AO3 aggression Flashcards
strengths of hormonal and neural explanations for aggression
Egger - electrically stimulating cats hypothalamus caused aggressive behaviour, stimulating a different part of amygdala resulted in tameness
sumer - removal of tumour pushing against amygdala reduced excessive aggressive behaviour in 14yo girl
passamonti - ppts given low amounts of tryptophan in diet (makes serotonin), showed high aggression
Wagner - castrated male mice, aggression decreased, injected them / female mice with testosterone, aggression increased
Bio = replicable and controlled lab studies using the objective scientific measures rather than self - report techniques
weaknesses of hormonal and neural explanations of aggression
biological reductionism - minimises role of more complex explanations such as SLT, cognition and culture on aggression
social sensitivity - if people can be identified as potentially aggressive by bio test (Raine) they may be persecuted
Bio - determinism - biology is destiny doesn’t match our legal system in which people are punished assuming free will
strengths of genetic explanations for aggression
coccaro - compared MZ and DZ twins, s=found genetic difference did account for differences in aggression, 47% assault
mednick and Hutchings - 10.5% of danish adoptees with non - criminal biological fathers were criminals compared to 21.4% of those with biological fathers, suggesting criminality can be inherited
Brunner - the impulsive aggressive males from a large Netherlands family all had low activity MAOA genes
Stuart - genetic analysis of 97 men who had committed intimate partner violence revealed the defective MAOA gene was present in the most physically and psychologically aggressive offenders
weaknesses of genetic explanations for aggression
1/3 of western men have the short variant MAOA gene, but only very small % of men are aggressive
MAO-L gene shows a correlation between high level of aggression and high levels of serotonin. however, the mechanism of how this results in aggression isn’t understood and goes against serotonin - deficiency hypothesis
strengths of media influences on aggression
Williams - children’s verbal and physical playground aggression increased after TV (symbolic model imitation)
Berkowitz and powers - summaries justifying TV aggression watched by ppts led to more aggression shown to a confederate in a follow up task than summaries not justifying the aggression
research showing link between aggression in the media and real aggression can inform policy on age rating
murray - amygdala and posterior cingulate (LTM) activation only to violent videos in fMRI (cognitively primed)
weaknesses of media influences on aggression
low face validity as real world aggression has not increased along with the popularity of violent video games
kestenbaum - young males reported played game “when wound up” = “relaxed after playing” (catharsis)
much of the real world data collected is correlational, may be aggressive children pick aggressive video games
