The biological approach Flashcards
What is the biological approach ?
It suggests that everything psychological begins on a biological basis so to fully understand human behaviour you need understand biological structures and processes within the body such as genes, neurochemsitry and the nervous system.
From a biological perspective the mind lives in the brain , you can tell this by looking at it’s structure and function. This means that all thoughts feelings and behaviours ultimately have a physical basis.
Genes and heredity
Heredity is the passing of characertsics from one generation to the next through the genes, genes carry the instructions for a particular characteristic
Genotype and phenotype
A persons genotype is their actual genetic makeup while their phenotype is the way the genes are expressed through physical, behavioural and psychological characteristics.
behavioural genetics
Behavioral geneticists look at whether behavioural characteristics such as intelligence, personality and mental disorders etc are inherited simmilarly to physcial characterstics
They use twin studies to look at the chances that certain characterstics are genetically based. They do this by looking at concordance rates between monozygotic (identical) twins and dizygotic (non identical). If the identical twins have higher concordance rates this could suggests genetics are a factor since they share 100% of their genes while non identical twins only share 50% of their genes.
Evolution and behaviour (survival of the fittest)
Evolution is when species change characerstics and behaviour over time, this is explained by natural selection with certain organisms with desirable characteristics and behaviours that help them survive will be more likely to be reporduced and pass on these traits to the next generation.
This is known as the survival of the fittest and supports the biological approach
Neurochemistry and behaviour
Neurochemistry focuses on the study of synaptic neurotransmitters, these are chemical messangers that carry signals between neurons. Examples of this are neurotransmitters such as dopmaine and seratonin. These neurotransmitters are an important part of the transmission of impulses across the synapse so are involved in behaviour.
Seratonin effects a range of behaviours such as sleep, memory emotions etc.
Psychoactive drugs also affect neurotransmitters such as cocaine blocking the re uptake of dopamine creating a “rush”.
OCD and depression have been linked to changes in neurotranbsmitters with both seratonin and dopamine being important for OCD. Certain medication also target neurotransmitters with SSRIs which increase the effect of seratonin being used to help treat OCD.
Biological structure of the brain and behaviour.
The biological perspective also maps the relationship between the different parts of the brain and their functions.
Frontal lobes have shown to be connected to control of behaviour, this is shown by when Phineas Gage gad his frontal lobe injured leading to a change in his personality and him becoming more emotive and agressive. This is supported by modern brain scans showing less frontal lobe activty in violent criminals.
Other case stduies such as HMs in which he had surgery to stop epileptic attacks but as a side effect he could not remeber any memories from after the operation till the day he died. The part of the brain that was removed was part of the hipocampus implying that it is involved in memory.
Strengths of biological aproach
+) The biological aproach has a very scientific investigations using brain scans, twin studies and looking at the biological effects of drugs. These can all be measured very scientifically without bias so they have reliable data.
+) It has real life applications as it leads to the development of psychoactive drugs that can treat serious mental disorders such ad OCD snd schizophrenia.
Weaknesses of the biological approach
- ) It is not easy to determine cause and effect, for example we dont know if low seratonin levels are a casue or a sympton of OCD.
- ) It is very determinitsic as it sees our behaviour as being governed by internal biological causes outside of our control, for example this could suggests that their is a criminal gene leading to criminals commiting crimes so are they responsible for their crimes then?
- ) Some genes have been passed on that are not related to survival such as the A1 varaint of DRD2 gene which is linked to addictions or genes that have been linked to breast cancer. Also it is hard to distinfuish between cultural and genetic cxauses for behaviour being passed down, such as incest which would create genetic mutations but this is also not morally acceptable by most cultures.
