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BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY ISSUES AND DEBATES (SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH…
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY ISSUES AND DEBATES
REDUCTIONISM
Necessary to fulfill the requirements of being scientific because it reduces behaviour to a simple testable set of variables but this is at the cost of validity as the bigger picture is ignored in favour of a simplistic and mechanistic explanation
Reductionistic explanations suggest a lack of free will as heredity and chemical imbalances are thought to dictate our behaviour and broader biological theories suggest that behaviour like aggression can be reduced to the action of chemicals in specific brain areas
Such explanations neglect factors at other levels that interact with each other to produce the behaviour; looking at genetic inheritance in aggression can only be part of the picture, it has a part to play but on it’s own can explain very few cases - more valid explanations come when looking at upbringing where aggression was modeled in the family and cultural factors such as the approval of violence
ETHICS
Research has been done on animals because they have a simpler but similar central nervous system so it is easier to see what is happening; it is possible to control the environment in which they live, enabling rigorous controls to be used in experimental research (eg raising and keeping the animal in isolation to avoid any effects of socialisation) which would not be possible on humans due to ethical reasons
It is also possible to conduct invasive procedures on animals such as lesion or in-vivo stimulation studies and other research of this kind links to aggression lesions/stimulation to different areas of the brain, which have been shown to activate behaviour associated specifically with one type of aggression
However the use of humans also has ethical issues as scanning techniques has a cost to the participants; PET scans require the injection of radioactive dye to the bloodstream and most scans require the person to remain still for an extended period of time in a very enclosed space
A participant should leave the study in the same state/condition in which they started but if they have undergone a brain scan then try might leave with knowledge that changes their view of themselves
SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH
Research into the topic of aggression is socially sensitive and it is likely to gain attention in the media because it has implications for society
Neurological explanations for various types of behaviour are examples of such research and these include studies that link genetics to homosexuality, intelligence, aggression
Raine’s research is socially sensitive because it went against the prevailing view that crime was as a result of social and environmental factors like poor nurturing in childhood rather than individual differences in biology
In the past, research that has linked biology to behaviour has been used to justify extremist views and social policies, such as eugenics where individuals belonging to certain social groups were subjected to compulsory socialisation as an attempt to control the gene pool by removing undesirable genes
One outcome of neuro-criminological stance might be the medicalisation of criminal behaviour; if brain scans reveal differences that are associated with aggressive behaviour then perhaps it’s a form of disorder which leads to issues about personal responsibility, where it could be claimed that criminal behaviour is beyond the control of individuals
USE OF KNOWLEDGE
Drug addiction has benefitted because understanding the physiological changes that underlie addiction to drugs has furthered treatments
Insight into the contributory role of genes, hormones and brain structures on aggressive behaviour also helps us to avoid the behaviour by understanding it’s caused and it provides an explanation as to why some people might be more aggressive than others and potentially allows for predictions of risks to be made
PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE
Most scientific because it has physical aspects of behaviour that can be objectively measured; changes in the chemical make up of synapses can be measured by the use of sensitive mass spectrometry and such scientific techniques can serve to increase the credibility and status of psychology
However not all measures are completely objective as the correlational method cannot draw clear cause and effect conclusions
The use scientific techniques that identify and measure physical structures has led to a much deeper understanding of the central nervous system and has established factors but it leaves psychology open to charges of reductionism as it seeks and identifies simple biological mechanisms that underlie complex behaviours like aggression
NATURE - NURTURE
Theories often talk about nature as they focus on the role that genetics play in programming the way biological structures develop in the brain and/or in influencing the release of hormones
The nature side of the debate encompasses the evolutionary explanation by proposing that aspects of human behaviour are biologically determined because are genes that programme for such behaviour convey an adaptive advantage for the people who possess them, which includes behaviour such as male aggression
Genetic determinism ignores the role of nurture that is provided by the environment as the person grows and develops; the brain continues to develop throughout life, especially during childhood, and its structure is affected by experience which shows how nature and nurture are interactive
ISSUES OF SOCIAL CONTROL
Knowing what causes problematic behaviours can mean that people might strive to predict which people will go on to develop certain traits; if research into brain dysfunction uncover biological determinants of aggressive behaviour, researchers may try to use this to scan people early on in life to find out risks which means there is a possibility that people could be labelled as potentially violent, leading to unfair treatment
Unethical treatments, such as prefrontal lobotomies, have been used to control antisocial behaviour based on weak evidence about the role of the prefrontal cortex in controlling behaviour
Chemical castration of males, which involves giving antiandrogenic drugs, also controls people and it has been argued to be an excessive punishment which unfairly affects the minds and bodies of those to whole it applies, with others arguing that it allows men convicted of sexual crime to avoid prison
However, there is no research suggesting that any biological factors are definitive causes of aggression so this form of control and monitoring may be unfairly administered
PRACTICAL ISSUES
Brain scans are complex methods of data collection are objective but are heavily flawed and do not tell us what they claim to do; the scanner locks up lots of information that it then has to collate and interpret to create the imagine that can then be used