Paper 3 - Child 2 - Adolescent brain

Question 1

Describe the background study by Casey

Answer 1

…

Question 2

Describe the background study by Kotch

Answer 2

• longitudinal study of 1318 children at risk of neglect
• local child protection services records checked
• 4 US cities and 1 southern state
• parental neglect at age of 2 years old predicted aggressive behaviour at 8 years old.
• however there is no effect if the neglect was after 2 years old
• this suggests that there’s a critical period of the first 2 years for certain brain areas to develop - the effects of stress are less damaging after this time

Question 3

desribe the aim of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 3

• to see if adolescents are more sensitive to the probability of high rewards (Expected value) compared to adults
• and if they have greater ventral striatum activity as the reward increases.

Question 4

what is the method of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 4

• lab and quasi experiment
• independent measures design
• IV = adult or adolescent
• DV= number of gambles in spinner game vs ventral striatum activity

Question 5

describe the sample of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 5

• self selected sample
• 19 adults
• 22 adolescents
• all right handed
• ads were posters oline and a data base of UCLA previous pps
• self report showed no psychistaric disorders, developmental delays or medication

Question 6

what is the apparatus of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 6

• 3-tesla trio MRI machine
• 140 functional and 2 structural images per pps

Question 7

explain the procedure of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 7

• intake session - informed consent gained pps state on how much spending money they have per month as if affects the value they place on the reward of money.
• adult average = $467.11
• child average =$ 52.50
• pps given $20 to use and they could win extra or loose it all
• fMRI session - pps see an on screen spinner one half shows money you can win and the other half shows money you can loose
• probability is 50%
• all pps trained in the task before brain scan
• trials - 192 gambles. 24 fixed gain, 24 fixed loss distributed randomly
• the gain/loss ranged from $6 to $19

Question 8

explain the results of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 8

• High Expected value gambles were accepted by most pps
• no age difference on no risk gambles
• adolescents had greater activation of left Ventral striatum to increase Expected value (accepted over 80% of gambes)
• as Expected value increased, there was decreased activity in amygdala and hippocampus and increased activation of the superior medial PFC

Question 9

what are the conclusions of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study

Answer 9

• confirms previous research that adolescent risk taking is due to biological processes in specific brain area
• children have a heightened sensitivity to rewards which can cause risk taking
• there is a hyperactivation in the ventral striatum in children when responding to a reward. this does not occur in adults
• refines our understanding of the child brain as the activity was limited to the left ventral striatum
• the research can partially explain the dual systems theory because the results confirm that the early maturing ventral striatum plays a dominant role in children risk taking behaviour.
• however the reseach didnt investigate the role of the prefrontal cortex so were unable to show that it does not have control over the ventral striatum in children.

Question 10

what are the 2 applications of this topic

Answer 10

• nurse visitation programmes
• graduated driver programmes

Question 11

what is nurse visitation programme

Answer 11

• targets men and women who are expecting a baby and who are considered at high risk of mistreating it
• operates on the principle that te best way to prevent harm is to reduce stress in parents
• a nurse visits the parents at home before the birth and for sometime afterwards
• for example the well established nurse family partnership in the USA pairs a specially trained urse with a family for 2 and a half years
• targets mothers to be as they are facing a life changing event
• parents are trained to cope with stressors that could provoke mistreatment
• the nurse also puts the adult in touch with health care services and provides social support by involving family and friends
• stress reduction will have a long term effect on risk taking reducing it later in life

Question 12

evaluate the usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of nurse visitation programme

Answer 12

• usefulness - preventing mistreatment of child avoids risk of damaging brain structure and processes at a sensitive period of development. breaks the link with the development of risk taking behaviour
• effectiveness - mostly effective as mothers could cope better with stressors. children less likely to be arrested, fewer alcohol and drugs
• practicalities - the programme is not effective if the full course is not completed

Question 13

what is the graduated drivre programmes

Answer 13

• reduces incidents in inexperienced drivers
• involvement in accidents reflects the delay in maturation of cognitive control system in relation to the emotion regulation system
• this imbalance results in underdeveloped cognitive skills crucial to driving
• a young driver cannot get their liscence until they have completed an extended period of supervised driving with an experienced adult
• they achieve this in stages which restrictiond are gradually lifted,e.g. speed limits
• stage 1 - always supervised
• stage 2 - can drive unsupervised in daylight
• stage 3 - full priveledges after passing stage 2 and age 18

Question 14

what is the usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of graduated driver programme

Answer 14

• usefulness - one of the most common restrictions is the number of passengers (friends) in the car this is in response to hightened arousal with friends that causes risk taking
• effectiveness - there are social and cultural reasons why adolescents take risks which affect the success and failure of this programme
• practicalities - the longer it takes for a pps to drive unsupervised - the less the risk taking behaviour

Question 15

evaluate validity in thid topic

Answer 15

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - lacks ecological validity
• casey - high internal validity
• kotch - low population validity

Question 16

Evaluate reliability in this topic

Answer 16

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - highly reliable, standarised procedures like $20, training and gambling completed in same way
• Casey - reliable - standardised procedure
• Kotch - low external reliability, only USA pps

Question 17

evaluate sampling bias

Answer 17

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study self selected sample means people are likely more outgoing and impulsive. should of used random sampling
• BLG - age bias adolescence = 13-17 doesn’t include 18 above who are still adolescent
• kotch - large representative sample but usa

Question 18

evaluate ethnocentrism

Answer 18

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - individualist view of risk taking
• kotch - individualist culture have nuclear family ( 1 mum and 1 dad) collectivist have extended family.
• meyer and bucci - used rats - no conscious feelings from culture.

Question 19

evaluate nature/nurture

Answer 19

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - nature - risk taking behvaiour is caused by brain activity
• kotch - nurture - aggressive behaviour due to childhood environment
• casey - nature - brain activity

Question 20

evaluate reductionism/holism

Answer 20

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study- biological reductionist - highly complex behaviour explained by straightforward neurological processes
• environmental determinism - kotch
• holism - wilougby - only a t

Question 21

evaluate freewill/ determinism

Answer 21

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study biological determinism
• kotch environmenta determinism
• woloughby - tiny proportion of adolescents do risk taking activites

Question 22

evaluate ethics

Answer 22

• BLG parents gave consent and children agreed, but do they understand the implications ?
• harm - BLG - fMRI scanner can be claustrophobic
• right to withdraw - kotch longitudinal

Question 23

evaluate psychology as a science

Answer 23

• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - lacks ecological validity
• Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - highly reliable, standarised procedures like $20, training and gambling completed in same way
• kotch - low population validity - large representative sample but only usa, individualist culture

Question 24

evaluate usefulness of research

Answer 24

• practical benefits - interventions to lower risk taking behaviour, e.g. kotch and nurse visitation programme
• new insights - BLG refines our knowledge of the adolescent brain and processes involved with risk taking behaviour
• low ecological validity for BLG

Question 25

evaluate socially sensitive research in this topic

Answer 25

* strength - allows to study specific behaviour like barkley - levenson and galavin's study * weakness - labelling - kotch, labelling of parents, neglect can be subjective e.g. parents going to work * strength - policies - neglect and poor future outcomes can be reversed with nurse visitation programmes - effective in reducing drug and alcohol arrests

Question 26

explain the background study by meyer and bucci

Answer 26

* used lab experiment to mimic system inbalance in rats * they decreased the activity in the prefrontal cortex whilst increasing the activity of the ventral striatum * rats took twice as long as a control group to learn to inhibit a responser to an expected reward (didnt arrive) * this was not typical adult behaviour but matched the behaviour of adolescent behaviour * showing a direct relationship between brain system imbalance and impulsive behaviour