Paper 3 - Child 2 - Adolescent brain Flashcards
1
Q
Describe the background study by Casey
A
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2
Q
Describe the background study by Kotch
A
- longitudinal study of 1318 children at risk of neglect
- local child protection services records checked
- 4 US cities and 1 southern state
- parental neglect at age of 2 years old predicted aggressive behaviour at 8 years old.
- however there is no effect if the neglect was after 2 years old
- this suggests that there’s a critical period of the first 2 years for certain brain areas to develop - the effects of stress are less damaging after this time
3
Q
desribe the aim of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- to see if adolescents are more sensitive to the probability of high rewards (EV) compared to adults
- and if they have greater ventral striatum activity as the reward increases.
4
Q
what is the method of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- lab and quasi experiment
- independent measures design
- IV = adult or adolescent
- DV= number of gambles in spinner game vs ventral striatum activity
4
Q
describe the sample of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- self selected sample
- 19 adults
- 22 adolescents
- all right handed
- ads were posters oline and a data base of UCLA previous pps
- self report showed no psychistaric disorders, developmental delays or medication
5
Q
what is the apparatus of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- 3-tesla trio MRI machine
- 140 functional and 2 structural images per pps
6
Q
explain the procedure of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- intake session - informed consent gained pps state on how much spending money they have per month as if affects the value they place on the reward of money.
- adult average = $467.11
- child average =$ 52.50
- pps given $20 to use and they could win extra or loose it all
- fMRI session - pps see an on screen spinner one half shows money you can win and the other half shows money you can loose
- probability is 50%
- all pps trained in the task before brain scan
- trials - 192 gambles. 24 fixed gain, 24 fixed loss distributed randomly
- the gain/loss ranged from $6 to $19
7
Q
explain the results of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- High EV gambles were accepted by most pps
- no age difference on no risk gambles
- adolescents had greater activation of left Ventral striatum to increase EV (accepted over 80% of gambes)
- as EV increased, there was decreased activity in amygdala and hippocampus and increased activation of the superior medial PFC
8
Q
what are the conclusions of Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study
A
- confirms previous research that adolescent risk taking is due to biological processes in specific brain area
- e.g. the late maturing and heightened sensitivity of the VS which creates greater sensitivity to rewards
- confirms that the medial prefrontal cortex is a valuation system and the VS is too in adolescents but not adults due to its hyperactivation even when adults and adolescents show the same gambling behaviour
- even when controllinf for the subjective value of money, these results confirm that the adolescent brain values potential rewards more
- results show partial support for the DUAL system theory and the VS but cannot confirm controlling of prefrontal cortex over VS as pfc was not studies
9
Q
what are the 2 applications of this topic
A
- nurse visitation programmes
- graduated driver programmes
10
Q
what is nurse visitation programme
A
- targets men and women who are expecting a baby and who are considered at high risk of mistreating it
- operates on the principle that te best way to prevent harm is to reduce stress in parents
- a nurse visits the parents at home before the birth and for sometime afterwards
- for example the well established nurse family partnership in the USA pairs a specially trained urse with a family for 2 and a half years
- targets mothers to be as they are facing a life changing event
- parents are trained to cope with stressors that could provoke mistreatment
- the nurse also puts the adult in touch with health care services and provides social support by involving family and friends
- stress reduction will have a long term effect on risk taking reducing it later in life
11
Q
evaluate the usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of nurse visitation programme
A
- usefulness - preventing mistreatment of child avoids risk of damaging brain structure and processes at a sensitive period of development. breaks the link with the development of risk taking behaviour
- effectiveness - mostly effective as mothers could cope better with stressors. children less likely to be arrested, fewer alcohol and drugs
- practicalities - the programme is not effective if the full course is not completed
12
Q
what is the graduated drivre programmes
A
- reduces incidents in inexperienced drivers
- involvement in accidents reflects the delay in maturation of cognitive control system in relation to the emotion regulation system
- this imbalance results in underdeveloped cognitive skills crucial to driving
- a young driver cannot get their liscence until they have completed an extended period of supervised driving with an experienced adult
- they achieve this in stages which restrictiond are gradually lifted,e.g. speed limits
- stage 1 - always supervised
- stage 2 - can drive unsupervised in daylight
- stage 3 - full priveledges after passing stage 2 and age 18
13
Q
what is the usefulness, effectiveness and practicalities of graduated driver programme
A
- usefulness - one of the most common restrictions is the number of passengers (friends) in the car this is in response to hightened arousal with friends that causes risk taking
- effectiveness - there are social and cultural reasons why adolescents take risks which affect the success and failure of this programme
- practicalities - the longer it takes for a pps to drive unsupervised - the less the risk taking behaviour
14
Q
evaluate validity in thid topic
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - lacks ecological validity
- casey - high internal validity
- kotch - high predictive validity
15
Q
Evaluate reliability in this topic
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - highly reliable, standarised procedures like $20, training and gambling completed in same way
- Casey - reliable - standardised procedure
- Kotch - low external reliability, only USA pps
16
Q
evaluate sampling bias
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study self selected sample means people are likely more outgoing and impulsive. should of used random sampling
- BLG - age bias adolescence = 13-17 doesn’t include 18 above who are still adolescent
- kotch - large representative sample but usa
17
Q
evaluate ethnocentrism
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - individualist view of risk taking
- kotch - individualist culture have nuclear family ( 1 mum and 1 dad) collectivist have extended family.
- meyer and bucci - used rats - no conscious feelings from culture.
18
Q
evaluate nature/nurture
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - nature - risk taking behvaiour is caused by brain activity
- kotch - nurture - aggressive behaviour due to childhood environment
- casey - nature - brain activity
19
Q
evaluate reductionism/holism
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study- biological reductionist - highly complex behaviour explained by straightforward neurological processes
- environmental determinism - kotch
- holism - wilougby - only a t
20
Q
evaluate freewill/ determinism
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study biological determinism
- kotch environmenta determinism
- woloughby - tiny proportion of adolescents do risk taking activites
21
Q
evaluate ethics
A
- BLG parents gave consent and children agreed, but do they understand the implications ?
- harm - BLG - fMRI scanner can be claustrophobic
- right to withdraw - kotch longitudinal
22
Q
evaluate psychology as a science
A
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - lacks ecological validity
- Barkley-Levenson and Galvan’s study - highly reliable, standarised procedures like $20, training and gambling completed in same way
- kotch - low population validity - large representative sample but only usa, individualist culture
23
Q
evaluate usefulness of research
A
- practical benefits - interventions to lower risk taking behaviour, e.g. kotch and nurse visitation programme
- new insights - BLG refines our knowledge of the adolescent brain and processes involved with risk taking behaviour
- low ecological validity for BLG
24
Q
evaluate socially sensitive research in this topic
A
- strength - allows to study specific behaviour like barkley - levenson and galavin’s study
- weakness - labelling - kotch, labelling of parents, neglect can be subjective e.g. parents going to work
- strength - policies - neglect and poor future outcomes can be reversed with nurse visitation programmes - effective in reducing drug and alcohol arrests
25
Q
explain the background study by meyer and bucci
A
- used lab experiment to mimic system inbalance in rats
- they decreased the activity in the prefrontal cortex whilst increasing the activity of the nucleus accumbens
- rats took twice as long as a control group to learn to inhibit a responser to an expected reward (didnt arrive)
- direct relation to the correlation between system imbalance and impulsive behaviour
