the biological approach

Question 1

what are the key assumptions?

Answer 1

• behaviour has evolved through natural selection
• everything psychological has a biological basis
• behaviour can be inherited
• biochemical imbalances, hormones, neurotransmitter, genes can affect brain activity
• there is a correlation between cognition and brain activity

Question 2

how are twin studies used?

Answer 2

the concordance rate between monozygotic (same genetics) and dizygotic twins (50% same genetics) care compared, if behaviour is genetic this should be reflected int eh results

Question 3

what is a genotype?

Answer 3

a persons genes

Question 4

what is a phenotypes?

Answer 4

the expressed characteristic of a set of genes

Question 5

what is the theory of natural selection relating to the approach?

Answer 5

any genetically determined behaviour that gives a survival advantage will be passed on

Question 6

what could be some example of evolutionary behavior?

Answer 6

attachment, memory

Question 7

what is a problem with genetics?

Answer 7

we often assume that learnt behaviors have a genetic basis

Question 8

what is sexual selection?

Answer 8

characteristics which improve the chance of reproduction are passed on for example humor or intelligence

Question 9

are genetic the soul cause of mental disorders?

Answer 9

no a environmental stimulus is needed

Question 10

what are the methodological strengths of the approach?

Answer 10

it gives measurable, objective, controlled lab based experiments

Question 11

what are the applications of this approach?

Answer 11

the biological treatment of mental disorders such as PTSD cased by high levels of CRF, removes stigma of mental disorders, psycho-surgery and chemotherapy

Question 12

what are the problems with casual factors?

Answer 12

it means we often assume biological factors are the cause instead of environmental factors

Question 13

what is the problem with treating the symptoms?

Answer 13

the removal of physical symptom sis a temporary fix and still leaves the patient with psychological problems, where as cognitive behavioral therapy will remove the cause

Question 14

what is the problem with the determinism?

Answer 14

leads to self-fulfilling prophecy, over diagnosis, ignores freewill, doesn’t acknowledge environmental factors

Question 15

why dose this approach have reductionism?

Answer 15

simplifies a complex behavior into a single gene/ neurotransmitter/ hormone

Question 16

what is the problem with nature and nurture?

Answer 16

they are very hard to separate and even with twin studies they will not have been exposed to the same environment