aggression

Question 1

what did early discussion of aggression suggest?

Answer 1

Hobbes suggested that extreme levels of aggression are natural for humans

Question 2

what do definitions of aggression have in common?

Answer 2

the intent to harm (Carlson et al, 1989)

Question 3

what are examples of ways in which we measure aggression?

Answer 3

eg) punching the inflatable Bobo doll (Bandura et al, 1963), observations from teachers and colleagues, self reports of aggressive behaviour

Question 4

what happened in Chermack, Berman and Taylor’s study into aggression?

Answer 4

subjects competed against an opponent in a reaction trial game

after each trial, the loser received a shock

2 conditions: low provocation where shocks stayed at setting 2, high provocation where shocks gradually increased from 2 to 9 (here they gave more shocks back to the other person)

Question 5

who suggested there is a relationship between videogames and aggression?

Answer 5

some evidence of a link between gaming and aggression (Anderson and Bushman, 2001) but the effect is very small

Question 6

what evidence suggests there is no relationship between gaming and aggression?

Answer 6

engagement with gaming has increased whereas crime has fallen
one issue is not standardising aggression measures

Question 7

what other effects can gaming have on emotional behaviour?

Answer 7

emotion induced blindness= Kennedy et al (2014) found that people who frequently played violent games were less distracted by violent images in other contexts

Question 8

what are the two main types of theories of aggression?

Answer 8

innate theories of aggression
social theories of aggression (including learnt)

Question 9

what are the innate theories of aggression?

Answer 9

aggression is unlearned and universal
if it is not released, it builds up until it explodes

Question 10

what are the social theories of aggression?

Answer 10

the social context can explain aggression

Question 11

how does Freud’s psychodynamic theory explain aggression?

Answer 11

Thanatos= innate death instinct
Thanatos theorised anger is initially directed at self-destruction, but as we develop it becomes directed towards others
aggression naturally builds up and must be released

Question 12

what is the issue with Freud’s psychodynamic theory to explain aggression?

Answer 12

limited evidence- only uses case studies

Question 13

what is the ethological perspective to aggression?

Answer 13

Lorenz (1966)
aggression has a ‘survival’ value

Dual Factor Theory
1) innate urge to aggress
2) aggressive behaviour is elicited by environmental stimuli

Question 14

what is the issue with the ecological perspective of aggression?

Answer 14

fails to explain the functional value of aggression in humans
society seems to manage aggression in humans, otherwise it leads to punishment

Question 15

what is the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 15

social behaviour is adaptive, and helps the individual/kin/species to survive

aggressive behaviour evolved to allow procreation and the ability to pass on genes

social and economic advantage

Question 16

what is the issue with the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 16

limited empirical evidence
uses circular reasoning

Question 17

how does social learning theory explain aggression?

Answer 17

learn by observational learning, modelling and vicarious experience

Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)= children watched adults play with a Bobo doll, 3 conditions: observed an aggressive model/non-aggressive model and a control group with no model

children exposed to the aggressive model displayed significantly more aggression

Question 18

how does the frustration aggression hypothesis (Dollard et al, 1939) explain aggression?

Answer 18

aggressive behaviour always requires the existence of frustration, and the existence of frustration always leads to aggression

frustration= interference with the occurence of an instigated goal-response at its proper time in the behaviour sequence

aggression results as a disruption of an individual’s goals

if target is too powerful, unavailable, or not a person, displace aggression onto an alternative target= scapegoat

Question 19

how does Barker et al (1941) support the frustration aggression hypothesis?

Answer 19

children were shown a room full of toys

were initially not allowed to play with them or were allowed to play without waiting

assessed how the children played with the toys

the frustrated group acted more aggressively

Question 20

how suggested frustration doesn’t always lead to aggression?

Answer 20

Berkowitz (1962)

Question 21

how does excitation transfer from Zillman (1979) explain aggression?

Answer 21

aggression is a function of 3 factors:
-learnt aggressive behaviour
-arosual or excitation from another source
-person’s interpretation of the arosual response- so an aggressive response seems appropriate

Question 22

how does a type A personality influence aggression?

Answer 22

type A personality is characterised by striving to achieve, time urgency, competitive, hostile

conflict with peers and subordinates but not superiors

Question 23

what are other theories of personality relating to aggression?

Answer 23

psychoticism, low agreeableness, frustration and provocation sensitivity

Question 24

how does heat influence aggression?

Answer 24

Bushman et al (2005)= research shows a link between temperature and aggressive acts, but this is an inverted U relationship

Question 25

how does weapon presence influence aggression?

Answer 25

Klinesmith et al (2006)= men held a gun or child’s toy, measured aggression (how much hot sauce for the next person)
holding a gun increased aggression

Berkowitz and LePage (1967)= when angered, participants gave more electric shocks in weapon presence

Question 26

how does alcohol influence aggression?

Answer 26

Miller and Parrott (2010)= intoxicated participants behaved more aggressively and responded to provocations more strongly

low aggressors became more aggressive when intoxicated, whereas high aggressors did not

Question 27

how does narcissism influence aggression?

Answer 27

Bushman and Baumeister (1998)- participants wrote a pro-life or pro-choice essay on abortion
some were given negative feedback
asked to deliver blasts of noise to another person
narcissistic ppts gave the person who they thought criticised their essay the louder bursts, not the other participants

Question 28

what is the general aggression model?

Answer 28

comprehensive, intergrative framework for understanding human aggression
considers social/cognitive/developmental/biological factors