Biological Approach

The Key Assumptions of the Biological Approach are

• Behaviour and thought processes have an innate biological bases
• The mind and brain are the same
  • How the link between brain and behaviour is studied: Research concerns physiology, such as how the structure of the brain and changes in neurotransmitter affect behaviour/thought.
• Human genes have evolved to adapt behaviour to the environment Darwin proposed that all species have evolved through natural selection. Adaptive physical/behavioural characteristics which help an animal to survive are passed on through genes. An example of a physical trait is:
  If an animal can run quick enough from it's enemy
  An example of natural selection of a behavioural trait:
  How to attract a mate
  Examples of behaviours with an evolutionary basis are:
  Behavioural - Woodpeckers use a cactus stick to get it's food
  Physical - Developing flippers for snow penguins
  How adoption is studied: Animal and human behaviours are compared (the comparative method); any similarities suggest that the particular behaviour has been passed on because it added survival points and gained evolutionary points! +1

• Human characteristics (e.g Intelligence) are due to our genetic make-up
  How heritability is studied: twin, family and adoption studies use human participants and investigate whether similarities in behaviour (or characteristics such as IQ) within families are associated with how closely genetically related individuals are.
  

  • Twin Studies is to see if one identical twin has the same characteristic as the other. An example is:
    Intelligence - Where the similarity between results from identical twins is more than those from non-identical twins. This supports the biological approach
  • Family Studies is to see if certain traits were inherited in the family. An example is:
    Addiction - Where 3 Psychologists found that sons of alcoholic parents were more likely to drink and released more endorphins than those who's parent's did not. This supports the biological approach, however only to an extent as the children may have observed their parents doing this and just copied
  • Adoption studies are useful for finding out the genetic basis of behaviour. An example is that cognitive ability follows the genetic parents rather than the adoptive parents (real dumb parents will make dumb kinds). This supports the biological approach
  • Selective breeding studies can also be conducted (using animals as it would be extremely unethical to use humans). For example:
    If two maze bright rats are bred and their offspring are also maze bright, it would suggest that this particular trait is passed on it genes

• This approach uses scientific, experimental procedures in it's investigations, which allows us to establish cause and effect.

• It provides strong arguments for the nature side of the nature/nurture debate.

• The biological approach has many useful applications such as:

  • drugs which alleviate disorders such as bipolar disorder

• The biological approach is reductionist as it explains all thoughts and behaviours in terms of actions of nerves and chemicals (Reductionsim is breaking down a complex phenomenon [in this case human thought and behaviour] into simpler components [in this case the actions of nerves or chemicals])
• The approach is over-simplistic as it fails to appreciate the influence that environmental factors can have on behaviour.
• This approach raises what could lead to ethical issues, for example genetic mapping, people are thinking "Is it right to artificially manipulate an individual's genetic make-up?" (e.g to make the more intelligent or less aggressive)