Issue:
- Can be said if behaviour is caused by behaviours factors we can choose not to behave in that way. They could avoid stimuli which could trigger aggression. Choice to act differently by not reacting to cues.
- If behaviour comes from genes there is no element of choice. We cannot help our behaviour if it stems from genetic predisposition
- Implications is we should not be blamed for aggression if it comes from our nature, using prison punishment may not be ethical. Anxiety & depression get sympathy & treated by society while Aggression gets blame & punishment.
Apply:
Brain Structure:
- Pre-frontal Cortex: Personality, expression & planning cog functions, breaks to aggression, damage could create impulsive behaviour of an individual.
- Phineas Gage – Metal rod driven through PFC damaging it & altering his personality making him more impulsive & aggressive
- Amygdala: Controls fear perception, telling us what dangerous, damage is could make us fearful. Remembers how we react to frightful stimuli, if react aggressively the amygdala makes an individual repeat this without logical thought. A healthy PFC could resist urges of erratic Amygdala but if a PFC is damaged the Amygdala has no restraint.
- Raine – 41 murders pleading NGRI, finding lower glucose metabolism in left hemisphere of Amygdala, damage create abnormality function of emotional response, failure to learn from experiences & supressing fear causing aggression.
Neurotransmitters:
- Serotonin – ‘happy neurotransmitter’ which inhabitants aggression, unless low levels where less restraint of amygdala & more active by external stimuli.
- Mann – gave ppts dexfenfluramine – lowers lvls of serotonin in the brain, then gave them a questionnaire to assess hostility & aggression which rose in males alone.
- Popova – Found selectively bred dogs for docile & domestic treatments had an increase link between high serotonin & no aggression
Hormones:
- Testosterone – men more aggressive as a result. Raine found 5% of men can be characterized by pattern of anti-social behaviour these men commit 50-70% of violent crime. Males create more testosterone & greater exposure to it in the womb.
- Kalat: 15-25 yr old men, those with highest lvls of circulating testosterone show highest lvls of aggression measures by crime stats
- Cortisol – Steroid hormone & produced by adrenaline gland & released in response to stress & low blood glucose.
- Barzman – study on 17 boys from ages 7-9 yr olds to find relation on hormones correlate to aggression in Saliva. Samples took 3 times a day & higher levels 30 minutes after waking correlate with aggressive incidents.
Natural Selection:
- States we are aggressive so males can get & maintain influence over his mate suggesting aggressive to stop mate from leaving or cheating but converted into sexual jealousy so socially acceptable.
- Competing for mates = rivalry & jealousy = aggression.
- Women have paternal certainty while a male doesn’t. If he suspects she cheated he would be aggressive to her & the other male.
- Lorenz: observed animals in natural world & wrote about aggression being an evolved trait. Especially in males who have to fight over resources which are limited
- Daly & Watson – found men develop series of mate retention techniques to keep hold of partners such as snooping through possessions or stopping talking to other men.
| Strengths | Weakness |
| High scientific status – uses scientific techniques like pet scans by Raine to see & detect abnormalities in brain structure – therefore making research objective, having scientific rigor & creditability.
Mann – gave ppts dexfenfluramine lowers lvls of serotonin in the brain, then gave them a questionnaire to assess hostility & aggression which rose in males alone. – supporting that neurotransmitters have a role in aggression. Raine – 41 murders pleading NGRI, finding lower glucose metabolism in left hemisphere of Amygdala, damage create abnormality function of emotional response, failure to learn from experiences & supressing fear causing aggression. – supports that brain damage can cause Aggression Application: results show that nature has a role in aggression through natural selection passing of genes, damages in brain structure and physiological hormones which must have an evolutionary effect – therefore it is ethically immoral to put aggressive people in prison as it’s part of their bio, we must develop drug therapies to alter these predispotions |
Low G – Some evidence from animal studies & animals don’t share the same sophisticated outside layers of the cerebral cortex as humans do – therefore making hard to generalise results to human samples
Freud – Having a weak superego from Oedipus/Electra complex means that we have low moral standards & the ramped ID gets what it wants ignoring punishment – therefore explaining psychodynamic theory for aggression Reductionist – theories look at complex human behaviour by splitting it into nature factors making it reduced and simple – ignoring elements of interactionist view & looking at aggression in a wider context. Low validity: We cannot fully be certain that aggression arises due to damages in the brain, or specific hormones/NT or could be effects of extraneous variables or interaction of multiple factors – therefore cannot determine a cause or effect relation. |