Behaviourist and Biologist Theories

Psychology is inclusive of many different beliefs and perspectives. Within these perspectives includes the biologist and behaviourist approaches. Biological approach believes us to be consequence of our genetics. Behaviourism is primarily concerned with observable behaviour, as opposed to internal events like thinking. However both theories include strengths and weaknesses to their ideology.

The biological perspective includes studying the physical basis of animal and human. this is a way of looking at psychological topics by studying the physical basis for animal and human behaviour. It is one of the major perspective in psychology and involves such things as studying the brain, immune system, nervous system, and genetics. Biological psychologists take a physical viewpoint. They also think that behaviour changes occur at a genetic level and is a direct result of evolutionary change.

One strength of the approach is that it has made a positive contribution to the understanding of human behaviours and disorders. This is a strength because it means society has benefited in that those with psychological disorders can be diagnosed more easily and treated more effectively. This means a higher quality of life can be given to those with psychological disorders. Therefore it helps the sufferers of depression alleviate their symptoms and lead a happier life. Another strength is that it is based on objective data. Data is gathered from specialised equipment e.g. MRI scans, to measure the activity of the brain. This is a strength because quantitative data can be obtained to generate statistics which can be used to make conclusions by enabling the use of cause and effect. Another strength is that this approach is supported by recent accurate research. Our understanding of genetics and mapping human genes may be used as support together with all the medical techniques, such as MRI, to show exactly how the brain and its chemicals affect our behaviour. For example, scans can show which part of the brain are active during a particular behaviour, which would help us to develop therapy.

A weakness is that it is reductionist, therefore taking complex disorders and reducing them down to overly simplistic explanations. They argue that depression is caused by a biochemical imbalance. It ignores other explanations which is a weakness because it does not increase understanding of psychological disorders or lead to the development of more successful treatments. Another weakness is that it has contributed dangerous therapies (psychosurgery) to society. Psychosurgery is based on the assumption that physical causes call for physical treatments. It aimed to damage brain tissue to treat abnormal behaviour. This is a weakness because it caused traumatic experiences for those who were lobotomised. Therefore, a therapy produced by this approach is a weakness because it harmed people. Yet another weakness is that the idea takes nature over nurture. It therefore ignores life experiences and psychological factors such as thoughts and feelings, depression is likely to have environmental and physical causes such as difficult family relationships.