3.1.3 brain structure and functioning

Question 1

what is aggression?

Answer 1

aggression is defined as any action that is aimed at causing either physical and/or psychological pain to oneself to others or to objects in the environment.

Question 2

what are the different lobes in the brain?

Answer 2

• frontal
• parietal
• temporal
• occipital

Question 3

what is the frontal lobe responsible for?

Answer 3

• decision making
• planning
• ability to delay gratification and impulsivity

Question 4

what is the frontal lobe connected to and what can damage cause?

Answer 4

• connected to the amygdala and hypothalamus
• damage can lead to problems with anger management and impulse control

Question 5

what is the temporal lobe responsible for?

Answer 5

• memory functions
• language
• emotions

Question 6

what does the temporal lobe include?

Answer 6

hippocampus

involved in the creation of LTM (HM)

Question 7

what is the parietal lobe responsible for?

Answer 7

• language
• muscle movement
• visuo spatial processing

link to cognitive - WMM

Question 8

what is the occipital lobe responsible for?

Answer 8

processing vision

Question 9

explain the role of the prefrontal cortex in aggression

Answer 9

• prefrontal cortex is in charge of decision making and impulse control
• if damaged, an individual may act on impulse and does not think about the consequences of their aggressive behaviour

Question 10

what does the limbic system consist of?

Answer 10

• hypothalamus
• amygdala
• thalamus
• hippocampus

Question 11

amygdala

Answer 11

• the amygdala takes information from the thalamus and interprets it to produce an emotional response, such as an aggressive reaction to a threat.
• if the amygdala malfunctions this affects how it interpret situations: for example showing no fear in the face of a serious threat or becoming aggressive in a non-threatening scenario

Question 12

hypothalamus

Answer 12

• regulates blood pressure, breathing and arousal (fight or flight).
• regulates hormones which control hunger and thirst, including testosterone.

Question 13

what is the amygdala connected to?

Answer 13

connected to the prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in deciding whether or not to behave aggressively

Question 14

how does testosterone affect the amygdala?

Answer 14

• research has shown testosterone in males increases reactivity in the amygdala when viewing faces with angry expressions, which suggests it plays a role in interpreting threats.
• high levels of testosterone may cause an individual to interpret more behaviours as threatening, leading to more aggressive behaviour.

Question 15

thalamus

Answer 15

acts as a switchboard, redirects incoming messages from the body to relevant areas of the brain.

e.g. information about facial expressions and body language from the eyes will be directed to the amygdala so it can interpret whether there is a threat or not.

Question 16

hippocampus

Answer 16

• takes short term memories and converts them into long-term memories so helps us to learn.
• abnormal activity could prevent individuals learning from the consequences of their aggressive actions, so they repeat aggressive behaviour.

Question 17

ao1 brain functioning evaluation

Answer 17

Aggression can be explained by looking at the functioning of the brain. The
prefrontal cortex play an important role in decision making and controlling
impulsivity, including aggression. It is connected to the amygdala which takes
information from the thalamus and interprets it to produce an emotional response, such as an aggressive reaction to a threat.

Question 18

brain functioning ao3 - supporting evidence

Answer 18

P: A strength of the brain function explanation of aggression is it has supporting evidence.

E: Raine (1997) found that in comparison to the control group, NGRI’s had lower activity in the prefrontal cortex, asymmetrical activity in the amygdala and hippocampus (lower in the left, higher in the right) = issues regulating emotion and controlling impulses.

T: This evidence suggests the brain function explanation is valid.

Question 19

brain functioning ao3 - contradicting evidence

Answer 19

P: A weakness of the brain function explanation is that there are contradicting explanations of aggressive behaviour

E: hormones…

T: Therefore because there is an alternative way of explaining the same behaviour, the validity of brain function is lowered

Question 20

brain functioning ao3 - application

Answer 20

P: A strength of the brain function explanation is that it has real world application in reducing aggressive crime rates.

E: Identifying ‘at risk’ individuals who have abnormal brain activity from injury or lifestyle (drug use), means interventions such as anger management could be delivered at an earlier stage to help control impulsive violence thus preventing aggressive crime.

T: This is a strength because prevention could lower rates of aggressive crime and imprisonment, making society less aggressive thus safer.

Question 21

brain functioning ao3 - weakness (reductionist)

Answer 21

P: A weakness of the brain function explanation is that it is biologically reductionist

E: It reduces complex aggressive behaviour down to brain functioning, thus it ignores the interaction between nature and nurture because aggression could be a result of exposure to aggressive role models or other biological factors, like hormone imbalance.

T: This is a weakness because ignoring the role of social factors (nurture) reduces the validity of brain functioning as an explanation.