Biological Approach

• What does it assume?

  -everything psychological is at first biological so to fully understand human behaviour we must look at biological structures and processes within the body.

  -an understanding of brain structure and function can explain our thoughts and behaviour.
• Weaknesses of biological approach

  reductionist-learning is more complex than observable behavioural alone.eg SLT and cognitive approach consider internal mental processes involved in learning. 

  environmental deterministic-sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences.Skinner suggested that everyhting we do is the sum of our reinforcement history,ignoring the factor of free will.

  ignores influence of conscious decision making. 
• How does cause and effect link to the biological approach?

  offers explanations for mental illness in terms of the action of neurotransmitters in the brain(causes where only association exists)
• How does real life application link tot he biological approach?

  the development of psychoactive drugs can treat serious mental illnesses due to the increased knowledge of biochemical processes in the brain.
• Give one positive of the biological approach.

  well controlled research- highly controlled lab settings.

  highly objective and scientfic research-including scanning such as MRIS and FMRIS.

  real world application-treat serious mental illnesses eg drugs that help reduce muscle spasms and shaking within Parkinsons disease.
• What are biological structures?

  material that makes us human eg organs
• A genotype is inherited genetic makeup.
• The concordance of DZ twins is suppose to be 50%.
• The concordance of MZ twins is suppose to be 100% if determined by biology.
• A concordance rate is the probability that a pair of twins will both have a certain characteristics given that one of the individuals has the trait.
• A phenotype is the effect of the environment and how these genes are expressed.