That psychological disorders are physical illnesses with physical cause
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According to the biological model, what are the main 4 possible causes of psychological disorder?
genetics, neurotransmitters, infection and brain injury
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What is meant by genetics being the cause of psychological disorders?
Faulty genes are known to cause some diseases that have psychological effects such as Huntington's disease
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What is meant by neurotransmitters being the cause of psychological disorders?
Too much or too little of a particular neurotransmitter may produce psychological disorders such as an increased level of dopamine being linked to Schizophrenia
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What is meant by infection being the cause of psychological disorders?
Disorders are caused by infection such as General Paresis, a condition involving delusion and moodswing which result in death. It is caused by Syphilis
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What is meant by brain injury being the cause of psychological disorders?
Accidental brain injury may caused psychological disorders such as in the case of Phinaes Gage
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What has much of the research surronding the biological model been done on?
Sets of twins to attempt to establish a genetic basis for Schizophrenia
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Who conducted a meta-analysis of 40 twin studies?
Gottesman
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What did Gottesman discover?
Having an identical twin with Schizophrenia gave you a 48% chance of getting the disease, this reduced to 17% in non-identical twins
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What points can be used to evaluate Gottesman's study?
It has a high ecological validity as the meta-analysis was carried out on field studies, there must be other factors involved as not all the second twins developed the disorder and family environment may play a part.
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What did Heston find out?
5/47 of the children whose biological mothers had Schizophrenia developed the disease as opposed to 0/45 in the control group
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What points can be used evaluate Heston's research?
Interviews were used to collect the data which is a naturalistic way but they can be affected by social desirability bias
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What is meant by the biological therapy: drugs?
Drugs can be used to change neurotransmitter levels in the brain for example, phenothiazines reduce levels of Dopamine and thus relieve the symptoms of Schizophrenia
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What is meant by the biological therapy: psychosurgery?
Brain surgery involving destruction or seperation of parts of the brain for example the frontol lobotomy which helps to reduce aggresion
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What is meant by the biological therapy: ECT
Electro-Convulsive Therapy in which an electric shock is administered to the brain, it can help to relieve depression
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What are the strengths of the biological model?
It has a strong scientific basis, it can be seen as ethical as it doesn't blame people for their disorders and biological therapies have helped relieve conditions that were hard to treat previously
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What are the weaknesses or the biological model?
Biological therapies raise ethical concerns for example, drugs can produce addiction and only supress the symptoms also psychological therapies can be just as effective and psychological disorders may not all be linked to physical causes
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
According to the biological model, what are the main 4 possible causes of psychological disorder?
Back
genetics, neurotransmitters, infection and brain injury
Card 3
Front
What is meant by genetics being the cause of psychological disorders?
Back
Card 4
Front
What is meant by neurotransmitters being the cause of psychological disorders?
Back
Card 5
Front
What is meant by infection being the cause of psychological disorders?
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