Lesson 6.1.1

6.1.1 Biological and social explanations of crime Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 6

20 questions

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Lesson 6.1.1, Biological and social explanations of crime: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 6: Criminological psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which biological factor is linked to aggressive behaviour in the amygdala explanation of crime?

    • Reduced activity of the thyroid gland in the neck, which regulates metabolism across the body
    • Increased length of the spinal cord in the lower back, which carries signals to the legs and feet
    • Overactivity or abnormal functioning of the amygdala, a brain structure involved in emotional responses
    • Excess growth of the cerebellum, a brain structure that controls balance and coordination of movement

  2. What is XYY syndrome in the context of biological explanations of crime?

    • A hormone disorder that affects only females and changes their reproductive system
    • A chromosomal variation in males with an extra Y chromosome, once linked to aggression
    • A brain injury caused by a blow to the head that damages the frontal lobes of the cortex
    • A genetic condition that always causes intellectual disability in every person who has it

  3. Which biological explanation is linked to frontal lobe damage?

    • Frontal lobe damage only affects memory for numbers and does not change emotional responses
    • Brain injury can reduce impulse control and increase aggressive or antisocial behaviour
    • Frontal lobe damage has no effect on behaviour, because the brain adapts quickly after injury
    • Brain injury always improves judgement and self-control in people who have suffered it

  4. What does labelling theory propose about criminal behaviour?

    • Only biological traits determine whether people are labelled, not anything they actually do
    • Labels always stop people from offending in future, because they make people more careful
    • Being labelled as a criminal can lead people to adopt the label and continue offending
    • Labels have no relation to later behaviour, since people act independently of what others think

  5. What is a self-fulfilling prophecy in social explanations of crime?

    • A prediction that never influences anyone's behaviour because people ignore what others expect
    • An expectation that causes its own fulfilment, such as being treated as a criminal and then behaving like one
    • A legal ruling that can be reversed on appeal, so it has no lasting effect on the person involved
    • A biological trait present from birth that determines how a person behaves throughout life

  6. Which term describes the initial act of deviance before any labelling takes place?

    • Operant conditioning
    • Primary deviance
    • Secondary deviance
    • Cognitive dissonance

  7. Which factor is part of the description of personality as a cause of criminal behaviour?

    • Large vocabulary in a second language, which is linked to fluency in reading and writing
    • Strong musical ability in childhood, which is linked to good spatial reasoning later on
    • High levels of psychoticism, which relate to aggression and lack of empathy
    • High levels of visual memory capacity, which help a person recall the details of a scene

  8. A researcher finds that a brain injury is more common among a group of offenders than a matched control group. What is the main limitation of concluding that the injury caused the crime?

    • Brain injury cannot be measured in any research because it is too difficult to detect reliably
    • Offenders always have brain injuries by definition, so the comparison is meaningless in practice
    • The control group must be the same size as the offender group for any comparison to be valid
    • Correlation does not show causation, and other factors may explain both the injury and the offending

  9. Which social explanation would predict that a young person labelled as delinquent by teachers may begin to see themselves as a delinquent?

    • Stratified sampling theory
    • Monotropy and the internal working model
    • Labelling theory and the self-fulfilling prophecy
    • Strange Situation classification

  10. A study finds that offenders scored higher on psychoticism than non-offenders. Which evaluation is most appropriate?

    • The finding supports a link but personality measures are correlational and do not prove that personality causes crime
    • The finding shows personality is irrelevant to crime, because the two groups differed in other ways
    • The finding means all people with high psychoticism are offenders, so the trait predicts crime exactly
    • The finding proves that psychoticism causes all criminal behaviour in every person who is studied

  11. Which is a strength of biological explanations of crime?

    • They always explain every individual's crime fully without needing any other kind of explanation
    • They do not require any scientific evidence because the physical causes are obvious to observers
    • They rule out any influence of social circumstances on the offending behaviour of individuals
    • They can identify physical factors that might be targeted by treatment

  12. Which is a limitation of social explanations such as labelling theory?

    • They may underplay the role of biological and personality factors in offending
    • They cannot explain any form of human behaviour, whether social, cognitive or biological in nature
    • They require brain scans for every participant, which makes them too costly to use in research
    • They have been tested only in laboratories with animals and never with people in the real world

  13. Which explanation for crime is most closely linked to developmental change in childhood and adolescence?

    • The cognitive interview with witnesses, which is used to improve the accuracy of their recall
    • The Strange Situation procedure in infants, which measures the security of the attachment bond
    • Social learning and self-fulfilling prophecy, which can explain how behaviour develops over time
    • Dopamine levels in adults only, which are measured through blood tests in clinical settings

  14. A researcher proposes that offending arises from a combination of brain injury and labelling. Which approach does this reflect?

    • A purely social explanation with no biological content
    • An interactionist explanation combining biological and social factors
    • A purely reductionist explanation based on one cause
    • A purely personality-based explanation with no environment

  15. Why is evidence about XYY syndrome and crime considered weak?

    • Because XYY affects every male in the population, so the link to crime is universal and clear
    • Because XYY is found only in female offenders, so it cannot apply to the male population
    • Because the syndrome always causes intellectual disability, which rules out any link to crime
    • Later research did not find a strong, consistent link with aggression or crime

  16. Which is the best description of the role of gender in explanations of crime and anti-social behaviour?

    • Gender only matters for the choice of a treatment after the offence has been fully assessed
    • Gender only matters in laboratory experiments and has no part in real criminal behaviour
    • Crime rates differ between males and females, which explanations must account for
    • Gender has no relevance because all offenders are identical in their backgrounds and motives

  17. A researcher argues that a social explanation of crime is weak because it ignores individual differences. What is the best response?

    • Social factors always outweigh individual differences in every case, whatever the person is like
    • Individual differences are irrelevant to every explanation of behaviour, because people are alike
    • Individual differences can be measured only in animals, not in humans, so they cannot inform theory
    • Individual differences such as personality and developmental history can affect whether a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs

  18. A developmental explanation claims that early anti-social behaviour leads to a label that changes later behaviour. Which is this an example of?

    • Assertiveness training for offenders who need help to express their needs without aggression
    • The self-fulfilling prophecy as a developmental explanation of crime
    • Cognitive interview techniques used with witnesses to improve the accuracy of their memory recall
    • Psychological formulation of offending used to plan treatment for an individual offender at risk

  19. Which statement about biological and social explanations of crime is most accurate?

    • Only social explanations can be tested with evidence, since biology is too difficult to measure
    • Only biological explanations have any scientific basis, since social factors cannot be measured
    • Both kinds of explanation can contribute, and the two may interact in shaping offending
    • Neither explanation has any value to researchers, because crime is always a matter of chance

  20. Which study design would best test whether labelling causes further offending?

    • A laboratory test of memory for word lists completed by students in a short single session
    • A longitudinal study that tracks young people before and after an official label
    • A single case study of one offender whose life is examined in depth by the researcher alone
    • A one-off survey of attitudes towards crime carried out in a sample of adults at one time

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