Biological approach

Free will v Determinism
1. The biological approach is deterministic it sees free will as an illusion
  1. People are determined by their physiology(physiological determinism)
    1. Forensic psychology=> Somatotype proposed by Sheldon: that if you have a mesomorph body type you are characterised as a criminal.
      1. Shown in his study that the majority of male criminal delinquents had a mesomorph body type
      2. Atavastic form proposed by Lombroso=> criminals had different physical features compared with non-criminals e.g. strong prominent jaw,narrow sloping brow
  2. Genetic Determinism
    1. Depression=> children of depressed parents seem to be particularly at risk of developing depression e.g Winokur et al=> 10.4% of the first degree relatives of probands compared to 4.9% of control group
    2. FP=> Lange found that MZ twins showed a much higher concordance rate than DZ twins -> supported by Christiansen found concordance rate in Male MZ=35% DZ=13%.Female MZ=21% DZ=8%
2. Evolutionary determinism
  1. Fight or flight response we do no choose to freeze when taking an exam
Holistic v Reductionist
1. The biological approach is deemed as reductionist because it ignores other levels
  1. The explanation of schizophrenia is due to to the sensitivity of dopamine receptors => but ignore social and environmental factors such as labelling theory or sociocultural explanation e.g family dysfunction
  2. In explaining the theory of why criminals offend is due to their genes rather than social and environmental factors such as Sutherlands association theory and SLT which seems more realistic.It could be due to the environment that 'set off' the gene to cause criminal behaviour
Idiographic v Nomothetic
1. Nomothetic -approaches emphasis on general laws that govern behaviour that apply to all
  1. Schizophrenia=> everyone has a lot of dopamine in the brain if schizophrenic but ignores the amount of people who may have a different subtypes of this receptor therefore the theory does not take into account individual differences
    1. Classify people into groups =>DSM IV=>helps with diagnosing symptoms
  2. Eysenck states how criminals have high neuroticism and extroversion=> however Farrington et al found that participants tended to score high on psychoticism,they did not on extroversion and neuroticism yet again shows that not every criminal will fit into every category of these three dimensions.They may not be high in anything at all
  3. However if we look at Phineas Gage he shows that the ideological approach would be better because in the biological approach they suggested that if the Wernike's area and Broca's area was damaged then he wouldn't be able to interact and speak but he could which shows that individual differences can occur
Nature v Nurture
1. Supports the nature side of the debate because it believes our behaviour is innate
  1. Bock and Goode => male mice showed a genetic tendency towards aggression
  2. Adoption studies
    1. Heston=>47 mothers with schizophrenia,whose children were adopted within days by psychiatrically well mothers.Found the incidence of schizophrenia in the children to be 16%(above 1% chance level)
    2. Genetic basis of criminality=>Crowe =>almost 50% of children sampled as adopted children whose biological mothers did not have a criminal record themselves by the age of 18
  3. Henrique and Davidson suggested with the diathesis-stress model that it is due to innate factors but also due to the stress of the environment that has an impact on getting depression
Basic Assumptions
1. All behaviour has a biological basis which is the focus of this approach
2. The functional level of analysis is the evolutionary basis of behaviour including genetics
3. The causal level of analysis concentrates on the physiological processes underlying behaviour
Methods
1. Scientific:experiments
  1. controls extraneous variables but lacks ecological validity because it takes place in an artificial environment,replicated,validity and reliable
Researchers
1. Bock and Goode,Lange,Coffey,Mcguffin,Henrique and Davidison,Gottesman and Shields etc
Application
1. Drug therapies have develop due to the increase of technology and have allowed many patients with mood disorders etc to live normal lives that they previously would have not been able to do.
  1. Many drug treatments have unwanted side-effects.For example,if taking the wrong dosage can cause kidney damage and other side effects such as Nausea.On the other hand there are newer drugs that have less side effects and don't cause to much harm to the body.
    1. Drugs only treat the biologically-visible effects, not the causes of problems. Childhood experiences that cause trauma and depression during adulthood may be better treated by confronting our past than by using anti-depressants.
Impact
1. However, it cannot be denied that the biological approach has contributed an enormous amount to our understanding of the fundamental processes of behaviour. It has also fed into many other areas including medicine and surgery.
  1. Technology for studying the nervous system and brain has grown tremendously advanced with access to tools such as PET and MRI scans making the biological perspective in psychology increasingly important.
    1. Artifical Selective Breeding on Economic growth
      1. Ethical issues?

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Biological approach

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