Aggression Flashcards
What are the 4 parts of the Limbic system?
- Hypothalamus
- Amygdala
- Thalamus
- HIPPOcampus
What are the roles of the hypothalamus?
regulation of ANS
What is the role of the amygdala?
regulates emotions eg. fear & aggression
What is the role of the thalamus?
processes & directs sensory and motor signal to the correct areas of the cerebal cortex
What is the role of the hippocampus?
involved in memory (LTM), especially knowledge of how to react in different situations
What was the procedure of Gospic’s ultimatum game?
- lab study
- proposer & responder
- proposer offers to split money, if responder accepts they spilt money
- no one gets any more, if the responder if the rejects offer
- responders were scanned using fMRI
What were the finding’s of Gospic’s ultimatum game?
responders rejected unfair offers scans showed fast & heightened response in amygdala
- if responders took benzodiazepine before game, it halved the number of rejections & decreased activity in amygdala
What does Gospic’s research provide evidence for?
the limbic system being implicated in aggression
What is an limitation of the influence that the limbic system has on human aggression?
opposing research!
- doesn’t operate in isolation, seems to work with orbito-frontal cortex (not part of the limbic system)
- Coccaro (2007) states that often the activity in OFC is reduced in patients who suffer from aggressive psychiatric disorders
Is serotonin inhibitory or excitatory?
inhibitory
What happens if there are low levels of serotonin in the OFC?
associated with increased aggression - individuals are less able to control their impulsive & aggressive responses
which hormone works antagonistically with testosterone?
cortisol
What was Virkkunen’s research (1994) on serotonin?
- found lower levels of serotonin in cerebrospinal fluid of violent impulsive than in non-impulsive offenders
- violent offenders suffered from more sleep irregularities
higher levels of what hormone are linked to aggressive behaviour?
testosterone
What is the role of tesosterone?
- regulates social behaviour
- responsible for the development of masculine features
- acts on the brain area involved in controlling aggression
What is The Challenge Hypothesis?
Dabbs suggested that the testosterone increase in men is adaptative response to any threat to status
What were the findings of Dolan’s research?
- sample of 60 male offenders in UK maximum security prison
- found there was a positive correlation between testosterone level and aggressive behaviour
- men often had personality disorders & histories of violent behaviour
How does the case of Charles Whitman give evidence for neural explanations of aggression?
killed 13 people from an observation tower @ texas uni
- found to have a tumour pressing against his amygdala
What was Raleigh’s research on serotonin and aggression?
found that monkeys who fed on a diet high in tryptophan showed less aggression than monkeys on a low tryptophan diet
Who came up with the Frustration-Aggression hyothesis?
Dollard
What is the Frustration-Aggression hypothesis?
see aggression as being the consequence of frustration
Why are the 3 factors that cause frustration to increase?
- strong motivation to achieve a goal
- we expect pleasure from the outcome
- we have little control over the presence of an obstacle
What was Brown’s research on the 3 factors that lead to aggression?
- surveyed British holidaymakers who were prevented from travelling by ferry to France because of French fishing boats blocking the ferry port
- led to increase in hostile attitudes towards the French
- strong motivation to go to FRance, expect pleasure from the holiday & holidaymakers have little control over the presence of French fishing boats
What was Pastore’s research on justified & unjustified frustration?
- asked prtpcnts to imagine how they would feel in different cricumstances in which they may feel frustrated
- participants displayed much lower anger levels when the reason for frustration was justified than when it was unjustified
What is displaced aggression?
Dollard argued that aggression can displaced from the source on to someone or something else - so catharsis can be still be experienced
What are strengths of Frustration-Aggression theory?
supporting evidence from Brown & Pastore
What is a limitation fo the Frustration-Aggression hypothesis?
Deterministic - Berkowitz argued that frustration is one of many unpleasant experience which leads to aggression
- it is the unpleasant feeling not the frustration that causes the aggresssion
What is strength of Brown’s research?
naturalistic experiment - high ecological validity
What is a limitation of Pastore’s research?
uses methods of self-report - so could have a social desirability bias
