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Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression 16 marker
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A*/A grade 16 mark model answer on the neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression (AQA A-level Psychology)
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Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression 16 markerNeural mechanisms such as the amygdala make up part of the limbic system and can explain
aggression by looking at the brain. The amygdala is thought to be part of the brain
responsible for emotion and aggression. It evaluates sensory input and Long-term memories
(LTMs) and then decides on an appropriate response, but if it get damaged this evaluation
process is impaired and aggression will result as responses are no longer appropriate. This
was shown in 2014 when Pardini conducted a longitudinal study on a group of violent
males, in an MRI he found those with reduced amygdala volume were the most aggressive.
However, it is subject to an androcentric gender bias as the study was conducted on males
so it can’t be used to explain female aggression.
The hippocampus is another neural mechanism which makes up the limbic system, but
instead allow us to asses a current situation by using past experiences and relay whether the
situation is dangerous or not to the amygdala. If the hippocampus is damaged this may
cause the amygdala to respond inappropriately or aggressively. This can be shown by Adrian
Raine 2014 who found asymmetries in the hippocampi volume of psychopaths, which
restricts communication to the amygdala.
Hormonal mechanisms such as testosterone have also shown to have an influence on
aggression. Testosterone is thought to increase aggression from young adulthood due to its
possible influence on the amygdala and other chemicals thought to be involved in
aggressive behaviour such as serotonin. This is shown by research conducted by Dabbs 1987
who found that salivary testosterone in violent criminals was much higher than non-violent
criminals.
However, one criticism of neural and hormonal explanations is that they are biologically
reductionist. This is because they attempt to explain aggression by looking at biological
systems instead of looking more holistically at the person as there may be other influences
that aren’t biological. This can be seen from a study conducted in 1994 by Albert who found
no correlation between violence and testosterone levels, showing another possibly
environmental influence may be causing the aggressive behaviour and not biological. This
suggests that a more holistic approach should be taken as its highly unlikely there’s just one
contributing factor to aggression.
Support for the influence of the amygdala and the hippocampus in aggression come from a
study by Kulver and bucy 1937. They found removing the temporal lobes (which contain the
amygdala and part of the hippocampus) in rhesus monkeys meant they could see but not
recognise emotion. Which demonstrates the importance of the limbic system in controlling
aggression and emotion.
Another criticism of neural and hormonal mechanism in aggression is that the majority of
studies in support are conducted on animals. However, human behaviour is much more
complex with more factors contributing then animal behaviour so this research can’t be
generalised to humans and can’t be used to explain their aggression. Decreasing external
validity of neural and hormonal mechanisms is that the research is based on animal not
human studies.
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