Biological Key Question

Question 1

My Biological Psychology Key Question is …

Answer 1

• What are the implication for society if aggression is due to nature and not nurture

Question 2

Nature

Answer 2

• Is what we think of as pre wiring and the aggression influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors such as hormones, neurotransmitters and brain activation

Question 3

Nurture

Answer 3

• Is generally seen as the influence of environmental factors after you are born

Question 4

The issue

Answer 4

• Luis Suarez was given a 10 game ban for biting a Chelsea footballer during a game which lead to a fierce response from Liverpool who say they are ‘shocked and disappoint’ at the punishment given
• The Fa stated that the suspension of 3 matches was insufficient and decided that Suarez should serve a further 7 matches

Question 5

What are the implication if aggression is from nature and why does this pose a problem for society?

Answer 5

• If aggression is purely explained by nature, this will change the way we see punishment for aggression behaviour
• We will have to rethink how prison sentence or football penalties would work and consider more biologically driven ways of treatment
• If aggression comes from purely biological explanation, non biological punishment such as fines in football will not help treat the aggression person

Question 6

How can we use testosterone to explain Luis’ aggression?

Answer 6

• Suarez may have higher levels of testosterone than others
• High testosterone could help explain his high level of athletic performance
• Testosterone is a hormone that is highly linked to aggression and it has a role in triggering the body’s fight or flight response
• It is seen that aggressive individuals alongside many top level athletes seem to have more of this hormone in their bodies as well such as Luis
• Dabbs and Hargrove found that women who were more violently aggressive and dominant in prison also had higher levels of testosterone in their saliva

Question 7

How can we use brain activation to explain Luis’s aggression?

Answer 7

• Areas in the brain associated with aggression are the Amygdala and the Prefrontal cortex
• The amygdala controls emotions and motivation as well as combining internal and external stimuli together to give us an instinctive feeling towards things and threat response
• Prefrontal cortex govern most social interactions and regulates behaviours and controls impulse
• Coccaro et al showed that people who have extreme reactive aggression who much higher levels of amygdala when viewing images of angry faces
• Raine et al showed that violent murders had high levels of activation in the amygdala however low levels of activation in the prefrontal cortex

Question 8

How to control brain activation aggression?

Answer 8

• Penalty of being banned from playing might not affect his behaviour at all as it wouldn’t change Luis’ brain activity
• Brain stimulation may be needed to adjust his lowered activity in the PFC

Question 9

How to control testosterone aggression?

Answer 9

• If aggression is biologically based, Luis’ aggression will be not his fault as his behaviour is due to his biology
• Therefore rather than using financial punishment we may need to use drugs to target his testosterone levels to help reduce his aggression