Cognitive Approach Vs Biological Approach

There is only one approach in psychology that studies thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The biological approach believes that the way we are is due to our genetics and physiology. They believe that the activity going on our nervous system’s is what affects the way we think, feel and behave (Sammons, 2009). The physiology in the biological approach looks into how the brain functions. The brain is a very complicated machine as such, the brain is what controls our every move, every feeling and every action. There are 3 different methods used to study the brain; neuro surgery, electroencephalograms and brains scans. Neuro surgery is used as a last resort as brain surgery is so dangerous, the nervous system can also be studied by surgery on the brain. Electroencephalograms is where electrodes are attached to the scalp and the brain waves are monitored. Brain scans can involve the CAT scan, PET scan. Both scans enable constant pictures to be provided during mental activity (McLeod,

Both approaches experimentations generally tend to be conducted in the laboratory, for example the cognitive approach conducts memory experiments under strictly controlled conditions and the biological approach removes part of the brain to see the effect it has on a person’s behaviour. They also share certain contributions to society such as the therapy application. The biological approach would use drug treatments or electroconvulsive therapy for various mental disorders e.g. depression or schizophrenia while the cognitive approach would use Ellis’s rational emotive therapy which would change the way someone thinks and how they perceive depression. A further contribution they share is in education. The cognitive approach uses the application to improve educational techniques whilst the biological approach uses it for the genetic basis of