the biological approach

• what is the first assumption of the biological approach?

  "behaviour is caused by biological structures in the brain. so the brain structure, chemicals and hormones determine the way we behave."
• what is a piece of evidence for how brain structures affect behaviour?

  the broca's area.

  • the brocas area illustrates how certain parts of the brain are responsible for particular behaviours. for example, if the brocas area is damages, this can affect speech production.
• what is a piece of evidence for how hormones affect behaviour?

  aggression.

  • hormone levels can be linked directly to certain behaviours
  • for example, high levels of testosterone such as in males, can cause higher levels of aggression in both animals and humans.
• what is the neurotransmitter often related to OCD behaviours?

  serotonin
• what does SSRI stand for?

  selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
• describe Zohars study with SSRIs (results and conclusion)

  Zohar found that SSRIs increase the activity of serotonin in the brain. participants reported a reduced level of anxiety and phobia symptoms.

  this suggests that low serotonin levels are linked to anxiety disorders and phobias
• give 2 weaknesses to Zohar's study

  • however, this study does not let us say for certain that serotonin causes anxiety. it could be that the anxiety causes low levels of serotonin.
  • the theory is reductionist. it reduces behaviour down to hormones. this ignores other explanations such as the cognitive explanation of phobias being an irrational faulty schema.
• give a strength of zohar's study.

  it has been used to develop a treatment method for phobias. it has developed fr SSRI's to be used to treat phobias by increasing the activity of serotonin and in result reducing anxiety levels.
• what is the second assumption of the biological approach?

  "behaviour is caused by the influence of genes."
• what are some physical traits we inherit from our relatives?

  eye colour, hair colour, skin colour, and psychologists claim we inherit behaviour.
• what does the FAT studies stand for?

  Family, Adoption, and Twin studies
• what are family studies?

  looking at relatives and genetic relatedness to see if there is a genetic link between behaviours or disorders
• what are adoption studies?

  looking at behaviours/disorders being linked to their biological parents. if an adopted child displays a behaviour/disorder that their adoptive parent doesn't display but their biological parent does, we can conclude that this has a biological basis.
• what are monozygotic twins

  100% identical twins
• what are dizygotic twins?

  non identical twins
• what are twin studies?

  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 (concordance rates) should be higher for MZ twins than DZ twins.
• what are concordance rates?

  the percentage likelihood that if 1 twin has a disorder, then the other twin has that trait too.
• describe Melo's selective breeding experiment (method, results, conclusion)

  Melo presented mice with an array of drinks. one of which contained alcohol. he then selected those mice who preferred the alcohol and bred them together. he then did the same process with the offspring.

  he found that the offspring of these mice also majority preferred alcohol.

  this suggests that alcohol has a genetic basis.
• what is a limitation of Melo's mice study?

  it is done on mice and not humans. humans are much more complex than mice so these results should not be generalized to real life behaviour.
• describe Nedstadt's twin study (method, results, conclusion)

  Nedstadt reviewed twin studies but looking at the concordance rates of OCD

  he found that the concordance rate for MZ twins was 68% which was much higher than the concordance rate of DZ twins which was 31%.

  this suggests that OCD has a genetic basis.
• however, if it was completely genetic, what would the CR of MZ twins for OCD be?

  100%
• what are Genotypes?

  the particular set of genes that a person possesses.
• what are phenotypes?

  the characteristic of an individual determined by how the gens interact with the environment
• what is Phenylketonuria? (PKU)

  a rare genetic disorder detected by a heal prick test. this may affect learning and diet in the future.
• if PKU goes undetected, what may this lead to?

  in the future this may lead to the child having learning difficulties.
• how can the child be treated if PKU is detected early enough?

  they may be put onto a special diet and will group up without any complications.
• what is the 3rd assumption of the biological approach?

  "behaviour has evolved through natural selection."
• how has behaviour evolved? (3 stages)

  1. firstly, a number of changes can occur randomly over time.
  2. if the behaviour aids survival, then it allows the animal to adapt to their environment, survive and pass on those genes to their offspring and future generations.
  3. if it doesnt aid survival, then the animals will not survive and will not pass on their genes to their offspring and will die off.
• describe curtis et al's study on evolutionary phobias

  curtis et al claimed our ancestors who learned how to be scared of dangerous things and survived and passed on their genes.

  ancestors who did not fear dangerous things did not surive.

  we have evolved t0 be frightened of things that threaten our survival.
• what is a limitation to curtis et al's study?

  evolution is not able to explain irrational fears such as a fear of long words that do not threaten our survival.
• give an advantage to the nomothetic research methods into the biological approach (link to Melo)

  • establish cause and effect due to a high cotrol of variables and standardised instructions.

  melo chose for the IV be the drink they drank, that being alcoholism. each mouse got the same set of drinks. each offspring got the same set of drinks as their parents.
• give a disadvantage to the nomothetic research methods into the biological approach (link to Melo)

  • we cannot generalize experiments conducted on animals to human behaviour.

  melos study was done on mice. we cannot say that alcohol affects humans in the same way it does mice.
• who was Phinneas Gage and what happened to him?

  phinneas was a railroad worker where an explosion took place. an iron rod flew from the tracks, went through his eye and a chunk of his brain. before the injury, Phinneas was reported to be polite and punctual. after the injury, however, he was reported to be very boisterous and rude.
• give an advantage to the idiographic research methods into the biological approach (link to Phineas Gage)

  • this gives us lots of real, rich detail into the affects of the brain structures on behaviour. this gives us a deeper understanding into how the brain affects behaviour.

  for example, using Phineas Gage, we understand that the part of his brain that was damaged must have been responsible for his behaviour. there were reports of phineas previously being polite, whereas after he was rude and loud,
• give a disadvantage to the idiographic research methods into the biological approach (link to Phineas Gage)

  the data we are given is hard to analyse due to it being qualitative. it is difficult to generalise these findings from this individual to the full total population due to his extreme circumstances.

  for example, Phineas gage's accident is a very extreme situation and so his brain isn't representative of the rest of the population. this means that the findings should not be generalised.
• give a strength of the biological approach (PEEL) (explanatory power)

  P. a strength of the biological approach is that it can explain causes of behaviour.

  E. the biological approach can explain why phobias may be the result of our genetic makeup and evolution.

  E. the biological approach argues genes can predetermine certain behaviours that enhance an individuals survival and reproduction (as brought together by curtis et al). these genes will be passed in through generations - such as being afraid of heights as this has an evolutionary power as it kept people alive.

  L. therefore this shows how the biological approach can be used to explain real life human behaviour.
• give a strength of the biological approach (PEEL) (treatments)

  P. a strength of the biological approach is that it has been applied to the treatment of phobias.

  E. SSRI's are used to reduce anxiety by blocking the reuptake of serotonin at the synapse on the brain.

  E. Zohar found that SSRI's are used to treat phobias by increasing the activity of serotonin at the synapse in the brain and therefore helps the patient with a phobia feel more relaxed and less anxious around the phobic stimulus.

  L. this shows how the biological approach has real life application in treating anxiety disorders such as phobias.
• give a limitation of the biological approach (PEEL) (debates)

  P. one limitation of the biological approach is that it sits on the reductionism side of the debate and ignores free will.

  E. it reduces behaviour down to one simple single explanation of our biology, such as brain structures, genes, and evolution.

  E. the biological approach argues that you may have a genetic predisposition for certain behaviours such as phobias.

  L. therefore, the biological explanation ignores other explanations of behaviour such as learning from our environment as is explained through the behaviourist approach and SLT
• give a strength of the biological approach (PEELE) (supporting research)

  P. one strength of the biological approach is that there is research to support the idea of genes determining our behaviour such as Melo's selective breeding experiment.

  E. this research involved Melo selecting mice who preferred alcohol, breeding them together and presenting the offspring with an array of drinks, including that one containing alcohol.

  E. he found that the offspring more often also went for the drinks containing alcohol. this suggests that an alcohol preference may have a genetic basis.

  L. this therefore provides strong evidence for the genetic basis for behaviour, suggested by the preference of alcohol.

  E. however, the experiment is done on animals. this means that we cannot generalise to humans as humans are much more complex than animals.