How ethical is animal research?

Is it ethical to inflict suffering and death on animals in the name of psychological research? Opinions on the ethics of animal research vary greatly. Some argue that causing the death of some animals is a small price to pay for advancing knowledge, while others feel...

For those of you who like Biology! Some Behavioural Genetics

Top Ten Replicated Findings from Behavioural Genetics Plomin et al (2016) wrote a ground-breaking article about Behavioural Genetics – but it is a little difficult to read. This summary will help you identify recent findings relevant to an essay the topic of...

Disgust and Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychologists believe that if behaviour exists in society today, then it must be a useful adaptation that has helped us survive and reproduce, a concept known in evolutionary theory as ‘the survival of the fittest’. They also point out that despite the...

Do your genes determine your entire life?

One might believe, after studying the correlational studies of Bouchard et al (1990), that most of our behaviour is genetically determined. However, what is missing in this discussion, is the interaction between environment and genes – how some environments can...

Your mood swings may give you an evolutionary advantage

Hmmm really? Let us do some critical thinking here.  You are studying evolutionary psychology and the claims that many human behaviours have evolved over time to ensure the survival of the best adapted to our environment.  While this theory, based on Darwin’s...

HM’s Brain

Born in 1926, Henry Molaison had been hit by a cyclist when he was seven and from the age of 10 then started to have epileptic seizures that subsequently started to worsen as he neared adulthood. By the time he was 27, these seizures were so crippling that he...