Biological Approach

Biological Approach- perspective that puts emphasis on the physical proceeses in the body, e.g genetic inhertiance 

Assumptions

Everything pychological is at first biological, therefore to fully underdtand human behaviour we must look at the biological structures and processes within the body, e.g genes, neurochemistry and the nervous system. With understanding the brain structure and function we care able to explain our thoughts and behaviour. in terms of the biological approach the mind lives in the brain so all thoughts, feelings and behaviours have a physical basis. This is in contrast to the cognitive approach that sees mental processes of the brain being different to the physical brain.

The genetic basis of behaviour

Behaviour geneticists study whether characterisics such as intelligence, mental disorder are inhertited like physical characteristics are. Twins studies are used to determine the likeihood that certain traits have genetic basis by using the concordant results between the twin. If twins are identical (monozygotic) they are found to have a higher concordance rates than non identical twins ( dizygotic)- for musical ability, schizophrenia. This suggests a genetic basis. This is due to MZ twins share 100% of each others genes, while DZ twins share about 50%

Genotype and phenotype

Persons genotype is their gentic behaviour, while the phenotype is they wa the genes…