Institutional Aggression

Question 0

Nijman

Answer 0

Contradicts McCorkle/Deprivation Model: found that increasing personal space did not decrease aggression levels of prisoners

Question 1

McCorkle

Answer 1

Deprivation Model: found that over crowding, lack of privacy and lack of meaningful activities all lead to significant increase in peer violence.

Question 2

Kellor

Answer 2

1)Deprivation Model 2) Importation Model

Maximum security prisons have the most assaults on staff by prisoners

1) due to more restrictions and less freedom
2) due to most violent prisoners being kept in these prisons

Question 3

Calhoun

Answer 3

Created a rat utopia and allowed the rats to mate and reproduce until the conditions were very crowded. A social hierarchy developed. There was an onset of violence and aggression. The rats became hyper sexual and stopped caring for their young resulting in a 96% mortality rate in the crowded pens.

*-rats are more territorial than humans, can we generalize to humans? More complex and different behaviours. Lowers external validity.

Question 4

Wilson

Answer 4

Deprivation Model: took 12 violent prisoners and changed their environment to have less noise and crowding. Observed that aggression levels decreased.

• -experimenter bias?
• -short term effects only?

Question 5

Abu Ghraib Prison

Answer 5

Deprivation Model: US soldiers cruelty towards Iraqi prisoners. No record of guards being especially violent before. Abuse occurred due to the conditions of the prison and the lack of limiting/controlling overseers.

Question 6

Dabbs

Answer 6

Importation Model: found that the most violent offenders also have the highest levels of testosterone, suggesting that their aggression is caused by biological factors not situational factors and so would be imported into prison.

*-cause or effect? May be high due to threatening

Question 7

Harrer

Answer 7

Importation Model: 58 US prisons: black inmates had higher rates of violent behaviours but lower rates of alcohol and drug related issues than white inmates. Findings correlated with the outside world suggesting importation.

Question 8

Zimbardo: The Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 8

Deprivation Model: None of the guards were previously aggressive. Peer pressure, anonymity and lack if constraint caused the increase in aggressive behaviour.