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Evaluating THE Biological Approach

Evaluating THE Biological Approach. Key Terms for the Debate topic. The debates topic involves 4 pairs of contrasting ideas about how you can describe an approach. Number One: Nomothetic Versus Idiographic.

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Evaluating THE Biological Approach

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  1. Evaluating THE BiologicalApproach

  2. Key Terms for the Debate topic • The debates topic involves 4 pairs of contrasting ideas about how you can describe an approach

  3. Number One: Nomothetic Versus Idiographic • A Nomothetic Approach tries to form general rules about behaviour eg “Low levels of serotonin will always be connected with depression” • An Idiographic approach would focus on the different reasons why each individual patient might be suffering from depression

  4. Number Two: determinism versus freewill • Determinism says that everything has a cause: eg a low level of serotonin will cause depression and the individual has no choice in the matter • Freewill says that the individual can freely choose how they act and their behaviour is not caused by internal or external factors

  5. Number Three: Reductionism versus Holism • Reductionism is an approach that simplifies complex phenomena to understand them. For example, people become depressed because of low levels of serotonin. • Holism says that we must look at the whole (complicated) person to understand depression and think of all the factors that affect a person

  6. Number Four:Nature versus Nurture • Nature says that all behaviour is the result of our genes • Nurture says that all behaviour is a result of learning from the environment

  7. For each Debate: • Decide which side the biological approach stands on.

  8. For each Debate: • Think of a strength and weakness of this type of approach and complete the first sheet of your handout.

  9. Useful? • What uses can you think of for the approach? • Theories • How might Selye’s research have an impact beyond psychology? • PTSD

  10. Useful? • Therapies • Psychosurgery: modern techniques are effective • What did Cohen (1999) find? • Chemotherapy: (drugs) • Lithium useful for bipolar disorder • More in the book on chemotherapy

  11. Is it Scientific? • Read the third page of the handout and complete the sections on drug testing for mental illness and the validity issues involved.

  12. Revision summary • Using information from the hand-out and p10-11 of the text book, fill in the PEE table on the final page of the handout

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