Aggression Guest Lecture

Question 1

criticisms about how aggression decreased because of the enlightenment

Answer 1

• graphs stat at years with peaks.
• homicide was already decreasing before the enlightenment.
• homicide fluctuates based on unemployment, so homicide is dependent on societal change.

Question 2

relationship between aggression and age of population

Answer 2

if you have more young people, more crimes will be committed.
therefore more crimes in the 40s-60s was happening during the baby boom. we have way less young people now because declining birthrates– could be why we have less crime.

Question 3

danger of believing we are less violent

Answer 3

minimizes concerns about present day violence.

Question 4

key ethnic demographic affected by aggression

Answer 4

indigenous males are 6-7x at higher risk for homicide.

black peopl;e lose more years of life compared to white people in the states.

Question 5

Perceptirons of trends in crime

Answer 5

68% of people believe crime is more than last years

• false tho, there is lower crime
• probably attributes to a fear mongering situation.

Question 6

males tend to be more ___ aggressive, females are more ___ aggressive.

Answer 6

males tend to be more DIRECTLY aggressive, females are more INDIRECTLY aggressive.

Question 7

bronfenbrenner model of aggression and its problem.

Answer 7

how our social circles and social history could influence our aggression (ex/ family, gender, media)

problem: doesn’t include our biology.

Question 8

biopsychosocial perspective of aggression

Answer 8

biological: genes, intrauterine environment,
psychological: individual differences, gender, attributions
societal: culture, intergenerational transmission.

Question 9

T/F there is a strong correlation between spanking and aggression

Answer 9

false. there are many studies that do have strong correlations, but other studies that do not. Overall, there is not a very strong correlation between spanking and externalizing behaviour in children.

Question 10

twin studies and aggression

Answer 10

monozygotic twins have an 87% correlation– if one twin is aggressive, its very likely the other twin will also be aggressive.
- for dizygotic twins, it is lowered.

explanation: MZ twins are treated more similarly and have a similar intrauterine environment.

Question 11

T/F: income inequality is correlate with homicide rate

Answer 11

true:

but confound: its difficult to say if aggression is higher in the south due to culture of honour or if its due to their high rates of income inequality.

Question 12

relationship between mothers smoking and aggression in their children.

Answer 12

smoking during pregnancy is correlated with conduct problems.

• its hard to elucidate whether smoking causes aggression when mothers who smoke also had a bunch of confounding factors like intellectual ability, education etc.

Question 13

explain the interaction between genetic predisposition and mistreatment and the manifestation of aggression

Answer 13

people with a genetic predisposition (ex/ Low MAOR) are more aggressive IF environmental factors (ex/ abuse) trigger it.

Question 14

explain the interaction between gender and context and the manifestation of aggression

Answer 14

in gorilla studies, females are more aggressive if they are alone with their baby, and less aggressive if they and their baby are with a silverback male.

• maybe they are less aggressive because they feel more protected.

Question 15

explain the findings that aggression and homicide is universal

Answer 15

in a number of countries, it is seen that more males are killed than women.

Question 16

T/F young boys tend to be more aggressive than girls

Answer 16

true

Question 17

explain how testosterone may be linked to aggression.

Answer 17

it was seen that if testosterone was given to female rats, they had an increased fighting frequency.

may predispose males to fighting more.

** but other studies show that testosterone barely makes a difference, so idk.

• in prison inmates, there is more testosterone.
• findings show that men with more testosterone are more “rambunctious” but overall, the true correlation between testoserone and aggression is weak, it is more dependent on situation.