Aggression

Question 1

What is the limbic system?

Answer 1

Subcorticol structures in the brain (including the hypothalamus and amygdala) thought to be closely involved in regulating emotional behaviour including aggression.

Question 2

What is the reactivity of the amydala associated with?

Answer 2

Aggressive behaviour.

Question 3

What topic is Gospic et al useful for?

Answer 3

Neural mechanisms in aggression (limbic system)

Question 4

Gospic et al. (2011)

Answer 4

Some participants were subjected to mild provocation.
When participants acted aggressively fMRI scans showed a fast and heightened response by the amygdala.
A benzodiazepine drug taken before the provocation led to two effects which were-
1. decreased activity of the amydala
2. halved the number of rejections (reduced aggression).

Question 5

What does benzodiazepine do?

Answer 5

Reduces arousal of the autonomic nervous system.

Question 6

What did Denson et al. (2012) find in terms of serotonin and neural mechanisms in aggression?

Answer 6

Normal levels of serotonin in the orbitofrontal cortex are linked with reduced firing of neurons which in turn is associated with greater behavioural self-control.
Decreased serotonin disrupts this mechanism, reducing self-control and leading to an increase in aggression.

Question 7

What is a limitation of neural mechanisms in aggression?

Answer 7

Recent research shows that non-limbic brain structures are also involved in aggression.
Limbic features function together with the orbitofrontal coryex (OFC) which is not part of the limbic system.
Coccaro et al. (2007) said that OFC activity is reduced in those psychiatric disorders that feature aggression. This reduced activity disrupts the OFCs impulse control function, which in turn causes aggressive behaviour.

Question 8

What is a strength of neural mechanisms in aggression?

Answer 8

Research into the effect of drugs.
Berman et al. (2009) gave participants either a placebo or dose of paroxetine.
The participants than took part in a lab-based game that involved giving and receiving electric shocks in response to provocation.
The paroxetine group consistently gave fewer and less intense shocks than the placebo group.
Suggests a causal link between serotonin function and aggression.

Question 9

What is some evidence of progesterone playing a role in aggression in women?

Answer 9

Ziomkiewicz et al. (2012) found a negative correlation between progesterone levels and self-reported aggression.
This suggests that low levels of progesterone are linked to increased aggression in women.

Question 10

Name two studies which show the influence of testosterone in aggression.

Answer 10

Daly and Wilson (1988)
Giammanco et al. (2005)

Question 11

What did Daly and Wilson’s (1998) find?

Answer 11

Men become more aggressive towards other men at a time in development (after age 20) when testosterone levels are highest.

Question 12

What is Giammanco et al. (2005)?

Answer 12

Castration studies of animals show that removing the testes reduces aggression in the males of many species.
Giving injections of testosterone to the same animals restores aggressive behaviour.

Question 13

What is a strength of hormonal mechanisms in aggression?

Answer 13

Research support from animals.
Giammanco et al.’s (2005) review of studies confirms the role of testosterone.
For example in male rhesus monkeys there is an increase in both testosterone levels and aggressive behaviour during the mating season.
In rats, castration of males reduces testosterone and also mouse-killing behaviour.

Question 14

What is a weakness of hormonal mechanisms in aggression?

Answer 14

Mixed evidence of the link between testosterone and aggression in humans.
Carre and Mehta (2011) developed a dual-hormone hypothesis to explain why.
They claim that high levels of testosterone lead to aggressive behaviour but only when cortisol levels are low.
When cortisol is high, testosterone’s influence on aggression is blocked.
Therefore, the combined activity of testosterone and cortisol may be a better predictor of aggression than either hormone alone.

Question 15

What is the MAOA gene?

Answer 15

The gene responsible for the activity of the enzyme monoamine oxidase in the brain.
The low-activity variant of this gene is closely associated with aggressive behaviour.

Question 16

What did Frazzetto et al. (2007) find in terms of gene environment interactions?

Answer 16

An association between higher levels of antisocial aggression and the MAOA-L gene variant in men.
This was only the case in men who had experienced significant trauma during the first 15 years of life.
Those who had experienced no childhood trauma even with the MAOA-L gene did not have particularly high levels of aggression.

Question 17

What does the enzyme monoamine oxidase A (produced by the MAOA gene) regulate?

Answer 17

Serotonin

Question 18

Name a study which looked at the link between the MAOA-L gene and aggression.

Answer 18

Brunner et al. (1993)

Question 19

What was Brunner et al. (1993)?

Answer 19

Studied 28 men from a large dutch family who were repeatedly involved in impulsively aggressive violent criminal behaviours such as attempted murder and physical assault.
Many of the men had abnormally low levels of the MAO-A enzyme and MAOA-L gene.

Question 20

What was an adoption study relating to genetic factors in aggression?

Answer 20

Rhee and Waldman (2002) carried out a meta-analysis of adoption studies of direct aggression and antisocial behaviour.
They found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression, more or less in line with findings of twin studies.

Question 21

What did Coccaro et al. (1997) find in terms of twin studies?

Answer 21

There was concordance rates of 50% for MZ twins and 19% for DZs for direct physical aggression.
For verbal aggression there is a 28% concordance rate for MZs and 7% for DZs.

Question 22

What is research support for genetic factors in aggression?

Answer 22

Mertins et al. (2011) used Men with high and low variants of the MAOA gene took part in a money-distributing game.
Men with MAOA-H were more co-operative and made fewer aggressive moves than the low-activity participants.

Question 23

What is a counterpoint for research support of genetic factors in aggression?

Answer 23

The study by Mertins et al. also showed that non-genetic factors are crucial.
Even participants with the MAOA-L gene behaved co-operatively rather than aggressively when they were made aware that others in the study were behaving cooperatively.
This suggests that genes are influenced by the environment.

Question 24

What is a problem with twin studies involving the genetic factors in aggression?

Answer 24

DZ twins may not share their environment to the same extent MZ twins do.
We assume they do and this is called the equal environments assumption - however this may be wrong.
This means that concordance rates are inflated and genetic influences on aggression may not be as great as twin studies suggest.

Question 25

What is a limitation of genetic factors in aggression?

Answer 25

The precise mechanism of the MAOA-serotonin-aggression link is unclear.
In people with the MAOA-L variant, it may be more accurate to say that their serotonin levels are disrupted rather than they are lower or higher than normal.
This shows the relationship may not be fully understood yet.

Question 26

What is an ethological explanation?

Answer 26

An explanation that seeks to understand the innate behaviour of animals by studying them in their natural environment.

Question 27

What is a innate releasing mechanism (IRM)

Answer 27

A biological structure or process which is activated by an external stimulus that in turn triggers a fixed action pattern.

Question 28

What is a fixed action potential (FAP)?

Answer 28

A sequence of stereotyped preprogrammed behaviours triggered by an innate releasing mechanism.

Question 29

What does the ethological explanation of aggression suggest?

Answer 29

The main function of aggression is adaptive as it is beneficial for survival because a ‘defeated’ animal is rarely killed, but rather is forced to establish territory elsewhere.

Question 30

What did Lorenz (1966) find in terms of ritualistic aggression?

Answer 30

He observed that fights between animals of the same species produced little actual physical damage
Most aggressive encounters consisted of a prolonged period of ritualistic signalling.

Question 31

What did Lea (1984) say the six main features of FAPs are?

Answer 31

Stereotyped
Universal within a species
Unaffected by learning
Ballistic
Single-purpose
Response to an identifiable specific sign stimulus.

Question 32

What was Tinbergen (1951) procedure?

Answer 32

Male sticklebacks are highly territorial during the spring mating season, when they also develop a red spot on their underbelly.
If another male enters their territory, a sequence of highly-aggressive behaviours is initiated (FAP).
The sign stimulus that triggers the innate releasing mechanism is the sight of the red spot.
He presented sticklebacks with a series of wooden models of different shapes.

Question 33

What was Tinbergen (1951) findings?

Answer 33

Regardless of shape, if the model had a red spot the male stickleback would aggressively display and even attack it.
If there was no red spot, there was no aggression, even if the model realistically looked like a stickleback.
Tinbergen also found that these aggressive FAPs were unchanging from one encounter to another.
Once triggered, the FAP always ran its course to completion without any further stimulus.

Question 34

What is a strength of the ethological explanation of aggression?

Answer 34

Research support related to genetics and evolution.
Brunner et al. (1993) showed that one gene (MAOA-L) is closely associated with aggressive behaviour in humans.
Twin and adoption studies also showed that there is a significant genetic component to aggression in humans.
This suggests that the ethological approach is correct in claiming that aggression is genetically determined, charitable and adaptive.

Question 35

What is a counterpoint for research support of the ethological explanation of aggression?

Answer 35

Aggressive behaviour differs from one culture to another, sometimes even within the same country.
Nisbett (1993) found that one type of homicide (result of reactive aggression) was more common among white men in the southern US.
Nisbett concluded that this was a result of a ‘culture of honour’ in the southern US- this is less prevalent in the north, which is why reactive aggression homicide rates are lower there - social norm and not instinctive.
Therefore culture may override innate predispositions, which is hard for ethological theory to explain.

Question 36

What is a limitaton of the ethological explanation for aggression in terms of ritualistic aggression?

Answer 36

Aggression against members of the same species is not just ritualistic.
Goodall (2010) observed a ‘four-year war’ during which male chimps from one community killed all members of another group- this was done in a systematic way.
On some occasions, a victim would be held down by rival chimps while others hit it in an attack lasting many minutes.
The violence would continue even though the victims offered appeasement signals - these did not inhibit the aggressive behaviour as predicted by the ethological explanation.

Question 37

What is a limitation of the ethological explanation in terms of FAPs?

Answer 37

Lorenz’s original view of FAPs is outdated.
Psychologist, Hunt (1973) pointed out that FAPs are actually greatly influenced by environmental factors and learning experiences- for instance, an aggressive FAP is typically made up of several behaviours in a series.
The duration of each behaviour varies from one individual to another and even in the same individual from one encounter to another.
Because they are modifiable by experience, many ethologists now prefer the term ‘modal behaviour pattern’ to reflect this.
Therefore patterns of aggressive behaviour are much more flexible than Lorenz thought, especially in humans.

Question 38

What is an evolutionary explanation?

Answer 38

An account of the changes in species over millions of years based on the idea of natural selection- any behvaiour that enhances survival and ultimately successful reproduction is perpetrated.

Question 39

What is a major motivator of aggressivce behaviour in males?

Answer 39

Sexual jealousy

Question 40

Why does sexual jealousy occur in men?

Answer 40

Men cannot be sure whether they are a child’s parent.
This paternity uncertainty is a result of the very real threat for the male of cuckoldry.

Question 41

What is cuckoldry?

Answer 41

A male having to raise an offspring not of its own.

Question 42

Who in the past were more reproductively successful?

Answer 42

Men who avoided cuckoldry.

Question 43

What did Wilson and Daly (1996) identify?

Answer 43

Male retention strategies which involve aggression and even physical violence.

Question 44

What were Wilson and Daly’s male retention strategies?

Answer 44

Direct guarding- involves male vigilance over a partner’s behaviour for example checking who they’ve been seeing.

Negative inducements- e.g. issuing threats as a consequence for infidelity.

Question 45

What was Wilson et al.’s (1995) study surrounding male retention strategies?

Answer 45

Asked women to report male retention strategies in their partners and this was measured in terms of the extent to which they agreed with statements.
Women who did agree with such statements were twice as likely to have experienced physical violence at the hands of their partner.

Question 46

What is the evolutionary explanation for bullying?

Answer 46

Occurs due to an imbalance of power.
Researchers view as maladaptive.
Evolutionary ancestors however may have used bullying as an adaptive strategy to increase their chances of survival.

Question 47

What was a study which had findings surrounding female bullying?

Answer 47

Campbell (1999)-
Women use bullying behaviours to secure their partner’s fidelity, which means they continue to provide resources for future offspring.
This behaviour would be naturally selected because of enhanced reproductive success/

Question 48

What is the real-world application of the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 48

Can be used to reduce bullying.
Ellis et al. (2016) suggest a strategy based on the idea that bullying is adaptive.
The ‘meaningful-roles’ anti-bullting intervention aims to increase the costs of bullying and rewards prosocial alternatives.
Therefore viewing bullying as adaptive may lead to more effective anti-bullying interventions.

Question 49

What is a limitation of the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 49

Cultural differences in aggressive behaviour.
Thomas (1958) studies the Kung San people of Botswana.
She found that they had negative attitudes towards aggression and aggressive behaviour is discouraged in childhood in boys and girls and so is extremely rare.
Aggression may not be adaptive.

Question 50

What is a counterpoint to cultural differences within the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 50

Lee (1979) described the homicide rate in the Kung San people as suprisingly high for ‘harmless people’.
These contradictions could be due to what an observer ‘sees’ is potentially biased by their expectations and also by the particular sample of people they see.
This means there were methodological issues with Thomas’ research and so lacks validity.

Question 51

What is a strength of the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 51

Explains why males and females differ in their uses of aggression.
Campbell (1999) argues that it is not adaptive for a feamle with offspring to be physically aggressive because such behaviour would put her own survival at risk. So a more adaptive strategy would be using verbal aggression to retain a partner who provides resources.
Therefore the evolutionary approach explains gender differences.

Question 52

What was a study on the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer 52

Green (1968)

Question 53

What was Green (1968) procedure?

Answer 53

Male university students completed a jigsaw puzzle.
Level of frustration was manipulated in one of three ways-
1. impossible puzzle
2. ran out of time because a confederate kept interfering
3. confederate insulted participant as they failed to solve the puzzle.
All participants later had the opportunity to give the confederate electric shocks.

Question 54

What was Green (1968) findings?

Answer 54

Insulted participants gave greater shocks on average, followed by the interfered group, then impossible task group.
All groups selected more intense shocks than a non-frustrated control group.

Question 55

What did Berkowitz (1989) suggest in terms of the weapon effect on aggression?

Answer 55

Frustration merely creates a readiness for aggression but the presence of aggressive cues in the environment make acting upon this more likely.
Therefore cues are an additional element of the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Question 56

What did Berkowitz and LePage (1967) find?

Answer 56

Participants were given real electric shocks by a confederate, creating anger and frustration.
Participants later had the opportunity to give fake electric shocks to the confederate.
Number of shocks were greater when there were two guns on the table compared to a condition with no guns (6.07 vs 4.67 average).
Aggressive environmental cues stimulate aggression.

Question 57

What did Dollard et al. (1939) suggest?

Answer 57

Frustration-aggression hypothesis.
Frustration always leads to aggression.
Aggression is a psychological drive and we experience frustration when our attempts to reach a goal are blocked by external cues.
This creates an aggressive drive, leading to aggressive thoughts and behaviours - this removes the negative emotion and this is called catharsis (psychodynamic concept).
The aggression created by the frustration is satisfied thereby reducing the drive and making aggression less likely.

Question 58

Name three reasons why the F-A hypothesis is not always expressed directly against the source of frustration. What happens instead?

Answer 58

• Cause of our frustration may be abstract such as the government.
• Cause may be too powerful and we risk punishment by aggression against it.
• Cause may be unavailable at the time.

Our aggression instead is displaced onto an alternative such as an inanimate object.

Question 59

What is a strength of the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer 59

Marcus-Newhall et al. (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies of displaced aggression.
These studies investigated situations in which aggressive behaviour had to be directed against a human target other than the one who caused the frustration.
Researhers concluded that displaced aggression is a reliable phenomenon as frustrated participants were provoked but unable to retaliate to the source of their frustration were more likely to agress against an innocent party.
Shows frustration can lead to aggression against a weaker or more reliable target.

Question 60

What is a limitation of the F-A hypothesis involving catharsis?

Answer 60

Showing aggression may not cathartic.
Bushman (2002 found that participants who vented their anger by repeatedly hitting a punchbag became more aggressive rathe than less.
Doing nothing was more effective at reducing aggression than venting.
This shows that a central assumption of the frustration-aggression hypothesis may not be valid.

Question 61

What is a limitation of the F-A hypothesis relating to the link between frustration and aggression?

Answer 61

The link is complex.
Very early on in research into the hypothesis it became clear that frustration does not always lead to aggression, and aggression can occur without frustration - not an automatic link.
Someone who is frustrated may react in different ways rather than being aggressive such as being helpless or determined.
This suggests the frustration-aggression link is inadequate because it only explains how aggression arises in some situations but not in others.

Question 62

What is a counterpoint to the argument of the F-A hypothesis being too complex?

Answer 62

Berkowitz (1989) reformulated the initial hypothesis to take into account of the criticism in the other point.
His negative affect theory suggests that frustration is one of many adverse stimuli that create negative feelings, others include pain and loneliness.
Aggressive behaviours are instead triggered by these adverse stimuli rather than frustration specifically.
The outcome of frustration can be a range of responses, only one of which is aggression.
Therefore frustration can form part of a wider explanation of what causes aggression.

Question 63

What is self efficacy in terms of aggression?

Answer 63

The extent to which we believe our actions will achieve a desired goal.
A child’s confidence in their ability to be aggressive grows as they learn that aggression can bring rewards.
The child’s sense of self-efficacy develops with each successful outcome, they become confident that because their aggression in the past has been successful in the past it will continue to be so.

Question 64

What can affect aggression in terms of social learning theory?

Answer 64

Observational learning and vicarious reinforcement
Direct and indirect learning
Cognitive conditions for learning
Self efficacy.

Question 65

What was Bandura et al.’s procedure (1961)?

Answer 65

Young children individually observed an adult model assulting a bobo doll- this included throwing, kicking and verbal outbursts.
There followed a short period during which children were not allowed to play with some attractive toys, further increasing frustration.
They were then taken to another room where there was a bobo doll, plus other toys including ones the adult model had used.

Question 66

What was Bandura et al.’s findings (1961)?

Answer 66

Without being instructed to do so, many of these children imitated the behaviour performed by the model, physically and verbally- this was basically an exact copy including specific verbal phrases.
Boys imitated physical aggression more than girl but there was no difference in terms of verbal aggression.
Boys were also more likely than girls to imitate a same-sex role model.

Another group observed a model interacting non-aggressively with the bobo doll, subsequently the group were almost non existently aggressive with the doll.

Question 67

What are the four mediational processes for learning?

Answer 67

Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation

Question 68

What is research support of social learning theory and aggression?

Answer 68

Poulin and Boivin (2000) found that aggressive boys aged between 9 and 12 formed friendships with other aggressive boys.
These friendships mutually reinforce each others aggressive behaviour through modelling.
They are also being frequently exposed to models of physical aggressive and its positive consequences (friendship with peers).
The boys also gained reinforcement from the rewarding approval of the rest of the friendgroup.

Question 69

What is a counterpoint to research support of social learning theory?

Answer 69

Poulin and Boivin’s study did not find similarity between friends for reactive aggression.
Reactive aggression is angry retaliation in the heat of the moment and the researcher’s found that the boys were much less likely to influence each other’s reactive aggression outbursts.
They observed and not imitated this may be due to the consequences of reactive aggression being unpredictable and not always positive as compared to proactive aggression.
SLT is therefore a weak explanation of reactive aggression.

Question 70

What is a strength of SLT as an explanation for aggression?

Answer 70

Real-world application
Children imitate models when they observe them being rewarded for any behaviour especially when they identify with them.
One way to reduce aggression is to provide rewarded non-aggressive role models as the same learning processes can take place.
SLT offers practical steps to reduce the development of aggressive behaviour in children.

Question 71

What is a weakness of SLT as an explanation for aggression?

Answer 71

Underestimates the influence of biological factors.
Bandura recognised the role of biology because he accepted that there is an urge to be aggressive that is instinctive in nature.
But he was equally clear that the form aggression takes is primarily learned and is the outcome of ‘nurture’.
SLT fails to acknowledge other explanations such as genetic (MAOA-L gene) or hormonal (testosterone).
Incomplete explanation.