Aggression and Pro-Social Behaviour

Question 1

What is aggression?

Answer 1

Any form of behaviour intended to harm another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment.

• Intention to harm
• Not accidental
• Awareness of adverse effects
• Unwanted by targets

Question 2

What is violence?

Answer 2

Aggression that aims at extreme harm (whether that be physical or psychological).

Question 3

What is the difference between physical and verbal aggression?

Answer 3

physical - any action that involved physical harm or threat to the person eg. kicking, breaking of possessions, hitting
verbal - any behaviour that involves verbal offence, remarks, slurs etc

Question 4

What is the difference between active and passive aggression?

Answer 4

Active - Any form of action that is aggressive and is actively done by the perpetrator
Passive - any action that is not actively aggressive but highlights anger (eg. not talking to someone or exclusion)

Question 5

What is the difference between direct and indirect aggression?

Answer 5

Direct - any action that is done by the perpetrator themselves eg. face to face
Indirect - any behaviour that does not involve direct contact and requires a third person eg. spreading a rumour.

Question 6

What is the difference between proactive and reactive aggression?

Answer 6

proactive - instrumental, planned and organised behaviours

reactive - uncontrolled, driven by emotions, and impulsive behaviour

Question 7

What is the difference between proximate and ultimate aggression?

Answer 7

Proximate - aim to cause harm immediately

Ultimate - aim to obtain something from the harm, long goal

Question 8

What is the problem with the definition of aggression?

Answer 8

• It is complex and multifaceted so difficult to define
• Is culturally and norm-based
• Difficult to measure in experiments
• There is an ethical issue in experiments about causing aggression

Question 9

How can we measure aggression?

Answer 9

Stimulated situations - like those used in Milgram’s shocking experiment
Observation - looking at people who have been aggressive not directly manipulating it
Self reported measure of willingness of being aggressive

Question 10

What is the biological explanation behind aggression?

Answer 10

• Riopelle, 1987 - aggression is an instinct that can be controlled and can adapt to the situation, it is elicited by certain stimuli.
• Aggression can be used to protect the species and survival of genes
• May emerge in threatening situations

Question 11

What is frustration?

Answer 11

The state that emerges when circumstances interfere with a goal response.

Question 12

What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard et al, 1939)?

Answer 12

Aggression reduces or eliminates frustration.

Criticised as it is a vague description and frustration does not inevitably end in aggression

Question 13

How did Buss, 1963 show the frustration-aggression hypothesis in an experiment?

Answer 13

There were 3 different goals - earning a better mark on a test, winning money, a simple task, and participants were either in the condition in which they passed or failed. When participants failed they engaged in more aggressive behaviour.

Question 14

What is Zilman, 1983’s excitation transfer theory of aggression?

Answer 14

Transfer from an arousal emerging in a situation to another situation with the likelihood of eliciting an aggressive behaviour.
In other words: one event causes an arousal, then this arousal continue until another annoying event results in aggression because arousal levels are still high.

Question 15

What is cognitive neo association theory (Berkowitz, 1989)?

Answer 15

Unpleasant experiences elicit negative effects that activate aggressive associations.

Question 16

What happened in Berkowitz & LePage, 1967 and what were the results?

Answer 16

There were two ‘participants’ (one of which was a confederate) who were asked to write a sales campaign to improve a singers sales. Then each ‘participant’ was asked to write and evaluate the speech, if their essay was evaluated negatively they would receive an electric shock for each negative part. One condition received 7 electric shocks (angered) whereas the other only received one (not angered). Also, there was a second independent variable of aggressive priming measured by having either a gun or a pair of keys on the side which they were told was either the confederates or did not mention who owned it.
The results showed that just being primed with a gun regardless of who it belonged to primed an aggressive behaviour and more shocks were given in the angered condition.

Question 17

What is social learning theory?

Answer 17

Learning by direct experiences - A behaviour is learned and maintained by rewards and punishments
Learning by vicarious experiences - Behaviour is learned from models and imitations
An example of this is Bandura and Ross’ 1961 bobo doll experiment.

Question 18

What is script theory?

Answer 18

Huesmann, 1986:

• Observing aggression leads us to learn and internalise aggressive scripts
• These scripts then guide behaviour
• Scripts are sets of associated concepts in memory
• Scripts become chronically accessible and generalised to situations

This is very similar to social learning theory, we learn scripts of behaviour

Question 19

What did Johnson et al 2002 find in relation to TV and aggression?

Answer 19

They looked at how often the TV presented violence and self reported measures of aggression later on. It was found that more exposure to TV meant that individuals were more likely to engage in aggressive behaviour later on. Males were seen to be more aggressive than females, especially with prior levels of aggression.

Question 20

What was Greitemeyer, 2014’s study into video games and aggressive behaviour and what did it show?

Answer 20

Participants were either tasked to play a non aggressive or aggressive video game, then asked if they had done an aggressive behaviour and asked to rate how aggressive they thought their behaviour was. Then they were given a bowl of soup and told that the person did not like chilli sauce and were asked to put a hot sauce on top and it was measured how much hot sauce they put on top was the level of aggression they showed.
Results: Self perception of aggressive behaviours decreased after playing violent video games and playing violent video games increased the aggressive behaviour of putting more chilli sauce on the soup.

Question 21

How can personal variables affect levels of aggression?

Answer 21

Traits - self esteem, frustration, tolerance, and narcissism have been related to aggression levels
Gender - men are more aggressive than women but it depends on the type of aggressive behaviour - women engage in more indirect aggression than direct and men engage in more physical than verbal aggression)
Beliefs, values, and attitudes - positive attitudes towards violence are often linked to aggression

Question 22

What situational variables cause aggression?

Answer 22

Aversive situations - frustration and interpersonal provocation can cause aggression
Environment - overcrowding and discomfort (hot temperature, unpleasant odours and loud nose)
Primes/cues - exposure to mass media (eg. video games) and objects (eg. weapons)

Question 23

What is the general aggression model (GAM)?

Answer 23

Anderson and Bushman’s theory takes into account all theories and factors that affect aggression:
Inputs (The persona and the situation) have different routes (affect, cognition, arousal), then there is an appraisal and decision of the behaviour and the outcome will either be thoughtful or impulsive.

Question 24

What is helping behaviour?

Answer 24

Actions that are intended to provide some benefits to or improve well-being of others - this is relate to profession eg. a nurse

Question 25

What is prosocial behaviour?

Answer 25

Actions defined by society as beneficial to society that is not driven by professional motivations. It may be driven by more egotistic or altruistic motivations eg. helping an old person cross the street

Question 26

What is altruism?

Answer 26

Behaviours carried out for the benefit of others without anticipation of external rewards. Emphatic motivation is necessary.

Question 27

When are people more likely to help others?

Answer 27

Shotland and Huston - If the situation is perceived as an emergency and when there are cues of danger such as screaming

Question 28

When do people help others?

Answer 28

The presence of others can help or hinder peoples responses to an emergency

Question 29

What is the bystander effect (Latane and Darley, 1968)?

Answer 29

A lone bystander is more likely to help than any of several bystanders

Question 30

Why does the presence of others reduce likelihood of helping (bystander effect)?

Answer 30

• Fear of social blunders - others judgements
• Social influence of others not acting means that the situation is less serious
• Responsibility - shared responsibility means that you are not alone completely blamed for inactivity meaning there is less of a personal consequence

Question 31

What did Latane and Darley, 1970 do in an experiment on the bystander effect and what were the results?

Answer 31

Participants were ither in a group, alone, or had a passive confederate in the group. Some smoke came into the room at one point and they wanted to see if someone would report it.
Results: They were less likely to report if other people were reacting in a passive way eg. not looking around, than if on their own or with people who were noticing the smoke.

Question 32

What did Latane and Rodin, 1969 do in an experiment on the bystander effect and what were the results?

Answer 32

A women was heard screaming when falling down the stairs in another room and either the participant would be alone, in a group, or with a passive confederate. Participants who were alone were more willing to help than when they were in pairs and even less willing to help if the confederate was passive.

Question 33

What variables minimise the bystander effect?

Answer 33

Relationship - if the bystanders and victims are friends or at least acquaintances then the bystander effect is reduced.
Group membership - victims are more likely to be helped by members of the same group (Levine and Crowther, 2008).

Question 34

What is the arousal: cost-reward model?

Answer 34

Observing an emergency elicits arousal in the bystander. In order to cope with the arousal the bystander considers the costs and benefits of helping or not helping. However, this model does not explain impulsive helping that is an immediate, non-deliberative, not based on decision making form of helping.

Question 35

What is the evolutionary theory of kin selection?

Answer 35

Individuals have an innate predisposition to act pro-socially. We care about inclusive fitness and the transmission of genes to the next generation. This means we are more likely to help relatives and healthier people rather than sick people as they have a higher chance of survival.

Question 36

What is the evolutionary theory of mutualism/reciprocal altruism?

Answer 36

Cooperation implies a benefit for everyone and individuals derive some form of benefit from helping others if the favour is repaid. This behaviour may have evolved for the beneficial outcome of helping someone and being helped in return.

Question 37

How is prosocial behaviour learned?

Answer 37

Social learning theory - telling children to improve their prosocial behaviours, reinforcement of helping behaviours, exposure to helping behaviours and role models

Question 38

How did Bryan & Test, 1967 show social learning theory in terms of helping behaviour?

Answer 38

There are two conditions, in one they just see a car broken down and no one helping and in the other condition they see someone helping the broken down car. Then further on down the road there is another car with no one helping, the test is whether they will help the second car or not. It was found that if earlier someone modelled the behaviour of helping a broken down car then later the participant would stop and help he other car.

Question 39

How can mass media increase helping behaviour (Greitemeyer and Osswald 2009)?

Answer 39

Participants were either first tasked with playing a video game that involved helping behaviour or they were not. Then there were 3 studies in which they were filling out a questionnaire and one of the following scenarios would occur:
- the researcher would drop their pen on the floor while carrying stuff
- they were asked if they were willing to help in following experiments
- the female researchers ex boyfriend would appear and begin harassing her
Results: In all conditions the individuals who had being playing video games with helping behaviour were more likely to help the researcher. This worked as playing a game you project yourself on to the character which means you are less passively engaged and more likely to do the behaviour they were doing.

Question 40

What social norms are there regarding helping behaviour?

Answer 40

Reciprocity - You should help people who helped you and expect the same
Social responsibility - if someone depends on you for help then you should help them
Personal norms - internalised norms that are socially learned but vary among individuals

Question 41

What is the empathy-altruism hypothesis?

Answer 41

If a person is in need or suffering, empathy arises and elicits motivations to help the person.

Question 42

How can mood effect helping behaviour?

Answer 42

Good mood - you help to maintain good mood as it feels good
bad mood - conflicting results as some help because it feels rewarding and may help them improve their mood (Negative-state relief hypothesis) or others show less helping behaviours because they are too focused on their own problems.