Psychological approaches in practice Unit 8 P2 P3 M2 D1
Biological
The biological approach uses the nervous system to explain mental processes and behaviour.
Understanding developmental norms:
Arnold Gesell (American psychologist and paediatrician) created an assessment scale to
facilitate judgement to be made regarding a child’s behaviour and understanding and
determine whether or not they match the scale of the child’s chronological age. The scale
allows the scores of the children to be compared with the results at a younger age. This will
decide whether or not the child’s progression is adequate or not. This assessment will also help
a trained assessor to identify any developmental problems that may occur during the child’s
development, allowing intervention when necessary. There are three stages over-lapping to be
recorded:
Between two and a half year to six years old.
Between four and six years old.
Between six and nine years old.
At each of these ages there are a range of different assessments for the variety of aspects of
development. For example, a test provided for children around the age of four years old
consists of comprehension questions. These questions will determine the child's capacity to use
perpetual certainty and skills included in maintaining own behaviour and emotions by asking
the child to plan solutions to hypothetical situations. This allows judgement to be made
regarding the child’s ability to cope will real life social scenarios as the child reaches the age of
around five years old. An assessment used primarily with children aged two years to six years
old is the cubes test. This test assesses the child’s ability to follow directions and execute a
structural test. Visual perception skills and fine motor co-ordination skills involved in activities
such as colouring, cutting and handwriting are tested against developmental norms. The
attention span of the child and the ability to distinguish between shapes is also measured and
provide information about reading comprehension, spelling and mathematical tasks.
Understanding genetic predisposition to certain illnesses or health-related behaviours:
There has been considerable research conducted suggesting that genes have a role in
behaviour although it is difficult to determine the extent of this. An example of this is infantile
autism which is a rare but increasing disorder in children, affecting around one in every two
thousand children. Research currently suggests that genetic influences play a significant role
with this disorder, although there are psychological explanations for the disorder that have not
been researched thoroughly enough to provide significant results. Schizophrenia shows a
similar genetic link, although not as prominently as autism. In monozygotic (identical twins),
sharing the same genetic material, half of schizophrenia cases affect both twins. This fifty
percent figure is referred to as the concordance rate. In dizygotic (non-identical twins), who
share half as much genetic material, only fifteen percent of schizophrenia cases affect both
twins. Sarafino and Goldfedder in 1995 researched concordance rates for asthma in twins. They
discovered that in monozygotic twins fifty-nine percent or twenty-three out of thirty-nine pairs
were concordant for the disease, as opposed to dizygotic twins, found to be twenty-four
percent or thirteen out of fifty-five pairs concordant for the disease. If, like cystic fibrosis,
Biological
The biological approach uses the nervous system to explain mental processes and behaviour.
Understanding developmental norms:
Arnold Gesell (American psychologist and paediatrician) created an assessment scale to
facilitate judgement to be made regarding a child’s behaviour and understanding and
determine whether or not they match the scale of the child’s chronological age. The scale
allows the scores of the children to be compared with the results at a younger age. This will
decide whether or not the child’s progression is adequate or not. This assessment will also help
a trained assessor to identify any developmental problems that may occur during the child’s
development, allowing intervention when necessary. There are three stages over-lapping to be
recorded:
Between two and a half year to six years old.
Between four and six years old.
Between six and nine years old.
At each of these ages there are a range of different assessments for the variety of aspects of
development. For example, a test provided for children around the age of four years old
consists of comprehension questions. These questions will determine the child's capacity to use
perpetual certainty and skills included in maintaining own behaviour and emotions by asking
the child to plan solutions to hypothetical situations. This allows judgement to be made
regarding the child’s ability to cope will real life social scenarios as the child reaches the age of
around five years old. An assessment used primarily with children aged two years to six years
old is the cubes test. This test assesses the child’s ability to follow directions and execute a
structural test. Visual perception skills and fine motor co-ordination skills involved in activities
such as colouring, cutting and handwriting are tested against developmental norms. The
attention span of the child and the ability to distinguish between shapes is also measured and
provide information about reading comprehension, spelling and mathematical tasks.
Understanding genetic predisposition to certain illnesses or health-related behaviours:
There has been considerable research conducted suggesting that genes have a role in
behaviour although it is difficult to determine the extent of this. An example of this is infantile
autism which is a rare but increasing disorder in children, affecting around one in every two
thousand children. Research currently suggests that genetic influences play a significant role
with this disorder, although there are psychological explanations for the disorder that have not
been researched thoroughly enough to provide significant results. Schizophrenia shows a
similar genetic link, although not as prominently as autism. In monozygotic (identical twins),
sharing the same genetic material, half of schizophrenia cases affect both twins. This fifty
percent figure is referred to as the concordance rate. In dizygotic (non-identical twins), who
share half as much genetic material, only fifteen percent of schizophrenia cases affect both
twins. Sarafino and Goldfedder in 1995 researched concordance rates for asthma in twins. They
discovered that in monozygotic twins fifty-nine percent or twenty-three out of thirty-nine pairs
were concordant for the disease, as opposed to dizygotic twins, found to be twenty-four
percent or thirteen out of fifty-five pairs concordant for the disease. If, like cystic fibrosis,
