Freud And Aggression + Individual Differences.

Question 1

3 types of personality.

Answer 1

ID
EGO
SUPEREGO

Question 2

What is ID? How does it explain aggression?

Answer 2

First part of personality you are born with, instinctive.
Based on the pleasure principle, only concerned with things that gives up pleasure.
Irrational selfish and not in touch with the real world

Question 3

What is ego and how does it relate to aggression?

Answer 3

Who you are as a person, reality principle.
Consists of all we know (memories, problem solving)
Rational and logical part, tries to satisfy the demands of ID within real world
Maintains balance between ID and superego

Question 4

What is superego and how does it explain aggression?

Answer 4

Based on morality principle, helps us know what is right and wrong and what we can/ cannot do.
Consists of two parts:
-Conscience: right/wrong.
-ego ideal:what something should be like.

Question 5

What is the Oedipus complex?
How does this link to the personalities?

Answer 5

A boy around age 3 begins to develop an unconscious sexual desire for his mother.
This causes rthe boy to reject and display aggression towards his father.
He will develop feelings of guilt over conflict and causes.

Superego may be weak if the father is weak or absent. If the father is strict then the superego may be strong and urges of ID is tightly controlled, allowing serious problems to arise.

Question 6

What is the electra complex?

Answer 6

A girl around age 5 develops penis envy in attempts to relate to her father and rejects her mother. Similar internal conflict arises in the girl, which is resolved after rearding her father as an inappropriate rare object.

Question 7

What happens when a persons id is strong and superego is weak?

Answer 7

The individual will seek pleasure and immediate gratification regardless of the needs of others.
They will not be deterred by the possibility of punishment.

Question 8

What personality does crime and aggression attribute to

Answer 8

A harsh, weak or deviant superego which inevitably leads to an imbalance between the personalities.

Question 9

Does does a harsh superego lead to

Answer 9

Usually those with strict parents.
Leads to strong feelings of guilt and obsession whenever the id attempts to get any satisfaction at all.

Question 10

What do strong superegos lead to?

Answer 10

Many are usually law abiding but some will engage in aggressive acts such ass property crime.
The unconscious desire for sex leads to feelings of guilt that the individual unconsciously desires to be punished, leading them to commit a crime.

Question 11

What personality does aggression arise from?
Why could this be the reason?

Answer 11

A weak, undeveloped superego.
They tend to be selfish and uncaring, full of uncontrolled aggression which is usually due to poor or absent parents.

Question 12

What are the defence mechanisms in explaining aggression?

Answer 12

This allows urges of id to bear channelled in a social acceptable way like sport.
If urges are overwhelming such as a boy who feels aggressive towards his father but cannot express it, he may take his violent urges out on weaker children.

Question 13

2 Similarities between biological and Freudian methods.

Answer 13

Biological deals with internal structures and brain functioning. For example it looks at the role of the pre frontal cortex.
Freudian focuses on the internal and unconscious but not as physical structures. These are more abstract concepts and inaccessible, immeasurable components.

Both are deterministic.
Biological believes that there are no control over hormonal make up or brain structure and functioning. If behaviours are evolutionary we have no control over them as they exist within us to aid survival.
Freud believes to an extent deterministic as we are governed and controlled by unconscious forces and drives.

Question 14

does biological explanation to aggression have scientific credibility?

Answer 14

It uses experimentation and scanning in an artificial setting, this makes control over extraneous variables.
It’s valid as it measures what it aims to measure. It is difficult to do in scanning however as it makes it similar to real life.

Animal research has high levels of control but more so in humans as it controls housing, food and socialisation.
With animal research you cant extrapolate findings to humans.

Question 15

does the Freudian explanation to aggression have scientific credibility?

Answer 15

It generally uses interviews.
Although data is gathered rich and insightful, there subjectivity and a social desireability bias.
These methods aren’t reliable as they cannot be replicated. They are unstructured interviews that don’t have set questions.
It is not credible as there is no way to objectively measure Freud’s interpretation.

Question 16

Positive evaluation of freuds explanation of aggression.

Answer 16

Freuds theory was generated from in depth case studies where he looked at many aspects of a persons background and mental state.
His methods involved gathering/ analysing qualitative data from various methods which gathered in depth and detailed data.

Feshback & singer used a field experiment.
This provides a natural setting which encourages realistic and natural behaviour.
There would be less chance of demand characteristics.

Question 17

Negative evaluation of freuds explanation for aggression.

Answer 17

His methods are not scientific.
Data is qualitative and personal so overall the theory shouldn’t be generated from them.
The theory lacks generalisability due to the unique nature of the patients he studies and the Cade studies.

The concepts in the theory are not measurably so cannot be rigorously tested.
The Unconscious unreachable by normal means and the concepts studied lack scientific credibility as they are immeasurable.

Question 18

Individual differences with people with brain damage

Answer 18

Comparing brain damaged patients as if they are the same, on the basis of some very similar damage to the brain might not be fair as they all have individual characteristics and unique individuals. The findings from individuals with Brian damage might not be generalisable to the population without brain damage.

The studies into brain damage damaged patients assume that prior to the brain damage everyone’s brains were the same when this is not the case. We would be unable to make generalisations if we believe that prior to the damage this persons functioning wa verty different from any other human being.

Individuals may also respond differently in terms of bran damage (eg:stroke damage)
The damage caused to an individual by a stroke will affect people in different ways in terms of the degree of the impact and upon their recovery.

Question 19

What is eros?

Answer 19

Energy that we possess is focused into life instinct for self preservation and sexual energy.

Question 20

What is Thanatos?

Answer 20

Death instinct,our desire to return to Nevada (heaven)

Question 21

How do Thanatos and eros work together and how do they explain aggression?

Answer 21

They work together in balance to encourage us to stay alive and motivated to live.
The repression of liblical urges displayed as aggression in childhood, Thanatos provides energy for the urge of sexual instinct of eros.

In conflict between eros and Thanatos, some of the negative energy of the Thanatos is directed towards others to prevent self destruction of ourselves.

Question 22

What is catharsis and how does it explain aggression?

Answer 22

An emotional release of unconscious conflicts.
When repressed ideas are brought into the conscious mind, feelings are released which releases the energy that’s was being used up meaning ther person is ‘freed’ from those emotions and thought.

This can be seen as venting aggression, a release of stress in a physical sense.

Question 23

Feshbach & singer(1971) catharsis study.

Answer 23

Studied 652 boys ages 8-18 living in residential institutions. (3 private schools, 2 boys homes)
Randomly divided into 2 groups:one group watched only violent programmes for 6 weeks whilst the other group watched non-violent programmes.
The boys who watched non violent programmes showed more aggression than others.

The results were interpreted as a catharsis view on aggression. Those who had watched violent media could let the aggression out safely by emphasising with the violence. The ones that watched non violent programmes didn’t have this opportunity, leading them to express their feelings in actual physical aggression.