concordance rates are higher for monozygotic twins it is likely to be because of a genetic factor.
What are genotype and phenotype and how are they influenced?
Genotype is the actual genetic make up of a person and this can be influenced by the environment also.
The phenotype is the way genes are expressed through physical, behavioural and psychological characteristics.
What is the famous explanation of how genes are passed on?
Charles Darwin’s evolution and natural selection theory of the 19th century.
What are the evaluation points for the biological approach?
It uses highly scientific methods of investigation, this means that the results are likely to be reliable and precise.
It has real life applications including understanding processes in the brain - allows development of psychoactive drugs.
Deterministic view of behaviour which suggests that internal biological processes cause behaviour so in reality we have no control over what we do – could be problematic.
