Biological Approach

Cards (29)

  • Biological Approach Assumptions

    All behaviour has a biological basis
    Our minds live in our brains
    Brings psychology and physiology together
  • Heredity
    Passing of characteristics over generations through genes
  • Hereditary
    The idea that a particular trait (eg illness) has been passed on
  • Genotype
    Genetic code in DNA of cells
  • Phenotype
    Physical appearance resulting from genes
  • Concordance Rate

    The likelihood that a person will develop a characteristic, trait, or disorder given that another already has it
  • Methods of investigating link between genes and behaviour
    Family studies
    Twin studies
    Adoption studies
  • Dizygotic twins
    Share 50% of their genes (fraternal)
  • Monozygotic twins
    Share 100% of their genes (identical)
  • Gottesman & Shield
    Biopsychologists who compares the concordance for schizophrenia between monozygotic and dizygotic twins
  • Gottesman and Shield's findings

    Concordance for monozygotic twins was 42%
    Concordance for dizygotic twins was 9%
    Therefore there is higher concordance for monozygotic twins, providing evidence for a genetic basis of schizophrenia
  • Issue with family and twin studies
    They share genes and environment, therefore it is difficult to determine which has influenced them
  • Tienari (1991)

    Assessed the development of schizophrenia in adopted children of schizophrenic parents
    Found that 10% developed schizophreni compared to 1% in the control group
  • Evolutionary Psychology Assumptions
    Behaviours adapt due to evolutionary pressures
    Innate brain functions and knowledge help us to adapt to our environment
    Behaviour is passed on via genetics
  • Natural Selection
    Process whereby those who are best adapted to their environment survive and produce more offspring
  • Evolutionary Scientists

    Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace
  • What causes evolution? (3)
    • Environmental pressures and competition eg habitat, food, predation
    • Variation
    • Sexual Selection - those with better adaptions more likely to be selected as mates
  • Why might the nervous system be important to psychologists?
    To understand human behaviour such as stress, fight or flight etc
  • Parts of nervous system
    Brain
    Spinal cord
  • Function of neurons
    They transmit nerve impulses as electrical signals
    Influence many aspects of behaviour eg breathing, eating, sex
    How our nervous system communicates with the body
  • Draw and label a neuron
    (Don't need to know soma)
  • Brain diagram !!

    ...
  • The temporal lobe influences memory and auditory processing
  • The occipital lobe affects visual processing
  • The parental lobe affects sensory processing eg touch, taste
  • The brain stem is responsible for unconscious behaviours eg breathing, blinking
  • The cerebellum controls balance
  • Draw and label a pre-synaptic and post-synaptic terminal sending neurotransmitters
    !
  • Name the parts of the endocrine system
    Pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, and sexual glands, and pancreas