WJEC A Level Psychology Biological Approach Exam Questions

About WJEC A Level Psychology Biological Approach

WJEC Unit 1 starts its tour of the five approaches with the biological view: behaviour has a physical basis in the brain, its chemistry and our evolutionary past. As well as describing the three assumptions, you must use one to explain how a relationship forms, which is a WJEC requirement that turns up in the compulsory questions. You also evaluate drug therapy or psychosurgery and make judgements on Raine, Buchsbaum and LaCasse (1997), 'Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography'. Expect to compare the approach with the other four and to discuss the methodology, ethics and social implications of the PET study.

What you need to know

• Neurotransmitters Behaviour and mood depend on chemicals released into the synaptic gap, where they bind to receptors on the next neuron. Dopamine is tied to reward and motivation, serotonin to mood and impulse control, and an imbalance in either is thought to change how we think and act.
• Neurotransmitters and attraction Aron et al. (2005) scanned people who had recently fallen in love and found that looking at a photo of the partner activated dopamine-rich reward areas such as the ventral tegmental area and caudate nucleus. Being with that person is therefore chemically rewarding, which encourages the couple to keep seeking each other out, and oxytocin released through touch and intimacy is linked to deepening the bond.
• Evolutionary influences Natural selection favours traits that help genes pass to the next generation. Applied to partner choice, Buss (1989) surveyed over 10,000 people in 37 cultures and found men tended to value youth and looks (cues to fertility) while women tended to value ambition and earning power (cues to resources for offspring).
• Localisation of function Particular regions handle particular jobs: the prefrontal cortex for planning and self-control, the amygdala for fear and emotion, Broca's area for producing speech. This assumption underpins Raine's prediction that murderers would show different activity in specific regions.
• Raine et al. (1997): method A natural experiment with matched pairs. The 41 participants (39 men, 2 women) charged with murder or manslaughter and pleading not guilty by reason of insanity were each matched by age and sex with a control, and the six with schizophrenia were matched with six controls with schizophrenia. All were injected with a glucose tracer, did a continuous performance task for 32 minutes, then had a PET scan.
• Raine et al. (1997): results The murderer group had reduced glucose metabolism in the prefrontal cortex, superior parietal gyrus, left angular gyrus and corpus callosum. In the amygdala, thalamus and medial temporal lobe they showed lower activity on the left and higher activity on the right than controls. Raine concluded these differences may predispose a person to violence within a wider set of social and psychological factors.
• Drug therapy Medication changes transmission at the synapse: SSRIs such as fluoxetine stop serotonin being reabsorbed so more stays available, and antipsychotics block dopamine D2 receptors. It is quick and cheap to deliver but treats symptoms, can cause side effects, and relapse is common when tablets are stopped.
• Psychosurgery Brain tissue is cut or destroyed to change behaviour. Moniz's leucotomy and Freeman's transorbital lobotomy were crude and widely misused; modern stereotactic operations such as anterior cingulotomy are tiny, targeted lesions used only as a last resort for severe, treatment-resistant OCD or depression.

Common mistakes in Biological Approach

• Treating PET as a picture of brain structure. PET measures function (how much glucose each region uses), so Raine's data show differences in activity, not physical damage.
• Assuming Raine's murderers were a single diagnostic group. The sample included people with head injuries, schizophrenia, substance abuse and other conditions, which is why matching mattered and why the results are hard to generalise.
• Explaining evolutionary partner choice as a conscious plan to have children. The claim is that preferences were shaped by selection over generations, not that people knowingly choose partners for reproductive success.
• Saying SSRIs make the brain produce more serotonin. They block reuptake, so the serotonin already released stays in the synapse for longer.
• Calling every form of psychosurgery a lobotomy. Modern procedures are small, precise lesions done with consent and ethical review, which is very different from mid-twentieth-century practice.

Try three Biological Approach exam-style questions