Bio vs cognitive

• What are the similarities between cognitive and biological

  Deterministic

  
  

  Sucessfull treatments

  
  

  Nomothetic methods
• Elaborate on deterministic as a similarity to biological and cognitive


  both deterministic. However, the biological approach could be deemed to be a harder form of determinism than the cognitive approach as it does not allow any element of choice or free will in our behaviour (biological determinism). It assumes all behaviour must have an initial biological cause, for instance genes or biochemistry. Whereas the cognitive approach takes a more soft deterministic point of view. It suggests that we can choose our own thoughts and behaviours but this is limited to our prior experiences. Therefore, although both are deterministic, the biological approach can be seen to take a harder approach.
• Elaborate on successful treatments as a similarity of biological and cognitive

  both led to successful treatments and good real world application. The biological approach has led to the development of drug therapies, such as SSRIs, which have proved to be effective for many OCD patients. For example, Soomro et al. (2009) found that symptoms reduced for around 70% of people when taking SSRIs. Although cognitive therapies focus on more psychological therapies, such as CBT, they too have been found to be effective in many cases. For example, March et al. (2007) found that 81% of patients using CBT had significant improvements in depression. This was compared to 81% for antidepressants and 86% for a combination of the two. Therefore, this study shows that both drug therapy and CBT are effective, and in particular if the two are combined.
• Elaborate on nomothetic as a similarity of biological and cognitive

  the methodology they use to undergo research. The biological approach uses nomothetic research methods that are highly controlled, easily replicable and produce objective data. For instance, brain scanning techniques can show physical abnormalities in the brain which may lead to certain observable behaviours. The cognitive approach also uses nomothetic methods, such as Peterson and Peterson's research into the duration of memory, which were also highly controlled and objective. Therefore, both approaches seek to use nomothetic research to create generalised laws about human behaviour, although it could be argued that the biological approach can directly observe both the causes of behaviour and the behaviour itself, whereas the cognitive approach cannot directly observe internal mental processes.