Biological approach to psychopathology

Biological Model

• Abnormality is caused by physical factors:

The biological model assumes that all psychological disorders are related to some changes in the body. Psychological disorders are illnesses that may be cause by on or more of the following factors e.g. genes (abnormality being inherited), biochemistry (abnormality of chemicals) and neuroanaomy (abnormal brain structure).

• Abnormality is inherited:

The genetic view is that psychological disorders are programmed in an individual's genetic make-up, passing from parent to child.

One way of investigating this possibility is through the use of twin studies: e.g. pairs of indentical twins (MZ twins) are compared to see if one twin has a disorder that the other twin shares. This provides us with a concordance rate (). So, a concordance rate is the likelihood that if one twin has the disorder then the other twin does…