evaluation

• • one strength of the biological approach is that it has practical applications.
  • for example Keller et al suggested that 50-65% of patients with a mental illness experience an improvement in symptoms when given a drug treatment.
  • this is because research into neurotransmitters in mental illnesses such as depression has been linked with low serotonin. This has therefore led to the development of drug treatments which help correct the imbalance and minimise symptoms.
  • this means the the biological approach can be used to improve the lives of patients who are suffering from a mental illness.
• • one strength of the biological approach is that it is scientific.
  • this is because biological research is based on empirical methods. The development of brain scanning in the 20th century has allowed biological psychologists to study the brain and neural functions objectively.
  • the modern techniques are much less biased than previous methods used such as case studies. Brain scanning techniques allow psychologists to make accurate predictions on behaviour.
  • this means the approach is valid and reliable.
• • one weakness of the biological approach is that the link between biology and behaviour is correlational.
  • this is because the concordance rates are never 100% in monozygotic twins suggesting that there are other environmental factors which play a part in human behaviour.
  • furthermore a large amount of biological research is based on studies that assume monozygotic and dizygotic twins have a similar upbringing to each other. MZ twins are treated more similarly than DZ twins, this means that MZ twins are more likely to have the same experiences and therefore are more similar.
  • this means that nurture plays a role in behaviours, not just biological factors.
• • one weakness of the biological approach is that it could be considered reductionist.
  • this is because they believe that complex human behaviour can be explained by breaking it down into small components such as the genes we inherit.
  • critics argue that we cannot fully understand complex behaviours without considering environmental factors.
  • this means that the approach is too simplistic for explaining complex human behaviours and is accused of having biological reductionism.
• + scientific

  + practical applications

  -reductionist

  -link between behaviour and biology is correlational.