Biological approach AO3

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Practical applications (strength)

- The biological approach has made significant contributions to help society, including accessible ways to treat mental health problems.

- Effective drug treatments have been developed that are quick acting for many disorders. For example, antipsychotics given to patients suffering from schizophrenia can quickly stabilize behavior in up to 80% of patients.

Link: This means that the biological approach has ultimately benefited society and can be seen as extremely useful

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Lacks validity (weakness)

- A lot of research and knowledge gained from the biological approach has taken place on non-human animals. 

- Criticized by ‘evolutionary discontinuity’. Humans have qualitative differences so cannot generalize to humans. E.g humans have a language acquisition device in their brain that no other animal possesses.

Link: This means that the biological approach may lack validity and questions the moral and ethical implications involved in research.

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Evidence (strength)

- There is lots of credible evidence to support the biological approach.

- For example, Maguire studied the brains of London taxi drivers using MRI and found significantly more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus. This part is associated with the development of navigational skills. The longer they had been doing their job, the more pronounced the difference. 

Link: This means the approach has evidence to validate its claims and can be seen as falsifiable.

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Methodological problems (weakness)

- However, many studies in the biological approach, including Maguire’s, have methodological issues. 

- For example, Teubar found that recovery was age-dependent: 60% under 20 showed significant improvement. 20% over 26 showed similar improvement, this was a negative correlation between age and recovery.

Link: This means we cannot establish cause and effect, reducing the validity of the biological approaches

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