Biological approach

• explains behaviour in terms of physical causes in our brains and bodies, this includes our genes,
• the most likely biological source of behaviour is the brain
• the brain produces chemicals such as neurotransmitters such as 'serotonin' which helps us regulate our moods
• the endocrine system is also significant as it produces hormones, that have a large impact on our behaviour
• the methods used by this approach to investigate behaviour are physical too. Brain scans can show us the structure and functioning of the brain. Researchers then try to relate these to normal as well as abnormal behaviours. In the last 20 years the development of brain scanning techniques have lef to a massive increase in understanding how the brain relates to behaviour.
• Research on animals is helpful in biology as we cannot deliberately make changes to the human brain to observe the effect on behaviour
• Genetics- just as physical characteristics- such as eye colour and hair colour- are determined by genetics inherited from parents, so too are certain behavioural tendencies
• Genotype- your actual genes, these are decided at conception and consist of around 100000 genes that cannot be changed.
• phenotype- how your genes present in response to the environment, even though your genotype itself can't change
• behaviour has a genetic base and can be inherited, this means your genotype- the genes you possess, can influence your behaviour. Monozygotic twins have identical genotype which means they are predisposed to develop same phenotype as each other- the physical and behavioural characteristics that can be observed
• Genotype- genetic base- OCD arguably has a genetic basis and there are higher concordance rates for the disorder amongst monozygotes compared to dizygotes'