scenario 8 marker on discussing the role of amygdala in explaining aggression,
essay including 3 PEEL paragraphs and competing arguments for high level marks
Paper 2 Q9 2022
Jekaterina has recently had an accident which resulted in damage to her amygdala.
Since the accident she has lost her temper a lot more. She has had frequent
arguments with her parents. Jekaterina’s old friends do not like to go out with her any
more, as she often starts fighting with strangers. She is now going out with some new
friends. Jekaterina has just been arrested by the police for hitting someone whilst she
was out with her new friends. Jekaterina thinks her aggression is due to the damage
to her amygdala.
Discuss how damage to Jekaterina’s amygdala may account for her aggression. You
must make reference to the context in your answer. (8)
Damage to the amygdala may explain Jekaterine’s aggression. The amygdala is linked to
fear conditioning and is the integrative centre for emotional response, behaviour and
motivation. Jekaterina’s damage to her amygdala might account for her losing her temper a
lot more and being unable to appreciate the risks of behaving aggressively, thus resulting in
problems with impulse control. This is because she may have issues with fear conditioning
as a result of damage to the amygdala, therefore she may fail to learn the negative
consequences of antisocial behaviour. This leads her to having frequent arguments with her
parents as she may not understand the risks of being punished by her parents. Her inability
to understand the risks of antisocial behaviour might explain her aggression. However, self-
fulfilling prophecy may account for her aggression. This is because she might be expected to
behave in an aggressive manner due to her losing her temper a lot more. This leads her
parents and friends to keep themselves under surveillance more frequently around her and
to offer no encouragement to Jekaterina for positive behaviour. This may lead her to live up
to this expectation by engaging in antisocial behaviour such as fighting with strangers.
Labelling might also explain Jekaterina’s aggressive behaviour. Labelling is when general
and broad terms are used to describe members of a group grouped together by a shared
interest or characteristic. The labels are ascribed to individuals according to stereotypes. For
example, Jekaterina may be labelled as a criminal by her old friends after fighting often with
strangers. This leads Jekaterina to continue fighting and displaying aggression because she
lives up to the label assigned by her old friends, which gives her little opportunity to change.
This may encourage her to go out with new friends who may also be labelled as aggressive
and antisocial. This is because Wilkins (1964) showed that children labelled as deviant
display behaviour typical of the label and associate themselves with others who have also
been labelled as deviant. This leads children to display antisocial behaviour to fit in the
group. This suggests that Jekaterina going out with new friends may lead her to keep
committing antisocial behaviour because she may also be expected to behave in that way by
her friends. This implies that labelling theory may explain Jekaterina’s aggression when she
is going out with her new friends. However, there is no way of knowing whether the label
may directly cause Jekaterina to behave antisocially due to other factors influencing her
aggression such as peer pressure, her testosterone levels or psychological factors. These
may explain her aggressive behaviour just as better as labelling theory.
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