Biological

• What is the core assumption of the biological approach?

  • Everything psychological is biological
  • Behaviour has a physical basis in the brain
• What does it mean that "the mind lives in the brain"?

  • Thoughts, feelings, and behaviours originate from biological structures
  • Processes in the brain are fundamental to mental functions
• How does the biological approach suggest we study human behaviour?

  • Through scientific methods
  • Objective and reliable techniques
  • Laboratory studies and brain scanning
• Why are adoption and twin studies used in the biological approach?

  • To determine inherited behaviours
  • Compare concordance rates in monozygotic twins
  • Especially those raised apart
• What is a genotype?

  An individual's genetic makeup
• What is a phenotype?

  The observable expression of the genotype
• What is the theory of natural selection in the biological approach?

  • Genetically determined behaviours enhance survival
  • Behaviours are passed on to future generations
• How does natural selection relate to behaviour?

  • Individuals adapt behaviours for survival
  • Those behaviours are passed on genetically
• Why is competition important in natural selection?

  • Individuals compete for limited resources
  • Advantageous traits increase survival and reproduction
• A strength is that the biological approach uses nomothetic methods. They use laboratory experiments such as PET scans and fMRI scans. This means the research is objective and easily replicable. It is good at explaining human behaviour and is unbiased.
• A strength is that it has real-life application. The biological approach can be used to explain how people develop mental health issues such as depression, OCD and schizophrenia, which has led to psychoactive treatments. For example, people with OCD inherit candidate genes that affect their levels of serotonin. With the development of SSRIs, sufferers are able to manage their condition and live a relatively normal life rather than remain in hospital. This has helped us to understand human behaviour and has had a positive impact on society.
• A limitation is that the biological approach suffers from hard determinism. They argue that we have no free will and that all behaviour and thinking is due to internal factors such as the brain and genes. This creates socially sensitive research such as finding a so-called criminal gene. This has problems for society as the criminal justice system operates on the notion that people have free will and choose to commit crime. This suggests that the biological approach cannot explain human behaviour alone and perhaps a different approach like the humanistic approach would be more better at explaining behaviour.
• A limitation is that it relies heavily on twin studies. Most twin studies use twins raised in the same environment. This does not consider confounding variables in the environment such as similar friendships, as twins are raised very similarly. Even when twins are raised apart, the concordance rate found has never been 100%, suggesting that there is still an external influence on behaviour, such as the environment, suggesting the biological approach may not be as useful at explaining human behaviour.