Brain Areas - aggression

Question 1

What is the role of the amygdala?

Answer 1

Source of emotions - increased activity equals increased aggression

Question 2

What is the role of the hypothalamus?

Answer 2

Controls homeostasis - different hormones affect aggression

Question 3

What is the role of the midbrain?

Answer 3

Connects part of the limbic system

Question 4

What is the role of PFC?

Answer 4

Deals with decision making - low activity equals increased aggression

Question 5

Who supports this?

Answer 5

Raine - found that NGRI murderers had increased activity in right amygdala and low activity in PFC - credible evidence

Question 6

Who conflicts this?

Answer 6

Daly and Wilson - suggests it is instead sexual jealousy that influences aggression
OTOH - less than half of the sample used proved this - not enough to make it valid

Question 7

Other theories?

Answer 7

Hormonal explanation - hormones like testosterone increase aggression -supported by Beeman
OTOH - not generalisable to humans

Question 8

Usefulness?

Answer 8

Early intervention can be put in place for those with increased or low activity in certain parts of their brain

Question 9

Tesablility?

Answer 9

Can be empirically tested through brain scans like PET scans
OTOH - brain scans lack ecological validity as they take place in a lab setting