An advantage of deliberate stimulation of the brain is that it is less harmful as the brain isn’t being damaged, just stimulated which is also more ethical. These have to be taken into consideration and can be said as effective in explaining aggression. The stimulation is also a better way of investigating the ‘living’ function of brain areas and is therefore more valid. These advantages show that it is quite effective of using the biological perspective to explain aggression. Although it is effective there are a few disadvantages in Delagado’s experiment which limits how effective this approach is. Stimulating the brain involves surgery which is risky and can be called as an invasive technique. It is also not easy to know exactly how far the stimulation is spread to other areas of the brain and the behaviour and aggression produced may not be natural and can be stereotyped.
Paul Broca (1860) discovered by examining the behavioural deficits of people with brain damage that people’s personality can be changes if they suffer from brain damage. An example of this relation between brain lesions and functional behaviour is of Phineas Gage. Gage was injured and although he survived, there was a drastic change in his personality as a result of brain damage. He was aggressive, unpredictable and profane.
Since one of the assumptions of biopsychology is that all behaviour has a cause i.e. it supports determinism, it is effective in explaining aggression because there is a clear reason to why and how it occurs, and that is through the brain. If the amygdala is damaged, there is an absence of fear and an inability to recognize facial emotions. And an abnormal acitivaton of amygdala is a sudden violent rage. In a few studies carried out, it was discovered that amydala is activated by “scary” stimuli even if it is a new stimuli. This assumption of determinism is very effective when explaining aggression since a reasonable conclusion can be made when investigating it.
There are a few other theories that state how people can be aggressive. Lorenz theorizes and states that aggression is a biological need that we have inherited which is similar to fighting instincts that is similar to animals. This has many counter theories.
Hormones play another significant role in the biological causes of aggression. The amount of testosterone also leads to an increase in aggression as it increases during times of aggression. There is evidence of changes in testosterone levels following environmental events, so that high levels of testosterone lead to higher aggressiveness, but also, aggressiveness leads to raised testosterone. This is why Maccoby and Jacklin suggest that men are more aggressive than women. This is another biological reason why aggression could occur and it is effective in explaining it as research has been carried out along with experiments to show the valid results.
Other than testosterone, researchers have also found evidence that chemicals such as serotonin and hormones such as progestin affect the amount of aggression. Lower levels increased impulsiveness and aggressiveness in animals whereas higher levels decreased the amount of aggression. An experiment with rhesus monkeys showed that serotonin was accountable for 25% of their aggressive fighting behavior. The most friendly and social monkeys had the highest serotonin levels.
In conclusion, it is very effective to explain aggression through the biological perspective since there are many aspects that control aggression such as hormones and even parts of the brain. It is effective because through the assumptions of the biological perspective, such as all behaviour is caused and that all that is psychological is physiological-since the mind appears to reside the brain, all thoughts, behaviour and emotions ultimately have a physical cause- it can be concluded that aggression is caused by the brain and certain chemicals and hormones.
