The Biological Approach to Abnormality

Explanations of Abnormality- The Biological Approach

• The biological model treats abnormality as a physical condition.
• It suggests that all behaviour is rooted in underlying physiological processes in the body, and, therefore, it is only possible to cure an individual by removing the cause and returning the body to its 'normal' level of functioning.
• The biological model suggests that abnormality may be caused by one of several factors: genetic inheritance, neuroanatomy, biochemistry, and viral infection
• Genes- Genes form part of a chromosome and are inherited from our parents. It is this that can sometimes be the cause of abnormality. When dealing with genetically inhertited disorders, 'concordance rates' are used. Concordance rates are the extent to which two individuals are similar in terms of a particular abnormality. Mental disorders such as phobias have low concordance rates but others such as schizophrenia have relatively high concordance rates.
• Viral Infection- Research suggests that some abnormalities may be a result…