Biological AO3

Why are some theoretical contributions of the biological approach?

-dopamine hypothesis

-OCD links to low levels of serotonin

-MAOA gene link to violence thus offending

What are practical contributions of the biological approach?

-development of drug therapies like antipsychotics for SZ, SSRIs for OCD

-social interventions for those whose parents have the MAOA gene to prevent future violent behavior

Who do objective measures like fMRIs, EEGs to measure the biological basis of behaviour produce reliable data?

They can be easily replicated for validation of results

Why could biological determinism to offending be a problem?

Crimes could be said to be due to genetics outside of the criminal’s control, which means that a violent criminal could excuse their actions with that, undermining the basis of our legal system that assumes everyone is in control of their actions

Why could data in twin studies be potentially unreliable?

Researchers are unable to control extraneous variables in the environment for instance MZ twins could be treated more similarly than DZ twins, so increased concordance rates may not be due to solely genetic factors

How is the biological approach weak in establishing casual relationships?

In the dopamine hypothesis, we can’t establish whether abnormal dopamine’s levels cause SZ or the other way round, since we can’t ethically manipulate dopamine levels in people

How does the practical value of the biological approach increase upon the development of drug treatments ?

It shows that there is an increased understanding of neurochemical processes in the brain so patients can be treated and have their quality of life improved

What did Marder find that show that weakness of antipsychotics?

He found that atypical antipsychotics Clozapine was only effective in 30-61% of patients who are resistant to typical antipsychotics

Why is Marder’s findings about the weakness of antipsychotics significant?

It suggests that antipsychotic drugs don’t work for all patients, so alternative treatments like CBT which is based on the cognitive approach have to be used to allow more patients to be treated

What is the impact of Marder’s findings on the strength of the biological approach?

It shows that the biological approach cannot explain SZ comprehensively, therefor we need to concierge other approaches like the cognitive approach to fully understand this disorder