Aggression

Question 1

The Bobo Doll Study (1961) - Method

Answer 1

• PP’s, both male and female ranging from 3 to 5 years old
• Half exposed to an adult model interacting aggressively with a bobo doll, they other exposed to non-aggressive acts
• Following exposure to the model, children were frustrated by being shown toys they weren’t allowed to play with

Question 2

The Bobo Doll Study (1961) - Findings

Answer 2

• Children in the aggression condition reproduced the aggressive behaviour
• Boys reproduced more physical aggression than girls but they did not differ in their imitation of verbal aggression

Question 3

The Bobo Doll Study (1961) - Evaluation

Answer 3

• Does not tell us much about why a child would be motivated to perform the same behaviours in the absence of a model
• Lacks ecological validity - not a real person used
• Ethically problematic - protection from harm, take aggression into real life
• Demand characteristics - children feel expected to carry out aggressive behaviour
• Children primed - more aggressive than normal

Question 4

Phillips (1986) - Applicable to adults

Answer 4

Found that daily homicide rates in the US almost always increased in the week following a major boxing match

Question 5

Zimbardo (1969) - method

Answer 5

Study with 4 female undergrads who were required to deliver electric shocks to other students

• Half wore coats and hoods that hid their face, sat in separate cubicles and were never referred to by name
• The other pp’s wore their normal clothes, were given large name tags and were introduced to each other by name

Question 6

Zimbardo (1969) - Findings

Answer 6

PP’s in the de deindividuated condition shocked ‘the learner’ for twice as long as those who were not deindividuated

Question 7

Mullen (1986) - RLA

Answer 7

Analysed newspapers cuttings of 60 lynchings in the USA 1899-1946
Found that the more people there were in the mob, the greater the brutality of the killing

Question 8

Johnson and Downing (1979) - Group norms - methods

Answer 8

Same experimental conditions as Zimbardo but this time there was a group dressed similarly to the KKK whilst the other group were dressed as nurses

Question 9

Johnson and Downing (1979) - Group norms - findings

Answer 9

Those dressed as the KKK shocked more than those dressed as nurses
—> People respond to normative cues associated with the social context in which they find themselves

Question 10

Spivey and Prentice-Dunn (1990)

Answer 10

Found deindividuation could lead to increased pro-social behaviour. When pro-social cues were present, deindividuated pp’s performed more altruistic acts and significantly fewer anti-social acts

Question 11

Connavale et al (1970)

Answer 11

Found that male and female groups responded differently under deindividuation conditions - Only an increase in all male groups

Question 12

Watson (1973)

Answer 12

Found that in societies where warriors changed their appearance (war paint/tribal costumes) were more destructive towards their victims compared to those who did not change their appearance

Question 13

Huff (1998)

Answer 13

Found that gang members in the US were 10x more likely to commit a murder and 3x more likely to assault someone in public than non-gang members

Question 14

Harer and Steffensmeier (2006)

Answer 14

Collected data from 58 US prisons and found that black inmates had higher rates of violent behaviour but lower rates of alcohol related and drug related misconduct than white inmates - These patterns parallel racial differences in these behaviours in US society and support the importation model

Question 15

Delisi et al (2004)

Answer 15

Challenges the claim that pre-prison gang membership predicts violence whilst in prison - Found that inmates with prior street gang involvement were no more likely than other inmates to engage in prison violence

Question 16

Fischer (2001)

Answer 16

Found that isolating known gang members in a special management unit reduced the rates of serious assault by 50%

Question 17

Zimbardo - Stamford Prison Experiment

Answer 17

Concluded that within his prison experiment, behaviour resulted from situational factors and that brutalising environments produce brutality

Question 18

Abu Ghraib

Answer 18

The abuses of Iraqi prisoners by US troops can be explained as a result of similar situational factors and not disposition

Question 19

Harer and Steffensmeier (1996)

Answer 19

Suggests that inmates behave in a way that is caused by the difficulties they have adjusting to the ‘pains of investment’ –> Loss of freedom, loss of heterosexual relationships, isolation from the community, boredom, discomfort and loneliness

Question 20

McCorkle et al (1995)

Answer 20

Sampled 371 US prisons and found little evidence to support the prediction that overcrowding in prisons leads to increased levels of violent behaviour - Found that stress among inmates, such as feelings of loneliness and isolation, are relatively constant among inmates in all prisons, whereas serious outbreaks of violence such as riots are relatively violent

Question 21

Staub (1999)

Answer 21

Outlined 5 stages in the process of genocide that explain how difficult social conditions can rapidly escalate into victimisation of a target group

1) Difficult social conditions lead to…
2) Scapegoating of less powerful group, leading to…
3) Negative evaluation and dehumanisation of the target group, leading to…
4) Moral values and rules becoming inapplicable and the killing begins
5) The passivity of bystanders enhances the process

Question 22

Esses et al (2008)

Answer 22

Demonstrated that individuals high in SDO have a tendency to dehumanise out group members and in particular foreign refugees and asylum seekers

Question 23

Mann et al (1990)

Answer 23

Gave 35 healthy subjects dexenfluramine which depletes serotonin levels. Using a qnnaire they found that it was associated with an increase in hostility and aggression in males

Question 24

Raleigh et al (1991)

Answer 24

Found that vervet monkeys fed on diets high in tryptophan (which increases serotonin levels) exhibited decreased levels of aggression. Those fed low amounts of tryptophan exhibited increased aggressive behaviour

Question 25

Bond (2005)

Answer 25

Found that aggressive behaviour decreased in clinical studies of antidepressant drugs that elevate serotonin levels - reduces irritability and impulsive aggression

Question 26

Couppis and Kennedy (2008)

Answer 26

Found that in mice, a reward pathway in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved as a passive reinforcer in this pathway

Question 27

Scerbo and Raine (1993)

Answer 27

Meta-analysis of 29 studies and found reduced levels of serotonin in all antisocial groups. There was a significant decrease in serotonin levels in individuals who had attempted suicide - Suggests serotonin depletion leads to impulsive behaviour, which in turn may lead to aggressive behaviour in various forms

Question 28

Virkunen (1985)

Answer 28

Reported low levels of cortisol in habitual violent offenders

Question 29

Albert et al (1993)

Answer 29

Claimed that there is inconsistent evidence as despite studies showing a positive correlation between testosterone and aggression, other studies found no such relationship

Question 30

Archer (1991)

Answer 30

Analysed the results of 230 males over 5 studies and found a low positive correlation between testosterone and aggression

Question 31

Archer et al (2005)

Answer 31

Women with higher levels of testosterone had higher occupational status, possibly as a result of being more assertive

Question 32

Eisenegger et al (2011)

Answer 32

Found that testosterone could make women a act ‘nicer’

Question 33

McBurnett et al (2000)

Answer 33

4 year study of boys with behavioural problems - boys with consistently low cortisol levels began antisocial acts at a younger age and exhibited 3x the number of aggressive symptoms

Question 34

Hutchings and Mednick (1975)

Answer 34

A study of over 14,000 adoptions in Denmark found that a significant number of adopted boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal convictions

Question 35

Bruner et al (1993)

Answer 35

Found that many male members of a Dutch family studies in the 1980’s who were particularly violent and aggressive had abnormally low levels of MAOA in their bodies

Question 36

Caspi et al (2002)

Answer 36

A study involving 500 male children discovered a variant of the genes associated with high levels of MAOA a variant associated with…
Those with low levels of MAOA were more likely to grow up to exhibit antisocial behaviour but only if they had been maltreated

Question 37

Rhee and Waldman (2002)

Answer 37

Combined the results of 51 twin and adoption studies and concluded that a aggressive antisocial behaviour was largely a product of genetic contributions
Influencing factors - age of pp, assessment method

Question 38

Miles and Carey (1997)

Answer 38

Genetic factors explained a large proportion of aggressive behaviour when parental or self-reports had been used. However, those that had made use of observational ratings showed less genetic contribution and a greater influence of environmental factors

Question 39

Daly and Wilson (1988)

Answer 39

Claim that men have evolved several different strategies to deter their female partners from committing adultery, which are fuelled by male sexual jealousy, an adaption that evolved specifically to deal with the threat of paternal uncertainty

Question 40

Buss (1988)

Answer 40

Suggest that male mate retention strategies include restricting their partners autonomy ‘direct guarding’ and ‘negative inducements’ in the form of violence or threats to prevent her from straying

Question 41

Dell (1984)

Answer 41

Concluded that sexual jealousy accounted for 17% of all cases of murder in the UK

Question 42

Shackled ore et al (2005)

Answer 42

Used a survey method to test evolutionary psychology predictions with 461 men and 560 women in the US who were all in committed, heterosexual relationships
Men’s use of negative inducements and direct guarding was positively correlated with their violence scores
Supported by the females results with reports of direct guarding and negative inducements being positively correlated with their experience of female-directed violence.

Question 43

Takahashi et al (2006)

Answer 43

Showed that neural responses to imagined scenes of sexual infidelity and emotional jealousy was different for men and women
They discovered that men showed greater activation in the hypothalamus (brain areas associated with aggression) when presented with scenes depicting sexual infidelity

Question 44

Daly et al (1982)

Answer 44

Suggests that the depiction of suspicion of infidelity is a key predictor of partner violence

Question 45

Goetz et al (2008)

Answer 45

A consequence of men’s perceptions or suspicions of their wives sexual infidelity is sexual coercion or rape

Question 46

Camilleri (2004)

Answer 46

Found that sexual assault of a female by her male partner was directly linked with the perceived risk of her infidelity

Question 47

Valladares et al (2005)

Answer 47

In their study they found that half the sample of pregnant women abused by their partners had suffered from blows directed st their abdomen, specifically designed to increase the probability of aborting the foetus

Question 48

Buss and Shackelford (1997)

Answer 48

Suggests it cannot account for why different males, when faced with their partners infidelity, respond in different ways

Question 49

Felson (1997)

Answer 49

Examined 2060 murders in the US and found that women were twice as likely to murder out of jealousy as were men

Question 50

Wilson (1975)

Answer 50

Claims that xenophobia has been documented in every group of animals displaying higher forms of social organisation

Question 51

Neave and Wolfson (2003)

Answer 51

Found that football teams playing at home were far more likely to win than the visiting team because the home team had the benefit of a huge surge in testosterone before the match

Question 52

Sosis and Bressler (2003)

Answer 52

Looked at the costs of religious commitment and its contribution to the longevity of religious groups
The number of costly requirements positively correlated with the lifespan of the group

Question 53

Foldesi (1996)

Answer 53

Provides evidence to support the link between xenophobia and violent displays among Hungarian football crowds
Racist conduct of supporters led to an increase of spectators violence and in particular, xenophobic outbursts

Question 54

Moore and Brylinsky (1993)

Answer 54

Challenges the claim that home crowd displays provide territorial advantage
Siena Saints - 9 away games - 5 with spectators, 4 without
Hartford Hawks - 11 home games - 7 with spectators, 4 without
Siena - with=76.25 without=86.20
Hartford - with=64.29 without=71.25

Question 55

Palmer and Tilley (1995)

Answer 55

Found that male youth street gang members have more sexual partners than ordinary young males

Question 56

LeBlanc and Register (2004)

Answer 56

Suggests that warfare and the aggressive displays associated with warfare are not biological compulsions but are a consequence of environmental changes such as rising populations and dwindling food supplies

Question 57

Adams (1983)

Answer 57

Claimed that the idea of the women warriors is almost unheard of within most societies. Women would have considerably less to gain from fighting in certain near-death situations and more to lose (loss of reproductive capacity)