Biological explanations

Question 1

What is the genetic explanation of psychology?

Answer 1

inherited disorder runs in families
faulty genes are passed on from generation to generation

Question 2

How do Twin studies demonstrate Generic bias

Answer 2

Grottesman summarised findings of 40 twin studies and found concordance rate of 48% for MZ compaired to 17% for DZ

• if MZ twins are more concordant this suggests the greater similarity is due to genetics

Question 3

How do family studies demonstrate genetic bias?

Answer 3

Grottesman found that if both parents had schiz then there was a 46% chance of developing the disorder, 16% if one parent had schiz, 1% if there are no relatives with it

• a higher concordance rate with children of two schiz parents than just 1 suggests its due to genetics

Question 4

How do adoption studies demonstrate genetic bias?

Answer 4

Tiernari studied 112 adopted children who were separated from their schiz mothers compared to 135 adopted kids without schiz mothers
By the time they reached adulthood 10.3% of those w/ schiz mothers developed schiz compared to 1.1% without

• shows that schiz genes still impacted children’s behaviour despite being in a different environment

Question 5

What are candidate genes?

Answer 5

genes associated with risk of inheritance

Question 6

How do candidate genes effect schizophrenia?

Answer 6

schizophrenia is polygenic - requires a no. of factors to work in combination

• schiz is aetiologically heterogeneous different combinations of factors lead to the condition
• shows there is no one single gene that causes schiz and multiple genes may have an influence
  May explain why there are so many types of schiz

Question 7

What is the dopamine hypothesis?

Answer 7

High and low levels if dopamine in different brian regions are involved in schizophrenia

Question 8

What is hyperdopaminergia in the subcortex

Answer 8

high kevels of dopamine in the subcortex
- e.g an excess of dopamine receptors in the brocas area may be associated with poverty of speech and the experience of auditory hallucinations

Question 9

What is hypodopaminergia in the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 9

low levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex (responsible for decision making) in the negative symptoms of schiz

Question 10

What are neural correlates of negative symptoms?

Answer 10

Ventral striatum is involved in the anticipation