Biological Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
Define nature
A
The effects of your biology whether it be genetics,brain structure or neurotransmitters
2
Q
Define nurture
A
The effects of the environment. Upbringing experiences at school, friendships, being the middle child,society etc
3
Q
HORMONE EXPLANATION OF AGGRESSION
What are hormones?
A
- Hormones are chemical messengers that transmit information around the body, carried in blood.
- Hormones are produced by glands. These glands make up the endocrine system e.g. the pituitary glans creates growth hormone and the adrenal gland creates adrenaline.
- They make longer time changes in the body.
4
Q
HORMONE EXPLANATION OF AGGRESSION
AO1 describe the hormone explanation of aggression
A
- men are more aggressive than women and men have much more testosterone which is said to cause aggression
- Antenatal exposure to testosterone in the womb shapes you brain. It is responsible for cell growth in the hypothalamus and the amygdala
- Testosterone lowers the threshold of the amygdala was
5
Q
HORMONE EXPLANATION OF AGGRESSION
Strengths of the explanation
A
- objective/scientific-measuring hormones in the blood is a scientific and direct method making it objective, making the explanation more credible
- Beeman - castrated Male mice and found that aggression reduced. He later injected the mice with testosterone which re-established their aggression.
- Edwards - injecting female rats with testosterone made them much more aggressive compared to control group
- Individual differences-explains why some people are more aggressive than other which makes it more useful and more credible as an explanation.
6
Q
HORMONE EXPLANATION OF AGGRESSION
Weaknesses of the explanation
A
- Cause and effect issues with the theory we don’t know wether testosterone causes aggression or aggression increases testosterone
- Reductionist-ignores other explanations such as upbringing
- Animal studies-they are not the same as humans and the differences might make it not applicable.
