Biological- Role of the Amygdala

What is fear conditioning?

When we learn agressive behaviour leads to punishment or other negative outcomes

Why does the dysfunction of the amygdala lead to aggressive behaviour?

a dysfunction of the amygdala means that the child cannot identify the social cues that indicate threats (such as angry faces) & therefore doesn’t link punishment to their aggressive behaviour proposed by Yu GAO

How could the amygdala and fear conditioning explain criminal behaviour?

We know that the amygdala is involved in processing fear information and fear conditioning. A dysfunction of the amygdala means the child cannot identify the social cues that indicate threat (such as angry faces) and therefore does not link punishment to their aggressive behaviour.

Fear conditioning is disrupted and the outcome is that individual with amygdala dysfunction seem fearless, overly aggressive and antisocial, characteristics of criminals

Strength evidence for criminal behaviour caused by the Amygdala & Fear conditioning.

a longitudinal study where 1,795 participants were tested for fear conditioning at the age of three years. The measure used was physiological arousal (indicated by sweating) in response to a painful noise Twenty years later, the researchers found out which participants were involved in criminal behaviour. Those who had committed crimes at the age of 23 years had shown no fear conditioning when they were three years old. They were effectively "fearless” This suggests there may be a causal relationship between amygdala dysfunction and antisocial/criminal behaviour.

Good supporting evidence as it shows that the amygdala plays a large role in later criminal behaviour