| Physiological explanations for criminal behaviour | brain dysfunction - limbic system (amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus responsible for emotional response , damage to the system leads to abnormal responses
how do you investigate brain activity- Position Emission Tomography PET and FMRI
genes- the warrior gene is associated with violent behaviour by a mutation
hormones- cortisol leads to anti social behaviour and testosterone leads to aggressive behaviour
low resting heart rate 5-17% of gender difference in crime |
| non physiological explanations for criminal behaviour | Families- Farrington found that people from disrupted families are often associated into crime e.g. poverty ,school performance
Norms- Sutherlands explanation - lacks temporal validity.
criminal behaviour is learnt from others , your environment
Moral development - a lack of moral reasoning leads to crime
Criminal thinking patterns |
| Key research by Raine | Quasi experiment (Iv- murderers or non murderers) is naturally occuring . DV= activity in regions of the brain PET scans
Sample - 41 matched on age and sex . so matched pair design mean age 34.3
control group - no mental illnesses
Results - murderers had reduced glucose metabolism in the prefrontextal cortex , left angular gyrus,corpus callosum and reduced activity in the amygdala, hippocampus and thalamus.
Conclusion - Raine did not conclude that there were only biological causes for violence just that there might be a predisposition to violence in some people depending on environment triggers |
| Evaluation of key research | Validity - matched pair design increases the validity as it removes pptts variables
-pet scans are objective
- low pop validity -41
Reliabilty - standardised same questions and scan
- subjective interpretation on activity
CAN SUPPORT PSCYH AS A SCIENCE |
| Applications of biological stratergies to prevent behaviour | nutritional suplements - omega 3 and 6 reduce anti social bhv
quit smoking , birth check ups , no caffiene |
