biological theory

• what is the first assumption for the biological approach

  behaviour is caused by biological structures in the brain, so the brain structure, chemical and hormones determine the way we behave
• how can hormones affect how we behave

  • eg aggression
  • hormones levels can be linked directly to certain behvaiour, for example the hormones testosterone has the effect of making both animals and humans behave aggressively
• how does damage to the brain affect our behaviour

  • eg damage to the broca's area affects language
  • illustrates how certain parts of the brain are responsible for particular behaviour for example, damage to the brain known as the broca's area
• how can neurotransmitters affect our behaviour

  • eg OCD
  • neurotransmitters have been shown to be associated with particular behaviour serotonin has been linking with OCD and low level in the brain could be the potential cause of this anxiety order
• what dose SSRI stand for

  selective serotonin reductor inhibiter
• who conducted a study of SSRI's

  zohar
• what did zohar find

  found SSRI's increase the amount of serotonin in the brain and ps reported a reduce in there symptoms of their phobia when taking SSRIs
• what did Zohar study suggest

  that low serotonin levels are linked to anxiety in phobia's
• does zohars study mean that serotonin was the cause of behaviour (evaluation lim)

  this theory states low serotonin causes the person to feel more anxious and fearful, however ir could be the fearful and anxious behaviour thta is rhe resulting in the low serotonin levels
• what is a weakness of the biological approach (debate)

  the biological approach is reductionist which provides a single, simple explanations for phobias and ignores other explanations
• what is a strength of the first assumption

  it helped develop a treatment for phobias such as drug therapy of SSRI's increase the serotonin activity in the brain making the patient less anxious and fearful
• what does concordance rate mean

  the percentage likelyhood that if one twin has a disorder then the other twin has that disorder too
• what is the second assumption of the biological approach

  behaviour is caused bby the influence of genes
• what does the second assumption claim we inherit

  like how we can inherit physical traits such as eye colour, biological psychologist claim we inherit certain behaviours
• what is a strength of the second assumption

  it has been used to explain how substance abuse issues develop. humans inherit genes from their family which makes them more likely to abuse alchohol
• what are family studies

  they look into relatives and genetic relatedness to see of there is a genetic link between behavious or disorders
• what are adoption studies

  looking at behaviour/disorder being linked to their biologal parents, if an adopted child displays a behaviour/ disorder that their adoptive parents doesn't display but their biological does - we can conclude that this has a biological basis
• what are twin studies

  monozygotic twins are identical and dizygotic are non-identical. Twin studies are used to determine if behaviours are inherited. MZ twins share 100% of their genes in common whereas DZ twins have 50% of their genes in common, both are assumed to have a similar environment so CR should be higher for MZ than DZ twins
• how conducted a family study

  melo's selective breeding experiment
• what happened in Melo's study

  • melo selected mice that preferred alcohol than other drinks
  • he mated these mice together and observed their offspring
  • he found that the preference for alcohol is genetic
• what is the problem with Melo's study

  we should no generalize these findings to humans as they are more complex than animals
• who conducted a study into twin studies

  nestadt
• what happened in Nestadt

  • he reviewed twin studies - looking at the CR of OCD
  • found that the CR for MZ twins was 68% which higher than the CR for DZ twins which was 31% (much lower)
  • suggests that OCD has a genetic basis
• if the CR of OCD was completely genetic what would the CR rate be for MS twins

  100% and therefore these rates do suggest that OCD has a genetic basis
• what is a genotype

  the particular type of genes that a person possesses
• what is a phenotype

  the characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and environment
• what is an example of genotypes and phenotypes

  even identical twins look slightly different to each other due to their environmental differences or lifestyle choices, for example one twin may excises more then the other or dye their hair
• what is phenylketonuria

  a rare genetic disorder that can be detected early on in babies with a heel prick test, if undetected cause severe learning difficulties
• what happened to a child when PKU is detected early

  if it is detected early enough the child can be placed on a special diet and will grow up without an complications
• what is the 3rd assumption of the biological approach

  behaviour has evolved through natural selection
• what does the 3rd assumption claim

  some of our behaviour is the product of evaluation and some behaviour helps us adopt to our environment and survive
• who conducted a study into phobias

  Curtis et al conducted the study on how phobias help us survive
• what happened in Curtis et al's study

  • claims that our anseteros who learned how ro be scared of dangerpus things had survived and passed on their genes
  • ancestors who did not fear dangerous things and did not survive
  • we have evolved to be frightened of things that threaten our survival
• can evolutions exlplain all types of behaviour

  no evolution can not explain irrational phobias that don't threaten our survival
• what side of the debate does the biological approach sit on

  the biological approach is reductionist because biological psychologists focus on the effects of biology on behaviour and don't place emphasis on how the environment may influence behaviour
• what are the research methods (nomothetic) advantage

  • can establish cause and effect due to high control of variables - melo controlled which mice he used and only used the ones who choose alcohol
  • uses standardized procedures
• what are the research methods (nomothetic) disadvantages

  • generalizing animals studies to humans should not be done as humans are much more complex than animals
• what are the research methods (ideographic) advantages

  • lots of rich detail, qualitive data gathered about an individual which helps gain a detailed understanding about how a certain brain area must be responsible for particular behaviour, this is because after the damage to certain part of phineia's brain, his friend reported great differences in his personality for what it was before the accident happened, thus is suggested our behaviour must be linked to physical structures of the brain
• what are the research methods (ideographic) disadvantages

  • data is hard to analyses and should not generalize the findings for an individual to the target population, rather should just to that distanct individual, Phineas was a unique ease and his 'damaged brain' is likely not comparable to standard brains, therefore findings from his case study should not be generalized to all people
• what happened to phineas gage

  a pole shot through his head after his surgery a change in his behaviour was reported, he went from happy, early to the job and kind to becoming rude, late and lazy