Aggression

Question 1

What are some of the definitions for aggression?

Answer 1

• Behaviour that results in personal injury or the destruction of property (Bandura, 1973)
• Behaviour intended to harm another of the same species (Scherer et al., 1975)
• Behaviour directed towards the goal of harming on injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment (Baron, 1977)
• The intentional infliction of some form of harm on others (Baron and Byrne, 2000)
• Behaviour directed towards another individual carried out with the proximate (immediate) intention to cause harm (Anderson and Heusmann, 2003)

To summarise, aggressive behaviour is the intention to harm or injure others.

Question 2

What are the conditions for behaviour to be aggressive?

Answer 2

Aversive stimulus:
• Direct: Physical force (pushing, hitting etc)
• Indirect: Verbal/social relational (name-calling, exclusion or damaging someone’s social standing)

Intentional
• Aggressor is motivated to cause harm
• Can’t be accidental

Victim should be motivated to escape
• Victim should want to avoid the stimulus (rare situations where this is not the case, such as atonement) – punishing one’s self to make amends for an atonement purpose does not count as it’s consensual)

Question 3

What is affective/reactive aggression?

Answer 3

Reaction to a trigger; intention to cause harm.
it’s emotional and not always premeditated. Overall aim is to cause harm to the other person. It’s like an instant reaction to some kind of environmental trigger.

Question 4

What is Instrumental/proactive aggression?

Answer 4

Motivated by concerns greater than risk of harm.
still aggressive, but it’s more of a means to an end e.g., war or sport. The aggressive act is pre-meditated but somewhat justified for a reason/ ‘greater good’.

Question 5

What are some personal factors (factors that people bring to the situation themselves) that lead to aggressive behaviour?

Answer 5

• Hormones
• Personality
• Gender
• Alcohol

Question 6

Why are hormones a factor of causing aggression?

Answer 6

• Testosterone is linked to aggression

* Don’t know if there’s correlational or causal relationship with hormones

Question 7

How is personality a factor of aggression?

Answer 7

Lots of research has been done to examine whether there’s an aggressive personality type. However, these relationships aren’t very strong.
• Low self-esteem and frustration intolerance observed in violent offenders
• However also linked to narcissistic (inflated esteem) and Type A (competitive) personality types
• Relationship between personality factors, like self-esteem, are non-linear, (u-shaped relationship)

Question 8

How is gender a factor of aggression?

Answer 8

• Some evidence women are less aggressive (outstanding question of the extent to which this is linked to hormones or socialisation)
• Men more overt (physical) aggression; women more indirect
• Similar levels of verbal aggression in similar contexts

(In studies where we’ve looked at a similar context of aggressive behaviour, both men and women display similar levels of aggression. The difference we see in men and women may be either due to differences in hormones or differences in socialisation – where it’s more acceptable for women for example to display verbal aggression whereas overt acts of aggression may be more acceptable culturally in men.)

Question 9

Why is alcohol a factor of aggression?

Answer 9

• Disinhibition (less cortical control, behaviour becomes more primitive).
• Well established link with aggression – people who drink become aggressive.

Question 10

What are the limitations of aggression being operationalised in the studies looking at personal factors?

Answer 10

• In general people like to display themselves in a positive light so there are biases in any sort of self-report study.
• Another thing is how realistic the harms are in comparison to aggression in the real world. Most people will deduce that harm won’t come to any of the participant’s/ confederates.
• Overall correlation between testosterone and aggression is very small (r=.14) meaning that only 2% of the variance is shared. The impact of testosterone is overstated as it only explains 2% of the individual differences in aggressive behaviour.
• Correlations cannot establish causality.

Question 11

What are some situational/societal factors that may lead to aggression?

Answer 11

Physical environment

Cultural norms

Question 12

How are cultural norms a factor in aggressive behaviour?

Answer 12

• Heat - prolonged hot weather linked to domestic violence, suicide and collective violence (e.g. London riots) up to a point, (trails off when it gets too hot)
• Crowding (both personal space and population density – hence more violence in cities) – also see increased aggression in prisons and psychiatric wards when there’s overcrowding

Question 13

How is the physical environment a factor in aggressive behaviour?

Answer 13

• Cultural variation in aggressive behaviour

* Subcultures where aggression and violence are perhaps more accepted (e.g., gang culture)

Question 14

How might someone go from hot weather to aggressive behaviour?

Answer 14

Might feel frustrated with feeling hot, sweaty and dehydrated and take it out as aggressively.
Interaction between personal and situational factors is important – e.g. in hot weather, we drink more alcohol which in turn creates more aggression.

Question 15

What are some factors leading to crowd bating?

Answer 15

• Night time
• Large crowd
• Warm temperature
• Long duration
• Crowd distant from the victim
• Cities?

Question 16

Other than situational factors what else might lead to crowd bating?

Answer 16

Deindividuation – larger crowd and dark outside may have led to deindividualization as they are less likely to be caught and punished
Dehumanisation – a far distance could result in dehumanisation.
(These aren’t situational factors)

Question 17

What is deindividuation?

Answer 17

A sense of anonymity and loss of identity, therefore a reduced likelihood of punishment.

Question 18

What is dehumanisation?

Answer 18

Stigma, viewing the victim as ‘inhuman’

Question 19

How is culture a factor in collective aggressive?

Answer 19

• Western demographic nations view democracy, human rights and non-violence as core values… but violence is more common US (Geen, 2001 pg76).
• Variations in cultural norms around aggression linked to historical and geographical factors (E.g. history of invasions, competition for resources where it has been necessary to display aggressive behaviour to survive)
• Societies that still practice non-aggressive lifestyles are generally small communities and are relatively isolated from competitors.
• What is perceived as instrumental aggression (aggression for a greater cause rather than harm) may vary across cultures

Question 20

How are subcultures a factor of collective aggression?

Answer 20

• Football hooliganism: ritualised aggression (not always violent) linked to social status, group norms and values – not acceptable in other situations.
• Gangs: violence may be seen as a part of life, an acceptable way of solving disputes. Initiations involve ritualised violence (see page 481 of core reading)

Question 21

What is the argument for evolutionary accounts of aggression?

Answer 21

Aggression is pre-programmed from birth, the evidence for this is that we see aggression across human society and in animals. The idea that aggression must have a purpose as it’s evolved over time so must be useful.

Question 22

What are the theories of aggression as an instinct?

Answer 22

• Psychodynamic theory - build up of tension that needs release.
• Ethology - Innate, adaptive instinct elicited by situation.
• Evolutionary social psych - Innate, survival mechanism.

Question 23

How does Darwin (1872) show aggression as an evolutionary account?

Answer 23

• Same emotional states across species (evolved, adaptive and useful)
• Indicate what the animal will do next
• If beneficial will evolve and enhance communication
• Opposite signals expressed by opposite movements (e.g., submission vs aggression)
• Form of social competence (learn when aggression is appropriate) – useful to predict what another person or animal will do next. Over time helps you learn when to run or attack.
• Some social learning implied even in biological accounts. Learning when it’s appropriate to respond or not is implied in these accounts. We have this innate, biologically programmed sensitivity to emotional states and it serves an adaptive purpose because it allows us to learn how to respond appropriately.

Question 24

How is aggression a form of communication?

Answer 24

• Aggression is a form of communication in humans as well as animals
• Threat displays in humans indicate impending aggression (facing up, squaring up, displays of weapons) can be culturally specific
• If recognised by the opponent, harm can be avoided (=survival benefit)

Question 25

How is aggression an adaptive mechanism?

Answer 25

It solves a number of adaptive problems. E.g., negotiating status & power by exhibiting your strength so that you are the leader of the tribe.

Question 26

What is an implication of evolutionary accounts?

Answer 26

War could serve a function:
Genocide (That we see in humans is observed in our closest animal relative)

• Chimps have been found to carry out planned killings, extermination of neighbouring bands, abduction of young females
• 38% of gorilla killings due to infanticide
• Suggests one reason humans live in groups is for defence against other groups

Question 27

What are limitations of evolutionary accounts?

Answer 27

• Potentially insufficient explanation for all forms of human aggression.
• Difficulty applying studies of animals to humans (both based on reports, observers or self-reports – which may be biased) – we don’t know the motivation of the animals.
• Circular logic (We have an innate aggressive instinct that causes us to display aggression but also could say the reason we say we have this instinct is because we display aggression).
• Lack of evidence for genetic underpinnings (e.g., Miles and Carey, 1997; see Geen pg 10) – evidence suggests that aggression isn’t heritable to a large extent. Still questions about the extent to which aggression is determined by genes versus the environment and generally the conclusions are that there’s more evidence for the environment.
• Bio-social accounts more popular (incorporate an element of social learning)

Question 28

What are bio-social accounts?

Answer 28

Suggesting that there’s something biological (innate) and environmental (context).

Arousal (innate) + Context (situation) = Aggression

Question 29

What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis and a limitation?

Answer 29

• Frustrating event/ situation (e.g., losing a job) == aggression
• Limitations: Too simplistic (what counts as a frustrating event?) – too vague

Question 30

What is the catharsis hypothesis and a limitation?

Answer 30

• A way to ‘let off steam’ or release frustration, the idea that aggression serves an instrumental purpose. e.g., wreck room to let off steam so you aren’t aggressive afterwards.
• Limitations: Poorly supported, may increase aggression.

Question 31

What is the excitation transfer model and an example?

Answer 31

• Learnt aggressive behaviour + arousal (from another source) + individuals’ interpretation of arousal state == aggression. This model is suggesting that there is this misattribution of arousal, that pushes an individual over the edge and increase aggression.
• e.g., after the gym you have this kind of high arousal, you’re pumped up as your blood pressure is high and your heart is racing. Let’s say you decide to go to the supermarket, and someone takes your parking space. You’re got this arousal from another source (being pumped up from the gym) and you overreact. You have this blunt, aggressive behaviour that interacts with this arousal state that you have made from another source. You are misattributing how you feel physically or biologically to a situation that is unrelated to why you actually feel this way.
• Generally supported by evidence
• Can be applied to other areas (e.g., sexual arousal)
• The excitation transfer model is the most supported by evidence
• The idea of the model is this interaction between your biology, your physicality and arousal state, the context or situation, and learnt behaviour. So, it’s a mix of learning and biology.

Question 32

What is social learning theory?

Answer 32

Theory that aggression be learnt through reward, observation, modelling and cognitive scripts/schemes.
E.g. Some evidence that children who are spanked when they are younger display more aggression.

Question 33

Does violence in the media lead to aggressive behaviour?

Answer 33

• Differing predictions from catharsis (watching a violent film helps you get aggression out) and social learning accounts (seeing people act aggressively without getting punished, perhaps even being rewarded, makes it more likely for you to repeat this behaviour in other contexts or situations, it could increase aggression and you may act this way in real life) of aggression.
• Observation of violence increases physical and verbal aggression.
• Desensitisation effects of prolonged exposure.
• Realistic violence processed similarly to real violence.

Question 34

What do cognitive models like the general aggression model show?

Answer 34

It shows how different aspects contribute to aggressive behaviour.

Distal causes (things that individuals bring with them to the situation. E.g., biological or environment) – These are causes or personal factors contributing to aggressive behaviour.

Next the proximal causes are to do with the actual situation, so they are the situational variables.

The input stage is all of the personal and situational factors that may be risk or protective factors (a protective factor could be cold weather, or it not being crowded). Next stage are the routes and how the personal and situational factors influence thoughts, emotions and arousal and will enhance or diminish aggression. Finally, the outcome stage is where the individual makes the decision on how to respond.

Question 35

What is the difference between bullying and aggression?

Answer 35

“Aggression is the delivery of an aversive stimulus from one person to another, with intent to harm and with an expectation of causing such harm, when the other person is motivated to escape or avoid the stimulus”.

However, bullying is “One person or a group of people repeatedly demonstrate
aggressive behaviour towards another person or group of persons with an ‘imbalance of power’”

Question 36

What is traditional bullying?

Answer 36

“One person or a group of people repeatedly demonstrate aggressive behaviour towards another person or group of persons with an ‘imbalance of power’”

Question 37

What is cyber bullying?

Answer 37

“An aggressive intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.”

Question 38

What is cyber aggression?

Answer 38

“intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful, or unwanted.” – it’s subjective because it’s determined by whether the victim perceives the act as aggressive.

Question 39

How does cyberbullying differ from traditional bullying?

Answer 39

• Disinhibition – Less proximity to the victim: sense of anonymity; ability to create an identity
• Communication/ Evolution – Lack of facial cues/communicative gestures
• Frustration aggression/ Catharsis – Bullying victims more likely to bully/troll online.
• Social learning – Reinforcement (likes on posts)
• Cultural norms – Unclear social norms
• People who bully online are not always bullies in the traditional sense

Question 40

What’s the main difference between the frustration-aggression hypothesis and the excitation transfer model?

Answer 40

The frustration-aggression hypothesis simply states that all frustration leads to aggression and all aggression comes from frustration. This is a fairly simple explanation of aggression which is arguably too simplistic. The excitation transfer model also suggests that frustration may play a role, but the model is slightly more complex. This theory highlights that aggression is a function of 1) learnt aggressive behaviour (highlighting an element of learning); 2) arousal/excitation from another source and 3) the interpretation of the arousal response. So unlike the frustration-aggression hypothesis that simply states all aggression is the result of frustration, the excitation transfer model suggests that aggression not only depends on frustration, but also on learning, arousal and one’s interpretation of arousal.