Aggression

Question 1

Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression

The limbic system

Answer 1

• is the subcortical structure in the brain which is associated with the regulation of emotion and emotional behavior including aggression

Maclean identified that it is comprised of the fornix, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus

• the amygdala is thought to be particularly important in regulating emotional behavior as demand Gospic et al in her study of ultimatum game
• the researcher found that when participants rejected unfair monetary reward there was a sudden increase in in amygdala activity = measured using FMRI

They also found that a Benzodiazepine drug ( which reduced arousal of the autonomic nervous system) taken before the game had 2 effects in responses to unfair offers
It halves the number of rejections ( reduced aggression) and decrease the activity of the amygdala.= strong evidence of an association between relative aggression and amygdala activity

Question 2

Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression

Serotonin

Answer 2

• is a neurotransmitter involved in communication of impulses between neurons

It has widespread inhibitory effect on the brain= slows down neuronal activity

Normal level of serotonin in the orbitofrontal cortex are linked with reduced firing of the neuron and is associated with greater degree of behavioral self control

Decrease serotonin may well disturb this mechanism, reducing self control and leading to an increase impulsive behaviour including aggression ( Denson et al)

Question 3

Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression

Hormonal mechanism in aggression

Answer 3

Testosterone

• it is a reliable observation that males are generally more aggressive than females due to testosterone

Definition : it is a hormone from the androgen group that is produced mainly in the male testes and is associated with aggressiveness

Animal studies such as Giammanco demonstrated experimental increase in testosterone are related to greater aggressive behavior in several species

Human studies ; Dolan et al found a positive correlation between testosterone level and aggressive behaviors in a sample of 60 male offenders in UK maximum security hospitals

These men mostly suffered from personality disorders and had histories of impulsively violent behavior

Question 4

Neural and hormonal mechanisms in aggression
Evaluation

Answer 4

Role of other brain structures
- recent studies indicate that amygdala does not operate in isolation in determine aggression
Appears orbitofrontal cortex is thought to be involved in self control, impulsive regulation and inhibition of aggressive behaviour
Coccaro et al found that in patient with psychiatric disorders that prominently feature aggression = activity in OFC is reduced, disrupting it impulsive control function= lead to increase aggression

• effects on drugs on setting
• drugs that increase serotonin activity also reduce levels of aggressive behaviour
  BERMAN et al - gave ps either a placebo or a dose of paroxetine= drug that enhance serotonin activity
  Ps then took part in a lab based game in which electric shocks of varying intensity were given and received
• the paroxetine ps consistently gave fewer and less intense shocks than those in the placebo group
  This is only true of the ps who had prior history of aggressive behavior
• study is useful evidence of link between setting and aggression

Other hormones
- evidence of the link between testosterone and aggression in human is mixed
Carre and Mehta dual hormone hypothesis attempts explains why
They claim high level of testosterone = lead to aggression only when level of cortisol is low
When it is high = testosterone influence in aggression is blocked
Cortisol is. Hormone they plays central role in stress response
- therefore combined activity of testosterone and cortisol may be a better predictor of human aggression than either hormone alone

Most research in both hormonal and neural influence on aggression is correlational
- there’s good ethical reason as opportunities to experimentally manipulate brain structures and hormones is limited
But is impossible to establish which one is the cause of the other

Question 5

Genetic factors in aggression
Twin studies

Answer 5

Several twin studies have suggested that heritability accounts for about 50% of the variance in aggressive behaviour. E.g Coccaro et al. studied adult male monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins.

Because MZ twins share 100% of their genes but DZ twins share only 50% we would expect to find greater similarities in aggressive behaviour between MZ twins if aggression is mostly influenced by genetic factors= both MZ and DZ twins are raised together in the same environment, but MZ twins have a greater degree of genetic similarity than DZs.

For aggressive behaviour defined as direct physical assault, the researchers found concordance rates of 50% for MZ twins and 19% for DZs. The corresponding figures for verbal aggression were 28% (MZs) and 7% (DZs).

Question 6

Genetic factors in aggression
Adoption studies

Answer 6

Similarities in aggressive behaviour between an adopted child and their biological parents suggest that genetic influences are operating. Similarities with the adopted parents suggest that environmental influences are operating.

So Rhee and Irwin Waldman (2002) carried out a meta-analysis of adoption studies of direct aggression and antisocial behaviour, a prominent feature of which is aggressive behaviour.
They found that genetic influences accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression

Question 7

Genetic factors in aggression
the MAOA gene

Answer 7

The gene responsible for the activity of the enzyme monoamine oxidase A in the brain
MAOA is an enzyme
- it is done by breaking down the neurotransmitter especially serotonin into constituent chemical to be recycled.

• dysfunction in the operation of this gene may lead to abnormal activity of the MAOA enzyme= affected level of serotonin in brain

The low activity variant of the gene is closely associated with aggressive behaviour
- Brinner et al studies 28 male member of a large Dutch family who were repeatedly involved in impulsive aggressive violent criminal behaviors as rape, attempted murder
Researcher found that these men had abnormally low level of MAOA in their brains and low activity version of the MAOA gene

Question 8

Genetic factors in aggression

Gene - environment interaction

Answer 8

Genes are crucial influences on aggressive behaviour but they do not function in isolation. It appears to be the case that low MAOA gene activity is only related to adult aggression when combined with early traumatic life events.

Giovanni Frazzetto et al. found an association between higher levels of antisocial aggression and the low-activity MAOA gene variant in adult males, But this was only the case in those who had experienced significant trauma (such as sexual or physical abuse) during the first 15 years of life
.
Those who had not experienced such childhoo trauma did not have particularly high levels of aggression as adults, even if they possessed the low-activity MAOA variant.

This is strong evidence of a gene-environment interaction (sometimes described as diathesis-stress).

Question 9

Genetic factor in aggression
Evaluation

Answer 9

Evaluation
Isolating genetic factors
challenging to establish how influential genes are in aggressive behaviour. One major reason for this is the difficulty researchers have in separating genetic and environmental factors, as we saw at GxE interactions. An individual may possess a gene associated with aggression, but that behaviour is only expressed if the environmental conditions are favourable.
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.

Methods of measuring aggression differ significantly between studies, and include self-reports, parent and teacher reports, and direct observations.
In Rhee and Waldman’s meta-analysis of 51 twin and adoption studies, genetic factors had a greater influence on aggression in studies using self-reports rather than parent or teacher reports.
If research findings vary depending upon how aggression is measured, then it becomes very difficult to draw valid conclusions about the role of genetic factors

Research support for role of MAOA gene
- mertins et al studied ps with low activity and high activity of the MAOA gene in a money distributing game
Ps had to make decisions about whether or not to contribute money for the good of the group
Found that males with high activity variant were more co- operative and made fewer aggressive moves than low activity ps

• other better explanation

Question 10

The ethical explanation of aggression

Answer 10

Ethological explanations suggest that the main function of aggression is adaptive. That is, aggression is beneficial to survival because a ‘defeated’ animal is rarely killed , but rather forced to establish territory elsewhere

. This means that members of a species spread out over a wid area and have to discover resources in a different place, which reduces competition pressure and th possibility of starvation.

Another adaptive function of aggression is to establish dominance hierarchies. Male chimpanzes use aggression to climb their troop’s social hierarchy.

Their dominance gives them special status (for example, mating rights over females).

This happens in humans too. Gregory Pettit et al. (1988) who found that young children use aggressive tactics in playground to asset their authority, lead the others and have their way.

This would be adaptive as dominance over other brings benefits such as power to get your own way

Question 11

The ethical explanation of aggression

Ritualistic aggression

Answer 11

A ritual is a series of behaviours carried out in a set order. One of Lorenz’s intriguing early observations of fights between animals of the same species was how little actual physical damage was done.

Most aggressive encounters consisted mainly of a period of ritualistic signalling (e.g. displaying claws an teeth, facial expressions of threat) and rarely reached the point of becoming physical.

Furthermore, Lorenz pointed out that intra-species aggressive confrontations end with ritual appeasement displays= indicate acceptance of defeat and inhibit aggressive behaviour in the victor, preventing any damage to the loser.

Question 12

The ethical explanation of aggression

Innate releasing mechanism and fixed action patterns

Answer 12

An innate releasing mechanism (IRM) is a biological structure or process which is activated by an external stimulus that in turn triggers a FAP

An environmental stimulus (such as a certain facial expression) triggers the iRM which then ‘releases’ a specific sequence of behaviours. This behavioural sequence is called a fixed action pattern (FAP). According to Stephen Lea (1984), FAPs have six main features. They are:

• Stereotyped, or relatively unchanging sequences of behaviours.

• Universal, because the same behaviour is found in every individual of a species.

• Unaffected by learning, the same for every individual regardless of experience.

• ‘Ballistic, once the behaviour is triggered it follows an inevitable course and cannot be altered before it is completed.

• Single-purpose, the behaviour only occurs in a specific situation and not in any other.

• A response to an identifiable specific sign stimulus

FAP- a sequence of stereotyped pre programmed behavior triggered by an innate releasing mechanism

Question 13

The ethnological explanation of aggression

Key study: research into IRM and FAP

Answer 13

Procedures :Male sticklebacks are highly territorial during the spring mating season, when they also levelop a red spot on their underbelly.
If another male enters their territory, a sequence of highly-tereotyped aggressive behaviours is initiated (a FAP).
The sign stimulus that triggers the innate eleasing mechanism is the sight of the red spot. Niko Tinbergen (1951) presented sticklebacks with a eries of wooden models of different shapes.

Findings
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.

Question 14

The ethnological explanation of aggression

Evaluation

Answer 14

Evidence against ritualistic aggression

challenged by observations made by Jane Goodall (2010) of chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. male chimps from one community set about systematically slaughtering all the members of another group. They did this in a co-ordinated and premeditated fashion.
others hit and bit it in an attack lasting up to 20 minutes. The violence continued like this despite the fact that the victims were offering signals of appeasement and defencelessness. These signals did not inhibit the aggressive behaviour of the attacking chimps as predicted by the ethological explanation.

Unjustified generalization to humans

Lorenz and Tibergen both made generalization about aggressive behaviour in humans including warfare
Lorenz also extrapolated from the behaviour of individual animals to the behaviour of the entire countries and states
= not valid

+ There is also evidence supporting the biological, innate basis of IRM and FAP systems. For example, researchers have pointed to Bremner’s work (1993) on the link between the MAOA activity and levels of aggression, as evidence for the heritability of IRM and FAP systems. This is due to aggressive behaviour being triggered by increased levels of testosterone which must have been preceded by exposure to a releaser or signal, which had triggered the IRM.

However, a more accurate description of FAPs may be ‘modal’ rather than fixed’, as , as suggested by Hunt (1973). The researcher provided evidence that the duration of each behaviour hin each FAP may vary between individuals as well as the specific other animal towärds which s targeted. Hence, environmental and social factors may have significant influences on the urse of the FAP, resulting in lower validity of the universal nature of FAPs as part of an planation for aggression.

Question 15

Evolutionary explanation human aggression
Evaluation

Answer 15

+ Evolutionary theories are useful because they can provide an explanation for gender differences in aggression.
For example, Campbell (1999) suggested that females are more likely to engage in acts of verbal, as opposed to physical, aggression as this ensures that their own survival, as well as the survival of their offspring, is not endangered.
Such tactics also prevents females from being involved in life-threatening physical confrontations with their partners,
and so further increases their chance of survival through the use of non-aggressive methods of resolving conflicts =increases the validity of the evolutionary explanation of aggression.

• methodological issues associated with the use of evolutionary theories to explain current examples of aggression.
  , most studies are correlational, meaning that there is only a correlation between aggression and the use of male retention strategies.
  means that the research may suffer from the ‘third factor problem’,= may be a third contributory factor which has not been studied.= jump to make causal conclusions, when really correlations can never demonstrate a ‘cause and effect’ relationship

+ However, there is research supporting the link between sexual jealousy and aggression.
The main example of this would be Shackleford’s 2005 study which found that male retention strategies are a method of expressing sexual jealousy, which leads to aggressive behaviour both towards females and other partners.
This increases the reliability of evolutionary theories as a method of explaining aggression, due to this supporting evidence.

Cultural differences
The !Kung San people of the Kalahari have very negative attitudes towards the use of aggression. Aggressive behaviour is discouraged from childhood and is therefore rare.
Those who do use it find that their status and reputation within the community are diminished. The Yanomamo of Venezuela and Brazil have been described as ‘the fierce people’= it appears that aggression is an accepted and required behaviour in order to gain status in their highly structured society.

Question 16

Evolutionary explanation of human aggression

Evolutionary explanation of sexual jealousy

Answer 16

There are characteristics that enhance survival and reproduction are naturally selected

• sexual jealously is a major motivator of aggressive behavior in males compared to females due to paternity uncertainty, which may lead to cuckoldry I.e. male raised a son which is not his own

This is an evolutionary disadvantage as the male wasting his resource which he could have otherwise used in raising his own children

Therefore anti cuckoldry behaviour In The form of male retentive strategies are adaptive because it reduce the risk of cuckoldry. For instance sexual jealously = drives the form aggressive strategy men employ to retain their partners and prevent them from straying

Question 17

Mate retention strategies

Answer 17

Margo Wilson and Martin Daly (1996) identity several mate retention strategies which involve aggression and even physical violence, including:

• 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

Such behaviours are clearly linked to violence. For example, Margo Wilson et al. (1995) found that women who reported mate retention strategies in their partners 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.

Supported by Shackelford et al who studied intimate partner violence in heterosexual couple

Procedure 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.
Findings There was a strong positive correlation between men’s reports of their mate retention behaviours and women’s reports of their partners’ physical violence.

Question 18

Evolutionary explanation of bullying

Answer 18

Bullying occurs because of a power imbalance: a more powerful individual uses aggression deliberately and repeatedly against a weaker person.

our evolutionary ancestors may have used builying as an adaptive strategy to increase their chances of survival by promoting their own health and creating opportunities for reproduction.

Tony 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.
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.

Question 19

Social psychological explanations of aggression: fustrstion- aggression hypothesis

Answer 19

Is a social psychological theory that argues that anger, hostility and even violence are always the outcome when we are prevented from achieving our goal

It’s formulated by Dollard and his colleagues

According to them fustrstion always leads to aggression and aggression is always the result of fustrstion

• is based on the psychodynamic concept of catharsis= view aggression as a psychological drive akin to biological drives such as hunger
  If our attempt to achieve goal is blocked by external factors = experience frustration
  = creates an aggressive drive= agreeeive behaviour such as violent fantasy, verbal outburst, physical violence
• cathartic as aggression created by frustration is satisfied= reducing the drive= making further aggression less likely

The hypothesis recognize that aggression not always expressed directly against source of frustration because

• The cause of our frustration may be abstract, such as the economic situation, the government, or the music industry.

• The cause may be too powerful and we risk punishment by aggressing against it, for example the teacher who gave you a lower grade than you expected.

• The cause may just be unavailable at the time, for example perhaps the teacher left before you realised what grade you got.

So our aggression is deflected (or displaced) onto an alternative - one that is not abstract, is weaker and is available (an inanimate object, perhaps, or a pet, or a younger sibling).

Question 20

Research into fustrstion aggression

Answer 20

Russell Geen (1968) carried out a study to investigate the effects of frustration on aggression.

Procedure Male university students were given the task of completing a jigsaw puzde.
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.

Question 21

The role of environmental cues

Answer 21

• even if we become angry we might not behave aggressively
• according to Berkowitz fustrstion merely creates a readiness for aggression and that certain envriomental cues were needed to initiate this reaction

Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage (1967) demonstrated this in a famous study.
Procedure They arranged for student participants to be given electric shocks in a laboratory situation, creating anger and frustration.
The individual who gave the shocks was a confederate of the researchers. The participants then had the opportunity to turn the tables and give electric shocks to the confederate.

Findings The number of shocks given depended on the presence or absence of weapons in the lab: In one condition, two guns were present on a table next to the shock machine. The average number of shocks given in this condition was 6.07. When no guns were present, the average number of shocks was significantly fewer, at 4.67
This so-called weapons effect supports Berkowitz’s contention that the presence of aggressive environmental cues stimulates aggression. (The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger may also be pulling the finger’, as he put it.

Question 22

Fustrstion - aggression hypothesis - evaluation

Answer 22

Research support
Amy Marcus-Newhalf et al. (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies of displaced aggression, a key concept in the frustration-aggression hypothesis.
The researchers concluded that displaced aggression is a reliable phenomenon.
Ps who were provoked but unable to retaliate directly against the source of their frustration were significantly more likely to aggress against an innocent party
. This is exactly the outcome predicted by the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Aggression may not be cathartic-
Brad 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 eflective at reducing aggression than venting anger.
Bushman argues that using venting to reduce anger is like using petrol to put out a fire.
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.

+ There is a real-life application arising from Berkowitz’s emphasis of the role of environmental cues, and this role is in the gun-debate.
Some argue that guns should not be readily given to individuals and carried in public in plain sight, because these guns may act as stimuli for aggressive behaviour. This is particularly the case when considering the results of Berkowitz’s original 1989 study!

• better social psychological explanations of aggression such as SLT

Question 23

Social psychological explanations of aggression: social learning theory

Direct and indirect learning

Answer 23

Albert Bandura acknowedged that aggression can be learned directly, through mechanisms of operant conditioning involving positive and negative reinforcement and punishment

so a child who angily snatches a toy off another child, for example, is likely to learn that aggressive behaviour brings results.

This direct reinforcement makes it more likely that the child wilt do thus again in a similar situation.

However, Bandura also realised that aggressive behavour often cannot be explained by such direct forms of learning, especially in humans.

So he argued that an indirect mechansm - observational learning - accounts for social learning of most aggressive behavicians

Question 24

Social psychological explanations of aggression: social learning theory

Observational learning and vicarious reinforcement

Answer 24

Observational learning and vicarious reinforcement
Children acquire specific aggressive behaviours through obseruing aggressive models, such as siblings, parents, peers, and characters in the media.

In this way, the child works out how an aggressive behaviour is performed,

As well as observing the behaviour of models, children also observe the consequences of their behaviour.

If the models aggressive behaviour is rewarded (or at least nos punished), then the child learns that aggression can be effective in getting what they want.

This is known as vicarious reinforcement, and it makes it more likely that the observing child will undate the model’s aggressive behaviour.

There is a parallel form of indirect learning called vicarious punishment. If a models use of aggression to achieve a goal is punished, an observing child is less likely to imitate that specific behavior

Question 25

Social psychological explanations of aggression: social learning theory

Cognitive control of aggressive behavior

Answer 25

Bandura points out that four cognitive conditions are needed for observational learning to fake place:

• Attention a basic cognitive requirement is that the observer must pay attention to the moders aggressive actions

• Retention; the observer also needs to be able to remember the models aggressive actions, to form a symbolic mental representation of how the behaviour is performed

Reproduction: the individual must be able to transform the mental representation of the aggressive behaviour into actual physical action. This involves the individual mentally appraising his or her ability to do this

• Motivation: the individual needs a reason to imitate the behavout, which will depend if its rewarding

Question 26

Self - efficacy

Answer 26

Is the extent to which we believe our actions will achieve a desired goal

A child confidence in their ability to be aggressive grows as they learn that aggression can be reward

The child sense of self efficacy develops with each successful outcome

Question 27

Research into social learning of aggression

Answer 27

Bandura et al. (1961) famous Bobo doll study illustrates many of the features of SLT discussed or this spread

Procedure Young children individually observed an adult model assaulting an inflatable plastic toy called a ‘Bobo doll’. The aggressive behaviours included throwing, kicking, hitting with a mallet, and were accompanied by verbal outbursts such as ‘Sock him in the nosel” There followed a short period during which the children were not allowed to play with some attractive toys, which created a degree of frustration. They were then taken to another room where there was a Bobo doll, plus some other toys including ones the adult model had used

Findings Without being instructed to do so, many of these children imitated the behaviour they had seen performed by the model, physically and verbally.
There was also another group of children who had observed an adult interacting non-aggressively with the doll. Aggressive behaviour towards the Bobo doll by these children was almost non-existent.

Question 28

Social psychological explanations of aggression: social learning theory

Answer 28

there are two broad categories of aggression recognised by researchers: reactive (‘hot-blooded”, angry) and proactive (cold-blooded”, calculated).
Children who are experienced in using proactive aggression have high levels of self-efficacy - they are confident that their aggressive behaviour will bring benefits.
They use aggression as a way of achieving their goals (i.e. instrumentally). This type of behaviour is well-explained by social learning theory.
However, reactively aggressive children habitually use aggression to retaliate in the heat of the moment. be hostile,and do not use aggression to achieve anything except retribution
This behaviour is less explicable from a social learning perspective,

There are practical applications of SLT. The theory argues that people are not passive recipients of reinforcement, whether direct or vicarious, but active influencers of their own environments. People shape their own aggressive behaviour by selecting and creating their surroundings (reciprocal determinism)
There is a practical benefit to understanding this aspect of SLT. One way to reduce aggression is to break this cycle in which individuals become yet more aggressive by choosing situations which reward their behaviour.
Encouraging aggressive children to form friendships with children (and adufts) who do not habitually behave aggressively gives them more opportunities to modei non-aggressive behaviour.

Real life application
Huesmann and Eron
(2013) argue that media portrayals of aggressive behaviour can be powerful influences on a child’s acquisition of aggression.
This is especially true if a character (in, for example, a soap opera) is rewarded for being aggressive, and if the child is able to identify with the character in some way (for instance, he or she has appealing traits, such as a sense of humor).
Under these conditions, vicarious reinforcement experienced by children observing violent behaviour by media characters may be just as influential in encouraging imitation as it is in real life

Cultural differences
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.

Question 29

Social psychogyicsl explanation of aggression : de individuation

Answer 29

De-individuation
- A psychological state in which an individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of the social group when, for example, in a crowd or wearing a uniform. The result may be to free the individual from the constraints of social norms.

• responsibility becomes shared throughout the crowd and so we experience less personal guilt at harmful aggression directed at other

Question 30

How does de- individuation lead to aggression

Answer 30

Philip 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; most importantly. they are anti-normative and disinhibited.

So when we are in a de individuated state, we lose self-awareness, we stop monitoring and regulating our own behaviour, we ignore social norms, failing to form longer-term plans.
The conditions of de-individuation which promote aggressive behaviour include darkness, drugs, alcohol, uniforms, masks and disguises.

A major factor is anonymity, according to John Dixon and Kesi Mahendran (2012), ‘anonymity shapes crowd behaviour. We have less fear as we are a small and unidentifiable part of a faceless crowd; the bigger the crowd, the more anonymous we are.
anonymity provides fewer opportunities for others to judge us negatively.

Question 31

The role of self awareness

Answer 31

• Dunn and Rogers explain the explain how aggression is due to the consequence of anonymity

They explain this process in terms of 2 types of self awareness

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, 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, also reduced in crowds. We realise 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.

Question 32

Research into de- individuation

Answer 32

David 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.

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.

Question 33

Evaluation of de- individuation

Answer 33

Research support for de-individuation
Karen Douglas and Craig McGarty (2001) looked at aggressive online behaviour in chatrooms and uses of instant messaging. They found a strong correlation between anonymity and ‘flaming”, that is sending or posting threatening and/or hostile messages. The most aggressive messages were sent by those who chose to hide their real identities.
This suggests the existence of a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour in a context that has even greater relevance today due to the explosion in social media use, the activities of online ‘trolls’, and the exit from Twitter of several high-profile media celebrities.

Furthermore, uniform can impact behaviour. In a study where females were told to give fake shocks to a confederate, the participants were dressed in either costume resembling the Ku Klux Klan, hidingtheir faces, or a nurse’s uniform, or normal clothes. Those who were dressed like the KKK gave more and more intense shocks than the control group. The nurses gave less shocks at lower levels. This suggests uniform can impact aggression, based on the perceived roles of those they were dressed to.
- shows that pro social behaviour and aggression (not just aggression)are potential outcomes of de- individuation, and normative cues in the situation

Real-life applications
De-individuation theory can help us to understand aggressive behaviour in online gaming services such as Xbox Live.
These services have many features that promote a psychological state of de-individuation.
There is a reduction of personal identity, with players using ‘handles’ to identify themselves; game-playing in such an environment is arousing and immersive; and there is the presence of a ‘crowd’ in the form of a (potentially worldwide) audience.

Question 34

Institutional aggression in the context of prisons

Dispositional explanations- importation model

Answer 34

Irwin and Cressey proposed a dispositional explanation in the form of importation model
This model suggests that aggression is caused by individual differences between offenders, rather than the prison context.

• inmates will import experiences, values, attitudes, norms into prison, including aggressive ones

This is because, as suggested by Thomas and McManimon (2005), prison offenders will behave in the same way within prison as in the ‘real-world’ due to their dispositions e.g. drug abuse, childhood trauma, anger, anti- social personality etc.

These characteristics will pre-dispose them to use aggression to navigate their way around the prison social hierarchy, and not be challenged for doing so because aggression is part of the
‘prison subculture’

• Evidence for these concepts was provided by DeLisi et al (2011) who found that certain dispositional traits, such as childhood trauma and irritability, coincided with an increased risk of violent behaviour and suicides, in a group of 813 juvenile offénders when compared to a control group. Therefore, this suggests that dispositional traits, as opposed to the prison environment, may be a more important predictor of aggression.

Question 35

Institutional aggression in the context of prisons

Situational: the deprivation model

Answer 35

The opposite of a dispositional explanation would be the situational model deprivation model, as suggested by Clemmer (1958). He suggests that prison-associated factors can reliably determine aggressive behaviour.
These factors include being deprived from freedom, independence, safety and heterosexual intimacy

Deprivation from material goods such at TV time especially important as it increases competition amongst inmates to acquire them,which often leads to increase in aggression

• Support is given for this idea by Steiner (2009) who, in his meta-analysis of 512 prisons in the US, found that ‘prison-level’ factors could be used as indicators for the likelihood of aggressive behaviour e.g. the presence of female officers and Hispanic inmates. This further supports situational explanations for aggression within prisons.

Question 36

Institutional aggression in the context of prisons

Evaluation

Answer 36

Dispositional explanation

A weakness of the importation model is a failure to consider situational factors which contribute to the quality of the prison, and therefore the associated prison factors, as proposed by Dilulio (1991).
He suggests that the ‘administrative control model’ (ACM) is a more valid and accurate explanation of aggressive behaviour within prisons, because it emphasises the consequences of poor prison management. These can include irregular implementation of rules and officers maintaining psychological distances with the inmates.
Such factors may create triggers’ for aggression which increases the influence of dispositional factors.
- suggest situational factors do play a role on…

Research support
Camp and Gaes (2005) studied 561 inmates with similar criminal histories and predispositions to aggression. They placed half of them in low-security Californian prisons and half in high-security ones. They found that 33% of prisoners in the low-security prisons were involved in aggressive misconduct, as was 36% in the high-security ones. This result was not statistically significant.
- strong evidence as study is field experiments with random allocation used= more valid conclusions

Situational explanation

, there is evidence supporting the situational deprivation model of aggression.
For example Cunningham et al (2010) found that several of Clemmer’s identified situational factors were involved in 35 homicides within Texas prisons, such as disputes over relationships and authority. Therefore, this suggests that such factors are an important determinant of increasing the likethood of aggressive behaviour.

Contradictory research
The deprivation model predicts that a lack of freedom and heterosexual contact should lead to high levels of aggressive behaviour in prisons.
However, the available evidence does not support this.
For example, Christopher Hensley et al. (2002) studied 256 male and female inmates of two prisons in Mississippi a state of the USA which allows conjugal visits (that is, visits from partners specifically to have sex).
There was no link between involvement in these visits and reduced aggressive behaviour.

Question 37

Media influence on aggression: the effect of computer games

Answer 37

Experimental studies- lab based

• Craig and Anderson (2002) demonstrated that playing a violent computer game (Mortal Kombat) for just 10 minutes resulted in higher levels of aggression compared to playing non-violent games (PGA Tournament Golf), as assessed using the TCRTT.
The researchers found that participants in the violent group selected significantly higher noice level compared with non violent players

Correlational study
DeLesi studied 227 juveniles offender, all with histories of serious aggressive behavior such as hitting a teacher or parent
Using structural interview, they gathered data on measure of aggression and violent video game
Found strong positive correlation between high level of aggressive behavior and how often they played violent computer games
This reaching conclusion that aggression should be treated as a public health issue like HIV/Aids- computer game violence is a significant risk factor

Longitudinal studies
Robertson et al studies 1037 people born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973, and measured their TV viewing hours of aggressive behavior at regular intervals up to the age of 26 years.
- found that time spent watching TV was a reliable predictor of aggressive behavior in adulthood
They found that Those who watched the most TV were also more likely to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and to have aggressive personality traits.

Meta analysis

• Anderson et al (2010) has provided evidence that the effects of watching playing violent/ aggressive computer games are not exclusive to gender and culture( individualistic and collectivist)
A meta-analysis of 136 studies further supported the strong positive correlation between increased exposure to aggressive media and an increased likelihood of observers displaying aggressive behaviours themselves.
- the analysis also shows no indication that publication bias influenced the result

Question 38

Media influence on aggression: the effect of computer games

Evaluation

Answer 38

Single strength of experimental studies is that allows us to establish a causal link between media aggression and aggressive behavior BUT
Experimental studies investigating the effects of violent video games on behavior often suffer from low mundane realism.
This is due to the artificial tasks and highly controlled conditions of a laboratory experiment.
For example, as there is no risk of retaliation in such an environment, participants may behave more aggressively than they usually would, resulting again in a systematic error.
The assessment methods of aggression are unlikely to be accurate, such as the TCRTT used by Craig and Anderson
thus reducing the ecological validity of the findings.

Correlational studies
Even though it allow us to investigate realistic forms of aggression, unable to draw cause-and-effect conclusions.
No variables are manipulated or controlled, and there is no random allocation of participants to violent or nonvioient media conditions.
The positive correlation between viewing or playing of violent media and aggressive behaviour does not help us choose between two competing hypotheses of media effects.
One is the socialisation hypothesis, which states that aggressive media causes people to become more aggressive.
The other is selection hypothesis: claims people who are already aggressive select aggressive media
- therefore direction of causality cannot be settled by correlation studies

Longitudinal studies
Researchers use this methodology to investigate changes in aggressive behaviour over time. So the dynamic nature of media influences in the long term can be studied.
However, studying change over time leaves longitudinal studies vulnerable to the effects of confounding variables. Many other sources of aggression interact with media influences over a period of time, such as role models in the form of friends and family members. it becomes difficult to separate them all and assess their contributions to aggressive behaviour.

Main methodological criticism of meta analysis would be Publication bias
There is a well-known tendency in scientific research towards publishing only findings that are statistically significant
This is a problem for meta-analyses, because they generally only include published studies.
Therefore reduces the universality of the casual conclusion reached

Question 39

Media influence of aggression: desensitisation, disinhibition and cognitive printing

Desensitisation

Answer 39

Definition: repeated exposure to violent media reduces normal level of physiological and psychological arousal associated with anxiety, making aggression more likely

-it promotes a belief that using aggression as a method of resolving conflict is socially acceptable

• this causes individuals to be less empathetic towards victims

A lab study which highlights desensitization was conducted by Weisz and Earls
who found that men who had watched the film Straw Dogs (which includes a graphic and distressing rape scene) were more accepting of rape myths and less likely to find the defendant guilty when watching a rape trail re-enactment.
They expressed less sympathy towards rape victim in trial

Question 40

Media influence of aggression: desensitisation, disinhibition and cognitive printing

Disinhibition

Answer 40

Disinhibiton describes the process whereby our restraints towards violence and aggression are lowered, through direct or indirect learning during the process of social learning.

The media is a particularly important influence due to rewarding aggressive behavior and minimizing its negative consequences = suggest it’s justified =results in new social norms and attitude toward aggression being developed

Question 41

Media influence of aggression: desensitisation, disinhibition and cognitive printing

Cognitive priming

Answer 41

• suggest how repeated viewing of aggressive media can provide us with a script about how violent situations may play out

According to Huesmann the script is stored in memory= so we become ready to be aggressive

Process mostly automatic. The script is triggered when we encounter fires in a situation that we perceive as aggressive

This was demonstrated by Greitemeyer (2006), who found that male participants who’d listened to aggressive songs featuring derogatory comments about women, behaved more aggressively towards a female confederate, compared to those who’d heard gender-neutral lyrics. This suggests that the media may cognitively prime audiences to develop an increasing tolerance and disinhibition towards violence.

Question 42

Media influence of aggression: desensitisation, disinhibition and cognitive printing

Evaluation

Answer 42

Research support for desensitisation

Barbara Krahé et al. (2011) showed participants violent (and nonviolent) film clips while measuring physiological arousal
. Participants who were habitual viewers of violent media showed lower levels of arousal as they watched the violent film clips.
also reported higher levels of pleasant arousal and lower levels of anxious arousal.
Lower arousal was correlated with unprovoked aggression in a ‘noise blast’ task.
These findings confirm hypothesis based on desensitisation. The lower arousal in violent media users reflects desensitisation to the effects of violence, and a greater willingness to be aggressive.

Research support for disinhibition
Leonard Berkowitz and Joseph Alioto (1973) found that participants who saw a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more (fake) electric shocks of longer duration to a confederate.
suggests that media violence may disinhibit aggressive behaviour when it is presented as justified because vengeance is a powerful justification for violence,
and justified violence is more likely to be seen as socially acceptable.
This adds validity to the disinhibition concept as it demonstrates the link between removal of social constraints and subsequent aggressive behaviour

• Cartoon violence is a useful example of how nether social learning theory, nor disinhibition and desensitisation can form complete explanations of how children learn violence.
  For example, most children understand that it’s not possible to punch someone so that their eyes burst out of their sockets.
  Instead, as Krahe suggested, children observe that these aggressive acts are not punished, and therefore prepare their own cognitive scripts , through the process of cognitive priming, about what is socially acceptable behaviour.