Physiological Approach

Assumptions:

- Behaviour is detremined by physiological processes, such as brain functioning, genetics, hormones and neuro transmitters.

- Physiological procceses affect our behaviour, mood and cognitions.

- The physiological approach has useful attributions - Sperry - we know the side effects of the split brain and people with epilepsy - this can be applied to help people in everyday life.

- It uses objective methods which are scientific and not affected by demand charecteristics - Maguire - MRI scans - therefore data is valid.

- It is very reductionist in that it only looks at one aspect - Maguire - navigation involves more than just the hippocampus - we need to learn much more because humans are complex - the data could only show a correlation between the variables, which doesn't show cause and effect.

- It is low in ecological validity - Dement and Kleitman - lab experiment with electrodes and wires - the results can be diffecult to generalise to everyday life.