aggression Flashcards
Define aggression
-Hobbes (1651) wrote that extreme levels of aggression are natural for human beings
-Intention of harm
-Same species
-Results in personal injury
How can we measure aggression using lab methods?
-Punching bobo doll (Bandura et al., 1963)
-Observations from teachers and colleagues (Eron, 1982)
-Self reports (Leyens et al., 1975)
-Selecting spiciness of hot sauce for someone who doesn’t like spice (Lieberman et al., 1999)
What is the link between gaming and aggression?
-Associated with negative real world outcomes
-Hypodermic needle - injected into people who engage with it
-Ferguson (2007) found small effect link
What are the issues linked to these studies?
-No standardised way of measuring aggression
-Struggled to account for real world crime rates e.g. gaming has increased but crime rates have fallen
What did Kennedy et al (2014) find?
-Found that people who play video games a lot weren’t that distracted by violent images in other contexts
-Seem desensitised by the images
-Known as ‘emotion-induced blindness’
What are the 2 types of theories around aggression?
-Innate theories
-Social theories
What are innate theories?
-Aggression unlearned and universal
-Innate
-Builds up and explodes
What are social theories?
-Social context can explain aggression
Define Freud’s psychodynamic theory in link to aggression?
-Innate death instinct known as Thanatos
-Theorising of anger
-Linked to self destruction
-Anger becomes directed towards other people
-Aggression has to be released in some way
-Natural process
What is the ethological perspective defined by Lorenz (1966) in terms of aggression?
-Survival value = can be functional and have a positive impact
What is the dual factor theory?
-Innate urge to egress is inevitable
-Caused by environmental stimuli, acting as releasers
Define what is meant by evolutionary
-Helps people to survival
-Adaptive
-Evolved to pass on genes to the next generation and secure a mate
-Both social and economic advantages
What issues can arise from these theories?
-There is limited evidence for Freud’s theory
-Ethological theory struggled to explain the positive values of aggression
-Evolutionary theory has limited evidence and uses circular reasoning
-Lack of practical application
What is social learning theory?
-Observational learning
-Modelling and vicarious reinforcement
-Bobo doll study (Bandura)
-3 conditions; real life aggressive model non aggressive model and no model
-Children exposed to aggressive model were then more aggressive to the bobo doll
What is the frustration aggression hypothesis?
-Aggression is a result of frustration
-Always tend to occur together
-If the target is too powerful or unavailable = find a scapegoat
What did Barker et al (1941) find?
-Children were shown a room full of toys
-Some told that they could play straight away and others told that they had to wait
-Assessments on how they played
-The group who had to wait were more frustrated = smashed toys, threw them and shown general destructive behaviour
What did Berowitz (1962,1989) find?
-Frustration doesn’t always lead to aggression
-Depends on aversive events and situational cues
-Frustration is ill-defined
What is excitation transfer?
-Expressing aggression through 3 factors;
1: Learnt behaviour
2: Arousal/excitation from another source
3: How the situation is interpreted and whether an aggressive response is appropriate
What factors can influence aggression?
-Type A personality
-Psychoticism and low agreeableness
-Frustration and provocation sensitivity
-Heat
-Presence of weapon
-Alcohol
-Narcissism
Describe the influence of Type A personality
-Striving to achieve
-Begin to have more conflict with your peers
Describe the influence of psychotics and low agreeableness
-Associated with being more aggressive
Describe the influence of frustration and provocation sensitivity
-Links to sensitivity to a certain situation
-Depends on how frustrated you get
-Describe the influence of heat
-Wilkowski et al. (2009) = ppt shown images and words associated with heat
-Ppts who were exposed to these words then perceived neutral facial expressions as more aggressive
What did Anderson (2001) find?
-Hotter areas have higher violent crime rates
What did Mares and Moffett (2016) find?
-Analysed violent data from 60 countries
-Found significant link between heat and violence
-If temperature increases by 1 degree celsius then this can increase homicide by 6%
Describe the influence of presence of weapon
-Klinesmith et al (2006)
-Men took part and held a gun or child toy
-Measured aggressive behaviour (how much hot sauce to the next person)
-Holding a gun increased aggression
Describe the influence of alcohol (Miller and Parrott, 2010)
-Intoxicated ppts behave more aggressively and respond to provocations more strongly
-Low aggressors became more aggressive when intoxicated
Describe the influence of narcissism (Bushman and Baumeister, 1998)
-Ppts wrote pro-life or pro-choice essay on abortion
-Some given negative feedback
-Asked to deliver blasts of noise to another ppt and they could adjust the level
-Narcissistic ppts gave person that they thought had criticised their essay more louder bursts
-Direct aggression at those who threaten self image
What is the General Aggression Model (AGM)?
-Comprehensive and integrative framework
-Understands human aggression
-Considers social, cognitive, developmental and biological factors
