BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

• The biological explanations of schizophrenia can be accused of being over-simplistic as it is reductionist because it ignores the role of social factors which could contribute to the development of schizophrenia
• There could be a range of other factors that could be linked to schizophrenia that are not accounted for with biological explanations
• Factors linked to schizophrenia

  • Poverty
  • Economic distress
• Sareen et al (2011) found that lower levels of household income significantly increased the likelihood of developing schizophrenia
• This contradicts biological explanations as individuals' life circumstances contribute to developing the disorder
• Both biological and deterministic explanations are biologically deterministic, and this is a weakness of these explanations
• If the individual does have biological abnormalities such as high levels of dopamine or structural brain damage, it does not mean that an individual will definitely develop schizophrenia
• This criticises biological explanations because it is an incomplete explanation of developing schizophrenia
• Biological explanations are a simplistic explanation which cannot be applied to all schizophrenic patients