agression Flashcards
what is the frustration aggression hypothesis?
Frustration (i.e. when barriers prevented someone from achieving a goal) creates unpleasant feelings which are relieved through aggression. This process is called catastasis and should reduce later aggression. The following factors affect how likely aggression is to occur:
- Proximity of the goal – the closer the individual is to achieving the goal the greater the frustration.
- Perceived effectiveness of aggression as a response - if aggression will have no effect on the barrier then you are less likely to be aggressive.
study to support frustration aggression hypothesis?
Haris (74) used real queues in a shopping centre and she and her confederates pushed in front of people. The closer they were to the front of the queue the higher level of aggressive response.
how did Berkowitz revise the frustration aggression model?
Berkowitz revised the model to say firstly that barriers were not the only cause of frustration. He noted the key was the level of negative feelings frustration caused. Thus it wasn’t about the event so much as about the effect the event has on someone. Factors that might also effect frustration include:
- Aggressive Cues – intensify the aggressive response. E.g. background music lyrics.
- Justified/Unjustified obstacle – if someone sees the obstacle as justifiable that decreases their aggressive response.
what is the kicking the dog effect?
As part of the frustration aggression hypothesis, when individuals experience frustration they experience frustration they experience a drive to be aggressive towards the object of their frustrations. However this is not always possible or appropriate resulting in the aggression being inhibited,
In such cases aggression is displaced from the source on to something else and this is referred to as kicking the dog effect
key frustration aggression study?
KEY STUDY: Bushman (02)
Sample – 600 m/f undergraduate students
IV- Punchbag Rumination, Punchbag Distraction, Control group
DV - self report anger measure, level of loud noise administered
Method – angered all participants by giving them bad feedback on an essay. The students were then asked to hit a punchbag while either thinking about the person who had angered them or thinking about getting fit. Then measured their level of anger and gave them to the chance to be aggressive to the person who angered them by administering a loud blast at them.
Results: Punchbag Rumination highest anger and aggression, then Punchbag Distraction and then control.
study to evaluate frustration aggression hypothesis?
One weakness of the frustration aggression hypothesis is that it cannot explain cultural differences in aggression.
Mead studied tribes in new guinea and found: one tribe was aggressive and one peaceful
The FA hypothesis would predict that these tribes would show the same levels of aggression because of same barriers
Therefore, Mead highlights variation in aggression according to tribe membership, demonstrating cultural variation in aggression
another weakness of frustration aggression hypothesis?
One weakness of the frustration aggression hypothesis is that it cannot explain gender differences in crime
80% of violent crime is committed by men
what was the social learning explanation of aggression?
Social Learning Theory was proposed by Bandura. It is a ‘social-cognitive’ view of aggression and suggests that we learn aggression through observation and imitation There are four key principles.
IDENTIFICATION: Firstly, we imitate aggressive role models from the group that we want to belong to.
MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS: Secondly, we do not passively learn. We process what we see and form mental representations of the event. These create expectations about what will happen when a particular aggressive act is performed.
VICARIOUS REINFORCMENT: We are more likely to imitate an aggressive behaviour if we have seen it being rewarded. This is called learning through vicarious reinforcement.
EG fighting, if someone wins a fight they are rewarded through status and praise
SELF EFFICACY: Finally, whether we perform an aggressive behaviour is affected by whether we think we will be successful. This is call self-efficacy the belief that you can be successful and are capable of performing an action. People with high self-efficacy are more likely to engage in that behaviour.
study to support the social explanation of aggression?
KEY STUDY: Bandura (61)
Sample: 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School aged between 3 to 6 years old.
IV: Aggressive, non-aggressive, or no model.
DV: Level and types of aggression (measured in 5 second chunks in a number of predefined categories by 2 observers- 0.89 inter-rater coefficent)
Method: They pre tested them for aggression and matched them then exposed them to either aggressive or non-aggressive adult models. They then left them with toys and measured their aggression with clear behavioural categories.
Results:
Children who had watched an aggressive model were most aggressive, then controls, then those who had watched the non-aggressive model.
Children generalised aggression. If they saw an adult being aggressive the children were more likely to invent new other ways to be aggressive
Children were more likely to imitate same sex role models.
Boys were more aggressive than girls
strength of the social explanation for aggression?
Mead: anthropological study of New Guinea Tribes
SLT can be used to explain cultural variation in aggression
practical applications?
Robertson (2013) carried out a longitudinal study of New Zealand children and found that the time spent watching TV predicted violence in adulthood in terms of conviction rates.
explain the deindividuation explanation of agression?
Theories of deindividuation propose that there are certain factors (anonamity and social rolerole) that mean that people stop self-awareness and lose their sense of individual identitiy. This means they become disinhibited and thus more aggressive
Factors that affect deindividuation are :
Anonymity: Because we feel anonymous we feel less accountable our actions and thus less inhibited
Social Identity rather than private identity: Because of the role we have taken on as part of the group our attention is shifted away from our own values and moral standards and towards the values and standards of the role/group. We therefore are less likely to self- reflect and instead will shift our attention to the group and follow its norms.
This is compounded by Diffusion of Responsibility where we see responsibility as being shared within the group; this would suggest that the larger the group the more deindividualised we feel.
study to support deindividuation explanation? (2 studies)
Zimbardo (69) – female participants in a Milgram like set up with a teacher and a learner. In the deindividuation condition, there was a group of women who all wore hoods and a uniform so that they could not be identified by each other. In the individuated group they all wore their own clothes and name tags and were introduced to each other. The de-individuated group shocked twice as much as the individuated group.
Silke (2003) Analysed 500 violent attacks in Northern Ireland and found that 206/500 wore some form of disguise. The severity of the incident was related to whether the perpetrator was masked or not. Disguised offenders inflicted more serious physical injuries, attacked more people at the scene, engaged in more acts of vandalism, and were more likely to threaten victims after the attacks
KEY STUDY: Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment)
Sample: 24 Young men who had been pre-tested to ensure they were mentally normal and not overly aggressive.
IV: Prisoner or Guard
DV: behaviour
Method: Created a prison in the bottom of Stanford University. Randomly assigned roles. Prisoners were ‘arrested’ at home and brought to the prison. Guards were responsible for behaviour and discipline and feeding the prisoners. Everything was recorded by cameras.
Results: Those in guards’ uniforms displayed surprising amounts of aggression within hours of the study beginning , taunting the prisoners and imposing pointless tasks and punishments including spraying them with a fire-extinguisher and stripping them naked. Zimbardo shut the study down after 6 days even though it was meant to run for 2 weeks.
study to evaluate the deindividuation explanation?
Arapesh=non aggressive
Taking on values and norms of the group can result in positive behaviours such as peaceful behaviours in this tribe
Therefore deindividuation does not always lead to aggressive behaviour-can lead to pro-social behaviour in the right context
weakness and a practical application of the deindividuation explanation?
CCTV ensures people are identifiable and responsible for their actions, they then will be less aggressive as they will feel accountable for actions
Gender differences – male and female groups respond differently in deindividuation conditions. Increase in aggression far more prominent in male groups. Canto explain why occurs less in females. Maybe biology also relevant on importance of socialisation
what is the situational explanation for institutionalization aggression?
THE DEPRIVATION MODEL claims that it is the characteristics of the prison that accounts for violence. It is believed the experience of imprisonment causes inmates frustration, which leads to violence
study to contrast the deprivation model?
McCorkle et al (1995) failed to support the Deprivation Model. His study included 371 state prisons in the US and found little evidence to support the connection between violence and environmental factors such as overcrowding and living conditions. They found that that the way the prison was managed was a better predictor of serious violence than overcrowding or stress.
