Summary of the Area
Principles of the Biological Area
  • This area assumes that all thoughts, feelings and behaviours have a biological cause.
  • ‘All that is psychological is first biological’
  • Human genes have adapted our physiology and behaviour to the environment
  • Psychology should investigate the brain, nervous system and genes
 
Types of Behaviour Studied
  • Regions of the brain – what do the different parts do?
  • Brain plasticity – can you make your brain get bigger?
 
Practical Applications
  • Issues of Mental Health – using transcranial magnetic stimulation for OCD and depression.
  • Child Psychology – is intelligence inherited?
  • Criminal Psychology – can you be a natural born criminal?
 
Debates it strongly links with
The biological area takes strongly reductionist and determinist views as it assumes that all behaviour is determined through biological processes which cannot be controlled.
 
Strengths
  • Very scientific and objective
  • Strong counter argument to nurture debate which states that we learn behaviour
  • Research Methods are very reliable
 
Weaknesses
  • Reductionist as it ignores other explanations of behaviour such as the environment
  • Does not explain how the mind and the body interact
  • Research Methods lack ecological validity
 
Research Methods
  • Experiments to see what effect there is on behaviour e.g.: Sperry (natural experiment)
  • Correlations between twins to see the genetic influence on behaviour
 
Methodological Issues
  • Reliability is usually good due to high control of variables
  • Experiments are replicable due to standardised procedure
  • Validity is good as IV can be isolated and measurement is objective e.g.: MRI
  • Low ecological validity and mundane realism as the setting/tasks are often artificial e.g.; Blakemore and Cooper’s cat cylinder
  • Snapshot studies
 
Core Studies