Aggression: Insitutional Aggression Flashcards
Describe Insitutional Aggression
Institutional aggression refers to aggression within or between groups or institutions (e.g. armed forces, prisons). Much of the research on models of institutional aggression has been done in prison environments.
Describe the Importation Model
The importation model suggests that inmates in prison bring their social histories and traits into prison with them. This influences their adaptation into the prison environment. Irwin and Cressey argue that people who were more aggressive outside of prison will be more aggressive in prison: they are not ‘blank states’ when they enter prison.
Name a study which supports the Importation model
The importation model has some support from research studies. DeLisi et al. found a slight positive correlation between gang membership and aggression in prison, suggesting that aggression factors from before entering prison influence aggression in prison. However, the relationship may not be causal as there may be intervening variables such as socioeconomic status or ethnicity.
Describe the Deprivation Model
The deprivation model suggests that aggression in prisons and other institutions is the product of the stressful and oppressive conditions of the institution itself. For example, aggression in prisons can by catalysed by deprivation of liberty, lack of autonomy, lack of goods or services, lack of heterosexual relationship and absence of ample security.
Name a study which supports the Deprivation model
> McCorkle et al.
Describe McCorkle et al.’s findings
There is a substantial amount of research evidence to support this model. For example, McCorkle et al. found that overcrowding, lack of privacy & the lack of meaningful activity in prisons all significantly influence violence. However, these factors did not influence the likelihood of major collective acts of aggression (i.e. prison riots), suggesting that the deprivation model may only apply to some forms of aggression.
AID: Real World Application
Aggression in prisons can be controlled by improving conditions, showing that deprivation can increase aggression. For example, Wilson changed the deprivation conditions at HMP Woodhill, and levels of violence decreased, giving support to the deprivation model. This also presents a useful application of this research: it can be used to reduce levels of violence in prisons by improving living conditions in those prisons.
Describe Nijman’s findings into the Deprivation model.
Just as the deprivation model may not apply to all forms of aggression, it may also not apply to all types of institutions. Nijman et al. found that increased personal space in psychiatric institutions failed to decrease the amount of violence among patients. This suggests that while the deprivation model may be applicable to prison environments, it may not be relevant to violence within psychiatric institutions.
Describe Genocide in Institutional Aggression
Massacres are often a form of institutional aggression most frequently committed during wartime , such as the massacres of Jews and other groups during World War II. Milgram argues that this happens due to the situational pressures of war (such as stress and the constant fear of attack), which causes soldiers to obey their leaders. This can be demonstrated by the fact that in the Holocaust, many soldiers claimed that they were simply following their superiors’ orders.
Who went against Milgram’s claims?
Mandel
Describe Mandel’s argument
Mandel rejected Milgrams’s claims that obedience to authority was sufficient to explain the beahviour of Holocaust perpetrators. He argues that Milgram’s account is monocausal (i.e. ignores other possible causes) and simply does not match the historical record.
Which psychologist backs up Mandel
Goldhagen
What did Goldhagen argue
Goldhagen argues that the Holocaust was not due to obedience, but due to the anti-Semitism which was prevalent at that time. Obedience does not explain the unnecessarily cruel acts committed, in which soldiers were far more brutal than was commanded of them. Anti-Semitism was rife in Nazi Germany, with Jews dehumanised so that normal moral considerations were not seen to apply to them.
