Psychology Paper 3 Aggression

Question 1

What is the limbic system?

Answer 1

located on top of the brainstem near the cerebral cortex. Controls our emotions and motivations associated with survival such as fear and anger. It includes the peripheral nervous system and the endocrine system. This also involves the hippocampus and the amygdala

Question 2

What is the amygdala and how does it influence aggression?

Answer 2

Almond shapes nuclei involved in emotional responses, hormonal secretion and memory. The amygdala controls aggression and how we use it to respond to certain things. If the amygdala is smaller then it would make it more likely for people to evaluate situations and turn straight to aggression

Pardini et al - found aggressive patients have smaller amygdala meant that they were more likely to be overwhelmed

Question 3

What is the hippocampus and how does it influence aggression?

Answer 3

Uses episodic long term memory in order to judge situations and how we handle them. If it is damaged it then damages our episodic memory which makes us more likely to respond inappropriately with aggression

Raine - Found that successful psychopaths used their hippocampus to plan out a situation while unsuccessful ones were more impulsive and used aggression to get what they want

Question 4

How is serotonin linked to aggression?

Answer 4

Serotonin makes us calm as a neurotransmitter which inhibits the amygdala for emotion regulation. Very low levels have the calming effect removed therefore it makes behaviour more impulsive

Duke found a small correlation of 175 studies about how low serotonin levels cause aggression

Question 5

What is testosterone and how is it linked to aggression?

Answer 5

Male sex hormone that develops masculine features and regulating your own behaviour. Animal studies found that higher testosterone levels lead to higher aggression. Prison studies found that 60 male offenders in prison had impulsively violent behaviour due to high testosterone levels.

Question 6

A03 for Neural explanations (Amygdala, serotonin and hippocampus)

Answer 6

Supporting evidence through pardini suggests that aggressive male patients have smaller amygdala that is more overwhelmed
Supporting evidence suggests that successful psychopaths assess their situation due to a functioning hippocampus
Most research is male sided
Nature side of the debate

Question 7

What are the twin studies and how are they an explanation of aggression?

Answer 7

Coccaro found that MZ twins have a concordance rate of 50% and dz have 19% rate for aggressive behaviour

Question 8

What are Adoption studies and how do they explain aggression?

Answer 8

Rhee and waldman found that in a meta analysis genetic influences of adoption accounted for 41% variety of aggressive acts

Question 9

What is the MAOA gene and how does it influence aggression

Answer 9

MAOA genes are enzymes that break down neurotransmitters such as serotonin which affects levels of serotonin in the brain which means you are more likely to be aggressive. Brunner et al found that in a dutch family of 28 they all shared the same MAOA genes which resulted in more aggression

Question 10

What is the A03 for genetic factors of aggression?

Answer 10

Incredibly difficult to seperate environmental factors and genetic factors. (can environment trigger genetic)
A lot of genes can explain aggression and there is contradicting evidence that suggests genes do not affect aggression
Hard to measure aggression based on what counts as aggression
Nature side of the debate
Supporting evidence suggests that low activity MAOA influences aggression compared to high activity
Non human animal studies shown that MAOA genes are a significant influence in how they control serotonin
free will vs determinism

Question 11

What is the ethological method of aggression

Answer 11

Stimulus activates our innate releasing mechanism which uses our reflexes to show how we respond to certain things through our fixed action patterns

Question 12

What was the supporting evidence for IRM and Fap for ethological method?

Answer 12

Niko Tinbergen found that male stickbacks only respond with aggression to red colours on another fish due to it being associated with other stickback fish so the stickback responds with fixed action patterns of aggression to scare away the other fish.

Question 13

Ethological explanation A03

Answer 13

Beneficial to how it has expanded our knowledge on the causes of human behaviour
Supported by other forms of aggression e,g, genetics show an innate response to things
Lacks verifiability - how does this behaviour help ensure survival and how can it be generalised to humans
nature side of the debate
Nisket - killings in america are based on culture of honour

Question 14

What is the evolutionary explanation of Aggression

Answer 14

Aggression is adaptive for survival to gain or defend resources and scare away rivals whilst attracting females whilst also defending against infidelity to avoid parental uncertainty (child is not yours)

Question 15

What is the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

Answer 15

Paternal uncertainty is created by the threat of cuckoldry as it threatens the survival of their genes.
Men who avoided cuckoldry were more successful so men have more sexual jealousy

Question 16

What Does Buss et al say on sex differences in jealousy?

Answer 16

Cross cultural questionairre study where ppts were presented with a hypothetical scenario whether or not if they would be upset more if their partner had sex with another person or had another serious relationship.

More men reported sexual infidelity to be more upsetting (51%) compared to 22% of women.

This suggests that sexual jealousy is innate in men over the paternity of their child

Question 17

What is the evolutionary explanation of male retention strategies?

Answer 17

Direct guarding - male vigilance over partners behaviour to see who is talking to them
negative inducements - issuing threats or consequences

Question 18

What did Margo Wilson find out about direct guarding and how it lead to aggression in men?

Answer 18

Majority of males who used direct guarding resulted in domestic violence where 73% of women required medical attention and 53% feared for their lives

Question 19

What did Todd shackleford find out about intimate partner violence?

Answer 19

107 married couples and used different questionairres where men were focused on male retention questionairres while women were asked about how they faced physical violence

Results found that there was a strong positive correlation between reported violence from women and male retention strategies

Question 20

What is the evolutionary explanation of bullying and provide supporting evidence?

Answer 20

Bullying is caused by power imbalance of the bully and the victim to cover something e.g. poor social skills or childhood abuse but the evolutionary theory suggests it is used to increase survival to create opportunities of reproduction

Tony Volk et al says that bullying behaviour is attractive to the opposite sex and is used to scare away rivals to make sure they are naturally selected for enhanced reproductive success

Question 21

Evolutionary theory a03

Answer 21

Deterministic suggests that our behaviour is innate
reductionist and doesnt provide complete explanation of human behaviour
real life application towards explaining bullying
justifies domestic abuse (socially sensitive)
nature side of the debate
culture differences in tribal communities (violence is discouraged in one society)
argument is outdated due to domestic abuse

Question 22

What is the frustration aggression hypothesis?

Answer 22

Aggression is caused by frustration due to something blocking our goal and we start to become aggressive if we are not able to achieve the goal especially if it is strong.

This was updated by berkowitz who found that aggression would be generated more from something that was expected less

Question 23

What is justified and unjustified frustration?

Answer 23

Doob and Sears found people became aggressive when a bus would not stop at a stop

Pastore updated this and found that if the reason is justified e.g. bus out of service then it would result in lower amounts of aggression as it is understandable to not be angry

Question 24

What is Displaced aggression?

Answer 24

When anger needs to be taken out on the source of frustration however it is impossible therefore the anger is taken out on something else e.g. kicking the dog instead of attacking your boss.

Question 25

Frustration aggression hypothesis A03?

Answer 25

Aggression is not an automatic consequence of frustration - people will respond with aggression if it has been used to deal with something before
Lacks supporting evidence - evidence from bushman suggests if someone is aggressive they would stay aggressive due to the frustration
Aggression not always caused by frustration - other factors such as temperature are supported by evidence that baseball players are more aggressive in hot conditions
Frustration has real life application to mass killings such as Nazi Germany which blamed jews as a scapegoat for economic problems
Research support through football hooliganism and losing as a team

Question 26

What happened in Bandura’s bobo doll study

Answer 26

72 children around 3-5 years old divided into 36 boys and girls put into 3 groups of 12
Group 1 was aggressive, Group 2 was peaceful and group 3 had not adult
Children moved into room with toys and settled with an adult then moved to the waiting room which also had toys inside
The children observed how the adult played with the bobo doll

Found that if the adult was aggressive it resulted in the children imitating the adults actions towards the bobo doll compared to the other conditions. Imitation increased if the adult was the same gender

Question 27

What is the a03 for the bobo doll study?

Answer 27

Fails to explain how biology can affect aggression in children
supporting evidence - In 200 hockey games the top players were more likely to be aggressive as they had aggressive models who were punished less
Behaviourally deterministic - assumes observed behaviour will always be imitated and learned
Helps us explain why children may copy through real life application e.g. Jamie Bulger Murder
Other researchers argue imitation is not the only factors but rather frustration
Helpful in explaining differences in aggressive behaviour e.g. aggression with friends compared to school
Can explain cultural differences of aggression through tribes that are not aggressive
Has been helpful in identifying aggressive role models for children

Question 28

How is aggression learnt according to Bandura?

Answer 28

Children learn aggression through observation of their role model doing aggressive actions which results in them imitating the actions to identify with the parental figure.

The child observes the consequences and rewards through vicarious reinforcement and how they conduct themselves so they internalise when and why to be aggressive.

Question 29

How is aggression produced according to Bandura?

Answer 29

Aggression has to be maintained through direct experience e.g. if bullying is successful it will be repeated

Self efficacy expectancies - Confidence in the ability to perform the action

Question 30

What is the process of SLT (4 Steps)

Answer 30

Attention - Learner pays attention to model behaviour
Retention - Learner remembers model behaviour
Reproduction - learner must be capable of performing this behaviour
Motivation - reason to carry out the behaviour

Question 31

What did Festinger say about deindividuation?

Answer 31

Point at which inner restraints are lost when a person loses their identity of them as a person which causes aggression in big groups as you are more likely to be anonymous

Question 32

Describe Zimbardos prison study in deindividuation?

Answer 32

Participants are randomly assigned prisoner and police guard who wore glasses and uniforms while prisoners were given a number and a jumpsuit
People started to deindividuate and turn into their role models which resulted in guards abusing their power on the prisoners

Question 33

What is public and private self awareness?

Answer 33

Public - How much we care about others through our behaviour and whether or not it is anonymous or not
Private - how we pay attention to our area around us and our emotions

Question 34

Deindividuation A03

Answer 34

Gender differences - shows when deindividuated females are less likely to respond aggressively compared to men as men are more likely to be provoked into extreme aggression
Anonymity and deindividuation - Rehm et al found that if ppts wore uniforms at handball matches it would increase deindividuation aggression
Real world application - football hooliganism and suicide crowds
Cultural differences - tribes in brazil that put on face paint were more likely to be aggressive

Question 35

What is the importation and deprivation model?

Answer 35

Importation - prison inmates take their violent tendencies into prison which causes aggression within the prison
Deprivation - Inmates start to become aggressive due to lack of freedom and rights which makes them highly stressed

Question 36

What causes aggression in the deprivation model?

Answer 36

Overcrowding
Extreme temperatures
Noisy environments
Job burnout/boredom
Lack of freedom and rights

Question 37

What causes aggression in the importation model?

Answer 37

Belief that toughness and physical exploitation is essential survival
Gang membership
“Code of the streets”
Impulsive aggression or anti social personality (Dispositional)
Low self control (Dispositional)

Question 38

Importation Model and Deprivation Model ao3?

Answer 38

Supporting research for the Importation model show that code of the streets found in gang culture influenced prison violence especially those with lack of family support
Evidence shows challenges to the importation model - Gang members were not more likely to commit violent acts and were less likely to be violent if separated from other gang members

Supporting research for the deprivation model - Found that overcrowded, hot and noisy prisons are more likely to increase the rate of assault according to a meta analysis
Challenging evidence found that aggression usually increases for the factors of race, age and history rather than prison conditions
Real life application - HMP woodhill prison found that decreasing the noise, heat and overcrowding significantly reduced the assaults

Question 39

What is desensitisation?

Answer 39

If we are shown violent content frequently our sympathetic nervous system gets used to it and creates less body changes, it also makes us more likely to accept aggressive behaviours

Question 40

What is disinhibition?

Answer 40

When we are exposed to violence frequently we start to see it as normal which changes our norms where we see violence as acceptable
If it is immediate e.g. getting angry at a game we see aggression as acceptable for a short time
Longer term is where we are exposed for a long time which makes it more acceptable to show aggression due to lack of guilt and lack of concern

Question 41

What is cognitive priming?

Answer 41

When we observe aggression frequently we are more likely to become primed to become aggressive as we think we know how to deal with the situation

Question 42

What is Weisz and Earls study on desensitisation?

Answer 42

Participants either watch a sexually violent film or a non sexually violent film then they watch a rape trial take place
Those who watch sexually violent films show less sympathy and more likely to accept rape myths and sexual aggression

Question 43

What is the a03 for desensitisation?

Answer 43

Research support from Krahe shows that people who watch violent film clips are less likely to be aroused and therefore more likely to act out in aggression
More research support shows those that play computer games become psychologically desensitised to real violence if they played games for 20mins and watched violence for 10mins

Bushman and anderson found that desensitisation is good and bad for soldiers in war as they are more effective in their role however they are less helpful in helping others

Question 44

What is the evaluation for disinhibition?

Answer 44

Supporting research shows that those who participated in a shock test study would shock the confederates for longer if it was seen as justified and acceptable
Depends on other factors such as how the child was nurtured against violence or how young the child is and how they are easily influenced by violent media
supporting evidence shows that disinhibition is more likely to happen if the person does not see the consequences - boxing match with 2 alternate endings where one ending was negative which would lower disinhibtion

Question 45

What did Fischer and Greitmeyer say about cognitive priming?

Answer 45

Male participants who listen to aggressive song lyrics towards women are more likely to be more aggressive towards a female confederate than those who listened to neutral lyrics

Question 46

What is the a03 for cognitive priming?

Answer 46

Support from bushman shows that when participants watched an aggressive 15 minute video they reacted faster and became cognitively primed to more aggressive words compared to those that didnt watch the aggressive video
Priming is less likely to happen with less aggressive forms of media that are less realistic

Question 47

What is the a03 of media influences of aggression?

Answer 47

Violent media only reports small to medium effect sizes in influencing aggression however media violence and aggression towards another person has a relationship of zero
Gender biased towards males
Aggression is simple to ask about however it is very complex to explain
Culture bias
Nurture side of the argument
Ferguson found that when there was other causal variables when studying media aggression the effect of media disappeared once other traits like family history and mental health were involved
Media aggression studies lack ecological and temporal valdity as it cant measure long term effects of aggression as it has no real life aggression involved
Frustration from difficulty of a game can also influence aggression as those who struggled with games became angry even if it was non violent