Dominic, a professional equestrian, was recently involved in a serious fall during a competition where he suffered a traumatic head injury, specifically damaging his prefrontal cortex and the neural pathways connecting to his amygdala.
Since recovering physically, Dominic’s behavior has changed dramatically. He was recently arrested after a minor dispute over a parking space escalated into him shoving a supermarket security guard to the ground. His partner reports that he is now highly volatile, frequently shouting and throwing household items over minor inconveniences, such as misplaced keys. Furthermore, he has been suspended from his riding club after aggressively striking a horse that refused a fence—a stark contrast to his previous patient and gentle training methods.
Discuss how far brain injury can account for the aggression shown by Dominic. You must make reference to the context in your answer.
Content Questions
Practise Edexcel A Level Psychology Content with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 100 questions covering Main features of classical conditioning, Pavlov (1927) salivation in dogs, Main features of operant conditioning, Properties of reinforcement, Behaviour modification and shaping, Main features of social learning theory, Social learning stages, Bandura (1961, 1963) Bobo doll experiments, Bandura (1965) vicarious reinforcement, Learning theories and phobias, Treatments for phobias, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology, matched to the Edexcel A Level Psychology (9PS0) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.