Biological Approach

Introduction
 Main assumptions of the biological approach:
o Behaviour, cognition and emotions can be explained in terms of the
working of the brain and the effect of hormones, genetics and
evolution.
o Similarities and differences between people can be understood
regarding biological factors and their interaction with other factors.
Dement and Kleitman (Sleep and Dreams)
 Title: The Relation of Eye Movements During Sleep to Dream Activity: An
Objective Method for the Study of Dreaming
 Year: 1957
 Psychology being investigated:
o Our body follows two types of sleep: REM (rapid eye movement) sleep
and nREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep.
o nREM can be divided into 4 sleep stages.
o In REM sleep, our eyes move rapidly under the lids.
o REM sleep is known as paradoxical sleep. It resembles wakefulness as
our eyes move; we often experience vivid (bizarre) thoughts in dreams,
and our brains are active. However, it is different from wakefulness as it
is difficult to wake up; we are relatively insensitive to stimuli and
paralyzed.
o Ultradian rhythms- Basic Rest-Activity cycles that occur almost every
90 minutes and are responsible for the different stages of sleep we
experience.
o Dreams- Vivid and generally visual sequences of imagery that occur
during sleep in the REM stage.
 Background
o Aserinsky and Kleitman’s (1955) study observed periods of rapid,
conjugate eye movements during sleep and found a high incidence of
dream recall in awakening participants and a low incidence when
awakened at other times.
o Sleep and dreaming are hard to investigate because the participant is
necessarily asleep, and so cannot communicate with the researcher.
Even when awake, only self-report data can be obtained about dream
content, which alone may be invalid as it is subjective.
 o The electroencephalograph (EEG) monitors the electrical activity of the
brain.
o The electrooculogram (EOG) allowed the electrical recording of eye
movement patterns, their presence or absence, and their size and
direction (vertical or horizontal).
o The EEG detects and records tiny electrical charges associated with
nerve and muscle activity.
o In REM sleep, EEG is relatively low voltage/amplitude and high
frequency.
o In nREM sleep, EEG has either high voltage/amplitude and slow (low
frequency) waves or frequent ‘sleep spindles’, short-lived high voltage,
high-frequency waves.
 Aims
o Overall aim: To investigate dreaming objectively by looking for the
relationship between eye movements in sleep and the dreamer’s recall.
o Specific aims:
 To test whether dream recall differs between REM and nREM
sleep.
 To investigate whether there is a positive correlation between
subjective estimates of dream duration and the length of REM
period.
 To test whether eye movement patterns are related to dream
content. (Whether these patterns represent the visual
experience of dream content or whether they are simply random
movements arising from the activation of the CNS)
 Procedure
o Research Method: Laboratory Experiment, Observations, Self-reports
and correlation
o Experimental design: Repeated Measures Design
o Three approaches were used to test the three specific aims. (scroll
above to find the three aims)
o Sample: seven adult males and two adult females. Five of them were
studied intensively, while the data gathered from the other four were
minimal to confirm the results.
o Sampling technique: Opportunity sampling
 o Participants studied in detail spent between 6-17 nights with 50-77
awakenings. The four others spent only one or two nights with 4-10
awakenings.
o Participants were identified by their initials to maintain confidentiality.
o Participants reported to the lab a little before their usual bedtime.
o They were instructed to eat normally but to abstain from alcoholic or
caffeine-containing beverages on the day of the experiment.
o Participants were fitted with electrodes on their scalps and around their
eyes.
o Once they were in bed in a quiet, dark room, the wires were gathered
into a “ponytail” to allow freedom of movement.
o The EEG ran continuously to monitor the participant's sleep stages and
to inform the researchers when they should be woken up.
o Participants were woken by a doorbell that was loud enough to rouse
them from any sleep stage.
o The doorbell rang at various times during the night, and the participants
indicated whether they had been dreaming and described their dreams
in a voice recorder.
o Analysis of dream narrative: This was only considered a dream if a
coherent, fairly detailed description of the content existed. Vague,
fragmentary impressions were not scored as dreams.

o METHOD DESIGN

Participants were woken either

from REM or nREM sleep, but Natural experiment in a laboratory
were not told which stage they setting
were in.

Aim They confirmed whether they

1 had a dream and if so,
IV: REM or nREM sleep stage
reported the content into a
recorder.

DV: whether the participants reported

a dream, and if so, the details
 o METHOD DESIGN

Participants were woken The data was used in both

following 5 or 15 minutes of experimental and correlational
REM sleep. designs.

They were asked if they Experimental analysis: IV - waking

Aim thought they had been after 5 or 15 minutes of REM sleep.
2 dreaming for 5 or 15 minutes. DV - participant’s choice

Correlational analysis: two variables

Their dream narrative was
were the participant’s time estimate
recorded, and the number of
and number of words in the dream
words was counted.
narrative

Participants were woken after

exhibiting a single eye- Natural experiment in a laboratory
movement pattern for longer setting.
than a minute.

Aim IV: eye-movement pattern type

3 This was measured using (mainly horizontal, mainly vertical,
electrodes and an EOG. vertical & horizontal, little or none)
This could not be manipulated.

The dream content was

DV: report of dream content
recorded.

General Results
 Uninterrupted dream stages lasted for a range of 3 to 50 minutes with an
estimate average of 20 minutes.
 Dream Stages are usually longer later in the night.
 Dream stages had irregular bursts of 2-100 rapid eye movements.
Results for Question 1: Does dream recall differ in REM and nREM stages of sleep?
 Yes, dream recall significantly differs. In 79.6% of the REM awakenings
(152/191) participants could recall a dream, whereas in only 6.9% of nREM
awakenings (11/160), participants could recall their dreams.
 Therefore, participants are likelier to describe dreams when woken from REM
than nREM frequently.
Results for Question 2: Is there a positive correlation between subjective dream
duration estimate and the length of the REM period before waking?
 Participants had 88% accuracy in estimating they were woken up after 5
minutes of dreaming.
 Participants had 78% accuracy in estimating they were woken up after 15
minutes of dreaming.
 The correlation between the two variables was positive, within the range of
0.4 to 0.71, as the r-values showed a significant correlation.
Results for Question 3: Are eye movement patterns related to dream content?
 Eye movements, as recorded on EEG, were related to dreams' visual content.
 With only vertical (climbing up a ladder and looking down) or only horizontal
(watching two people throwing tomatoes at each other) eye movements were
rare, with only 3 dreams and 1 dream, respectively.
 10 dreams were reported to have little to no eye movement (watching
something in the distance)
 21 dreams had mixed movements (talking to a group of people)
Conclusions
 Dreams are experienced in REM but not NREM sleep.
 Dreaming is more likely at night's end, as the REM stages are longer.
Strengths
 High internal validity - definition of dream clearly operationalized, demand
characteristics minimized by not telling participants about their EEG patterns,
laboratory experiment with limited effect of uncontrolled variables.
 High reliability - EEG shows quantitative data and is not affected by the
experimenter’s subjective view; quantitative and qualitative data are collected.
Weakness’s
 Low generalisability: only 9 participants may not represent the dream
frequency of the general population.
 Low ecological validity: People used to caffeinated drinks could experience
changes in sleep and dream patterns due to lack of those drinks; sleeping in a
laboratory connected to electrodes could be uncomfortable.
Ethics
 Deception: Participant WD was misled about whether he was woken in the
NREM or REM stage.
Issues and Debates
  Application: EEG, which is used to detect dreaming, has useful applications
for assessing people with sleep and dream issues (for example- insomnia and
nightmares)
The EEG can be used to monitor the different stages of sleep individuals with
insomnia (trouble falling asleep or not sleeping enough) face and see patterns in
their dream stages (example- shorted REM sleep stages)- this helps get a better
understanding of the problem they are facing and according come up with a solution.
Parasomnias is a sleeping disorder involving unusual behavior and dreams. EEG
monitoring can be used to observe REM sleep stages for this disorder as well to
understand how the unusaul dreams are related to sleep stages and dream sleep.
 Nature versus Nurture: Mainly focuses on nature, making obtaining evidence
through EEG possible.

Hassett et al. (Monkey Toy Preferences)

 Title: Sex differences in rhesus monkey toy preferences parallel those of
children
 Year: 2008
 Psychology being investigated:
o There is a difference in male and female brain structure and
hormones,, resulting in sex differences.
o Socialization is the method of learning behaviours that are socially
accepted. These behaviours differ for the two genders.
o It has been difficult to determine if differences in behaviour between
females and males are more due to biological factors or social
differences due to socialization.
o Gender stereotype- bias of assigning particular traits to a particular
gender, for example- assigning aggression as a male-typed trait.
o Play- Childhood behaviours are usually done for fun, which may or may
not involve social interaction and objects called ‘toys’.
Background
 Infants are exposed to hormones during the prenatal stages of gestation,
which impacts top preferences in children.
 A few females have experienced a genetic condition which increases male
hormones during foetal development- these girls are seen to prefer more
‘male’ '-type toys in comparison to other girls.
  Primates are similar to humans genetically and, therefore, can be used as a
model to show if gender differences in behaviour are due to biological or
social factors.
 Female and male primates have differences in hormones, just like humans.
Aims
 To investigate whether toy preference in monkeys is similar to those in
children to test for a biological explanation for sex differences in toy choice.
 Procedure
o Research method: A field experiment
o Experimental design: Independent Measures Design
o Independent Variable (IV): Gender, Monkey’s rank on social hierarchy
o Dependent Variable (DV): Frequency and duration of play with each toy
type
o Sample: 21 males and 61 female rhesus monkeys living in natal
groups at the Yerkes primate research station in the USA.
o Sampling technique: Opportunity sampling
o The natal group was housed in a 25*25-meter outdoor area with
admission into a temperature-controlled indoor area.
Procedure
 toys were divided into two categories based on their properties: 'wheeled
toys', which matched with toys typically for boys, and 'plush toys' to match girl
toys.
 Six-wheeled toys- wagon, truck, car, shopping cart
 Seven Plush toys- teddy bear, Koala hand puppet
 For every group formed from the natal group, 7 trials occurred, all lasting for
25 minutes.
 The rhesus monkeys were observed using two video cameras.
 For each of the 7 trials, all monkeys were initially indoors while one plush toy
and one wheeled toy were placed 10 metres apart in the outdoor area.
 Each video camera was focused on one of the toys, with the positions of
wheeled and plush toys being counterbalanced between right and left
locations.
 After the 25-minute trial, the toys were removed, and two observers analyzed
the videotape to achieve a consensus that resulted in high inter-observer
reliability.
  Specific behavioural categories were formed after watching the animal
interact with toys.
 The exact time of each activity was also recorded, along with the frequency of
each behaviour.
 A few behavioural categories include extended touch, sitting on the toy,
dragging, carrying in hand, turning the entire toy, and sniffing.
 For data analysis, each monkey's behaviour was converted into an average
frequency and duration.
Results
 Females did not have a preference for plush toys over wheeled toys.
 Females interacted with plush toys more than males did.
 Male monkeys prefer 'masculine' wheeled toys for 'feminine' plush toys.
 Rank on social hierarchy was positively correlated to the total frequency of
interactions.
 When compared to data from Berenbaum and Hines (1992), it was seen that
rhesus monkeys and children both showed higher preference marks in males
than females.
 Strengths
o High internal validity: use of animals to eliminate the effect of
socialization and another confounding variable, behavioural categories
were accurately defined, counterbalancing of wheeled toy and plush
toy position.
o High standardisation: The observation process was the same for all
monkeys, with a standard length of 25-minute sessions.
 Weaknesses
o Methodological differences: Differences in the children and rhesus
monkeys were compared; the toys offered were chosen for object
properties rather than female or male-typed toys, and children were
assessed using different toys and only measuring the duration of play,
not frequency.
 Issues and Debates
o Application: Help cause awareness regarding gender-neutral
socialization. This would minimize the divide between males and
females early in childhood.
o Individual versus Situational: illustrates a role of biology that
supports the individual side of the debate; however, exposure to
gender stereotyping in society counts for a situational explanation.
 o Nature versus Nurture: sex differences due to biological aspects of
brain structure and hormones count for nature, but socialization in
society is mainly due to nurture.

Hölzel et al. (Mindfulness and Brain Scans)

 Title: Mindfulness practice to increase regional brain grey matter density
 Year: 2011
 Psychology being investigated:
Mindfulness- State achieved through meditation that aims to increase awareness of
the present-moment experience.
Localization of function- Particular brain areas are responsible for different activities.
 Background:
o Mindfulness involves cognitive processes and sensory experiences
that impact brain function.
o Early studies used EEG, but now MRI provides more detailed
information by measuring brain structures and changes in grey and
white matter.
o Comparative studies suggest differences in brain grey matter between
individuals practising mindfulness meditation and those who don’t.
However, caution is needed due to potential pre-existing individual
differences that could affect results.
 Aims:
o Use the MBSR course to compare grey matter concentration in specific
brain areas and the whole brain before and after the course (pre and
post-stages)
*MBSR- Meditation-Based Stress Reduction
 Procedure:
o Research Method: Laboratory Experient with longitudinal design
o Experimental Design: Independent Measures Design
o Independent Variable: Exposure to an eight-week mindfulness-based
intervention, the MBSR course
o Dependent Variable: Change in the grey matter assessed using MRI
scans and Response on questionnaires to measure five mindfulness
scales (before and after intervention)
o Sample:
o Experimental Group
16 participants- 6 Males and 10 Females
Mean age- 38 years
There were 18 participants in the experimental group, but 2 males withdrew due to
discomfort.
o Control Group
17 participants- 7 Males and 10 Females
Mean age- 39 years
The control group participants had the same eligibility criteria as the experimental
group for admission into the mindfulness course.
 Common points for both groups:
o Participants for this study were recruited from individuals already
enrolled in 4 MBSR courses at the University of Massachusetts
o Overall Age Range- 25 to 55 years
o All participants were physically and psychologically healthy
o All participants were not on any medication
o All participants had limited experience with meditation classes
o They all had the same educational level
o Incentive of discounted MBRS course fee was given to all
 Sampling technique: Opportunity Sampling
o Both groups completed the FFMQ (Five Facet Mindfulness
Questionnaire) with 39 questions and five subscales.
o The 5 subscales had statements that measured observing, describing,
acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience, and non-
reactivity to inner experience.
o Each statement had to be answered on a five-point Likert-type scale,
and the scores were added.
o Some questions were reverse scored, and from each group, 14
participants gave usable data at both time points.
o MRI brain scans of both group participants were taken at two-time
points.
 For the experimental group: two weeks before MBSR and two weeks after
MBRS course (average gap of 56 days)
 For the control group: The two scans were taken with an average gap of 66
days between them.
  The data from MRI scans was utilized in two ways:
1. To analyze the regions of interest- Hippocampus and Bilateral insulae
2. To analyze the whole brain to explore other areas affected by the
mindfulness course.
 Lastly, participants reported the time they spent over 8 weeks’ time on formal
homework and the three assigned exercises (Body scans, yoga and sitting
meditation)
 Results
o No significant correlation between time spent on body scans, yoga and
sitting meditation
o Participants in the MBSR group significantly increased mindfulness
scores on the 3 subscales (acting with awareness, observing and non-
judging) between pre and post-testing
Specific areas of interest:
o In the specific area of interest- Left Hippocampus there were positive
changes in grey area concentration for the MBSR group between the
pre and post-stages
o In the specific area of interest- the Left Hippocampus, there were no
changes in a grey area concentration for the control group between pre
and post-stages.
o No correlation between grey matter in specific areas and the amount of
homework or changes in FFMQ scores
Whole-brain analysis:
o Four clusters of the brain showed a significant increase in grey matter
concentration for the MBSR group between the pre and post-stages
o These four clusters showed a significant increase in grey matter
concentration for the control group relative to other brain area
(The four clusters were Posterior cingulate cortex, left temporoparietal junction and
two parts of the cerebellum)
o No correlation between other parts of the brain and the amount of
homework or changes in FFMQ scores
 Conclusions:
o The concentration of grey matter increases in regions in the
hippocampus, posterior cingulate cortex (PPC), left temporoparietal
junction (TJP) and cerebellum in those who practice an 8-week
mindfulness-based stress reduction course (MBSR)
  Ethical Issues:
Risk of not protecting participants from harm by not assisting control group
participants until at least eight weeks
 Strengths:
o The increased external validity of findings derived from longitudinal
studies stems from the extended duration, which helps stabilize
fluctuating participant variables such as mood, attentiveness, and
health, among others, that could influence mindfulness.
o High amounts of standardisation: for instance, a fixed number of
exercises to be performed and fixed total duration- make the study
highly replicable, raising reliability.
 Weaknesses:
o Lack of generalisability of the sample as they were all similar due to
already being enrolled in MBSR courses and having the same level of
education.
o The unknowns regazcrding the accuracy of the MRI and the lack of
objectivity in the interpretations of the data produced decrease the
internal validity.
o The lack of correlation between grey matter and time spent on
mindfulness exercise homework shows that the exercises did not
directly cause brain changes, which also decreases internal validity.
 Issues and Debates:
o Application to everyday life: Provides a method to help people with
temporoparietal junction (TPJ) impairment, and the two areas of the
cerebellum where grey matter changes were observed can be used for
emotion regulation and healthy psychological functioning.
o Nature versus Nurture: The biological aspects are highly determined
by the processes of nature. However, the study showed that nurture
through MBRS can affect those structures and processes.