raine et al

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

to discover using PET scans whether there are brain abnormalities in murderers who plead guilty using NGRI

Question 2

sample

Answer 2

39m and 2f in each group being charged in California,USA tried for murder/manslaughter and called ‘seriously violent individuals’

Question 3

IV,DV and design

Answer 3

matched pairs on sex,age,psychiartic illness between control and experimental group . lab experiment IV- committed murder or not and DV-results of PET scans. (sometimes quasi as didn’t have full control over IV)

Question 4

procedure

Answer 4

req to perform a continuous performance test staring at a screen while blurred symbols appear then press a button when the symbol appears req constant attention- 10 min practice trial and then fluorodeoxyglucose injected after 32 min brain scanned in PET scanner to determine the level of activity in various regions of the brain

Question 5

results

Answer 5

lower levels of brain activity in both hemispheres compared to control group, lower levels of brain activity compared to the control group in the parietal cortex

Question 6

conclusions

Answer 6

reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex,corpus callosum and asymmetries of structures in the limbic system predispose them to violent behaviour. lack of prefrontal cortex function=reduced ability to regulate and abnormal functioning of amygdala emotional processing = fearlessness

Question 7

Generalisability PEEC

Answer 7

One weakness of the sample is that it’s adrocentric and atypical as it only consisted of a certain group of offenders. This means that it is not representative of all violent offenders or female violent offenders. For example, they only had 2 females and used murderers seen as ‘seriously violent individuals’. Furthermore, this limitation of the sample means the results can not be generalised to explain aggressive and violent behaviour in the wider (inc non-criminal) population However most extremely violent offenders are typically male so results may give us some valid information on brain dysfunction in this relatively small group of people.

Question 8

Applications PEEC

Answer 8

Useful for society as it suggests that pre-dispositions for committing violent criminal acts could be identified using PET scans.This would be useful as violent offending crimes could be predicted and early interventions could be used to prevent violent criminal offences.For example, young people can have PET scans to see if they may soon become criminal and be prevented.However,cause and effect between brain dysfunction and violent murder is NOT established in this study. Raine himself suggests that caution is needed.he emphasises that having certain kinds of of brain activity doesn’t mean that somebody will be a violent offender so PET scans cannot and shouldn’t be used as a diagnostic tool to predict violent crimes.

Question 9

Validity PEEC

Answer 9

This is a strength because some variables are well controlled. This is a strength because it increases validity by reducing the confounding variables that could affect the outcome i.e differences in brain activity. For example, ppts didn’t take any medication 2 weeks leading up to the scan this was done to be sure any changes seen wasn’t due to the medication and the control group was matched to the experimental group on variables such as age,sex,gneder,and psychiatric illness. This increases validity as we can be fairly sure that any differences in brain activity between the 41 murderes and the control group were probably not due to individual differences.However, Raine et al did not have total control of all the confounding variables as he had no control over the upbringing of his sample or the situation in which the murder occured.Therefore, any findings that shows differences in brain activity between the 2 groups doesn’t mean that brain dysfunction caused the murders.

Question 10

Ethics PEEC

Answer 10

Raine et al’s research was approved by ethics committees.This means ethical guidelines were largely followed.for example, the Uni of Cali approved,content was given from all ppts. However,although consent was given it is possible that the ppts may not have been fully aware of the implications of the consent. For example, some of the ppts suffered from metal illness eg schizophrenic. and also had to go 2 weeks without medication.Furthermore, the murderers were taking part in the research in a bid to build up to their case for the NGRI plea,which means they may have been under pressure to take part in the study from their cousel.