aggression Flashcards
what is aggression
behaviour intended to harm someone who is motivated to avoid such treatment
what are the 2 types of aggression
hostile: goal to harm victim
instrumental: agg to increase access to resources e.g money or space etc
developmental trends in agg
-instrumental agg present by 1 yr olds
-declines in 2nd yr, sharing more common
-unfocused temper tantrums less common at age 2-3 as children begin to physically retaliate when frustrated (goodenough 1931)
-physical agg decreases at age 3-5, verbal agg increases e.g teasing, name calling etc
-for most children physical agg is normal in early stages of dev
-adolescents show less overtly agg behaviour and they turn to other forms of antisocial behaviour
what is relational agg
acts like spreading rumors, damaging indivs self esteem/friendship/social status
-can become manipulative
-common in adolescents
is there a gender diff in agg
by 2.5-3 yrs boys are more physically and verbally agg than girls
why might boys be more agg than girls
-rougher play from parents to boys
-more neg reaction to agg from girls
-gender typing of boys and girls e.g toys they play with
what type of agg is higher in girls in adolescence
relational agg
-girls become more subtle and malicious during adoloescence e.g not allowing someone in group
gender diff in later yrs
boys more likely to express agg through acts like theft, truancy, substance abuse etc
why might boys express agg in these ways in adolescence
-higher testosterone
-by preschool, agg viewed as male attribute in gender schemas (watson and peng 1992)
-researcher focus more on overt agg behaviours (seen more by men) than covert agg behaviours (seen more by women)
what is the evolutionary perspective to agg
-agg for obtaining resources, defeating competitors, more agg = more likely to survive
genetic predispositions for agg
MAOA gene: variations in this gene = more agg (Godar 2017)
-involved in regulation of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine
-brunner syndrome: rare genetic disorder associated with mutation in MAOA gene, characterised by abnormal levels of disruptive violent attributes in affected males
what other factors can influence agg
environmental
social
e.g parenting practices etc
is aggression stable over time
tremblay 2000: agg toddlers likely to be agg at age 5, this can predict antisocial behaviour in later life
-agg quite fixed throughout life
cultural influences on agg
-some cultures more violent than others
-gubusi of new guinea teach children to be combative and unresponsive to other’s needs, murder rate here is 50x higher than any industrialised nation
-arapesh of new guinea use weapons to hunt but show little interpersonal agg
socioeconomic status and agg
-costello 2003: children from low SES show more agg and delinquency
-pinderhughes 2009: maybe parents with low income use physical punishments to discipline behaviour, children may model this behaviour
-parents with low SES may have further stressors e.g jobs, financial difficulties etc
