Biological Psychology

Question 1

STRENGTHS OF BRAIN ACTIVITY

Answer 1

• brains scans which are empirical
• supported by raine who found higher activity in right amygdala and lower in pre frontal cortex
• supported by kluver bucy syndrome who found removing temporal lobe which contains amygdala made rhesus monkeys more tame

-standardised

Question 2

WEAKNESSES OF BRAIN ACTUVITY

Answer 2

• ignores social learning theory
• brains scans are low in ecological validity
• animals don’t apply to humans
• reductionist as it doesn’t mention environmental factors

Question 3

STRENTGTHS OF EVOLUTION

Answer 3

• MAZUR found males show increase in fighting behaviours due to attracting mates so evolution of aggression promotes genes
• dobash and dobash found violence against women came through jealousy so leads to gene survival
• daly,Wilson and weghorst found domestic violice used to deter partners from infidelity
• buss - when males give in to females and threaten males around them it aids the gene pool and human development

Question 4

WEAKNESSES OF EVOLUTION

Answer 4

• ignores other factors such as social learning theory
• explanations are post hoc cannot test behaviours of our ancestors
• fails to explain why some cultures such as yanamo of South America see aggression as a status of dominance and kung san of kalahari see it as unforgivable
• deterministic

Question 5

STRENGTHS OF HORMONES

Answer 5

• empirical and standardise as we can repeat and directly measure via brains scans
• supported by beeman who castrated rats and found it lowered agression levels
• Edward’s injected testertone into female and found to be more aggressive than control group
• dabs measured testosterone in saliva of adult male prisoners. Those who commited violent crimes contained more testosterone then those who committed non violent crimes

Question 6

WEAKNESSES OF HORMONES

Answer 6

• ignores social learning theory
• Problems with cause and effect
• mazur found playing non agressive games such as tennis or chess there was more testosterone in those winning then those losing therefore it is more about domincance and success than aggression

Question 7

STRENTHS OF PSYCHODYNAMIC

Answer 7

• Verona and Sullivan found that pressing agressive buttons compared to non agressive buttons reduces heart rate therefore supports catharsis
• Bresin found that adaptive forms of agression creates a calming effect and empowers individuals with skills to regulate anger in the future.
• both nature and nurture
• can explain individual differences eg. Bigger id or bigger superego

Question 8

WEAKNESS OF PSYCHDYAMIC

Answer 8

• not empirical as we can’t directly measure
• bushman found that those who took cathartic activity were more agressive than those who didn’t
• ignores social learning theory