raine Flashcards
1
Q
what is raines aim?
A
- to see if brains of murderers pleading not guilty by reason of insanity were different to ‘normal people’
- wanted to see if brain dysfunction predisposed people to violent behaviour
2
Q
what was raines sample?
A
- 41 murderers pleading not guilty by reason of insanity
- 41 controls
- none were on medication
- six in both the control and experimental group had schizophrenia
3
Q
what were raines results?
A
- the frontal lobe (responsible for rational thinking) had less activity in murderers
- the right side of the amygdala (responsible for aggression) had more activity in murderers
- the parietal lobe (which is responsible for morality) had less activity in murderers
4
Q
what were raines conclusions?
A
murderers had abnormal activity in the amygdala, thalamus and and hippocampus, however there isn’t one part of the brain that is solely responsible for aggression
5
Q
what was raine’s procedure?
A
- each participant carried out a practice continuous performance task (CPT) where they had to push a button when they heard a beep - stimulating the pre-frontal cortex.
- a radioactive tracer was injected into the participants
- the paricipants completed the CPT for 32 minutes
- a PET scan was conducted and 10 slices of the brain were produced
6
Q
how long was raine’s participants practice CPT task and real CPT task?
A
practice - 10 minutes
real - 32 minutes
7
Q
how generalisable was raine’s study?
A
- raine’s study had a large sample however his sample consisted of “abnormal murderers” (NGRI) for example some didn’t murder their victims in aggressive ways, and others didn’t even remember murdering them.
8
Q
how reliable is raine’s research?
A
- PET scans are very reliable and the CPT ensured they were all focusing on the same thing.
- however it was conducted in the 1990s which means some of the PET scan results were unclear, reducing reliability
9
Q
how applicable is raine’s research?
A
- has high applications as early intervention can be implemented with aggressive children, and treatments can be generated for specific brain deficits.
10
Q
how valid is raine’s research?
A
- there isn’t a clear cause and effect as the brain deficits could be due to the court trial putting stress on the participant
- the CPT is also artificial, decreasing the validity
- Bufkin and Luttrel analysed raine and 17 other experiments and all had similar results, improving reliablity
11
Q
how ethical is raines study?
A
- it is invasive, as a radioactive tracer was inserted into all participants
- however it helped some of the participants court trails which benefitted them
