Biological pyschology - aggression

Question 1

role of the limbic system

Answer 1

limbic system handles memory but also raw appetites and desires - sleep, hunger, aggression and sex

Question 2

role of amygdala

Answer 2

role in how an organism assess and responds to environmental threats and challenges

Question 3

evidence of association between amygdala and aggression

Answer 3

Emil Coccaro et al
- studied people with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), who had a tendency of having outburst of aggression
- participants brain were scanned using fMRI whiled they viewed faces, IED pps showed high levels of activity in the amygdala when viewing angry faces compared to non IED participants

Question 4

role of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in the prefrontal cortex

Answer 4

• plays a role in higher cognitive functions e.g decision making
• plays a role in self control, impulse regulation, and inhibition of aggressive behaviours

Question 5

evidence that does not support the association with OFC and aggression

Answer 5

Raine et al (1997)
- used PET scans to study NGRIs and found greater glucose metabolism in the amygdala but low activity in the prefrontal cortex, including the OFC compared to the group of controls

Question 6

role of serotonin in aggression

Answer 6

• decreased serotonin reduces self control, leading to more impulsive behaviour including aggression
• normal levels of serotonin increases self control, so less aggression

Question 7

evidence linking serotonin and aggression

Answer 7

Matti Virkkunen et al (1994)
- compaed levels of a product of serotonin 5-HIAA from fluid in the spinal cord in violent and non violent offenders
- found that the levels were lower in violent offenders

Question 8

role of serotonin

Answer 8

slows down neuron transmission

Question 9

role of dopamine

Answer 9

• has an inhibitory effect in some areas of the brain and exhibitory in others
• regulates motivated behaviour and our experience of reward
• linked to feelings of pleasure and seems to play a part in addiction

Question 10

how does dopamine cause aggression

Answer 10

when it interacts with serotonin

Question 11

types of NEUROTRANSMITTERS LINKED TO AGGRESSION

Answer 11

• serotonin
• dopamine

Question 12

strength of brain structures relating to aggression

Answer 12

• lots of research associating the amygdala and aggression
  such as:
  Emil Coccaro et al
• studied people with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), who had a tendency of having outburst of aggression
• participants brain were scanned using fMRI whiled they viewed faces, IED pps showed high levels of activity in the amygdala when viewing angry faces compared to non IED participants
• which is meaningful as angry facial expression is an ecologically valid sign of threat

Question 13

weakness of brain structure and aggression

Answer 13

• studies on neural influences on aggression only shows a correlation this means that it is impossible to establish whether a particular rain structure is actually the cause or effect of aggressive behaviour or whether a third variable is involved

Question 14

what is evolution

Answer 14

the changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations

Question 15

why does genetic variation occur

Answer 15

• combination of genes from parents
• spontaneous mutations in genes

Question 16

why is variation important

Answer 16

• when there are less resources individuals who’s variations caused them to posses characteristics that help them survive and reproduce , pass genes onto the next generations compared to those who have the disadvantaged gene so they cannot survive or reproduce so they become extinct.

Question 17

what causes natural selection and what is its outcome

Answer 17

• natural selection is due to the survival of genes and it happens when there is a competition for scarce resources
• the most useful genes are kept in the population and overtime become more frequent
• the outcome of natural selection is adaption (the survivors are better suited to life in the current environment than the predecessors)

Question 18

what is natural selection

Answer 18

• the process that explains evolution where inherited traits that enhance an animals reproductive success are passed on to the next generation, whereas animals without traits are less successful at reproduction and their traits are not selected

Question 19

what is sexual selection

Answer 19

an explanation for partner preference, that attributes or behaviours that increase reproductive success are passed on and become exaggerated over succeeding generations of offspring

Question 20

why is sexual selection important

Answer 20

as some characteristics and behaviours are adaptive as the provide an advantage over competitors for reproductive rights

Question 21

aggressive characteristics that enhance survival and reproduction in humans

Answer 21

• guarding your partner - mate retention strategies are often aggressive behaviours men use to keep their partners and prevent them from leaving. According to (Wilson and Daly 1966) direct guarding is male vigilance over partners behaviour
• guarding your offspring - human parents direct aggressive acts towards other people who threaten their children. Aggression protects parents investment (their child) and is one of the very few situations in which females behave as aggressively as males.

Question 22

strength of evolutionary theory

Answer 22

it can explain gender differences in aggression
- cooperative females are likely to be naturally selected because cooperation protect them and their offspring as a group. In contrastmales are naturally selected because they make better hunters. This supports the explanations for gender differences in aggression and increases the validity of the theory of natural selection

Question 23

weakness of evolutionary differences

Answer 23

• cannot explain cultural differences in aggressive behaviour
• For example amongst the !Kung San people of the Kalahari in southern Africa, aggression is discouraged from childhood and is therefore rare. In contrast the Yanomami of Venezuela and Brazil have been described as the fierce people and aggression is an accepted behaviour to gain status in their structural society. Therefore aggression is not universal which suggests innately determined behaviour can be outweighed by cultural norms.

Question 24

application of evolutionary theory

Answer 24

• buss (1989) found in 33 countries that males preferred younger more attractive women, this enhances their reproductive success before such women are fertile. Females preferred older, wealthier and ambitious or hard working men which is likely to reproductive success because their children are well supported. This supports evolutionary theory because it shows that the prediction from the theory are upheld by evidence.

Question 25

what was the metaphor Sigmund freud used to explain the unconscious part of the brain

Answer 25

iceberg metaphor -
The conscious mind is that part of the mind we are aware of. It can be compared to the part of an iceberg that is above the water.
The pre-conscious mind is the part of the mind we are occasionally aware of. It can be compared to the part of the iceberg that is below the water-line but still visible.
the unconscious is the largest part, below hidden from the surface

Question 26

what does the unconscious brain do (freud)

Answer 26

• contains thoughts, memories and desires of which we are unaware
• plays a role in aggressive instincts as even though we may not be thinking aggressively our behaviour may be influenced by aggressive urges that our hidden in our unconscious

Question 27

what are the three components are personality is made out of according to freud

Answer 27

id
ego
superego

Question 28

characteristics of id (freud)

Answer 28

• exists from birth and is the most primitive within the unconscious mind
• it is the origin of the energy that motivates all our behaviour, unacceptable instincts, impulses and drives
• it obeys the pleasure principle as it demands immediate pleasure without considering other factors making aggression unavoidable and inevitable

Question 29

characteristics of ego (freud)

Answer 29

• it is the logical, rational and most conscious part of the personality
• obeys the reality principle as it acts as the boundary between unrealistic desires of the id and social reality
• it satisfies the id by fulfilling its urges indirectly and symbolically

Question 30

characteristics of the superego (freud)

Answer 30

• fulfils a moral role as it represents a sense of right and wrong, the ideal image we have of ourselves and want to live up to
• opposes the ids destructive aggressive drive through guilt

Question 31

what is catharsis (freud)

Answer 31

expressing aggression

Question 32

benefits of catharsis (freud)

Answer 32

it releases psychic energy reducing aggressive drives and makes further aggression less likely

Question 33

what can preventing catharsis do (freud)

Answer 33

builds up energy, producing destructive aggression directed inwards or outwards

Question 34

examples of defence mechanisms (indirectly undergoing catharsis) (freud)

Answer 34

• displacement - where aggression towards one person is redirected against a less powerful person and more available substitute
• Repression: the id’s demands can be repressed back into the unconscious mind. With this defence mechanism, a person will not even realise what their id is wanting from them
• sublimation - channelling our aggressive behaviour into other acceptable behaviour

Question 35

what does the pre conscious part of the brain do (freud)

Answer 35

It contains remembered dreams, feelings that haven’t been put into words and memories that can be recalled into the conscious mind without help.

Question 36

what does the conscious part of the brain do (freud)

Answer 36

It contains the thoughts we are currently thinking at any given moment

Question 37

what are defence mechanisms (freud)

Answer 37

psychological strategies that are unconsciously used to protect a person from unacceptable thoughts or feelings to restrict us from our id demand or change them so they are acceptable to the superego

Question 38

Strengths of freuds psychodynamic explanation for aggression

Answer 38

-Explains the traditional distinction between hot and cold blooded aggression:
Hot blooded aggression is impulsive angry and has no purpose, which is the domain of the id, this hot blooded aggressions represents the failure of the ego’s function of redirecting the ids aggressive impulses. Whilst cold blooded aggression is deliberate and rational, so it’s the outcome egos control of the id, this matches the reality of aggressive behaviour and makes the theory valid

Question 39

Weakness of freuds psychodynamic explanation for aggression

Answer 39

• evidence shows that aggression is not cathartic as defence mechanisms may lead to more aggressive: - Bushman (2002) angered students by getting a confederate to criticise their essays, one group them vented their anger by hitting a punchbag whilst thinking about the confederate whilst the control group did not and then he had both groups boasted the confederate with a horn, and bushman found that the group that let out their anger on a punchbag blasted the horn the loudest and the longest, going against freuds claim
• Freud depends on case studies and gathering qualitative data. There is very little quantitative data in any of his research. This makes his findings hard to analyse and dependent upon his own interpretation.

Question 40

Application of freuds psychodynamic explanation for aggression

Answer 40

Catharsis can be used practically to prevent the build up of destructive aggressive energy, as it teaches people to express their anger in harmless ways, this means that freuds theory offers practical solutions to reduce aggressive behaviour with potential benefits for individuals and wider society

Question 41

What are hormones

Answer 41

Biochemical messages that are transported around the body

Question 42

Characteristics of hormones

Answer 42

• act much more slowly than the nervous system but have widespread and powerful effects
• each hormone only affects a specific target organ or cells
• plays a role in fight of flight response to perceived stressors helping fuel an aggressive response that may be needed to respond to a threat

Question 43

Hormones linked to aggression

Answer 43

• testosterone
• Cortisol

Question 44

Role of testosterone (hormones)

Answer 44

Regulates social behaviour through its influence on areas of the brain implicated in aggression

Question 45

What is the link between aggression and testosterone (hormones)

Answer 45

• that increases in testosterone cause more aggressive behaviour in male species
• that a decrease in testosterone as a result in aggressive behaviour results in the reduction of aggressive behaviours

Question 46

How is cortisol linked to aggression

Answer 46

• Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands to protect the body against the affect of stress, this suggest that there is an interaction between systems responsible for stress response and regulating aggression
• that the combined use of testosterone and cortisol may have a bigger influence on aggression on its own rather than just one hormone on its own

Question 47

Strengths of role’s of hormones in human behaviour

Answer 47

• it has lots of supporting evidence to show the link of testosterone and aggression: Wagner et al (1979) he took a baseline measurement of mice’s testosterone and their aggressive behaviour then castrated the mice and injected them with their own testosterone and found that their aggressive levels increased compared to precastration

Question 48

Weakness of roles of hormones in aggression

Answer 48

• in Wagner their is a lack of generalisability of the experimental research as it suffers from anthropomorphism as we cannot correlate the behaviour of animals to humans
• it is difficult to determine testosterone levels as it can fluctuate from one social encounter to another, this means that the baseline measures of testosterone in humans may not provide as valid indicator of testosterone level in relation to aggression

Question 49

Application of roles of hormones in aggression

Answer 49

• if aggression can be chemically controlled it should be possible to make a drug that influences the hormonal mechanism and reduces aggressive behaviours without other effects on bodily systems and behaviours, this means that anti testosterone drugs can help stop violent crimes having a positive impact on indv, communities and whole societies

Question 50

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - AIM

Answer 50

• to find out the extent to which social factors and physical aggression are explained by genetic and environmental factors in MZ and DZ twins
• to see if physically aggressive children are also socially aggressive and to investigate whether the link is down to genetics or social situation by comparing MZ and DZ twins.

Question 51

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - SAMPLE

Answer 51

• 234 pairs of twins were selected from the longitudinal Quebec Newborn Twin study (QNTS)
• they collected data from the twins regularly, beginning at 5 months and at 72 months (6 years) the data was colle
• there were 44 pairs of male MZ twins, 50 pairs of female MZ twins, 41 male DZ pairs and 32 female DZ pairs plus 67 mixed sex DZ pairs

Question 52

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - PROCEDURE

Answer 52

1) children were assigned into MZ and DZ based on physical appearance
2) kindergarten teachers rated the social and physical aggression of each child on a three point scale (never sometimes often) in response to items that represented social and physical aggression such as ‘says bad things or spreads nasty rumours’ (social) and hits or bites (physical)
3) peers rated the levels of aggression in the twins by given a classmates booklet of all photographs of all children in their class and were asked to nominate three children who matched the best description for social and physical aggression such as tells others not to play with a child (social) and gets into fights (physical)

Question 53

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - RESULTS

Answer 53

• only 20% of social aggression was due to genetics
• physical aggression was mostly experienced by genetic factors and by non shared environmental influences
• boys were more physically aggressive and girls were more socially aggressive

Question 54

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - GENERALISABILITY

Answer 54

• sample attrition occurred as 81 pairs were lost due to situational factors and these 88 pairs may have shared specific characteristics, such as low income, which caused them to move making the results less representative to the wider population, due to it being a longitudinal study meaning they families are more likely to suffer from financial problems or environmental,metal factors causing the, to move locations
• large sample size of 234 pairs so anomalies would not skew the data

Question 55

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - RELIABILITY

Answer 55

• followed a standardise procedure by making teachers answer questionnaires with questions linked to social and physical aggression about each student using a 3 point scale where 0 is never and 3 is often, this meant the Bridgend had empirical quantitative results, which is more reliable as it is easy to interpret and analyse and not subjective, making the results more reliable
• he made all the peers name all the pictures of the students and circle three of them who best fit 4 statements linked to social and physical aggression such as who tells others not to play with a child or who gets into fights, this is vey reliable as the procedure is replicable as it follows a standardised procedure and has many controls making it replicable

Question 56

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - VALIDITY

Answer 56

• high levels of inter rated validity due to the positive correlation between how the teacher rated each child’s aggression and how the peers rated their classmates aggression showing that there are low levels of subjectivity making the results more valid and accurate
• however the study is based on the assumption that MZ and DZ twins experience similar treatments, however this assumption may be wrong as many parents from DZ twins are more likely to act aggressively towards one child as the twins are dissimilar, making the results less valid as it disproves that genetic factors could be a cause of aggression in DZ twins

Question 57

CONTEMPORARY STUDY: BRENDGEN ET AL 2005 (TWIN STUDY) - ETHICS

Answer 57

• did suffer ethically as the standardised procedure used in the peers may cause a negative impact on friendship groups, as its berry likely that peers would have discussed who they had chosen in the procedure among students in their friendship group, causing tension among peers, making them physically and socially aggressive
• can also cause psychological harm such as low self esteem as if students found out they had been chosen by another student it may cause them to develop anxiety or any other mental health issues

Question 58

ADOPTION STUDY: Kety et al (1968) - AIM

Answer 58

To find out if there is a genetic basis for schizophrenia.

Question 59

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - sample

Answer 59

34 schizophrenic patients (two of them MZ twins) taken from the Danish Adoption Register for Copenhagen aged 20-43
- were taken from a larger sample of 503 adoptees who had been admitted to psychiatric hospitals with general mental illnesses. This would be an opportunity sample.
- B1 was a group of 16 patients with chronic (long-term) schizophrenia
- B2 was a group of 7 with acute (short-term or one-off) schizophrenia
- B3 was a group of 11 with “borderline schizophrenia” or “latent schizophrenia”

Question 60

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - procedure

Answer 60

1) Kety used the Danish family records to locate adoptive and biological relatives of all the participants.
2) He tracked down 463 relatives and used the mental health register to assess their mental status.
3) 4 Danish psychiatrists used the medical records to diagnose the family members. This was a “blind test” because the psychiatrists did not know whether the records were from an adoptive or a biological family member.
5) Once the diagnoses had been made, the identities were revealed and they were assigned to adoptive family groups or to the biological family groups
6) The psychiatrists diagnosed the family members in these categories known as the schizophrenia spectrum disorders:
D1 is “uncertain chronic schizophrenia”
D2 is “uncertain acute schizophrenia”
D3 is “uncertain borderline schizophrenia”
C is a personality disorder (schizoid)

Question 61

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - procedure

Answer 61

The research found more signs of schizophrenic spectrum disorders in the participants’ biological family than their adoptive family; they also found more spectrum disorders in the participants’ biological families than in the Controls’ biological families.

Question 62

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - conclusion

Answer 62

There seems to be a genetic component to schizophrenia because schizophrenic adoptees were more likely to have schizophrenia in their biological family than their adoptive family and their biological families were more likely to have schizophrenia than the families of Controls.

Question 63

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - Genralisability

Answer 63

• large sample 503 and age range of 20- 43 so representative of wider population.
• Ethnocentric as They were taken from the Danish Adoption Register for the Copenhagen area so is not representative of non western people

Question 64

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - Reliability

Answer 64

• high levels of inter rater reliability as Kety a used a group of 4 psychiatrists who diagnosed each relative based on medical records. Relatives were assigned to categories (B1-B3, D1-D3, C) when these psychiatrists agreed. There were only 4 cases where the psychiatrists could not agree and these were removed from the study.
• However, the diagnositic categories were rather vague and depended on subjective interpretation. “Latent schizophrenia” and “inadequate personality” seem especially vague and unscientific, because any odd or eccentric person might be diagnosed as fitting into the B3, D3 or C categories.

Question 65

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - Application

Answer 65

important applications of this study for families with a history of schizophrenia and people looking to adopt a child. If schizophrenia has a genetic component, then even an upbringing among a healthy adoptive family might not prevent a child with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia becoming ill in later life. However families who are aware of this can guide the child away from drugs and stressful careers and watch out for early symptoms to prevent their schizophrenia from becoming worse.

Question 66

ADOPTION STUDY: KETY ET AL (1968) - Ethics

Answer 66

The participants in this study were not directly approached: only their data was analysed by the researchers and this could be done under Danish laws without needing consent from the participants