biological approach

• According to the biological approach, humans are biological organisms made up of physiological processes. Therefore, all thoughts, ideas and cognitive processes must be biological in origin. This means that the mind ‘lives’ within the brain, and is not separate which differs the cognitive approach.
• The actions of genes, hormones, neurotransmitters and neurochemical mechanisms must be understood in order to explain behaviour fully.
• Heritability coefficients can be used to quantify the genetic or biological basis of a certain characteristic. For example, IQ is said to have a heritability coefficient of 0.5 , and so the influence of nature (genetics) and nurture (the environment) are equal.
• Behaviour genetics is the influence of an organism’s genetic composition on its behaviour and the interaction of heredity and environment as they affect behaviour. Therefore, behavioural genetics is crucial in researching the extent to which behavioural characteristics are inherited in the same way as psychological characteristics.
• An individual’s genotype is their genetic make-up, where a gene is a short section of DNA coding for specific proteins. An individual’s phenotype is the physical expression of their genotype. Therefore, the interaction between the phenotype and the environment results in individual behaviour.
• Two people may have the same genotype but different phenotypes. This may be due to personal choices they’ve made to alter their appearance, such as dying their hair or piercing their ears, or due to the influence of epigenetics.
• Epigenetics is a change in gene expression, without altering an individual’s genetic make-up. Epigenetic markers, such as DNA methylation and histone tail modification, can be left on DNA through exposure to certain environmental factors, such as specific diets and pollution.
• Natural selection is the mechanism of evolution it suggests that any genetically-determined behaviour, which gives the individual a selective advantage (increasing their chances of surviving, reproducing and passing down this beneficial allele onto their offspring), will be present in future generations.
• Examples of genetically-determined behaviours with a selective advantage include: Seligman's theory of avoiding fire and deep water. Certain individuals having longer necks and specific cows producing more milk (increasing the chance of survival of their young).
• a strength = Practical application in the development of drugs due to increased understanding of the biological processes which underpin mental health diseases has led to the development of psychoactive drugs e.g. for depression and schizophrenia.
• The main advantage of such drug treatments, compared to cognitive therapies such as CBT, is that they require minimal effort on the part of the patient. They are non-invasive and not time-consuming, unlike cognitive therapies which require willpower and regular sessions.
• Biological Determinism = The biological approach suggests that all behaviour is caused by internal biological forces over which we have no control. However, this has serious implications for the judicial system and the economy. The current judicial system expects individuals to take moral responsibility for their actions, and so such actions cannot be entirely blamed on genetic factors. However, if, for example, a criminal gene or a schizophrenia gene was discovered, this could lead to ‘diminished responsibility’ of these individuals, as well as shorter prison sentences.
• The economical impact would be that if such information about genes coding for mental health disorders or criminality were made public, then such individuals may be denied health insurance and jobs on this basis. Therefore, such biological determinism has potentially severe real-life consequences.
• Scientific Methods = The biological approach uses EEG, PET and fMRI scans to objectively and systematically measure the biological basis of behaviour. Drugs are developed on this basis, whilst family and adoption studies can lead to an increased understanding of the concordance rates and heritability of certain psychological characteristics. This increases the scientific credibility of Psychology, through the strict control of extraneous and confounding variables.