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Biological Approach Flashcards

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1
Q

What does the Thalamus do?

A

The brains relay station. Passes on information to the appropriate areas, carries out some initial processing of its own.

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2
Q

What does the hypothalamus do?

A

Controls motivational behaviours. Controls ‘fight’ or ‘flight’

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3
Q

What does the limbic system do?

A

Regulating emotional responses. Has a role in memory and learning.

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4
Q

What is the cerebellum?

A

Means ‘little brain’ role in coordinating posture, balance and movement,.

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5
Q

What is the corpus callosum?

A

Allows communication between the hemispheres.

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6
Q

Name the 4 lobes

A
  1. Frontal
  2. Parietal
  3. Temporal
  4. Occipital
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7
Q

Which neurotransmitters does cocaine alter?

A

Serotonin and dopamine

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8
Q

Where is the amygdala found?

A

The limbic system

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9
Q

Features of the id

A
  • exists from birth
  • most primitive element
  • contained entirely by the unconscious mind
  • origin of the energy that motivates all of our behaviour
  • obeys the pleasure principle
  • no consideration
  • we cannot eradicate it
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10
Q

Features of the ego

A
  • logical, rational
  • mostly conscious part of personality
  • begins developing shortly after birth
  • reality principle
  • does not fulfil the id’s aggressive urges directly but instead indirectly
  • had no moral sense
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11
Q

Features of the superego

A
  • fulfils the moral role
  • emerges later in development (around 5 or 6)
  • represents our ideal image of ourselves and would like to live up to
  • Opposes the id’s aggressive drives through guilt and shame
  • just as irrational and punishing in its demands as the id
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12
Q

Can aggression by satisfied according to Freud?

A

Yes by catharsis

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13
Q

Aim of Raines study?

A

To use brain scanning to identify brain impairments in people charged with murder (NGRI’s)

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14
Q

Set up of Raine’s study?

A
  • 41 murderers
  • 41 non-murderers
  • matched pairs design
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15
Q

Procedure of Raine’s study?

A
  • participants were free from all medication in the two weeks up to the brain scan
  • murderers matched on sex, age and ethnicity with a control group of non-murderers
  • control participants had a physical examination and a psychiatric interview
  • Each participant underwent PET scan on their brain
  • Each completed a continuous performance task (CPT)
  • the PET scan was conducted immediately after the 32 minute period
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16
Q

Findings of Raine’s study?

A
  • murderers had significantly lower glucose metabolism in the prefrontal areas
  • murderers had a higher glucose metabolism in the occipital lobe
  • greater activity in the right amygdala, right medial temporal lobe, the right thalamus.
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17
Q

Conclusions of Raine?

A
  • murders pleading NGRI have different brain activity from people who are not violent offenders
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18
Q

Brendgen aim of study?

A

Investigated aggression in MZ twins and DZ twins to discover:
- the extent to which social and physical aggression are explained by genetic and environmental influences

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19
Q

What is Excitation and inhibition

A
  • eg dopamine, makes next neurone more likely to fire
  • eg serotonin, makes it less likely
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20
Q

Procedure of Brendgen?

A

234 pairs of MZ and DZ twins rated for social and physical aggression by teachers and peers

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21
Q

Findings of Brendgen?

A
  • Physical aggression mostly from your genetic influences
  • Social mostly to non-shared environmental influences
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22
Q

Brendgen conclusions?

A

Genes predispose some children to aggression, but specific form depends on environment

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23
Q

What is dual-hormone hypothesis?

A

Aggression occurs in interaction between high testosterone and low cortisol

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24
Q

What is evolution?

A

Genes for characteristics that allow an individual to reproduce are passed on

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25
Q

What is natural selection?

A

Environmental pressures select individuals who can survive and reproduce successfully

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26
Q

Thalamus

A
  • Acts as a relay station. Sensory input goes here, gets processed and sent to the cerebral cortex.
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27
Q

Responsible for stress response and homeostasis.

A

Hypothalamus

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28
Q

A system responsible for the fight or flight response and emotional regulation

A

Limbic system

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29
Q

Controls balance movement and coordination sometimes referred to as the little brain

A

Cerebellum

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30
Q

The connective tissue which allows communication between the two hemispheres by passing signals

A

Corpus callosum

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31
Q

Controls higher cognitive functions. E.g attention, movement, through and decision making

A

Frontal lobe

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32
Q

Processes information from surroundings to create a picture of it. Coordinates movement according to the information

A

Parietal

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33
Q

Controls face recognition, memory, understanding language and emotion and auditory processing

A

Temporal

34
Q

Receives images from the retina and registers colour/ motion

A

Occipital

35
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A
  • chemical messengers that act between the neurones in the brain. This allows the brain to process memories.
36
Q

Explain cocaine in terms of neurotransmitters?

A
  • drug administered
  • dopamine surge (euphoria) in limbic system area
  • midbrain stimulated, glutamate remembers the euphoria
  • brain becomes focused on drugs (take a higher priority) = other areas neglected
  • repeated pattern of use (addiction)
37
Q

Name three neurotransmitters?

A
  • dopamine
  • serotonin
  • glutamate
38
Q

What does dopamine do?

A
  • pleasure neurotransmitter
39
Q

What does serotonin do?

A
  • mood neurotransmitter
40
Q

What does glutamate do?

A
  • memory neurotransmitter
41
Q

Describe a CAT scan

A
  • grey scale
  • high level of detail
  • can image bone, soft tissue and blood vessels
  • doesn’t convey any info about brain activity or function
  • useful when trying to relate brain damage to changes in psychological functioning
  • faster
  • cheaper
  • non-invasive
  • X rays are potentially harmful
42
Q

Describe PET scans?

A
  • injected with glucose and a radioactive tracer
  • builds an image which brain areas are most and least active during a particular period of time
  • different colours represent different levels of activity
  • less detailed
  • is an invasive procedure
43
Q

Describe fMRI scans

A
  • measures blood flow to different parts of the brain, image of which brain areas are more active than others
  • finer resolution
  • more detailed images
  • non-invasive
  • no exposure to radiation
  • small movements really affect the scanning
44
Q

What is the biological key question?

A
  • is there a criminal brain?
45
Q

What does testosterone do?

A
  • said to dictate aggressive behaviour and therefore involved in the development of criminality
46
Q

What is evolution?

A
  • the gradual development of different kinds of living organisms from earlier forms over time.
47
Q

What is natural selection?

A
  • process whereby characteristics and traits that enhance organisms sexual selection their health and chance of survival is passed onto offspring.
48
Q

What do evolutionary psychologists argue about aggression?

A
  • aggression has served a purpose in the past, being aggressive gave an individual an advantage in terms of completion over food and territory this better mating choices. This trait is past on and bred into offspring.
49
Q

What is the warrior gene?

A
  • variation in the X chromosome gene.
  • an enzyme that effects neurotransmitters
  • biologically MAOA-L
50
Q

What does the warrior gene do?

A
  • been found in men who are
  • risk takers
  • problems controlling impulsivity
  • aggressive urges
  • anti social behaviour
51
Q

How many ppts in Raine?

A
  • 41 offenders (NGRI not guilty reason of insanity)
  • 41 control
  • 37 male
  • 2 female
52
Q

What experiment design was Raine’s study?

A
  • matched pairs
  • matched on:
  • age
  • sex
  • ethnicity
  • mental illness
53
Q

Raine’s aim?

A
  • to find if there is a difference in brain activity of murders or not
54
Q

Procedure of Raine?

A
  • each ppt injected with a glucose chaser
  • ppts released cpr for 32 minutes, while undergoing a PET scan
55
Q

Raine results?

A
  • NGRI’s less activity in the parietal lobe (morality)
  • murderers had less activity in the corpus callosum and prefrontal cortex
56
Q

Evaluate Raine in terms of generalisability?

A
  • studied NGRI’s so findings cannot be generalised to all murders or other types of criminals
  • also can’t generalise to women
57
Q

Who is Charles Whitman?

A
  • murderer
  • shot at people from a tower in Texas University
  • killed his wife and mother
  • 13 killed, 33 wounded
  • previous law abiding man, no red flags
58
Q

What was found after Charles Whitman’s death?

A
  • he had a brain tumour pressing on his amygdala, which is part of the limbic system
59
Q

What’s the biological contemporary study?

A
  • Brendgen
60
Q

Aim of Brendgen?

A
  • investigate aggression in MZ and DZ twins to discover…
  • the extent to which social and physical aggression are explained by genetic and environmental influences
  • whether the overlap between social and physical aggression is explained by the direct effect of one type of aggression on the other
61
Q

Who where the ppts in Brendgen?

A
  • 234 pairs of twins
  • 44 male MZ, 50 Female MZ
  • 41 male DZ, 32 female DZ
  • 67 mixed sex (not used in final analysis)
  • taken from twin registry in Quebec
62
Q

Describe the teachers procedure of Brendgen?

A
  • kindergarten teachers asked to rate the twins’ social and physical aggression on a three point scale (never, sometimes, often) in response to things such as:
  • ‘says bad things’ or ‘spreads nasty rumours about other children’ -social
  • ‘hits bites or kicks others’ - physical
63
Q

Describe the peers procedure of Brendgen?

A
  • research assistants checked that the kids could recognise everyone
  • each classmate given a booklet of photographs of all kids in their class, asked to nominate three kids on each page that best fitted the description etc
  • there were two descriptions for social aggression…
  • ‘tells others not to play with a child’ and ‘tells mean secrets about another child’
  • there were two descriptions for physical aggression…
  • ‘gets in fights’ and ‘hits, bites or kicks others’
64
Q

Findings of Brendgen?

A
  • concordance rate higher for physical aggression in MZ twins than DZ twins
  • social not much difference between the two
65
Q

Conclusion of Brendgen?

A
  • genetic characteristics predispose some children to aggressive behaviour in general
  • the specific form the aggression takes is more influenced by environmental factors
  • ## high physical aggression led to high social aggression (opposite not true)
66
Q

Evaluate Brendgen in terms of generalisability?

A
  • large set of data
  • all WIERD sample
  • ethnocentric
  • all 6 years old
67
Q

Evaluate Brendgen in terms of reliability?

A
  • teachers all used same standardised assessment (reliable)
  • classmate opinion could be unreliable as children change views very quickly
68
Q

Evaluate Brendgen in terms of validity?

A
  • wasn’t an artificial environment and didn’t have artificial tasks (high ecological validity)
  • children may be biased and rate down the twin they don’t like, assessment isn’t true
69
Q

Evaluate Brendgen in terms of ethics?

A
  • children rating each other, twins may feel excluded or bullied
70
Q

Mednick aim?

A
  • to find whether criminal behaviour is largely genetic
71
Q

Mednick research method?

A
  • adoption study
72
Q

Mednick ppts?

A
  • 4000 adopted Danish men
73
Q

Mednick procedure?

A
  • compared the men’s criminal records with those of their biological parents and their adopted parents
74
Q

Mednick results?

A
  • those whose biological parents were criminals were nearly 2x as likely to become criminals as those whose bio parents weren’t
  • those who’s bio parents were criminals were more likely to become criminals than those who’s adoptive parents were criminals
    -strong correlation between biological parents and their sons for theft
  • related brothers raised in different families were more likely to both be criminals than unrelated brothers raised in the same family
75
Q

Mednick conclusion?

A
  • genes play a large role ion criminal behaviour, though environment also has an effect
76
Q

Limitations of Mednick?

A
  • the criminal records might not be reliable eg some might not have been caught or might have been convicted wrongly
  • most adoptees spend some time with their biological parents, may have an effect from a young age
  • sample was biased - all male cannot generalise to females
77
Q

What is Freud’s iceberg analogy?

A
  1. Conscious level
  2. Preconscious level
  3. Unconscious level
78
Q

What is Eros?

A
  • represented as an angel
  • self preservation
79
Q

What is Thanatos?

A
  • represented as a devil
  • death instinct
80
Q

What is the ID?

A
  • develops in babies
  • consists of urges and desires
  • isn’t rational or reflective made entirely of feeling
  • based on the pleasure principle
  • doesn’t understand logic, time or the outside world
  • not evil
  • most things it wants are necessary, but cannot restrict itself
  • completely selfish
81
Q

What is the ego?

A
  • develops in toddlers
  • thinking and decision making part of the brain
  • exist in the conscious mind
  • based on the reality principle
  • understands the outside world and the passage of time
  • no desires of its own but works out ways to grant desires of the ID.
  • bargaining chip is deferred gratification
  • has no conscience, no sense of right or wrong
  • understands punishment and tries to avoid it, but feels no guilt

Psychology (7 decks)

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