THE BIOLOGICAL SCHOOL IN PSYCHOLOGY AS AN ASSISTANT IN THE WORK OF THE SOCIAL WORKER

Abstract

Training in social work has undergone significant changes over the years, much like society itself. This places an important emphasis on improving the quality of professional education for social workers to meet the needs of service users as fully as possible. Therefore, it is crucial to adhere to standards in the education and practice of the social work profession. These standards highlight the priority of effective work in the social sphere.
As with many philosophical and sociological scientific schools, psychology is characterized by competing paradigms or models of thought, with theorists grouped according to the perspective they represent. These schools of psychological knowledge are particularly important due to their influence on the formation of theoretical aspects of psychology. Some of these include the psychoanalytic school, behaviorist school, humanist school, biological school, and others. Their origins stem from some of the earliest philosophical ideas that have shaped Western thought.
The application of psychological approaches and explanatory models in social work can be a way to raise standards and ensure best practices when working with people. It can be argued that of all the disciplines in the social, economic, and legal sciences studied by social workers, psychology is particularly important, as it offers a wide variety of potential explanations for the complex aspects of human behavior and development.
The biological approach to psychology, as its name suggests, views humans as biological organisms. What an individual does and thinks is considered to be generated within their physical structure. This approach arises from attempts to understand two fundamental questions: the relationship between the mind and the body, and the influence of heredity on behavior. The premise is that each individual is a reflection of their biological nature.
Psychologists supporting the biological approach assume that behavior and experiences are caused by activity within the nervous system of the body. Humans are subject to electrochemical events occurring within and between the neurons that make up their nervous system, especially those in the brain. Since brain development is determined, at least to some extent, by the genes a person inherits, it is believed that behavior can be influenced by genetic factors.
Biological psychologists explain behavior by attempting to connect it to the functioning of the brain and the nervous system. Structurally, the brain has many diverse areas, and biopsychological explanations focus on which of these are responsible for thinking or certain types of behavior and how they are interconnected.
It cannot be denied that the biological approach has contributed a vast amount of knowledge to understanding the fundamental processes of behavior. It also finds applications in many other areas of science. Biological psychologists have provided explanations for a number of mental disorders and have proposed therapies that have helped many individuals return to normal lives.
A social worker can utilize this approach to enrich their analyses with explanations and conclusions that might otherwise be unattainable.