Schizophrenia introduction

Today we started our first unit 4 topic - Schizophrenia. We looked at what schizophrenia is and isn't, and listed the clinical characteristics (symptoms). Today's powerpoint is here.

We also reflected on our mock performance. If you got a U grade on any essay then these need to be redone. The deadline is Wednesday 12th February. 

Evolutionary explanations of aggression

We started with a cheery clip from Bridget Jones but went downhill from then on in.



We finished the aggression topic with a look at the evolutionary explanations for human aggression, in particular sexual jealousy and infidelity.

This is all fairly depressing stuff and highly determinist. You can really go to town on the evaluation here. Mostly the studies are at best correlational, and they are generally all self-report/natural experiments - so you should be careful to interpret them carefully. It isn't enough to say 'this is too determinist, obviously our genes don't control everything' - you must be able to state the other factors that are at play. Use your knowledge from the aggression topic, and refer to concepts like social learning theory, predisposition and diathesis-stress.

Apologies for the totally gratuitous photo of Colin Firth looking rather dishy.

Genetic factors in aggression

Here is today's powerpoint. We discussed whether or not there is a genetic link to aggression - the answer is that there is probably an inherited predisposition but which is massively affected by environmental factors. I set an essay for homework:

(a)Outline the role of genetic factors in aggressive behaviour (4)

(b)Outline and evaluate one social psychological theory of aggression (4 + 16)

Due Wednesday 4th February

AS mock feedback

Here is a powerpoint showing model answers for all the questions (except the essay) on the AS mock that some of you did last week. Please ask if there's anything you don't understand.

Biological explanations of aggression

Today we looked at two biochemical explanations of aggression. We started with the idea that low levels of serotonin is linked to aggression. There is fairly strong research support for this, from both human and animal studies, but the idea on it's own is rather reductionist as a causal explanation of aggression.
We then looked at the effects of testosterone - again, widely documented but slightly more complicated that the serotonin link. We ended up with two hypotheses - the reciprocal and basal models, which argue for the direction of the link between testosterone and aggression to be in opposite directions.
Today's powerpoint is here.

Institutional aggression

Today we looked at aggression within institutions, particularly prisons (the picture above shows a prison riot in action). We divided the factors that cause institution in prisons into situational and dispositional factors, and evaluated these in turn. We looked at evidence from Zimbardo (1973) briefly - your homework is to rewrite your notes on this study from last year. We also looked at Abu Ghraib and the fallout from that - Zimbardo himself had some interesting points to make.

Today's powerpoints are here and here.

Don't forget the AS mock is on Friday (P3 and P4) and the A2 mock is next Wednesday (P1 & P2).

Deindividuation

Today's lesson went from the extremely frivolous to the extremely serious, as we tried to explore whether or not deindividuation is a valid theory of aggression.

The theory goes that anonymity, sometimes provided by being in a crowd, creates the perfect atmosphere for aggression, as individuals lose their self-awareness and stop being concerned with how they evaluate their own behaviour and how others see them. This makes a lot of sense, but is rather simplistic if you look carefully. In reality, the context of the crowd and the specific social norms applied to it are much more important in determining whether or not aggressive (or peaceful, or loving, or whatever) acts take place.

Today's powerpoint is here. 

Aggression - social learning theories

Today we started the final unit 3 topic - aggression. We looked at Bandura's social learning theory of aggression, supported by his famous Bobo Dolls experiment.

This topic is fairly straightforward but there are various technical terms that you need to be able to use appropriately, and if you don't this will seriously weaken your written work. The worksheet of the technical terms that we filled in is here. The info sheet about the Bobo dolls experiment is here.

Today's ppt is here.

Don't forget, ongoing homework is to revise for the mock exams. Any probs, see me.