Classic study for biological (Raine) Flashcards
what is the aim of Raine?
To investigate differences between who plead not guilty of reason of insanity compared to a control group
who were the experimental group of Raine’s study?
a group of people pleading not guilty of reason of insanity to either murder or man slaughter, 39 males and 2 females
who were the control group in Raine’s study?
people who weren’t murderer’s ,they were matched with the experimental group on age, sex, gender and mental disorder.
what were the participants injected with to be able to carry out the PET scans in Raines study?
fluoride oxygenated glucose, to be able to measure brain activity
what were the results for Raines study in the amygdala?
If the participant was aggressive, there was asymmetrical activity in the amygdala , the right side was more active then the left side.
what were the results results of Raines study in the pre frontal cortex?
there was lower activity in the pre frontal cortex in the experimental group due to the pre frontal cortex being involved with decision making and impulse control.
what was the conclusions Raine came up with from this study?
abnormal activity in certain parts of the brain e.g amygdala and pre frontal cortex are associated with levels of aggression
what are the ethical issues with Raine’s study?
we don’t know to what extent the participants could give consent due to the conditions of their mental illness.
they had to take the participants off their medication as Raine had to see what state of mind they were in when they did the murders.
what are the strengths and weaknesses of using PET scans
strength-they’re repeatable
weakness- however they’re subjective as Raine had to make the judgement
what was an issue with Raines sample?
it was mostly males- andocentric
