Psychology 2 - Aggression Flashcards
What are the 3 biological explanations of aggression?
Men are usually more aggressive than women and since men have more testosterone, this seems to be cause of aggression (violent criminals usually have high testosterone levels)
Male violent criminals also often have chromosomal abnormalities and the most common of these is the XYY arrangement
The limbic system is the part of the brain that causes aggression, sexual behaviour etc. and the prefrontal cortex stops us being aggressive. An abnormality in either of these can lead to aggression
What are the 3 explanations for aggression?
Biological
Psychodynamic
Social learning
Describe the psychodynamic explanation of aggression
Freud said that there is an unconscious force called Thanatos that builds up pressure until we can’t control it and we do something aggressive
He said that Thanatos drives us towards self-destruction and that we protect ourselves using ego defence mechanisms which are called displacement (being aggressive to other people) and sublimation (channelling aggression into acceptable activities)
What is the main criticism of the psychodynamic approach to aggression?
Dollard argued that aggression needs something to trigger it and that aggression wouldn’t just happen without a trigger
Describe the theory that takes the criticism of Freud’s theory into account
Dollard proposed the frustration-aggression theory that said that we were slowly driven to aggression in the same way that Freud explained except the frustration of everyday things drives us to aggression
Describe the social learning theory of aggression
When people encounter new situations, they look to other people. This would be true for children learning from other people to be aggressive so that they are aggressive in adulthood. This is called imitation
Social learning theory also proposes the idea of vicarious learning which is where people (especially children) learn new ways to behave by observing other people and causes them to do things they wouldn’t normally do
For what 4 reasons is a child more likely to imitate a role model?
Similar to the child
Attractive
Powerful
Caring
How was the social learning theory added to?
Bandura stated that we also monitor our own behaviour and if we feel good about something (acting aggressively) then we are likely to do it again
Give a study into biological explanations of aggression
Young (1959)
To see what effect hormones have on aggressive behaviour
They injected pregnant monkeys with testosterone and observed the levels of aggression in their offspring
The female offspring grew up to behave like male monkeys and played rough games and challenged the males for dominance in their troop
Testosterone plays a vital part in aggressive behaviour
Evaluate the biological explanation of aggression study
It was done on monkeys so it is hard to generalise the results to humans
It could be unethical to affect the monkeys in this way
Give a study into the frustration-aggression theory
Barker (1941)
To see the affect of frustration on aggression
Children were kept waiting a long time before they could play in a room full of attractive toys. Their behaviour was then observed
Children were much more aggressive and destructive to the toys to children who did not have to wait
Being frustrated does lead to an increase in aggression
Evaluate the frustration-aggression study
It could be considered unethical to frustrate children in this way
The destructive behaviour could be just a result of the children being excited because they finally could play with the toys
Give a study into the social learning theory of aggression
Bandura (1963)
To find out if children would imitate aggressive behaviour performed by role models
They divided 96 children into 4 groups. 3 of the groups were shown someone throwing, kicking and punching a “bobo” doll. They were then observed playing with the doll
The children who had seen the aggressive behaviour showed more aggressive behaviour against the doll than those who didn’t
Children will imitate the way role models behave
Evaluate the social learning study
It lacks ecological validity because the aggression was directed towards a doll and the setting was experimental
There is a lot of evidence that contradicts these results (watching aggressive behaviour doesn’t have an effect on aggression)
Describe the 2 biological methods of reducing aggression
The drug Ritalin can be used to stimulate the prefrontal cortex in order to calm somebody down and reduce aggression
Psychosurgery involves inserting a probe through the eye and into the brain. The end is then heated up and destroys the nerve endings of a specific part of the brain in order to prevent aggression
