The biological perspective views behavior as arising from physiological and genetic factors that interact with the environment. Key aspects of this perspective include Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, research on the brain and nervous system using methods like experiments and case studies, and theories about how genes and biological processes influence behavior. Studies have linked specific behaviors to brain regions and shown that splitting the brain's hemispheres can produce two separate streams of awareness, supporting the biological view that the brain determines behavior. Gender differences are also studied from this perspective in terms of both nature and nurture influences.

1. IB - The Biological Perspective
Introduction
The focus of this perspective is the interaction between the physiological and
psychological factors that contribute to behavior. Changes in behavior can arise
from an interaction of dispositional and environmental factors. Research has
frequently, but not exclusively, used the experimental method. Key issues that are
relevant to the biological perspective include criticisms that it often involves a
reductionist approach and that behavior exhibited by non-human animals is not
always relevant to humans. In this unit students will evaluate the relevance of this
perspective to modern psychology.
You need to be able to:
Describe and evaluate the cultural context and development, the conceptual framework, the
methodology, and the application of the biomedical model.
Cultural context and development: Methodology:
- Darwin (Evolution – Natural Selection) Correlational studies, double blind
trials, experiments (use of animals and
- Dualism humans = ethically controversial),
interviews, case studies and
- Later shift from Dualism to Materialism questionnaires.
Conceptual Framework (Key Applications:
Concepts): - comparison with other perspectives
physiological (biological) concepts affect - application of genetic research and
behavior. ethical implications
Neurotransmitters (excitatory, inhibitory). - changes in education, work and
The Brain (localization of functions). therapy.
Bodily Rhythms
Describe and evaluate theories and empirical studies within this perspective.
Theories:
Biological researchers tend to view behavior has purely physical. Their basic assumption is
that the brain determines behavior.
Dualism – the view, first attributed to Descartes, that mind and body are distinct, Descartes
believed that the two could interact via the pineal gland in the brain. However, now most
psychologist disregard this assumption.

2. Materialism – assumption that all behavior has a physiological basis.
The two primary concerns of the biological perspective are the workings of the nervous
system, and the role of hereditary on behavior.
Assumptions:
• Materialism (body and mind are the same)
• All psychological behavior is first physiological (mind appears to reside in the brain,
therefore all thoughts, feelings, and behaviors ultimately have a physical/biological cause)
• Genes have evolved over millions of years to adapt behavior to the environment. Therefore,
much behavior will have a genetic basis.
Heredity – the biological transmission of characteristics from one generation to the other.
This is a main aspect of the biological approach.
Natural Selection – the evolutionary process by which those random variations within a
species which enhance reproductive success lead to perpetuation of new characteristics, in
essence, individuals possessing traits which enhance survival and reproduction are likely to
have more offspring (Darwin).
Empirical Studies:
Darwin – His theory of natural selection published in his book “The Origin of Species”
(1859) was a major influence on the biological perspective. Darwin was advocating not only
the inheritance of characteristics, but also an evolutionary link between humans and all other
species. Even though, his theory caused much controversy, it laid the basis for the study of
hereditary influences on behavior.
1861 – A French doctor, Paul Broca, encountered a case in which a man lost the ability to
speak coherently after a head injury. Later, Broca, was able to demonstrate, by post mortem
autopsy, that the cause of the man’s deficit lay in damage to a specific point in the brain.
The proof of this localization of function (connecting a specific behavior to a specific brain
area) was crucial to this perspective.
Wernicke - Interested in psychiatry, traditionally he studied anatomy
initially and neuropathology later. He published a small volume on aphasia
which vaulted him into international fame. In it was precise pathoanatomic
analysis paralleling the clinical picture. He is best known for his work
on sensory aphasia and poliomyelitis hemorrhagia superior. The aphasia
syndrome, as described by Wernicke in 1908, consists of loss of comprehension of spoken
language, loss of ability to read (silently) and write, and distortion of articulate speech.
Hearing is intact. Wernicke aimed at a natural system for the classification of mental
disorders, chiefly based on the anatomy and pathology of the nervous system. His pattern of
thought was based on the concept that psychiatric diseases were caused by disturbances of

3. the associative system. It was, in other words, a sort of localisation doctrine.
1950s -Sperry severed the optic chiasm (the place where nerve cells from the two eyes
cross) and corpus callosum of monkeys. Each eye went to one half of the brain. It proved
that each half of the brain became two separate learning centers. Sperry got together people
who had their Corpus Callosum split to try and control their sever epilepsy. He showed them
different visual stimuli really quickly so only one visual field could take up the information,
and then got the patient to identify the word in different ways. He also tried this using touch
identification and by showing two different symbols to either visual field. He found that the
right visual field was connected to the left side of the brain and vice versa and that the Left
side of the brain could write it or say the information, and the right side could identify the
information by pointing. Still this gave no indication of what might happen in humans. One
obvious difference between primates and people is that monkeys do not speak, and Broca
has shown that speech was found in only one hemisphere. Consequently, no one was sure
what would happen if the hemispheres were separated in a person.
Implications: Support of localization of the brain theory. Mirror sites, connecting to old
memories.
1960s – In Los Angeles, Philip Vogel was trying to treat patients with a long history of
epilepsy. While in many cases epileptics could be treated with anti-seizure drugs, these
patients did not respond to the drug treatment. When all treatments failed, Vogel tried a new
and radical approach: by cutting the fibres of the corpus callosum, he hoped to restrict the
seizure activity to one hemisphere and thus prevent major seizure attacks. While he knew of
Sperry’s work, and there had been occasional clinical reports of damage to the corpus
callosum, no one had purposely separated the hemispheres before. Medically, the treatment
worked, and it reduced the frequency of more limited seizures. Initial observations
suggested that the patients were normal, everyday actions such as walking and eating
seemed to occur naturally. However after further testing, they found that the patients
behaved in many ways as if they had two independent streams of conscious awareness, one
in each hemisphere, each of with is cut from and out of contact with the mental experience
of the “other”. In other words, two minds functioning separately from each other. To assess
the effects of the surgery, the researchers had to use techniques whereby information was
presented to only one hemisphere. The simplest case, involved touch: if the split brain
person were given an object in there life hand while blindfolded, the left hand could pick it
out again, by touch, from a selection of several objects. However, if the right hand
attempted to pick out the article previously held in the left hand, it did no better than chance.
In the case of vision, the situation is a bit more complicated, because each eye is connected
to both hemispheres. The division of visual processing is such that the visual world of both
eye is divided in two, so that the objects on the left side of the visual world are seen by the
right hemisphere, while objects on the right side are seen by the left hemisphere, regardless
of which eye is used. Since only the left hemisphere had language, the split brain person
presented with a word or picture on the left side (conveyed to the right hemisphere) could
not say what they had seen. The left hemisphere also specializes in logic and math skills.
They also discovered that the right hemisphere has musical and spatial abilities which the
left hemisphere lacks. However the right hemisphere is not completely ignorant of language
because if a split person was presented with a word or picture, it can point to a
corresponding word or picture. Thus, if the right hemisphere sees the word “key”, the left

4. hand can correctly choose a key.
Explain how cultural, ethical, gender, and methodological considerations affect the
interpretation of behavior from a biological perspective.
Effectiveness of the perspective in explaining psychological and/or social questions:
Comparison with other perspectives on questions such as aggression, gender differences or
stress. It addresses the question of gender differences: Nature or nurture? When looking at
gender differences it looks at issues such as sex, relationships, eating disorders etc. Eating
disorders have many causes, they can be physiological, cultural, emotional. Society’s
impact on women and the correlation that exists between eating disorders and genders is
studied as the great difference from male: to female ratio increases (1:7).
Gender: There are a great deal of differences between males and females, in terms of
physiology and personality. However, in terms of the brain, there is a distinct difference
between the two genders. Females actually have a larger and more developed corpus
callosum than men, which suggests that they have better communication between the two
sides of the brain. While the male brain is, on average, approximately 10 percent larger than
the female brain, females have a larger frontal lobe than men, which might explain the fact
that women seem to have a heightened perception of emotions than men. Females have
evolved mechanisms that enable them to detect men that will transfer resourced to their
offspring (i.e. health and paternal investment). Males, however, have evolved mechanisms
that enable them to detect females that promise rapid production of offspring, and
disinclination to mate with other men (i.e. health, fertility, and faithfulness). This could
explain why men expect women to be faithful, and why women seek out faithful men,
however males do not feel compelled to remain faithful to women.
Compare theories, empirical studies and the conceptual framework of this model with the other
perspectives.

5. Biological Psychodynamic Learning
Key terms and concepts: Key terms and Key terms and concepts:
Physiological concepts: archetypes, Reinforcement
(biological) concepts defense mechanisms, (positive/negative), operant
affect behavior. ego, id, superego, conditioning, learning,
Neurotransmitters psychosexual stages of classical conditioning,
(excitatory, inhibitory). development, conditioned response,
The Brain (localization inferiority complex, conditioned stimulus,
of functions). Oedipal conflict, schedules of reinforcement,
Bodily Rhythms conscious etc. shaping etc.
Hormones, Endocrine
gland, Drugs, Stress,
Sleep, Materialism,
Hereditary, Central
nervous system etc.
Key theorists: Key theorists: Key theorists:
Sperry, Vogel, Broca, Freud, Jung, Adler Watson, Skinner, Thorndike
Wernicke
Assumptions: Assumptions: Assumptions:
Based on the assumption Attempts to understand Emphasizes the study of
of materialism, which behavior in terms of the observable responses, and
asserts that all behavior workings of the mind, rejects attempts to study
has a physiological with an emphasis on internal processes like
basis. motivation and the role thinking.
Genes have evolved over of past experience. Focus on learning as a
millions of years to Emphasizes the primary factor in explaining
adapt behavior to the importance of innate changes in behavior.
environment. Therefore, drives, the continuity of Parsimony: The principle
much behavior will have normal and abnormal that states that one should
a genetic basis. behavior and the role of always seek the simplest
the unconscious mind. possible explanation for an
By making the event.
assumption of psychic Associationism:
determinism, views all Mental processes,
behavior as having a particularly learning, are
meaning. based on forming
connections between ideas
and/or events.
Methodology: Methodology: Methodology:
Correlational studies, Case studies, interviews Experiments, interviews,
double blind trials, surveys, observation
experiments, interviews,
case studies and
questionnaires.
Identify and explain the strengths and limitations of biological explanations of behavior.
Strengths – with the biological approach a Limitations – the biological approach
better understanding of how the brain emphasizes “getting inside the black
works has been achieved. Such as with box”, that is look at internal structure of
Broca’s work, “localization of the brain” the organism. However, they do not
psychologists were able to connect a take in to account outside factors, such

6. specific behavior to a specific area of the as the environment, effect of society,
brain). Also the developments of family etc. on behavior. Not every
techniques to study the brain have behavior can be explained solely on the
improved with time. Different techniques brain. Other past experiences can have
are EEG, MRI, CAT scans, PET. an effect on our behavior. Such as
when trying to understand aggression
The biological perspective has also helped and why someone might change acquire
us understand the effect that drugs have in a violent behavior. The biological
the organism (such as cocaine, alcohol etc) perspective proposes that in order for a
and understand what happens to different person’s behavior to change drastically,
areas of the brain and to neurotransmitters. two out of these three things must
The study of psychoactive (mind happen: 1) caused by physical damage
affecting) drugs is a concern in both to the brain, 2) have a mental disease,
psychology and medicine, and has given 3) or have been abused as a child. This
rise to a hybrid field called last one however does not seem to go
psychopharmacy. This extensive study with the perspective since it takes into
has helped to understand in depth humans’ account past experiences.
behavior under the influence of drugs.
Another strength of this perspective is the
understanding of the effects of hormonal
change on behavior.
Explain the extent to which free will and determinism are integral in this perspective.
Free Will: Since this perspective Determinism: The biological
acknowledges the presence of the mind perspective is deterministic in that it
(basic assumption of materialism), and states that certain psychological
focuses on how processes in the brain (personality) traits are pre-determined,
account for behavior, it can be assumed or inherited. The emphasis on genetics
that free will is integral to this perspective. and the biological basis of behavior
However, such theories as those that makes determinism integral to this
explain aggression, suggest that there are perspective.
some behaviors which are hereditary and
which we have no control over.
Explain and evaluate claims that correlates exist between physiological and psychological
behavior.
Localization of function: it has been determined that certain areas of the brain are primarily used for
certain functions and determine specific behaviors. This also allows us to determine the effects of
damage on these particular areas of the brain.
Discuss controversies surrounding a reductionist approach, as adopted by many biological
psychologists.

7. The biological approach can be said to be a reductionist approach because it focuses specifically on
neurological processes. It doesn’t take other possible explanations of behavior into account, such as
cognitive processes (mental models), or the role of the environment.
Historical Development and Cultural Context
A long history of interest in mind-body dilemma
The influence of Darwin
The development of genetics and scanning technology
Paradigm shift toward the scientific method
• The Greeks (Hippocrates and Galen)
• Early brain research (Broca and Gage)
• Darwin
• Gene research (Mendel, Watson & Crick and the Genome project)
• Brain research (Lesions, Electrical stimulation, ECG, CAT, MRI)
• Discoveries in medicine and biology (neurotransmitters, Hormones, Drugs)
• Philosophy (Dualism Vs Materalism)
Assumptions
• All that is psychological is first physiological; behavior is biologically
determined.
• Human genes have evolved over millions of years to adapt behavior to the
environment. Therefore, much behavior has a genetic basis.
• Psychology should investigate the brain, nervous system, endocrine system,
neurochemistry, and genes.
• Animals may be studied as a means of understanding human behavior.
Key Concepts and Ideas

8. Overview: Structure and Function of the Neuron
1. Glial cells
Techniques to Learn about Structure and
2. Neurons
Function
3. Cell body
Measuring Brain Function
4. Dendrites
• EEG (electroencephalogram) – used to
5. Axon
study states of arousal – sleeping
6. Terminal buttons
/dreaming and detect abnormalities and
7. Myelin sheath
study cognition.
8. Neurotransmitters
• PET (positron emission tomography) –
9. Acetylcholine
color graphics depend on the amount of
10. Dopamine – stimulated the hypothalamus to
metabolic activity in the imaged brain
synthesize hormone
region.
11. Serotonin – sexual activity, concentration and
• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) –
attention
show brain at work at higher resolution
12. endorphins
than PET = Changes in oxygen in the
13. Reflex Action – reflex arc
blood of an active brain area. Explore
The Endocrine System
well-known systems like perception to
• Endocrine system consists of glands that
less understood systems like motivation
secrete chemical messengers called
and emotion.
hormones into your blood. The hormones
Organization of Nervous System
travel to target organs where they bind to
• Central nervous system – brain and
specific receptors.
spinal cord
• Pineal gland, hypothalamus, pituitary gland,
• Peripheral nervous system – somatic
thyroid gland, parathyroid, adrenal glands,
and autonomic
pancreas, ovaries and testes
• Somatic nervous system – motor
Genetics and Evolution Psychology
neuron – stimulate skeletal (voluntary)
• Nature vs. Nurture
muscle.
Genetics and Behavior
• Autonomic – neuron that stimulates
• Heritability – Twins
smooth (involuntary) and heart muscle.
• Transmission of hereditary characteristics
• Autonomic – antagonistic sympathetic
• Chromosome, gene, Turner’s syndrome,
nervous system and parasympathetic
Klineflether’s syndrome, Down syndromes,
nervous system.
• Spinal Cord
The Brain
Evolution
Three division
1. Reptilian brain – maintains homeostasis
and instinctive behavior
2. Old mammalian brain – limbic system
3. New mammalian brain – cerebral cortex
80% of brain volume higher function
Split brain
Key Theorists and Their Contributions
Hubel and Weisel (Vision) Hubel & Wiesel inserted microscopic electrodes into the visual cortex of

9. experimental animals to read the activity of single cells in the visual cortex
while presenting various stimuli to the animal's eyes. They found a
topographical mapping in the cortex, i.e. that nearby cells in the cortex
represented nearby regions in the visual field, i.e. that the visual cortex
represents a spatial map of the visual field.
Roger Sperry (Brain) Roger Wolcott Sperry (August 20, 1913 – April 17, 1994) was a
neuropsychologist, neurobiologist and Nobel laureate who, together with
David Hunter Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in
Medicine for his work with split-brain research. In his Nobel-winning work,
Sperry separated the corpus callosum, the area of the brain used to transfer
signals between the right and left hemispheres, to treat epileptics. Sperry and
his colleagues then tested these patients with tasks that were known to be
dependent on specific hemispheres of the brain and demonstrated that the
two halves of the brain may each contain consciousness. In his words, each
hemisphere is the lateralization of brain function.
Charles Darwin (evolution) His 1859 book On the Origin of Species established evolution by common
descent as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature.
He examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man,
and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals.
Paul Broca (brain) Broca is most famous for his discovery of the speech production center of
the brain located in the ventroposterior region of the frontal lobes (now
known as the Broca's area). He arrived at this discovery by studying the
brains of aphasic patients (persons with speech and language disorders
resulting from brain injuries), particularly the brain of his first patient in the
Bicêtre Hospital, Leborgne, nicknamed "Tan" due to his inability to clearly
speak any words other than "tan".
. Pierre-Paul Broca, Flourens and Lashley, Fred Gage, Joe Martinez, Sperry & Gazzaniga, Hobson & McCarley,
Simon LeVay, Bailey & Pillard, W. Greenough, Saul Schanberg, E Roy John, Tiffany Field.
Attitude Toward Determinism
• Behavior is mainly determined (genetically and
environmentally). People have no choice over heredity or
environment and these factors interact to produce
behavior.
• Biological approaches to psychology look at the
deterministic influence of genetics, brain structure and
biochemistry. Sociobiologists investigate evolutionary
determinism.
Methods

10. Invasive vs. non-invasive techniques. Invasive techniques, such as split brain studies are not only un-
ethical, but leave patients in what can be considered a worse condition than their previous one.
Although when the corpus callosum was cut on severe epileptics, their seizures stopped, but so did the
communication between left and right brain. These techniques are dangerous and messy. Non-invasive
techniques, however, such as MRI, CAT scans, or PET scans, are safer, and are a lot more helpful in
determining areas of the brain which may be malfunctioning.
Correlational studies, double blind trials, experiments (use of animals and humans = ethically
controversial), interviews, case studies and questionnaires.
• Correlational Studies
• Quasi-Experiments & Natural Experiments
• Twin research (a type of correlational research)
• Experimentation
• Lab research vs. naturalistic research
• Reliability and validity of research
• Ethical considerations
Applications
(Where and how is this perspective used with specific examples)
comparison with other perspectives
- application of genetic research and ethical
implications
- changes in education, work and therapy.
Ethical Issues
Evaluation of the Strengths and Weaknesses
• The approach is very scientific, and • Reductionist - Bio-psychological theories
thus is reliable. often over-simplify the huge complexity
• Practical applications have been of physical systems and their interaction
extremely effective. with the environment.
• It has not explained how mind and body
interact - consciousness and emotion are
difficult to study objectively.

11. Key Terms
action tiny electrical current that is autonomic
regulates heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, other
potential generated when positive sodium nervous
mainly involuntary movements
ions rush inside the axon system
all-or-none if an action potential starts at the central
made up of the brain and spinal cord; carries
law beginning of an axon, it will nervous
information back and forth between brain and body
continue to very end of axon system
Alzheimer's incurable, fatal disease involving cerebellum
located at back of brain; involved in coordinating (but
disease brain damage, with memory loss,
not in initiating) voluntary movements
deterioration of personality
curare a drug that enters bloodstream and cortex
a thin layer of cells covering the entire surface of the
blocks receptors on muscles,
forebrain; folds over on itself to form a large area
causing paralysis
dendrites branchlike extensions that arise endocrine
a system of glands which secrete hormones that
from cell body and receive and system
affect organs, muscles, and other glands in the body
pass signals to cell body
end bulbs miniature containers at extreme fight-flight
a state of increased physiological arousal that helps
ends of axon branches; store response
body cope with and survive threatening situations
chemicals called neurotransmitters
glial cells brain cells that provide scaffolding, forebrain
the largest part of the brain; has right and left sides
insulation, chemicals to protect and
(hemispheres) responsible for many functions
support neuron growth
ions chemical particles that have frontal lobe
electrical charges; opposite a relatively large cortical area at the front part of the
charges attract and like charges brain; involved in many functions; like an executive
repel
mescaline a drug that causes arousal, visual gene
a specific segment on the strand of DNA that contains
hallucinations; acts like
instructions for building the brain and body
neurotransmitter norepinephrine
mind-body asks how complex mental activities gonads
glands (ovaries in females, testes in males) that
question can be generated by physical
regulate sexual development and reproduction
properties of the brain
nerve impulse series of separate action potentials homeostasi
keeping the bodyUs level of arousal in balance for
that take place segment by s
optimum functioning
segment down length of axon
neuron brain cell with specialized limbic
core of the forebrain; involved in many motivational
extensions for receiving and system
behaviors and with organizing emotional behaviors
transmitting electrical signals
neurotransmit MRI scan
chemical keys with a particular
ters (magnetic passing nonharmful radio frequencies through brain
shape that only fits a similarly
resonance and measuring how signals interact with brain cells
shaped chemical lock or receptor
imaging)
Parkinson's branchlike extensions that arise occipital
core of the forebrain; involved in many motivational
disease from cell body and receive and lobe
behaviors and with organizing emotional behaviors
pass signals to cell body
phantom limb vivid experience of sensations and parietal
located directly behind the frontal lobe; its functions
feelings coming from a limb that lobe
include the sense of touch, temperature, and pain
has been amputated
reflex an unlearned, involuntary reaction peripheral all nerves that extend from the spinal cord and carry
to some stimulus; prewired by nervous messages to and from muscles, glands, sense
genetic instructions system organs
reuptake PET scan
process of removing (positron
measuring a radioactive solution absorbed by brain
neurotransmitters from synapse by emission
cells; shows the activity of various neurons
reabsorbtion into terminal buttons tomography
)
sodium pump a chemical process responsible for somatic
a network of nerves that connect either to sensory
keeping axon charged by returning nervous
receptors or to muscles you can move voluntarily
sodium ions outside axon system
stereotaxic fixing a patientUs head in a holder temporal involved in hearing, speaking coherently,
procedure and drilling a small hole through the lobe understanding verbal and written material

12. skull; syringe guided to a rain area
synapse very small space between terminal amygdala
involved in forming, recognizing, and remembering
button and adjacent dendrite,
emotional experiences and facial expressions
muscle fiber, or body organ
autonomic regulates heart rate, breathing, homeostasi
keeping the bodyUs level of arousal in balance for
nervous blood pressure, other mainly s
optimum functioning
system involuntary movements
central made up of the brain and spinal limbic
core of the forebrain; involved in many motivational
nervous cord; carries information back and system
behaviors and with organizing emotional behaviors
system forth between brain and body
cerebellum MRI scan
located at back of brain; involved in
(magnetic passing nonharmful radio frequencies through brain
coordinating (but not in initiating)
resonance and measuring how signals interact with brain cells
voluntary movements
imaging)
cortex a thin layer of cells covering the occipital
core of the forebrain; involved in many motivational
entire surface of the forebrain; folds lobe
behaviors and with organizing emotional behaviors
over on itself to form a large area
endocrine a system of glands which secrete parietal
system hormones that affect organs, lobe located directly behind the frontal lobe; its functions
muscles, and other glands in the include the sense of touch, temperature, and pain
body
fight-flight a state of increased physiological peripheral all nerves that extend from the spinal cord and carry
response arousal that helps body cope with nervous messages to and from muscles, glands, sense
and survive threatening situations system organs
forebrain PET scan
the largest part of the brain; has (positron
measuring a radioactive solution absorbed by brain
right and left sides (hemispheres) emission
cells; shows the activity of various neurons
responsible for many functions tomography
)
frontal lobe a relatively large cortical area at the somatic
a network of nerves that connect either to sensory
front part of the brain; involved in nervous
receptors or to muscles you can move voluntarily
many functions; like an executive system
gene a specific segment on the strand of temporal
involved in hearing, speaking coherently,
DNA that contains instructions for lobe
understanding verbal and written material
building the brain and body
gonads glands (ovaries in females, testes
in males) that regulate sexual
development and reproduction
1. EXAM SHORT ANSWER and ESSAY QUESTIONS
a. Describe one theoretical explanation of behavioural change in
humans based on the biological perspective. [4 marks]
b. Explain the strengths and limitations of the explanation of
behaviour described in part (a). [4 marks]
May 2003
2. Explain and evaluate claims that correlates exist between physiological
processes and psychological behaviour. [20 marks] May 2003
3. Explain why a reductioninst approach adopted by many biological
psychologists is controversial. [8 marks] Nov 2003
4. “Behavioural change can be regarded as arising from an interaction
between innate disposition and environmental factors.” Describe and
evaluate theories or studies within the biological perspective related to
this statement. [20 marks] Nov 2003
5.

13. a. Outline what is meant by the reductionist approach. [2 marks]
b. Explain how one theory or empirical study from the biological
perspective demonstrates a reductionist approach. [6 marks]
May 2004
6. Discuss how ethical and methodological considerations affect the
interpretation of behaviour from a biological perspective. [20 marks]
May 2004
7. Outline historical or cultural considerations that have given rise to the
biological perspective. [8 marks] Nov 2004
8. Discuss strengths and limitations of research methods used within the
biological perspective. [20 marks] Nov 2004
9. Explain how determinism relates to the biological perspective. [8
marks] May 2005
10.
a. Describe assumptions on which key concepts from the biological
perspective are based. [10 marks]
b. Evaluate the assumptions described in part (a). [10 marks]
May 2005
11. Identify and explain one contribution of the biological perspective to
the scientific study of behaviour. [8 marks] Nov 2005
12. Identify one key concept from the biological perspective and discuss its
contribution to the understanding of behaviour. [20 marks] Nov 2005