Biological Psychology Flashcards

Question

Hormones and aggression AO1.

Answer 1

1. Hormones secrete into the bloodstream and act very similar to neurotransmitters, however they take a longer time to make changes, but last a lot longer. 2. Cortisol and Adrenaline - stress hormones (fight or flight response). 3. Vance (1988) injected female rats with a single injection of testosterone. Some became more aggressive, but he concluded it’s down to genotype, not just testosterone. 4. Van Goozen (1997) conducted a natural experiment on transgender sex-change patients. Findings revealed testosterone levels governed aggression. Males receiving testosterone suppressants became less aggressive. females receiving testosterone became more aggressive.

Answer 2

To find out if there is a difference in the structure of brain activity between people who have committed murder (NGRIs) and non-murderers.

Answer 3

41 offenders pleading NGRI to murder, 39 men and 2 women (mean age of 34.3); 23 had a history of brain damage, 3 with a history of drug abuse, 6 suffered from schizophrenia, 2 with epilepsy and 7 with other emotional or learning disorders. 41 controls, matched with age, sex, no history of crime or mental illness, except 6 controls who has schizophrenia. NGRIs were an opportunity sample.

Answer 4

Each participant was injected with glucose tracer, then performed a continuous performance task for 32 minutes. Then the PET scan was carried out. Participants were allowed to practice CPT 10 mins before the glucose tracer was injected to make sure they were all equally familiar with it. Raine made sure none of the participants were on medication; NGRIs had been medication-free for 2 weeks before the PET scan.

Answer 5

NGRIs showed less activity in the frontal lobe, especially the prefrontal cortex (associated with rational thinking, self-restraint and memory). Also less activity in the parietal lobe (associated with abstract thinking). But more activity in the occipital lobe (vision). In the sub-cortical region, NGRIs had less activity in the corpus callosum. Also, there was wan imbalance of activity between the left and right hemispheres in the limbic system - less activity on the left and more on the right of the amygdala and hippocampus.

Answer 6

Prefrontal deficits might make someone more impulsive and emotional. Deficits in the corpus callosum make it harder for the brain’s hemisphere’s to communicate, making it difficult to think through long term consequences and make decisions. Raine concludes that findings from animal studies into aggression can be generalised to humans and there is a link between brain structure and aggression. Raine is optimistic that these brain deficits can be prevented if they are identified early enough.

Answer 7

Credibility — The effects of drugs and the reward pathway can be directly observed through brain scanning techniques (PET, fMRI). There is lots of evidence to show that neurotransmitters are key in the synthesis and development of addictions (this is also supported by the use of substitutes such as nicotine replacement and methadone). Objections — It has been shown that the chemical properties are not the only thing that effect addiction; such as social situations, cognitive issues and learned behaviours have almost greater effects than the chemicals themselves. This was highlighted by Bruce Alexander (1981) with his Rat park experiments that showed how rats cured their addiction through socialising. Differences — Freud suggests that addictions are due to our upbringing; we are trying to replace with the maternal and paternal affection and understanding that we were not given as children. Applications — Knowledge in this area has helped many addicts recover by developing rehabilitation facilities, and synthetic substances (e.g., methadone, nicotine replacement such as vaping).

Answer 8

Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parents to offspring during reproduction. Variation tends to exist within any given population as a result of genetic mutation. Evolution occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on this variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more common or more rare within a population. The evolutionary pressures that determine whether a characteristic is common or rare within a population constantly change, resulting in heritable characteristics arising over successive generations.

Answer 9

The key to survival and evolution is procreation (involved mating between two partners). Aggression by both men and women can help to enable this. Two men fighting over a women. A female being jealous of another female. Buss (1989) A cross-cultural study on attraction and mate preference.

Answer 10

It has two components: Indirect aggression — covert, such as spreading malicious gossip. Relational aggression — overt, but non-physical, such as breaking off a friendship, pulling faces or “bitchiness”. Aggressive behaviour helps an animal protect itself and prosper, but only up to a point. If it is too aggressive, it may be rejected by the group or even attacked. Therefore, social aggression has more survival value than physical aggression; it has the same benefits without the risks.

Answer 11

Testosterone is an androgen which is dominant in males (may be why men are more physically aggressive, and why people become aggressive when they take steroids). This may also explain why women with higher testosterone levels are more aggressive. Van Goozen (1997) conducted a natural experiment on transgender sex-change patients. This is one of the few cases where research was actually carried out on humans. Findings revealed testosterone levels governed aggression. Males receiving testosterone suppressants became less aggressive. Females receiving testosterone became more aggressive.

Answer 12

There is a lot of scientific research to back up the theory of hormones. All of this research is observable and measurable. Treatment on humans has shown changes to levels of aggression with testosterone replacement and suppression. It can help us understand why men are more likely to commit crimes and be more violent than women. It can also help us treat offenders and sexual offenders. The majority of this research is done on animals, it is a big leap to compare them to humans. It ignores the cognitive and social factors that make people human, we all have free will and decision over our actions. There are serious implications to society and individuals, if people are just more natural aggressive. Are we allowed to keep them in prisons is they can’t help it?

Answer 13

To find out if there’s a genetic basis for schizophrenia.

Answer 14

62 schizophrenia patients, 32 male, 32 female. All aged between 19-64. All participants had been patients at a large London hospital between 1948 and 1964 and all had a twin.

Answer 15

The researchers assigned each twin pair to MZ or DZ conditions (blood testing, fingerprint testing, physical resemblance) - differences meant DZ. 24 twin MZ pairs and 33 DZ twin pairs were identified. Mental health was measured in many ways: hospital notes, personality testing, psychometric testing to measure disorganised thinking, etc.

Answer 16

For severe schizophrenia (involving 2+ years in hospital), the concordance rate for MZ twins was 75%, but only 24% for DZ twins. IN every category, there was a significant difference between MZ and DZ twins, with MZ twins being more likely to share a similar diagnosis of mental illness. The concordance was stronger for female twins than male twins, and also stronger with more severe schizophrenia.

Answer 17

There seems to be a genetic component to schizophrenia because the closer the genetic link, the more likely both twins are to show schizophrenic symptoms. However, the MZ concordance rate was significantly lower than 100%. This means that, despite their shared genotype, MZ twins do not always share schizophrenic symptoms - 21% of MZ twins with a schizophrenic brother or sister were perfectly healthy.

Answer 18

To investigate if the PCC is activated when given drug related cues and to investigate if PCC activation is stronger in heroin addiction compared to controls suggesting possible brain damage being caused.

Answer 19

14 male heroin users, who were in a drug rehab centre in the detoxifying stage of treatment - mean age of 35 years - previously had used heroin for an average of 89 months and had to be heroin free. Control group had 15 males who matched the experimental group on handedness, educational level and age. All participants were smokers, had no head trauma, psychiatric disorder and gave written informed consent.

Answer 20

Scan 1 - structural scan to identify different brain areas. Scan 2 - 5-minute resting fMRI scan & they had to focus on a cross hair. Scan 3 - fMRI that lasted 490 secs, 48 pictures, half neutral and the rest heroin related to measure cue-reactivity. Each picture was presented for 2 seconds, average interval of 8 seconds between pictures. Before and after the cue presentation the participants were asked to complete a self-report to assess their craving on a 0-10 scale.

Answer 21

Heroin users scored higher on the cravings scale (3.21) compared to controls (2.23) after presentation. PCC was more active in heroin users than the control group when shown drug related images. In the controls there was no brain activity that showed more connectivity with the PCC. The drug related images activated the brain in heroin users explaining the higher cravings, but not in the control group.

Answer 22

PCC activity in heroin users is different than in non-users and activity levels are linked to the length of time a person had used heroin for suggesting that for heroin user’s environmental cues can trigger habitual reactions for the brain. This can explain why heroin users can relapse when exposed to certain environmental cues such as imagery they associate with drug taking.

Biological Psychology Flashcards

(46 cards)