QR Challenge: The Biological Approach in Psychology

Created using the ClassTools QR Treasure Hunt Generator

Teacher Notes

A. Prior to the lesson:

1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.

2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to

• Download a QR reader (e.g. I-Nigma | NeoReader | Kaywa) onto their mobile devices
• Bring these devices into the lesson.

3. Print out the QR codes.

4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.

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B. The lesson:

1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.

2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.

3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!

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C. TIPS / OTHER IDEAS

4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.

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Questions / Answers (teacher reference)

Question	Answer
1. A biological area that focuses upon the role of DNA on our behaviour	Genetics
2. Contains the brain, spinal cord and neurons between our muscles and vital organs	Nervous system
3. An example of a mood disorder caused by variations in neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine	Bipolar
4. This organ is divided into 4 major lobes (frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital) which have been said to control a person’s behaviour	Brain
5. Chemicals within the body that control cells or organs and have been found to affect behaviour	Hormones
6. A psychologist who investigated the role of hormones on aggressive behaviour	Dabbs
7. A criticism of the biological approach is that it ignores these types of factors	Environmental
8. The scientist who developed the theory of evolution which psychologists have used as a counterargument to criticisms of their use of animals in studies	Darwin
9. A hormone that Dabbs found has been linked to aggression	Testosterone
10. The sample used in many biological experiments	Animals
11. A research method which is based upon one individual and enables us to investigate naturally occurring events	Case study
12. A real world application of the biological approach that links the chromosomes XY and XX to our behaviour	Gender
13. A criticism of the biological approach as it focuses purely upon genetics, brain structure and hormones	Deterministic
14. The type of variables that are controlled in an experimental method	Extraneous
15. A criticism of the experimental method is that it is low in this	Ecological validity
16. The biological approach is this in the nature-nurture debate	Nature
17. The sample used in Dabbs’ study	Prisoners
18. The use of animals in studies helps us to overcome these types of issues	Ethical
19. A real world application of the biological approach as used in treatments for phobias, OCD, schizophrenia and depression	Drug therapy
20. A strength of the experimental method meaning that it is a scientific, carefully controlled method	Objective
21. A type of research method used by the biological approach for investigating the role of genetics on behaviour	Twin studies
22. An advantage of the experimental method as it finds a clear link between the independent variable and the dependent variable	Cause and effect
23. A psychological term meaning that factors such as behaviour are broken down into their smallest components, in the biological case, to the cell level	Reductionist
24. The results of a case study cannot be said to do this due to their very small sample sizes	Generalise
25. The results of Dabbs’ study have been criticised as it is unknown whether high testosterone causes aggression or being aggressive causes testosterone levels to increase. The results are therefore said to be this	Correlational

 

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