Aggression Flashcards
Deindividuation
- losing individuality
- take on ideals of group they’re in
- can make people act in ways which is in direct conflict with their own morals
How deindividuation occurs
Anonymity
Suggestibility (ready to take on influence of others)
Contagion (behaviour/mindset spreads)
AO3 support for deindividuation
Zimbardo prison experiment Rehm (1987) Mann (1981) Spivey and Prentice-Dunn (1990) Cannavale (1970)
Rehm 1987
Deindividuation support
Two handball teams
1 wore same orange shirts. 1 wore own shirts.
Orange team more aggressive due to anonymity.
- same team always wear orange, may just be more aggressive generally
- German handball team: can’t generalise
Mann (1981)
Deindividuation support
Newspaper articles of people who committed suicide jumping off buildings.
10/21 events evidence of baiting crowd.
This was more likely if dark, person was v high up and large crowd - anonymity.
Spivey and Prentice Dunn (1990)
Deindividuation against
Deindividuation can be prosocial if prosocial model there.
Deindividuation increases responsiveness to situational norms.
Cannavale (1970)
Deindividuation against
Gender differences
Males responded to deindividuation with aggression more than females do.
Deprivational model
Situational. Sykes. Deprived of: Security Liberty Autonomy Goods and services Heterosexual relationships
Prison characteristics:
Overcrowded, heat and noise, job burnout
Importation model
Dispotionional traits. Irwin and Cressey.
- Gang membership
- Low self control
- Anger, anti-social personality style and impulsivity
Deprivational model
AO3
+ McCorkle 1995: 371 prisons
Relationship between overcrowding, lack of privacy and meaningful activity with amount of assaults between inmates and inmates and staff.
+ DeLisi 2004: Those in gangs prior to incarceration not more likely to commit assault.
But doesn’t account for fact many gangs separated from prison population and rival gangs.
Importation model
AO3
+ Mears 2013:
7 point scale of belief in street code.
Controlled family background, neighbourhood.
Belief in code = increase in violence (especially those with poor family links and in a gang prior).
+ Harer and Steffensmeier 1996:
24,000 inmates across 58 prisons in USA.
Race, age, criminal history most important predictors of prison violence - no situational significant.
Real world application of prison
Deprivational
Wilson 2010
Set up 2 units HMP Woodhill.
Took worst offenders.
Less claustrophobic, radio music, less crowded, air conditioned.
= almost no assaults on staff.
-USA hard to generalise.
SLT and aggression
AO1
Pick up behaviour through observation (vicarious)
Mental representations of outcome to decide whether or not we imitate aggressive act.
More likely to imitate behaviour if done in past and get rewarded.
Self efficacy
More likely to imitate a behaviour if you know you are good at doing it.
SLT with aggression
AO3
Bandura:
Matched pairs (reduced p variables as reduced rick p’s are agg in condition by chance -time consuming to match)
Lab study (+control ext variables -low ecological val)
Observational research (+observe true behaviour -unethical as no consent from child)
Live model rather than video (+more realistic, not restricting view -unethical psychological harm and not standardised for each p)
72 children aged 3-5 yrs from Stanford Uni Nursery School (+generalise to both genders -small sample, all American, all from same prestigious Ivy League school)
Explanations of Media Influence on Aggression
- Desensitisation
- Disinhibition
- Cognitive priming
Desensitisation characteristics
- Less physiological response
- Less notice violence in real life
- Less sympathy for victims
- Less negative attitudes towards violence
Disinhibition
Less inhibiting of acting aggressively when frustrated
Characteristic: Seeing violence as justifiable
Increased by: seeing violence justified and going unpunished
Cognitive priming
Prepared to think in a certain way
Berkowitz 1984: exposure to violent media increases likelihood of aggressive thoughts/ideas.
If you think aggressively you act aggressively.
Media influence on aggression evidence
AO3
Violent video games make gamers more agg
+ Greitemeyer and Mugge 2014: Test effects of violent video games in aggressive and prosocial behaviour and cognitions.
Meta-analysis: 98 studies since 2009. 37,000 participants.
Increase in aggression from violent video games.
+ large sample + reliable, longitudinal, correlational - second hand research so not certain its valid
- Adachi + Willoughby 2013: violent video games more competitive than non-violent so agg caused by competitiveness not violence
The limbic system
Amygdala - responsible for emotion and agg, key area for quick response
Hippocampus - responsible for memory, important to learn suitable responses based on past experiences
Serotonin influencing agg
Inhibitory neurotransmitter - helps calm down
Inhibits behaviour of amygdala
Gives ability to inhibit responses to emotional stimuli
Too little =amygdala activated
Testosterone influencing agg
Male sex hormone
Increases during puberty
Can explain inc in agg
In women: makes more dominant - higher status, succeed socially, status-seeking behaviour.
Factors influencing aggression
Neural and hormonal
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Serotonin
Testosterone
Genetic influences on aggression
Concordance rates
Twin studies
Twin and adoption studies meta-analysis
Twin studies for genetic influence
McGuffin + Gottesman 1985: MZ 0.87 / DZ 0.72
Coccaro 1997: compared agg tendencies of adult twins= 50% of variance due to genetics
(but MZ share more similar environment / DZ more independent)
Adoption studies for genetic influence
Hutchings and Mednick
14,000 adoptions, Denmark
Found link between convictions of biological parents (esp father) and the convictions of their children
Twin and adoption studies meta-analysis for genetic influence
Miles and Carey 1997
meta analysis of 24 twin and adoption studies
-found strong genetic influence - 50% of variance in agg
- agg in youth = mix of genetic and family factors (adult more genetic)
Ethological Explanation
Study of adaptive value of certain actions in animals
Sign stimulus –> Innate releasing mechanism –> fixed action pattern
Sign stimulus
Ethological Explanation
the specific thing which sparks off the FAP
the response is dependent upon the presence of this sign stimulus
Innate Releasing Mechanism
Ethological Explanation
IRM brings about the FAP
neural mechanisms make FAP happen (activity in the CNS)
Fixed Action Pattern
Ethological Explanation
Innate responses to specific stimuli
Characteristics of the FAP
Ethological Explanation
Stereotyped Universal Independent of individual experiences Ballistic Specific triggers
S ticklebacks U sually I dentify B ellies and S trike
Stereotyped FAP
behaviour always happens in the same way
Universal FAP
behaviour same for all members of same species
Independent of individual experiences FAP
no learning involved, behaviour always same
Ballistic FAP
Once it starts, can’t be stopped
Specific Triggers FAP
each FAP has a specific sign stimulus trigger
Hydraulic Model
Ethological Explanation
Suggestion that carrying out FAP has a tiring effect
- only have a certain amount of Action Specific Energy (ASE) which is what allows you to do the action
- if you repeat the action too much you become tired
Ritualistic Aggression
Threatening Displays
Agg behaviour before a fight to try and put opponent off
Adaptive value: can prevent fighting (and death)
Wolves and doves
Ethological Explanation
Wolves have natural weapons (claws, teeth) and won’t kill similar species as they have same weapons
Doves tend to fly not fight as no natural weapons
Humans are like doves, therefore, we have not developed strong enough aversions to killing other humans
Ethological Explanations
AO3
- Von Holst: performing agg FAPs inc’s chance of further agg
- Hunt 1993: FAPs can vary within species, even if stages are the same, duration varies
- Jane Goodall 2010: found pre-meditated murder in chimpanzees, despite gestures of surrender
+ Tinbergen 1951: covered up red underbelly of stickleback and not attacked by rival
+ Lorenz and Tinbergen 1938: geese tendency to catch eggs that fall out of the nest, will stop if same sign stimulus occurs repeatedly in a row.
+ Hoebel 1967: song duels often a sub for physical agg in Inuit Eskimos
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Sexual Competition AO1
MALES:
Compete for high quality mates by beating rivals
Most agg pass on genes
Agg thrives + spreads in gene pool
= modern day man has agg tendencies
FEMALES:
need suitable mate with adaptive genes
Competitive environ = need offspring that can defend themselves
So select males best at beating rival/most agg
Offspring get agg gene
= modern day man has agg tendencies
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Sexual Competition AO3
Evidence = males more agg
- Lassek and Gaulin 2009: men 75% more muscle mass than women
- Buss 2005: men more likely to die violently
- Puts 2010: men have thicker jaw bones (men need for fighting)
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Sexual Jealousy AO1
- paternity uncertainty = maximise certainty by ensuring partner hasn’t cheated
- leads to jealous acts: direct guarding + negative inducements
- therefore, sexual jealousy leads to agg against partner and rivals
- women more emotionally jealous as worried partner will leave and take away resources
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Sexual Jealousy AO3
Buss 1992: men report more distress about sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity compared to women
- self report: subjective and social desirability
Takahashi 2006: men had higher levels of amygdala activation than women when imagining a partner’s sexual infidelity, jealousy = agg
+ objective, empirical data
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Aggression in Warfare AO1
- war = universal trait for seemilngly forever therefore, must have some adaptive value as lasted
- benefits: vital resources, attracting mates, forging intra-group bonds
- good at war = attractive trait = pass on gene
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Aggression in Warfare AO3
Chagnon 1988: male warriors in traditional societies had more sexual partners
- traditional, not modern societies = poor temporal val.
Campbell 1993: most violent gang members in US = highest status among females
+ modern setting, better temporal val.
Evolutionary Explanations of Agg
Overall Evaluation
(all -ve)
- not all men are aggressive (caring, sly win competitions)
- women don’t necessarily like aggressive men = strong and powerful yes
- outdated - agg is maladaptive
- determinism - individual differences
- not based on experiments = can’t test evolution as over millions of years
Institutional Aggression In Prisons
- Deprivational Model (Sykes)
2. Importational Model (Irwin and Cressy)
Media influence on aggression evidence
AO3
Violent films and TV cause viewers to become more agg
+ Bjorkvist 1985: compared agg levels in 5-6yr old Finnish children as a result of watching violent and non-violent films. Those in violent condition were more agg (observational evidence).
- Ferguson 2009: if control other factors such as family violence and mental health, then the effects of media content disappears.
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
AO1
- Dollard 1989: agg is caused by frustration and not being able to get what want (which is huge reinforcement for us and we crave it, if denied = agg)
- Agg act = reliever of frustration = catharsis
- Justified situation e.g. see bad rash causing traffic = less frustration = less agg
- Unjustified situation e.g. can’t see the cause of traffic = more frustration = inc agg
- Displaced agg: frustrated at one thing but can’t act agg towards that so act agg on another target = kicking the dog effect. e.g. teacher gives detention, can’t be agg to teacher so act agg on something else.
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
AO3
- reductionism: frustration doesn’t always = agg = individual differences: high serotonin, genetic, SLT
- can be agg without frustration
- more theoretical than empirical: Bushman 2002: behaving agg leads to more agg not less
- deterministic = ignores free will
+ real world app (violent sport crowds): Priks 2010: crowd more agg when team doing badly
+ real world app (mass killings and genocide): Staub 1996: mass killings arise from difficult social conditions that need a scapegoat group to blame
+ research evidence: Pastore 1952: proved differentiation between justified and unjustified agg
Neural and hormonal explanations of aggression
AO3
- correlation not causation
- diet and serotonin better controlled but don’t directly link serotonin to aggression
- lab studies low ecological validity
- using results from studies with convicted criminals may not be generalisable to the population as a whole
+ Van Goozen et al tested effects of testosterone directly: female-to-male transsexuals given testosterone = inc aggression whereas male-to-female transsexuals given antiandrogen = decrease in aggression proneness
