Aggression Flashcards
Neural mechanisms in aggression - the amygdala
- our limbic system in our brain consists of a network of structures including the hypothalamus and amygdala.
- the amygdala is the most important structure. It plays a key role in humans and animals and how they respond to their environment.
-Gospic et al. (201 1) used a lab method of assessing aggressive behaviour called the Ultimatum Game. This features two players. The Proposer offers to split money in a certain way with the Responder. If the Responder accepts, the money is split as proposed. But if the Responder rejects the offer, both receive nothing. Participants in this study played as Responders while having their brains scanned by fMRI, which highlights activity in different areas of the brain. The researchers found that when Responders rejected unfair offers (an aggressive reaction to a social provocation), scans revealed a fast and heightened response by the amygdala. They also found that a benzodiazepine drug (which reduces arousal of the autonomic nervous system) taken before the game had two effects on responses to unfair offers. It halved the number of rejections (i.e. reduced aggression) and decreased the activity of the amygdala. This is strong evidence of an association between reactive aggression and amygdala activity.
-serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter it reduces neural activity leading to a reduction in self-control. this increases impulsive behaviours such as aggression. Virkkunen et al compared levels of serontonin breakdown product in the cerebrospinal fluid of violent impulsive and violent non-impulsive offenders. the levels were significantly lower in impusive offenders impiling their is some distruption of serontonin functioning imn agreession
Hormonal mechanisms in aggression
- the fact that men are more aggressive than women is linked to testosterone
- it also has a role In regulating social behaviour
- Dolan et al (2011) found a positive correlation between testosterone and aggression in 60 male offenders in uk maximum security hospitals
- cortisol mediates other hormones such as testosterone
-high levels of cortisol inhibit testosterone so inhibit aggression - low levels of cortisol= to high aggression in which a psychologist found low levels of cortisol in violent offenders
Research support of neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression
Berman et al. (2009) gave their participants either a placebo or a dose of paroxetine, a drug which enhances serotonin activity. Participants then took part in a laboratory-based game in which electric shocks of varying intensity were given and received in response to provocation. The paroxetine participants consistently gave fewer and less intense shocks than those in the placebo group. However, this was only true of the participants who had a prior history of aggressive behaviour. Nevertheless this study is useful evidence of a link between serotonin function and aggression that goes far beyond the usual correlational findings.
However, Most research into both neural and hormonal influences on aggression is correlational. There are good ethical reasons for this, because opportunities to experimentally manipulate brain structures and hormones are very limited. But when two variables are correlated, it is impossible to establish which one is the cause of the other, or if a third variable is involved.
Genetic factors in aggression- A01 twin studiees and adoption studies
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- Caccaro used adult twin pairs and found that 50% concordance rtae in MZ twins and 19% in DZ and for verbal aggression 28% MZ and 7% DZ
- Adoption studies= . If a positive correlation is found between aggressive behaviour in adopted children and their biological parents, a genetic effect is implied. If a positive correlation is found between the adoptee’s aggressive behaviour and the rearing family, then an environmental effect is implied.
- - Hutchings and Mednick conducted a study of over 14,000 adoptions in Denmark and found that a significant number of adopted boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with convictions providing evidence for genetic effects. This suggests that genes can have an impact on individuals
Evaluation of genetic factors in aggression - Evidence of the MOAO gene
-McDermott et al. (2009) showed that participants with the low-activity MAOA gene behaved aggressively in a laboratory-based money-allocation game, but only when they were provoked. Otherwise, they were no more or less aggressive than other participants.
-Brunner et al. (1993) studied 28 male members of a large Dutch family who were repeatedly involved in impulsively aggressive violent criminal behaviours such as rape, attempted murder and physical assault. The researchers found that these men had abnormally low levels of MAOA in their brains and the low-activity version of the MAOA gene.
-Gregory Stuart et al. (2014) studied 97 men who, because they had been involved in inflicting intimate partner violence (IV), were part of a batterer treatment programme. Men with the low-activity MAOA gene were found to be the most violent perpetrators of IPV. They engaged in the highest levels of physical and psychological aggression and inflicted the worst injuries on their partners.
The ethological explanation of aggression
- looks at two functions of aggression:
- adaptive= because the defeated animal is rarely killed but rather forced to establish territory elsewhere
- establishment of dominance hierarchies= male chimpanzees use aggression to climb their social hierarchy and give them special status. Also seen in humans is group of young child playing. Aggressive behaviours = more dominance over other children
- suggests aggression is innate and cannot be learnt
Ritualistic aggression and IRM and FAPS
- Lorenz pointed out that intra-species aggressive confrontations end with ritual appeasement displays (backing down). These indicate acceptance of defeat and inhibit (lower) aggressive behaviour in the victor, preventing any damage to the loser. For instance, at the end of an aggressive confrontation a wolf will expose its neck to the victor, deliberately making itself vulnerable to a single bite to its jugular vein. This is adaptive because if every aggressive encounter ended with the death of one of the combatants, that could threaten the existence of the species.
- a ritual= series of behaviour carried out in a set order
Innate releasing mechanisms
- An innate releasing mechanism (IRM) is a built-in physiological process or structure e.g. a network of neurons a circuit) in the brain. An environmental stimulus (such as a certain facial expression) triggers the IRM which then ‘releases’ a specific sequence of behaviours. called a fixed action pattern (FAP).
- According to Stephen Lea (1984), FAPS have six main features. They are:
- stereotyped= unchanging
-universal
-unaffected by learning
-ballistic= once triggered cannot be stopped until completion
-single- purpose= behaviour only occurs in specific situations
-A response to an identifiable specific sign stimulus
Research into IRM’s And FAPS
- in male sicklebacks during mating season the presence of a red spot (developed during the mating season) triggers FAP.
- Niko Tinbergen (1951) presenter sicklebacks with a series of wooden models of different shapes
-finding: Regardless of shape, if the model had a red spot the stickleback would aggressively display and even attack it. But if there was no red spot, there was no aggression, even if the model looked realistically 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.
Evaluation of the ethological explanation in aggression to do with evidence about other theories
-Brunner et al(1993) MAOA gene research. And research into activity in the limbic systems has been shown to trigger aggressive behaviour in humans and other animals. Increases the validity of the ethological explanation as it argues aggression is genetically determined and heritable
The evolutionary explanation of human aggression
- evolutionary approaches explains aggression in terms of its ability to increase survival therefore would have been beneficial in early humans
- male aggression can occur as a result of sexual jealousy.
-Unlike women, men can never be entirely certain that they are the fathers of their children. As a result, men are at risk of cuckoldry, the reproductive cost that might be inflicted on a man as a result of their partners infidelity.
• The consequence of cuckoldry is that the man might unwittingly invest his resources in offspring that are not his own. Therefore adapt aggressive behaviour to deter a mate from sexual infidelity. - Wilson and Daly (1996) identified mate retention strategies:
- direct guarding= involves male vigilance over a partner’s behaviour, for example checking who they’ve been seeing, coming home early, keeping tabs on their whereabouts, installing tracking apps on their mobiles, etc.
• Negative inducements, such as issuing threats of dire consequences for infidelity (“ I’ll kill myself if you leave me’).
women who reported mate retention strategies in their partners (they agreed with statements like ‘He insists on knowing who you are with and where you are at all times’), were twice as likely to have suffered physical violence at the hands of their partners. Of these women, 73% required medical attention and 53% said they feared for their lives.
Study for intimate partner violence
shackleford et al (2005) carried out this study.
Men and women in 107 married couples completed different questionnaires.
All of the participants had been married less than one year. The men completed the Mate Retention Inventory, which assessed mate retention behaviours in various categories (such as direct guarding). The women completed the Spouse Influence Report, which measured the extent of their partner’s violence in their relationship.
They found: There was a strong positive correlation between men’s reports of their mate retention behaviours and women’s reports of their partners’ physical violence. So men who used guarding (e.g. coming home early) or negative inducements (e.g. threats to kill) were more likely to use physical violence against their partners.
Evolutionary explanation of bullying
- Volk et al. (2012) argue that the characteristics associated with bullying behaviour are attractive to the opposite sex. In males, it suggests dominance, acquisition of resources, and strength. It also has the benefit of warding off potential rivals. Bullying-associated characteristics therefore deliver the ideal combination of access to more females and minimal threat from competing males. Therefore such behaviour would be naturally selected because these males would have greater reproductive success.
Female bullying more often takes place within a relationship and is a method of controlling a partner. Women use bullying behaviour to secure their partner’s fidelity. which means they continue to provide resources for future
offspring. Again such behaviour would be naturally selected because of enhanced reproductive success.
Therefore bullying may have been used by ancestors as an adaptive strategy to increase chances of survival by creating opportunities for reproduction
Evaluation of the evolutionary explanation of aggression to do with evidence and gender differences
- shackleford et al study IPV study
ALSO
The evolutionary explanation explains gender differences in aggression such as why men are more physically aggressive than women .Campbell (1999) argues that a female with offspring is motivated to be less aggressive because such behaviour would put not only her own survival at risk but also that of her child. So a more adaptive strategy for females is to use verbal aggression as a means of retaining a partner who provides resources, and to avoid becoming involved in life-threatening situations involving physical aggression.therefore women are more likely to use non-aggressive methods of resolving disputes than men.
The frustration aggression hypothesis
• Dollard et al (1939) developed the frustration-aggression hypothesis which argued that frustration always leads to aggression and aggression is always a result of frustration.
• Dollard explains that if the individual is prevented from achieving a goal by some external factor, then this will lead to frustration which will always lead to aggression.
• It is argued that the drive for aggression was innate, like the drive for food. He believed that the only way to reduce aggression is to engage in an activity which released it.
- the hypothesis recognises aggression is not always expressed directly against the source of frustration as the source of aggression may be abstract e.g. economic situation, the cause may be too powerful so we risk punishments e.g. teacher who gave you a low grade, the cause may be unavailable at the time. E.g. only realising teacher gave u a lower grade that you deserved once they left the room
- talk about one research study
Research into frustration aggression - jigsaw puzzle
- Geen (1968) Male university students were given the task of completing a jigsaw puzzle. Their level of frustration was experimentally manipulated in one of three ways. For some participants, the puzzle was impossible to solve. For others, they ran out of time because another student in the room (a confederate of the researcher) kept interfering. For a third group, the confederate took to insulting the participant as they failed to solve the puzzle. The next part of the study involved the participant giving electric shocks to the confederate when they made a mistake on another task.
Findings :The insulted participants gave the strongest shocks on average, followed by the interfered group, then the impossible task participants. All three groups selected more intense shocks than a (non-frustrated) control group.
Evaluation of the frustration aggression model to do with research support
Marcus-Newhall et al. (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies of displaced aggression, a key concept in the frustration-aggression hypothesis. These studies investigated situations in which aggressive behaviour had to be directed against a target other than the one that caused frustration.
The researchers concluded that displaced aggression is a reliable phenomenon. Participants who were provoked but unable to retaliate directly against the source of their frustration were significantly more likely to aggress against an innocent party than people who were not provoked. This is exactly the outcome predicted by the frustration-aggression hypothesis
HOWEVER
-Bushman (2002) found that participants who vented their anger by repeatedly hitting a punchbag actually became more angry and aggressive rather than less. In fact, doing nothing was more effective at reducing aggression than venting anger. Bushman argues that using venting to reduce anger is like using petrol to put out a fire. But this is exactly the advice many therapists and counsellors give to their clients.
The outcome of this study is very different from that predicted by the frustration-aggression hypothesis. This casts doubt on the validity of a central assumption of the hypothesis
Social learning theory in aggression
- suggests children acquire aggression via operant conditioning.if the aggressive act has a positive consequence it’s likely to be positively reinforced and repeated.
Aggression can also be indirectly reinforced. (Vicarious reinforcement). They can learn this via aggressive models such as parents, peers, characters in media) if the models behaviour isn’t punished and rewarded= positive reinforcement. - cognitions also account for wether the behaviour is replicated. Mediational process: attention,retention, reproduction, motivation
- self efficacy= individuals believe that their behaviour will attain a goal and must have confidence.this grows as a child learns that aggressive behaviour will bring a reward
- explanation of Banduras bobo doll experiment…
Evaluation of the social learning theory to with analysis of aggressive behaviour in young boys and cultural different
-François Poulin and Michel Boivin (2000) applied a social learning analysis to aggressive behaviour in boys aged between nine and twelve years. They found that most aggressive boys formed friendships with other aggressive boys. The researchers describe such cliques as ‘training grounds’ for antisocial behaviour. These friendships were lasting, stable, and mutually reinforcing of aggression. The boys used their alliances with each other to gain resources through aggressive behaviour, usually successfully. This means that they were exposed frequently to models of physical aggression (i.e. each other) and to the positive consequences of it, They also gained reinforcement from the rewarding approval of the rest of the ‘gang’. These are precisely the conditions under which social learning theory predicts that aggressive behaviour would occur.
HOWEVER a limitation
Different cultures have different norms about which behaviours should be reinforced. In some cultures, such as the Kung San of the Kalahari desert, direct reinforcement of children’s aggression is unlikely because social norms do not encourage it, and parents tend not to use it to discipline children. This also means that models of aggression are unavailable for children to observe, and certainly vicarious reinforcement is a rare experience.
Nevertheless they display aggressive behaviour.
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De-individuatin
-A psychological state in which an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of the social group. The result may be to free the individual from the constraints of social norms.
- talk about research
-Zimbardo (1969) distinguished between individuated and de-individuated behaviour. In an individuated state, our behaviour is generally rational and normative (i.e. it conforms to social norms). But de-individuated behaviours are emotional, impulsive and irrational
-We have less fear of retribution because we are a small and unidentifiable part of a faceless crowd; the bigger the crowd, the more anonymous we are.
- according to Dunn and rogers (1982) de-individuation creates a greater likelihood for aggression not because of anonymity but the consequences of anonymity such as
-Private self-awareness concerns how we pay attention to our own feelings and behaviour. This is reduced when we are part of a crowd. Our attention becomes focused outwardly to the events around us, so we pay less attention to our own beliefs and feelings. We are less self-critical, less thoughtful and less evaluative, all of which foster a de-individuated state.
-Public self-awareness refers to how much we care about what other people think of our behaviour, and this is also reduced in crowds. We realise that we are just one individual amongs many; we are anonymous and our behaviour is less likely to be judged by others. We no longer care how others see us, so we become less accountable for our aggressive and destructive actions.
Research into de-individuation
Dodd (1985) was a psychology teacher who developed a classroom exercise to illustrate de-individuation
Procedure He asked 229 undergraduate psychology students in 13 classes this question: ‘If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?’ The students were aware that their responses were completely anonymous. Three independent raters who did not know the hypothesis decided which categories of antisocial behaviour the responses belonged to
Findings Dodd found that 36% of the responses involved some form of antisocial behaviour;
26% were actual criminal acts, the most common of which was ‘rob a bank’. A few students opted for murder, rape and assassination of a political figure. Only 9% of responses were prosocial behaviours (such as helping people). In terms of how people imagine they would behave, this study demonstrates a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour.
Furthermore
-Spivey & Prentice-Dunn 1990 found Deindividuation can lead to either prosocial or antisocial behaviour depending on situational factors. Prosocial environmental cues such as a prosocial model encouraged deindividuated participants to perform altruistic acts and fewer antisocial acts.
This evidence decreases the value of the theory as de individuation may not always be a bad thing.
-Watson 1973 Anthropological evidence from 23 societies shows that those that change their appearance
more drastically before going to war killed, tortured or mutilated their victims more savagely.
Also
Douglas and McGarty(2001) found that more aggressive behaviour online was linked to anomanimity.
This has real life application as it can be used to stop cyber bullying by introducing features to allow more identification
