evaluation of biopsychology

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  • Evaluation
    • this is a reductionist approach since it tries to explain all aspects of human behaviour in term of nerves and chemicals. by focussing on just the biological explanations it over simplifies the explanation for complex behaviour by ignoring higher level explanations.
    • Experiments that cannot be conducted on humans for ethical reasons can be conducted on animals this is controversial but many advances of science may not happen otherwise.
    • increased understanding of biochemical processes in the brain has led to the development of drug therapy to treat serious mental illnesses such as depression
      • These drugs may not help all patients but have seen to be effective for many. This is a strength for the biological approach because the treatment allows the patient to manage their condition, improved their life quality.
    • Provides a strong argument for the nature side of the nature - nurture debate through twin and adoption studies by showing that certain characteristics such as intelligence may have a genetic link.
      • However it is difficult to separate out the effects of nature and nurture. MZ twins may have higher concordance that DZ twins not because of higher genetic similarity, but because of similar treatment. if this is the case then their high concordance is due to nurture and not nature.
        • in this case the similar environmental conditions are an important confounding variable/
    • Uses scientific method in its research eg: twins and adoption studies and scanning techniques such as PET scans and EEG.
      • These methods make it possible to measure biological processes accurately without any bias.
        • This means that this approach is based on reliable data.
      • This approach does offer explanations for behaviour eg: mental illness by linking them to neurotransmitters in the brain.
        • eg : depression is associated with low levels of serotonin. however because studies show that certain drugs that change neurotransmitters level reduce the symptoms of the disorder just to point to a correrlation between that neurotransmitter and the disorder and does not establish cause and effect.

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