The biological approach

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

Aims to explain human behaviour + experience in terms of physical bodily processes

Question 2

1st assumption

Answer 2

Behaviour can be explained in terms of different areas of the brain

Question 3

Cerebral cortex

Answer 3

Houses ‘higher cognitive functions’

Question 4

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Answer 4

-

Question 5

What is the cerebral cortex divided into?

Answer 5

4 lobes with specialised jobs

Question 6

What is found under the cortex?

Answer 6

Subcortial structures

Question 7

2nd assumption- aka?

Answer 7

nativist approach

Question 8

Nativist approach?

Answer 8

Human behavior cab be explained or understood at a genetic level

Question 9

How can behaviours be inherited from parents?

Answer 9

They are determined by either 1 or many genes.

Question 10

Explain how genes contribute to certain behaviour

Answer 10

They contribute to a predisposition to behave in a certain way, and are combine with a person’s interactions with their environment and life experiences.

Question 11

4th assumption?

Answer 11

Psychological problems can be treated in the same way as physical disorders

Question 12

What does the medical model of mental illness assume?

Answer 12

That all mental disorders have a physical cause and can be described in terms of clusters of symptoms + the identification of symptoms can lead to the diagnosis of the illness

Question 13

What happens following the diagnosis of a mental illness?

Answer 13

Appropriate physical treatment can be given

Question 14

3rd assumption?

Answer 14

Human behaviour can be explained in terms of chemicals in the body; hormones and neurotransmitters

Question 15

Hormones?

Answer 15

Biochemical structures produced in the body and have an effect on target organ(s), produced in very large quantities and can dissapear very quickly

Question 16

Describe the effects of hormones in comparison to other bodily functions

Answer 16

Slow but very powerful

Question 17

Neurotransmitters

Answer 17

Biochemicals in the body that have an effect on human behaviour

Question 18

What do neurons in the NS do?

Answer 18

Communicate with each other to coordinate the activity of the body’s systems

Question 19

What does the activitiy of the body’s systems depend on?

Answer 19

Neurons communicating quickly with each other

Question 20

Dendrites

Answer 20

Found on ends of neurons to allow communication via synapses

Question 21

Synapses

Answer 21

Where signals are relayed by the release of a neurotransmitter

Question 22

Neurotransmitters

Answer 22

Released from pre-synaptic vesicle in one neuron, stimulates/inhibits receptors in the next neuron