Aggression Flashcards
What is aggression?
A verbal or physical act intended to cause harm to people who wish to avoid such harm or property
Evolutionary approach to aggression
- Humans are instinctively aggressive
- Spreading genes through sexual access
- Explains disproportionate degree of male aggression
Limitations of evolutionary approach
- Many species do not reward aggression
- Cannot explain aggression against genetic kin
- Hypotheses are not really falsifiable
Cathartic approach to aggression
- Conflicting human drives, eros (creation, love) and thanatos (destruction)
- Thanatos energy builds up and needs to be released (hydraulic model)
- Aggressive outputs directed outwards
Limitation of the cathartic approach to aggression
- Frustration does not always lead to aggression
Who did the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
Dollard et al. 1939
What is the cognitive neoassociationalist model of aggression?
- Frustration -> anger -> aggression
- Cues are associated with aggression through classical conditioning
Berkowitz & Lepage (1967)
- Ppts given shocks by fellow ppt
- Given opportunity to shock back
- Two independent manipulations, level of anger (how many times they shocked), and presence of aggressive cue (guns/no guns)
- More shocks in high anger and cues condition compared to high anger, no cue
- No difference in shocks in low anger and cue / low anger and control condition
What is the social learning theory of aggression?
- Aggression learned via operant conditioning
- Models teach that aggression provides rewards and is socially acceptable - instrumental aggression
Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963)
- Nursery school kids observe adult attack a ‘Bobo doll’ when upset, in person, in a video, in a cartoon and control
- Kids mildly frustrated, then left with toys
- More children were aggressive when seeing live model, video and cartoon, than in the control
Social roles explanation of aggression
- Stanford prison experiment
- Young upper/middle class, educated, European American men for a prison study
- Questioned to eliminate those with health problems, antisocial behaviour
- Study ended early after guards became aggressive towards prisoners
Socio-cultural norms in explanation of aggression
- Societal norms and authorities sanction and reward aggression
- State actions/sports/media portrayals
- Exposure to norms promotes aggression through various mechanisms
Exposure to norms promotes aggression via…
- Cultivation of world view (word as hostile)
- Attributions of hostility (individuals as hostile)
- Scripts of aggression (how to respond)
- Instrumentality (aggression is rewarded)
Archer & Gardner (1978)
When countries participate in war, the homicide rates among the civilian populations increase
Phillips (1983)
After highly publicised boxing matches, homicide rates increase among civilian populations