Schizophrenia Biological Perspective

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Throughout the article, Schizophrenia, Genes and Environment (2010), the author discuses and critics a research study about schizophrenia published in the American Journal of psychiatry (2010). The article touches on the main points of this research and summarizes to the reader what the data means as far as new concepts in psychology. The author implements two different forms of psychological perspectives to explain the formation of Schizophrenia in a person, the biological perspective and the behavioral perspective.
To begin, the article explains to the reader the study conducted. In their explanation, the author mentions the hypothesis, that schizophrenia is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. In order to distinguish between
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The textbook, What is Psychology? Foundations, Applications & Integration (Pastorino, E. E., & Doyle-Portillo, S. M., 2016), defines behavioral perspective as “it looks at how stimuli in our environment and/or the rewards and punishments we receive influence our behavior and mental processes.” The behavioral perspective effectively states that behavior is caused by environmental stimuli and events. On the other hand, the book states that the biological perspective is used to “examine genetic, biochemical, and nervous system (brain functioning) relationships to behavior and mental processes.” This perspective is one that attributes behavior to physical components such as genetics and brain structures. For example, say there is a person who walked into a restaurant and noticed a waiting line; The person then walks to the back of the line to wait for their turn. Through the behavioral perspective, this behavior would be a result of environmental stimuli, such as a previous experience in line at the restaurant. However, through the biological perspective, this behavior would be attributed to possibly the occipital lobe processing the visual of a waiting line, and then the frontal lobe deciding to conform to the rules and wait in said …show more content…
One clear application of both biological and behavioral perspectives is shown within the usage of a graph. The graph displays two sets of populations, people who are at genetic risk of schizophrenia and people who are not; Therefor applying the biological perspective by attributing psychosis to genes. The graph also shows these groups in different environmental situations such as unemployed parents, single parents, and apartment homes. By doing so, they also demonstrate the behavioral perspective in that the environment affects the person’s behavior. Another example of the article using the behavioral perspective occurs when the author states “For environment, the ratio was 1.5 for unemployment, and slightly lower for the other two. This is a bit less than in the adoption study (2.0 for unemployment). And the two risks interacted, but much less than they did in the adoption sample. (2010)” The author finds the correlation between environment and psychosis and states that even though the correlation is minimal, there is a relationship between them. The author uses both perspectives to explain how behavior

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