Aggression Flashcards

Question

What is the definition of natural selection?

Answer 1

The process through which living organisms survive and adapt, as organisms better suited to the environment survive and reproduce.

Answer 2

Beneficial for survival, allowing an animal to stay alive and reproduce.

Answer 3

Members of the same species

Answer 4

hard-wired networks of neurons in the brain that respond to an environmental stimulus (a sign or releaser such as a facial expression) by initiating a fixed action pattern.

Answer 5

A set sequence of behaviours (in this case, aggression) which are stereotyped to occur only in specific conditions and do not require learning (i.e. they are innate).

Answer 6

the man raises an offspring that is not his own and so contributes to the survival of a rival’s genes and is left with fewer resources to invest in his own offspring in the future.

Answer 7

Ways males retain their mates and try to deter them from sexual infidelity.

Answer 8

An emotional response to the threat of infidelity - serves to motivate mate guarding etc.

Answer 9

- Aggression carried out in a set order. - Threat displays: bearing teeth, hitting chest etc. - Adaptive: allows competitors to assess relative strength before escalating a conflict, making the opponent back down instead of costly aggression, allowing for the survival of the species.

Answer 10

- Aggression between co-specifics ends with ritual appeasement displays signalling defeat e.g. wolves exposing their jugulars. - signal of defeat inhibits further aggression, preventing death and so ensuring the survival of the species.

Answer 11

- Dominance hierarchies are established where the winner climbs the social ladder. - Increased status leads to better choice of mates and more access to resources. - Therefore adaptive because increased access to resources and mates means that it is naturally selected.

Answer 12

- The defeated animal normally establishes territory elsewhere instead of being killed. - This means that the winner has less competition for resources in their area (less competition for food). - Furthermore, animals being spread out means there is a reduced chance of them all starving. - There aggression is adaptive as it aids survival and so is naturally selected.

Answer 13

That it is mostly genetically determined, and therefore is adaptive (passed down for survival).

Answer 14

1. Stereotyped - unchanging sequence of behaviours 2. Universal - same in every member of the species 3. Unaffected by learning - same for every member of species regardless of learning. 4. ‘Ballistic’ - Follows an inevitable course once triggered which cannot be altered before it is completed. 5. Single-purpose - only occur in a specific situation and not any others 6. Response to specific identifiable sign stimulus (or a releaser if between conspecifics).

Answer 15

Environmental stimulus -> innate releasing mechanism -> fixed action pattern.

Answer 16

- During mating season male sticklebacks are a highly territorial bird, and develop a red spot on chest. If another male enters their territory in this period, a fixed action pattern is initiated. Sign stimulus (red spot) -> triggers the innate releasing mechanism. - Tinbergen presented male sticklebacks with a series of differently shaped wooden models, some with a red spot on their underbelly and some without.

Answer 17

- Regardless of shape, the male stickleback aggressively display if the model had a red spot. No red spot, no aggression. - The FAPs were unchanging from one encounter to another, and always ran their course to completion once triggered.

Answer 18

- Nisbett found that there was a north-south divide in homicide rates in the U.S. with it being much more common in white males from the south. - He found in a lab study that when southern males were insulted, they were more likely to become aggressive than northern males. - Nisbett concluded this was due to learnt social behaviour which calls into question the validity of the explanation as it suggests that culture can override innate influences - not a complete explanation.

Answer 19

- Brunner et al. Found that a low activity variant of the MAOA gene is closely associated with aggression. - Research on the limbic system also suggests there is an innate releasing mechanism for aggression in human brains. - Supports the validity of the explanation.

Answer 20

- Anthropolical research suggests that there is ritualistic aggression present in human cultures. - For example, Hoebel found that among Innuit eskimos, song duels are used to settle grudges and disputes. - Supports that animal studies are generalisable to humans, as ritualistic aggression is also used by humans.

Answer 21

- Observation of chimpanzees in Tanzania. - During a war, chimpanzees systematically attacked each other in a premeditated way, and on one occasion a chimpanzee was held down and bitten for 20 minutes. - These attacks all occurred despite signs of appeasement, but these did not stop the aggression. This, combined with the fact that the killing was systematic, calls into question the validity fo the ethological explanation of aggression.

Answer 22

- Adaptive - Survival - Reproduction - Natural selection - Aggressive genes get passed down - Aggression becomes more widespread in the population

Answer 23

- Male aggression is motivated by jealousy to ensure their own paternity and genetic success. - Men have paternity uncertainty because of the threat of cuckoldry. - Men who avoid cuckoldry in the past have been more reproductively successful, so male aggressive strategies evolved to help retain their mate and deter them from sexual infidelity.

Answer 24

- Direct guarding -> strategies to restrict freedom such as male vigilance, installing tracking apps, coming home early etc. - Negative inducements -> strategies to deter infidelity such as violence, or threats of the consequences e.g. ‘I’ll kill you’ to prevent her from straying.

Answer 25

- women who reported mate retention strategies in their partners were twice as likely to have experienced physical violence at the hands of partners. - 73% had required medical attention and 53% feared for their lives. - Therefore mate retention strategies are linked to physical violence.

Answer 26

They are less likely to experience cuckoldry, so children they give resources are more likely to be theirs and so the gene is passed down to future generations, and so becomes widespread in the population.

Answer 27

- Evolutionary explanations of aggression focus of the adaptive nature of aggression. - They suggest aggression enhances survival or reproduction and so is naturally selected. - This means that aggressive genes are passed down to future generations and so become more widespread in the population.

Answer 28

- Competition for resources. - Sexual competition. - Sexual jealousy.

Answer 29

- Aggressive men would have been more able to compete with others for resources such as food. - Aggression therefore enhances their survival and likelihood of reproducing successfully (especially as women are attracted to men with resources). - Therefore it is adaptive -> naturally selected -> become more widespread in the population.

Answer 30

- Ancestral men seeking females would have had to compete with other men. - Aggression would have make them better at competing, making it more likely they reproduce successfully. - Passed on to successive generations -> become widespread in the population.

Answer 31

- Cruelty often accompanies aggression, e.g. in the wide-scale slaughter in the Rwandan genocide where whole groups were killed. - Humans also have tortured and mutilated even when the victim is not longer a threat, which is more likely to be due to deindividuation. - The ethological explanation is therefore not completely valid as it cannot explain all instances of human aggression.

Answer 32

- Could make people aware of indicators for domestic violence, as seeing the partner use mate-retention strategies could alert others to the threat of the relationship becoming violent. - Counselling could then be used to stop the situation escalating further. - Supports the external validity of the theory.

Answer 33

- Daly and Wilson found that some tribes bestow honour and status to men who have committed murder. - Further research found that this was also the case in industrialised societies like the USA, where men who have committed most violence have most status. - Supports that aggression could be due to lack of resources, as status needs to be gained to access them.

Answer 34

- Most research is correlational, finding a link between aggression and mate retention behaviours, which does not allow us to draw cause and effect. - Correlational research always has the downside of the impact of other factors such as cultural differences, because the variables are not manipulated. - This means research into evolutionary explanations of aggression has low internal validity.

Answer 35

A theory arguing that aggression occurs as a result of the individuals characteristics and the features of the situation in which the behaviour occurs.

Answer 36

The extent to which we believe our actions will achieve our desired goal.

Answer 37

Processes that come between the observation of the aggressive behaviour and the imitation of the aggressive behaviour that affect whether the aggression will be performed.

Answer 38

A loss of self-identity and personal responsibility when we are in situations that increase our anonymity such as crowds.

Answer 39

- Suggests frustration always leads to aggression. - Attempt to achieve a goal -> obstacle to goal by external factor -> frustration -> aggression drive -> environmental cues -> aggressive behaviour/displaced aggressive behaviour -> catharsis

Answer 40

A psychodynamic explanation of aggression which suggests frustration always leads to aggression, created by Dollard et al.

Answer 41

When an aggressive drive is satisfied, removing negative emotion, making further aggression less likely.

Answer 42

Displaced onto weaker, non-abstract alternatives (e.g. younger sibling) when the source of the frustration is either too abstract (e.g. government) or too powerful (e.g. a teacher).

Answer 43

The presence of certain cues in the environment e.g. a gun.

Answer 44

- For states in the USA with open carry laws (guns do not need to be concealed), this could act as an environmental cue for aggression, and so this hypothesis could help reduce this threat.

Answer 45

- Participants who vented their anger by hitting a punching bag became more angry and aggressive rather than less, and doing nothing was actually more effective at reducing anger. - Disproves the catharsis element of the hypothesis.

Answer 46

- The theory is an example of psychic determinism (add example of how) - implications for legal system

Answer 47

- Participants who had been made angry gave greater electric shocks to a confederate when there were two guns on the table compared to other conditions where there were none. - Suggests that the gun acted an environmental cue, supporting the validity of this element of the explanation.

Answer 48

- Emphasises aggression being learnt through the observation of a role model that we identify with, either because of their status or because of a shared trait (e.g. age, gender)

Answer 49

- Role model models behaviour which the observer then imitates (observational learning) -> If role model is rewarded, imitation is more likely (vicarious reinforcement) -> learning does not mean that the observer will necessarily imitate the behaviour -> mediational processes come between observation of aggressive behaviour and imitation of it (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation). Self-efficacy also plays a role, as if the observer is confident their aggression has been effective in the past, they will be more likely to repeat it.

Answer 50

- It has been criticised for underestimating the role of biological factors. - There is evidence that other biological factors play a role (add examples e.g. the Amygdala and Charles Whitman) - Incomplete explanation as cannot account for all cases of aggression.

Answer 51

Bandura et al study! (Elaborate) - There was a short period during the study where the children could not play with some attractive toys, creating frustration. - When put in the room with the Bobo doll, the children closely recreated the behaviour, with boys imitating more physical aggression, but both genders recreating the same amount of verbal aggression.

Answer 52

- A doll is not a living person who cannot retaliate, so cannot explain aggression in the real world where there are consequences. - Bandura countered this study by having children watch a film, and imitated the behaviour with the doll in the same manner, which is better support for the theory.

Answer 53

Individuated state (constrained by social norms) -> Increase of anonymity -> loss of private/public self-awareness -> deindividuation -> responsibility is shared throughout the group so more aggression (more aggressive) + behaviour is more constrained by social norms (more aggressive).

Answer 54

- Groups of four female undergrads give shocks to aid learning. - Half wear bulky coats and hoods that hide their faces, are in a separate room and never have their names revealed. - The other half had name tags, could see the person they were shocking. - Unidentifiable participants held down the shock button for twice as long as those in the identifiable condition did.

Answer 55

- One condition, women wear KKK outfits with their faces hidden, another condition they wore nurses outfits, and for the control condition they wore their own clothes. - Compared to the control group, the KKK group gave more shocks and longer shocks and the nurses gave fewer and at lower levels, and were more compassionate to their ‘victims’. - Suggests that both aggression and pro social behaviour can be caused by deindividuation.

Answer 56

- collected data on how much warriors in 23 societies changed their appearance before war (war paint, tribal costumes etc.) - He also recorded how much they mutilated, killed and tortured their victims. - 12/15 societies which changed their appearance were highly aggressive, compared to 1/8 who did not change their appearance. - Supports external validity of the theory as it suggests it can explain real world instances of aggression.

Answer 57

- Can explain aggression online, such as on Xbox live, as sites like these promote deindividuation. - ‘Handles’ are used to identify people, the experience is immersive, and their is a crowd. - Research found a strong correlation between anonymity and ‘flaming’ (hostile messages). - Cyber bullying is an increasing trend, and can be explained by deindividuation theory.

Answer 58

We are easily identified by others so our behaviour is constrained by social norms (society discourages aggressive behaviour).

Answer 59

- Reduced private self-awareness: Our attention becomes focused outwards at events and so we pay less attention to our own beliefs and feelings. - Reduced public self-awareness: As we are in a crowd, we realise our behaviour is less likely to be judged by others and so we worry less about how others see us and become less accountable for aggressive actions.

Answer 60

- Dispositional explanations. - Situational explanations.

Answer 61

Agressive behaviour which takes place within a formal organised setting such as prison.

Answer 62

Highlights the importance of an individuals personality/characteristics

Answer 63

Highlights the importance of the environment in which the behaviour occurs

Answer 64

- inmates who enter prison bring with them a subculture of criminality and so are more likely to be aggressive. - aggression is not a product of the situation, but of the characteristics of the individuals within the situation.

Answer 65

- Mediating factors are any personal characteristics inmates bring into prison with them. - Gender, ethnicity, class.

Answer 66

- Used to navigate through a frightening and unfamiliar prison environment - Establish power and influence

Answer 67

It is the characteristics of the prison itself which are responsible for prison violence, as deprivation and the harsh conditions makes people cope through aggression.

Answer 68

- Loss of heterosexual intimacy, loss of personal space, loss of safety - The ‘pains’ of losing these things mean that inmates engage with violence as a reaction to the hurt they feel.

Answer 69

The prison regime, with random unpredictable ‘lockups’ to control behaviour creates frustration, and reduces stimulation by ‘goods’ such as TV, and this frustration is dealt with by aggression.

Answer 70

- Prison governor David Wilson set up two units for violent prisons which were less claustrophobic and ‘prison-like’ and gave a view of the outside, with radio music masking prison noise. - Assaults on both inmates and staff were virtually eradicated. - This supports that situational variables are the main cause of aggression.

Answer 71

- Study of 371 U.S. prisons - Found that overcrowding, lack of privacy and lack of meaningful activity all influenced prison assaults. - Further analysis of Texan prisons found that many homicides followed arguments between cell sharing inmates where a ‘boundary’ was crossed, such as drugs, sex, and personal possessions.

Answer 72

- Both are challenged and supported by research evidence, so it could be both are correct. - Research evidence found that the importation model better explained violence between inmates, and the deprivation model better explained violence to prison staff. - It could be an interactionist approach is most appropriate, as it offers a fuller explanation of prison aggression, and overcomes the issue of determinism.

Answer 73

- Research studying 561 males with similar offences, and placed half in a high-security prison and half in a low-security prison. - Within two years, there was only a 3% difference in the violence at both prisons. - This suggests that it is the characteristics imported into the prison which cause violence.

Answer 74

- Found that inmates with negative backgrounds e.g. child trauma, substance abuse etc were much more likely to engage in aggression than a control group without the same issues.

Answer 75

Communication channels such as TV where news, entertainment and data are made available.

Answer 76

Changes to aggressive behaviour attributed to media usage.

Answer 77

- Replication of the Bobo doll study, except the role model was on a film (being aggressive). - Similarly, the children replicated the aggressive behaviour. -

Answer 78

- Bartholomew and Anderson - 43 undergraduate students either assigned to play a violent or non-violent game for ten minutes. - They then had to compete with a confederate in a reaction time game, and could blast white noise to punish the opponent. - Those who played the violent game went to 5.79 decibels, whereas those who played the non-violent game only went to 4.6 decibels. - Effect larger for men than women.

Answer 79

- Study of 277 juvenile offenders with histories of serious aggressive behaviours. - Structured interviews used to gather data on computer game playing and aggressive behaviour. - There was a significant correlation, and the researchers argued that aggression should be a public health issue like HIV/AIDS.

Answer 80

Causal conclusions cannot be drawn, as a third factor could be at play and direction cannot be determined, and so does not have strong internal validity.

Answer 81

Measures of aggression are often unrealistic and artificial, such as blasts of white noise. Also, in real life, there would be the threat of retaliation for the aggression.

Answer 82

Granic and Lobel found that playing violent shooter games can increase the players capacity to think in 3D, develop problem-solving, and enhance creativity.

Answer 83

Przybylski - had player play either a violent first-person shooter game or a game where players fly a paper aeroplane, and found it was not the imagery but the lack of mastery which caused to frustration and aggression in both games.

Answer 84

Repeated exposure to media -> reduced physiological arousal in SNS (i.e. sweating less) + reduced psychological arousal (negative attitudes to the violence) -> aggression is more likely.

Answer 85

Normally: Aggression viewed as antisocial/harmful (SLT) -> therefore powerful social and psychological inhibitions prevent it. Disinhibition: Repeated exposure to violent media weakens these restraints (inhibitions) -> aggression seems socially sanctioned (particularly if in the media their is justification, victims pain is hidden etc.) -> aggression is temporarily socially acceptable, making it more likely.

Answer 86

Repeatedly seeing violent media creates aggressive schema in memory -> exposure to aggressive media cues trigger the schema -> greater access to aggressive ideas in schema -> activates other aggressive thoughts in memory -> exposure to priming stimuli in aggressive situations triggers the schema leading to us being aggressive -> this can be specific or general.

Answer 87

- Weisz and Earls showed participants film 'straw dogs' with graphic rape scene, then had participants watch re-enactment of a trial. - results compared to a group who watched a non-sexually violent film. - (only men) who had seen straw dogs showed greater acceptance of rape myths and expressed less sympathy towards the victim. - supports predictions of the theory, but not that they actually become aggressive.

Answer 88

- Could help troops in war survive the horrors of what they see. - However could be detrimental also, as it could make people less likely to help others in destress as they become numb. - Suggests that the theory has important implications, and that we could need to create media regulation to counteract these.

Answer 89

- A study showed participants (some habitual viewers of violent media) both violent and non-violent film clips. - They measured physiological arousal using skin conductance. - Habitual viewers showed lower levels of arousal, which correlated with the proactive aggression they then showed in a 'noise blast' task.

Answer 90

- Berkowitz and Alioto found that participants who watched a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more (and longer) electric shocks to a confederate than those who watched a film containing reasonless aggression.

Answer 91

- participants shown a film of a boxing match, where either the loser takes a beating and dies, or there are no apparent consequences. - Participants who did not see the consequences were more likely to be aggressive.

Answer 92

- Other factors also influence disinhibition. - Younger children, for example, cannot consider consequences so can be more violent. - Children who grow up in households with strong norms against violence are unlikely to ever experience disinhibition.

Answer 93

- Bushman found that participants who had watched a 15 minute section of a violent film had faster reaction time to aggressive words than those who watched a non-violent clip. - Supports that the media acts as priming stimuli.

Answer 94

- Found that participants who played a violent video game had more cognitively accessible aggressive thoughts than those who played non-violent. - Those who played the violent video game were then also more aggressive (noise blasts)

Answer 95

- Male participants listened to songs with derogatory and aggressive lyrics about women, and also neutral lyrics. - Those in the first condition recalled more negative qualities about women are behaved more aggressively towards a female confederate.