AB PSYCH LAB
- within a small, isolated population a
BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Biological Psychology:
- study of the physiological, evolutionary, and
developmental mechanisms of behavior and
experience; it is also a perspective;
- synonymous with the terms biopsychology,
psychobiology, physiological psychology, and
behavioral neuroscience (which includes much
about anatomy and chemistry).
Physiological Psychology:
-main interest; branch of Biological Psychology;
it is concerned with relationship between brain
functioning and behavior
-basic approach:
COGNITIVE – deals with brain or mental process
REDUCTIONIST- attempts to reduce human
behavior to its possible basic biological
explanations
Four biological explanations of behavior
1. Physiological- relates a behavior to
the activity of the brain and other
organs; it deals with the machinery
of the body
Ex: the chemical reactions that enable
hormones to influence brain activity and the
pathways by which brain activity controls
muscle contraction
2. Ontogenetic explanation- Describes
how a structure or behavior develops
including the influences of genes,
nutrition, experiences, and their
interactions
Ex: the ability to inhibit impulses develops
gradually from infancy through teenage
years, reflecting gradual maturation of the
frontal parts of the brain
3. Evolutionary explanation- Reconstructs
the evolutionary history of a structure
of behavior
Ex: Frightened people get goose bumps
(erection of the hairs especially on their arms
and shoulders) Goose bumps are useless to
humans because we normally do not have hairs
on arms and shoulders or they are short; but in
most other mammals, hair erection makes a
frightened animal look larger and intimidating
4. Functional explanation- Describes why
a structure of behavior evolved as it did
gene can spread by accident through a
process called “genetic drift;”
Ex: a dominant male with many offspring
spreads all his genes, including neutral and
harmful ones. However, a gene that is prevalent
in a large population presumably has advantage.
A functional explanation identified that
advantage. Example: many species have an
appearance that matches their background. A
functional explanation is that camouflaged
appearance makes the animal inconspicuous to
predators
Contrasting the four explanations: Example
from Birdsong
 Physiological:
-a particular area of a songbird brain grows
under the influence of testosterone; hence, it is
larger in breeding males than in females or
immature birds. That brain area enables a
mature male to sing.
 Ontogenetic:
-In many species, a young male bird learns its
song by listening to adult males. Development
of the song requires a certain set of genes and
the opportunity to hear the appropriate song
during a sensitive period early in life.
 Evolutionary:
-Certain pairs of species have similar songs, e.g.,
dunlins and Baird’s sandpipers, two shorebirds
species, give their calls in distinct pulses, unlike
other shorebirds—suggesting that the two
evolved from a single ancestor
 Functional:
-In most bird species, only the male bird sings.
He sings only during the reproductive season
and only in his territory. The functions of the
song are to attract females and warn away other
males. As a rule, a bird sings loudly enough to
be heard only in the territory he defends. In
short, birds have evolved tendencies to sing in
ways that improve their chances of mating.
The biological tradition
 Hippocrates(460-377 B.C.)
-Father of western medicine
-Suggested that psychological disorders could
be treated like any other disease.
- Believed that psychological disorders might
also be caused by brain pathology or head
trauma and could be influenced by heredity
- Considered the brain to be the seat of
wisdom, consciousness, intelligence and
emotion, thus, disorders involving these
functions would logically b located in the brain
-Also recognized the importance of
psychological and interpersonal contributions
to psychopathology
 Galen (129-198 AD)—
-adopted Hippocrates’s ideas and developed
them further
- Humoral theory: Hippocratic-Galenic
approach
 blood(fire;heart)
 black bile(earth;spleen)
 yellow bile(water;liver)
 phlegm(air;brain)
-this theory was,perhaps the first example of
associating psychological disorders with a
“chemical imbalance”
- excess humors were treated by regulating the
environment to increase or decrease heat
 The 19th century
a) The discovery of the nature and cause
of syphilis
b) John P Grey
- champion of biological tradition in the
US
- causes of insanity were physical;
therefore, mental patients should be
treated as if they were physically ill,
with treatment including rest, died,
proper room temperature and
ventilation.
- invented the rotary fan to ventilate his
large hospital
c) Development in the 1930s and
onwards
- development of new treatments: electric
shock and brain surgery, the discoveries of
which were merely by accident
--insulin shock therapy by Manfred Sakel
(originated with giving insulin to facilitate
appetite which also appeared to have a calming
effect; later abandoned due to possible effects
like coma or death.
--1920s: psyachiatrist Josepy Von Meduna
observed that schizophrenia was rarely seen in
those with epilepsy, concluding that induced
brain seizures might cure schizophrenia
--first effective drugs for psychotic disorders
were discovered (rawolfia serpentine or
reserpine); later, neuroletptic (major
tranquilizers) was discovered which helped in
diminishing hallucinatory and delusional
thought processes; benzodiazepines(minor
tranquilizers) was developed to reduce anxiety
--Emil Kraeplin—was dominant figure even
before 1930s and was influential in advocating
the major ideas of the biological tradition
Brain and conscious experience
Mind-brain or mind-body problem
a) Dualism: mind and body are different
kinds of substances that exist
independently
 Rene Descartes- mind and brain
interact at a single point in space,
most likely the pineal gland, the
smallest unpaired structure in the
brain
 rejected by most philosophers due
to their belief in the basic laws in
Physics, the law of the
conservation of matter and energy:
the total amount of energy and
matter in the world has been fixed;
matter can transform into energy or
energy into matter, but neither one
appears out of nothing, or
disappears into nothing;
b) Monism: the belief that the universe
consists of only one kind of substance.
—a belief that has many variations:
*Materialism: everything that exist s is
material or physical; as such, mental events
don’t exist at all; but it is hard to believe that
our minds are figment of our imagination.
*Mentalism: the view that only the mind really
exists and that the physical world could not
exist unless some mind were aware of it
*identity position: believes that mental
processes and certain kinds of brain processes
are the same thing.; In other words, the
universe has only one kind of substance which
includes both material and mental aspects—
every mental experience is a brain activity
though descriptions of thoughts sound so
different from descriptions of brain activities;
(mind is not the brain, mind is the brain
activity)
Genetics and Psychopathology
 Genes: units of heredity that
maintain their structural identity
from one generation to another; a
portion of a chromosome, which is
composed of the double stranded
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
  strand of DNA serves as a template
for the synthesis of the single-
stranded chemical ribonucleic acid
(RNA), which, in turn, serves as a
template for the synthesis of protein
molecules.
 The first 22 pairs of chromosomes
provide programs or directions for
the development of the body and
the brain, the 23rd pair, is called the
sex chromosomes
 influences our bodies and behavior
through a series of steps that
produce proteins.
 Dominant gene: one pair of genes
that strongly influences a particular
trait.
 Recessive gene: must be paired with
another (recessive gene) gene to
determine a trait.
 Evidence indicates that genetic
factors contribute to all disorders
but account for less than half of the
explanations and they come from
many genes, each having a relatively
small effect.
THE INTERACTION OF GENES AND THE
ENVIRONMENT
1983-Eric Kandel speculated that the process of
learning affects more than behavior, but also,
that the genetic structures of cells may change
as a result of learnings if genes that were
inactive interact with environment such that
they become active (i.e., the environment may
occasionally turns on certain genes.
Such type of mechanism may lead to changes in
the number of receptors at the end of a neuron,
which in turn, would affect biochemical
functioning in the brain
It is assumed that the brain may be influenced
by environmental changes during development
but once maturity is reached, the structure and
function of our physiology are set, or in the case
of the brain, hardwired.
An alternative view holds that the brain and its
functions are subject to continual change in
response to the environment, even at the
genetic level.
The Diathesis-Stress Model
 States that individuals inherit
tendencies to express certain traits or
behaviors, which may be activated
under conditions of stress
 Each inherited tendency is a diathesis
(or a vulnerability) , a condition which
makes someone susceptible to develop
a certain disorder. When the right kind
of event (stressor) comes along, the
disorder develops
The Reciprocal Gene-Environment Model
 This gene-environment correlation
model indicates that genetic
endowment may increase the
probability that an individual will
experience stressful events.
 In other words, people with a genetic
predisposition for a disorder may also
have a genetic tendency to create
environment risk factors that promote
the disorder.
EPIGENETICS & THE NON-GENOMIC
‘inheritance” of BEHAVIOR
 Epigenetics: the study of factors other
than DNA sequence, such as new
learning or stress, that alter the
phenotypic expression of genes
 Accordingly, genes are turned on or off
by cellular material that is located just
outside the genome (“epi” , as in the
word epigenetics means on or around)
and that stress, nutrition or other
factors can affect this epigenome,
which is passed down to the next
generation, and maybe for several
generations.
 The genome itself is not changed, so if
the stressful environment disappears,
eventually the epigenome will fade,
suggesting that environmental
manipulations, particularly early
parenting influences, may override the
genetically influenced tendency to
develop undesirable behavioral and
emotional reactions.
Neuroscience and Psychopathology
Neurosciene: study of the nervous system and
its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions
The brain circuits involved in psychological
disorders are complex systems identified by
pathways of neurotransmitters traversing the
brain. The existence of these circuits suggests
that the structure and function of the nervous
system play major roles in psychopathology.
Though it is also believed that the circuits are
also influenced, perhaps, by psychological and
social factors.