Outline and Evaluate The Biological Approach to Psychopathology (12 marks)

The Biological Approach argues Abnormality is like a physical illness and has a physical course and isn't caused by the environemtn. The approach has four main assumptions and these are biochemistry, infecntion, neuroanatomy and genetics. Biochemistry refers to abnormality may be due to an imbalance of chemicals in the nervous and endocrine systems. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit nerve impulses from one cell to another. Some argue if these are out of balance in the nervous system then one could develop psychological disorders. Infection refers to germs or microorganisms producing psychological disorders, like they cause physical illnesses. Barr (1990) found schizophrenic tendencies in children whose mothers had flu when they were pregnant. Neuroanatomy may cause abnormal behaviour if there is a damaged brain structure. Mental deterioriation can cause severe maladapativeness, e.g. Alzheimer's. Evidence from post mortems…