Biological Approach

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Biologcal Approach

Advantages

  • Supporting evidence for genetic explanations: E.g. McGuffin conducted a twin study on depression and found concordance rates of 46% for MZ twins and 20% for DZ twins.
  • Practical application of biochemical explanations: Understanding biochemical processes in the brain has enabled the development of psychoactive drugs. E.g. Antidepressants increase levels of serotonin and can decrease depressive symptoms.

Disadvantages

  • −Nature and nurture cannot be easily separated: Identical twins are usually raised in the same environment so it is impossible to disentangle the role of inherited and environmental influences. Reductionistic explanations: Purely genetic explanations can be considered reductionistic. Inheriting a particular characteristic in their genome may only make a child vulnerable to develop into a particular phenotype; certain environmental triggers (e.g. aggressive role models) may also be required in order for the behaviour to be expressed. Such purely biological explanations may therefore not account for the interaction of different factors.ter bullet point
  • Reductionistic explanations: Purely genetic explanations can be considered reductionistic. Inheriting a particular characteristic in their genome may only make a child vulnerable to develop into a particular phenotype; certain environmental triggers (e.g. aggressive role models) may also be required in order for the behaviour to be expressed. Such purely biological explanations may therefore not account for the interaction of different factors.ter bullet point

Evaluation

The biological approach may lack population validity because it was done on mostly twins,consequently as not everyone is a twin the findings in the result may not be generalisable to the wider population. 

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