Biological Perspective Analysis

Behaviorism is defined as,” a school of psychology that takes the objective evidence of behavior (as measured responses to stimuli) as the only concern of its research and the only basis of its theory without reference to

The biological approach which is the oldest approach, stems from the study of biology and the work of Charles Darwin (1809). It wasn’t until the 20th century that biological psychology occurred as a science, prior to this the connection between the brain, mind and body was not understood. The biological approach focuses on genetics and how they affect an individual’s behaviour and the brain and nervous system, primarily the central nervous system. The brain has three main parts the Cerebrum which is split into two halves which determines thoughts and memories, the cerebellum which is responsible for actions and movement and the brain stem which governs basic functions such as breathing. The central nervous system is a part of the nervous system which is located in the brain and spinal cord and all information sent here is acted upon.

According to the American Psychological Association, which states that about half of a person’s tendency toward drug addiction can be blamed on genetic factors. The genes might not make the person experiment with drugs, but when the person does begin to dabble, the use could quickly spin out of control due to these underlying genetic factors. The home in which a person grows up has a great deal of influence over drug use and abuse. A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry bears out this theory quite well, as researchers looked at drug and alcohol use in genetic twins who had been raised in different homes. Those who grew up in homes that were disrupted by divorce and mental illness, and those who grew up in homes where drugs and alcohol were at play, were more likely to become abusers when they grew up. It’s possible that living in homes like this causes such intense stress that using drugs seems like a reasonable solution, but it’s also possible that growing up in a home like this normalizes drug abuse. As the child grows and sees parents abusing substances, that child learns to also abuse substances. The effects of genetics and environment can often be hard to separate, and many statistics cited in the media fail to take this into account. Children of substance use parents are likely to inherit many of the genes that would make them predisposed to

The genetic markers can increase a persons addiction and make them susceptible to substance addiction, which will display through generation as an abusive behavior. Alcoholism has a dependency that effects the decision making and character of the individual, who is inflicted with the disorder. People dealing with substance abuse disorder generally have a dependency on drugs or substances and is unable to function properly without it. Since alcoholism can be hereditary, it can impact generations. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information it is proven to be hereditary, e.g., identical twins that are born to parents who are alcohol dependent are separated at birth and raise in a completely different environment will grow-up

Both Nature and Nurture have a strong influence in our behavior. Nature is something that you can’t control. I heard about a family that adopted a baby boy, they taught him how to behave in a proper way and they gave him a good education. But as he grew up he was becoming harder to control and he was a violent guy. This family started asking themselves what was happening to their son, they were sure they raised him good. So they went to ask the people that gave them the kid about his real parents, and an investigation was started. They found out that his real dad was in prison for murder, and his mom had been one of the victims. Maybe this boy acted like that because it was in his genes, his nature was stronger than his nurture. But nurture

Behaviorism is the idea that all behaviors are absorbed through some form of conditioning, and behaviorists generally believe that all behaviors can be changed, trained, or even measured. So what does this mean? It means psychologist are challenging the thoughts that people are born innately good, by exploring the ideas that a person can be persuaded to behave a certain way simply by different forms of conditioning.

The biological theory “maintains that biological characteristics such as chromosomes, hormonal activities, and brain Gender development can be broken down into four categories or approaches. The textbook identifies those following approaches as biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical.

When these issues delegitimized Cartesianism, behaviorism came about. Behaviorism is the general theory that science is only able to deal with what is overt and observable. Seeing as mental states are private and cannot be confirmed through behavioral evidence, behaviorists believe that they cannot be studied. It dictates that when studying people and animals, we should only pay attention to observable behavior, and ignore alleged events that take place in the mind.

For example, racism was one thing I was born with knowing it was wrong. Growing up my parents always taught me to never see color on the outside because we are all the same on the inside. To me that is an example of how my nature was influenced by my nurture. Although my thoughts didn’t change, my idea that racism was wrong was just reinforced and makes it even stronger. Another example is my nature told me that rap music is really bad and shouldn’t be listened to and supported. Although my parents raised me telling me the same thing about how bad it was, my own personal beliefs and observations differed. As long as I can identify when what they talk about in the songs is right or wrong and don’t start acting like the music, it is not really a big deal. I believe my parents have really influenced my morals. Not only my parents but through my own observations of how certain decisions effected people in the country or in the world is also another way that my nurture has had its part in my development. For example, even though I already know it is wrong, when someone makes the inconsiderate decision to murder someone, the way it effects the family immediately adds to how wrong that is in my eyes. This opens up your eyes and makes you realize how wrong it is to murder somebodies

Behaviorism is a school of thought in psychology based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment. Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment shapes behavior and that taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings and emotions into consideration is useless in explaining behavior.

The classic nature verse nurture debate has been rocking the boat in psychology since Socrates’ time. Skinner and behaviorists tend to lean much more towards the nurture side of this debate, believing that an individual’s behavior is a direct consequence of what that individual has experienced in the past, especially within the context of reinforcement and punishment. Because of this emphasis on nurture, genes and genetics do not play as much of a role as the experiences one receives after being born. The genes that one is born with gives the individual the genetic constitution that is capable of responding to external stimuli. If one has inherited genes that code for a more aggressive response to external stimuli, then that person may have a greater ability to be aggressive than one that lacks those

The classic nature verse nurture debate has been rocking the boat in psychology since Socrates’ time. Skinner and behaviorists tend to lean much more towards the nurture side of this debate, believing that an individual’s behavior is a direct consequence of what that individual has experienced in the past, especially within the context of reinforcement and punishment. Because of this emphasis on nurture, genes and genetics do not play as much of a role as the experiences one receives after being born. The genes that one is born with gives the individual the genetic constitution that is capable of responding to external stimuli. If one has inherited genes that code for a more aggressive response to external stimuli, then that person may have a greater ability to be aggressive

Even then the parents tend to still be an influence in their child’s life well into their adult years. Parents are especially influential around the infant and childhood stages in a person’s life. Judith Harris, the author of The Nurture Assumption, wrote, “There is no question that the adult caregivers play an important role in the baby 's life. It is from these older people that babies learn their first language, have their first experiences in forming and maintaining relationships, and get their first lessons in following rules.” As Harris is saying, parents are very influential in the development of a child because that is who the baby learns everything from. A child will pick up the habits and traits that the parents have because that is who the child is looking up to as a role model. One example of the passing along of habits is the fact that children of alcoholics are about four times more likely than the general population to develop alcohol problems. This is a parent passing along what they do onto their children. Although many factors can determine the likelihood of someone becoming an addict, inherited and environmental factors are the big two. The parents have a lot of pressure on them with the child watching their every move and learning from everything they do.

Behaviorism is a worldview, which operates under a stimulus response principle. Every behavior is caused by an operating condition (external stimuli). Moreover, behaviors can be described without necessarily considering internal states or consciousness of mind. It basically assumes that a learner is passive, reacting to stimuli from the environment. Initially, the learner is a clean slate (tabula rasa) and the shaping of behavior is through positive as well as negative reinforcement. Both the reinforcements raise the possibility that the precursor behavior will occur again.

When individuals hear the term Behaviorism today, they instantly know that it signifies some form of behavior considering that it is in the word itself. Nevertheless, what exactly is behaviorism? According to the Dictionary of Psychology, behaviorism is a theory of learning that is based upon the idea that all behaviors are obtained from outside observations and not in thoughts or feelings. In the twentieth century, three significant behaviorists John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner determined that behaviorism is the study of observable behavior, as opposed to internal events such as emotions and cogitation (Moore). Although the three behaviorists encounter their theories of behaviorism differently, their ideas are similar. Behaviorism is the study of human behavior and is principally based on the belief that all human behavior is learned through conditioning of the environment.