Biological approach (app)

Question 1

What does the biological approach emphasise?

Answer 1

the importance of physical processes in the body, such as genetic inheritance, hormones, neurochemistry and the nervous system, impacting our behaviour

Question 2

What does the biological process argue thought and biological processes are caused by?

Answer 2

Innate biological basis. Therefore, an understanding of brain structure and function can explain our thoughts and behaviour. E.g. intelligence is due to our genetic make-up.

Question 3

What are genes?

Answer 3

A part of the chromosome of an organism that carries information in the form of DNA. This DNA codes the physical (e.g. hair colour) and psychological (e.g. intelligence) features of an organism.

Question 4

What is neurochemistry?

Answer 4

The study of chemical and neural processes associated with the nervous system that regulate psychological functioning. This includes the role of neurotransmitters and hormones.

Question 5

What does hereditary mean?

Answer 5

The passing of characteristics from one generation to the next through genes

Question 6

What are neuro transmitters?

Answer 6

Chemicals that travel across the synapse (the gap between neurons) to transmit messages.

Question 7

What are biological structures?

Answer 7

An arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing.

Question 8

How do genes cause behaviour?

Answer 8

Heredity is the reason why offspring ‘take after’ their parents in terms of psychological characteristics. Genes carry instructions for a particular characteristic. As genes are transmitted from parents to offspring (they are inherited), behaviour geneticists suggest that behavioural characteristics such as intelligence, personality, mental illnesses etc. are inherited in the same way as physical characteristics such as height and eye colour.

Aggression - genetic, biochemistry (hormones), evolution, biological structures
Schizophrenia - genetic, biochemistry, biological structures
OCD - genetic, biochemistry
Relationships - partner preferences have evolved

Question 9

Explain how one biological structure influences behaviour

Answer 9

Biological structures, such as areas of the brain can influence behaviour. For example, fMRI scans of London taxi drivers showed that they have larger hippocampi than a control group. This suggests that the hippocampus is involved in spatial navigation. Research has also found that people with psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder) have reduced activity of the pre-frontal cortex compared to controls.

Question 10

Explain how depression is caused by biology.

Answer 10

Neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, can influence behaviour. Serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning that it prevents activity in the neuron it transmits to in order to calm the brain and balance mood. Adequate amounts of serotonin are necessary to maintain a stable mood. Research has found that when serotonin levels are low, people tend to display depression.

Question 11

What is a genotype?

Answer 11

an individual’s genetic make-up i.e. the genes that they have. This means that genetically identical people have the same predisposition to develop a characteristic (e.g. be overweight) from their genes, unless another factor(s) intervenes. However, it does not reveal whether someone will develop a characteristic.

Question 12

What is a phenotype?

Answer 12

• A phenotype refers to the observable traits or characteristics (e.g. the weight someone achieves) shown by the individual. These characteristics are due to the combined effects of the genes and environment. Therefore, the phenotypes of these twins may be different because one was encouraged to eat healthily and exercise and the other wasn’t so to be of a different weight they have been influenced by different environments.

Question 13

What are comparative methods?

Answer 13

This is where animals are studied and conclusions are generalised to humans.

Research has found that mice reared alone showed a tendency to attack other mice when first exposed to them. This must be biological because they couldn’t have learned the behaviour, suggesting that aggression has a biological basis.

Question 14

What are scanning techniques?

Answer 14

Biological psychologists can scan the brain to determine the influence of biological structures on behaviour. Participants are asked to complete a certain activity (e.g. a memory test) whilst having their brain scanned so that we can correlate the ability to do the task with the area of the brain.

For instance, fMRI scans of London taxi drivers showed that they have larger hippocampi than a control group. This suggests that the hippocampus is involved in spatial navigation.

Question 15

What are experiments?

Answer 15

Biological psychologists use laboratory experiments, particularly on animals to study the roles of inheritance and evolution on behaviour. They will use different genetic strains of an animal and get both strains to complete an activity so that they can see the effect of the genetic strain on the ability to do the activity.

Question 16

What are case studies?

Answer 16

People who go through accidents and suffer brain damage can be studied to tell us about the functions of different regions of the brain. For example, Phineas Gage suffered damage to his ventromedial frontal lobes when an iron rod went through his head (he survived!). He had difficulty making rational decisions and processing emotions. This led psychologists to believe that these are the functions of the ventromedial frontal lobes.

Question 17

Procedure of twin studies

Answer 17

they find pairs of twins where one of the two has a characteristic that they’re interested in (e.g. schizophrenia). They then measure whether the other twin has the characteristic too and calculate a concordance rate.

Question 18

Procedure of adoption studies

Answer 18

they find people who were adopted who have a characteristic that they’re interested in (e.g. schizophrenia). They then measure whether the biological parents also have the characteristic and whether the adopted parents also have the characteristic.

Question 19

What will results tell us if the characteristic is genetic for twin studies?

Answer 19

the concordance rate for MZ twins (who share 100% of their genes) should be higher than the concordance rate for DZ twins (who share 50% of their genes). More genes in common, more characteristic in common.

Question 20

What will the result tell us if the characteristic is genetic for adoption studies?

Answer 20

the concordance rate between the adopted child and biological parents should be higher than the concordance rate between the adopted child and adopted parents.

Question 21

Which is the better way of determining whether a characteristic is genetic – twin studies or adoption studies? Justify your decision.

Answer 21

Adoption studies are better because they separate the role of genes (biological parents) and the environment (adopted parents) more effectively than twin studies. In twin studies, there is the problem that monozygotic twins may be treated more similarly than dizygotic twins. So the difference in the concordance rates between MZ and DZ twins may be due to the amount of genes they share OR it could be due to the fact that MZ twins are treated more similarly (environment).

Question 22

What is a concordance rate?

Answer 22

% likelihood that if one twin has the characteristic the other twin does too.

Question 23

Assumptions of the biological approach

Answer 23

• The biological approach emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body, such as genetic inheritance, hormones, neurochemistry and the nervous system, impacting our behaviour.
• As such, everything psychological (behaviour and thought processes) has an innate biological basis. Therefore, an understanding of brain structure and function can explain our thoughts and behaviour. E.g. intelligence is due to our genetic make-up.
• Genes affect behaviour and influence psychological differences between people. This includes how behaviours have evolved.

We can use animal research to identify genetic traits and thus explain human behaviour.

Question 24

Strength of biological approach (precise)

Answer 24

These include scanning techniques such as fMRIs, twin studies, drug trials and laboratory experiments. With advances in technology, it is possible to accurately measure biological and neural processes in ways that are not open to bias. Experiments are also highly controlled environments which mean that researchers are able to replicate studies under the same conditions.
e.g. Tulving et al. (semantic/ episodic memory - lab exp)

This suggests that the approach is based on reliable and objective data. By emphasising the importance of these features of science, the biological approach contributes positively to the credibility and status of psychology as a science.

Question 25

Weakness of the biological approach (no control)

Answer 25

The biological approach is determinist in that it sees human behaviour as governed by internal, biological causes that we have no control over. This has implications for our legal system and wider society. One of the rules of law is that offenders are seen as legally and morally responsible for their actions. The discovery of a ‘criminal gene’ if there was such a thing, could complicate this principle. Additionally, this may lead to genetic screening of the population to identify this susceptibility and discrimination against those people. This has ethical implications for people with the genetic predisposition as well as victims of crimes where criminals may not take responsibility for the crimes that they have committed.

Question 26

Weakness of biological approach (MZ and DZ twins)

Answer 26

Twin studies assume that both MZ and DZ twin pairs share the same environments, however the environment may be more similar for MZ compared to DZ twins. MZ twins tend to be treated more similarly by their parents and other people than DZ twins as they are identical. This means that the findings could just as easily be interpreted as supporting nurture rather than nature. Consequently, twin studies may not be able to as strongly support the biological approach as first thought.

Question 27

Weakness of the biological approach (reductionism)

Answer 27

The biological approach is a reductionist approach. Reductionism is the belief that complex human behaviour can be explained in terms of breaking it down to its smallest component parts such as the actions of genes, neurotransmitters or hormones. For example, many explanations of mental disorders are reductionist because genes or neurochemical imbalances are believed to be the main causes of these disorders. Therefore, biological explanations are unlikely to be complete explanations of behaviour as other factors are likely to contribute to mental disorders like depression e.g. cognitive, emotional and cultural factors. - e.g. Bandura et al.'s BOBO dolls: learning from others is important