Social Explanations

Question 1

What is the frustration aggression hypothesis?

Answer 1

• put forward by Dollard et al (1939)
• based on the psychodynamic approach, believing that the drive for aggression is innate
• the only way to reduce it is to engage in an activity which releases it

Question 2

How does frustration begin?

Answer 2

• when an individual is prevented from achieving a goal due to an abstract factor
• the aggression is a cathartic release of the build up of frustration

Question 3

What does catharsis mean?

Answer 3

the process of releasing built up emotions

Question 4

Why can’t aggression always be direct at the source?

Answer 4

• the source may be abstract
• the source is too powerful and the risk of punishment is too high

Question 5

What are the 2 defence mechanisms used in the catharsis of aggression?

Answer 5

sublimation: using aggression in acceptable activities such as sport
displacement: directing aggression outwards onto something or someone else

Question 6

What did Berkowitz (1969) add to the original frustration aggression hypothesis?

Answer 6

• predicted that frustration doesn’t always lead to aggression
• may only occur in the presence of cues
• for example, presence of weapons

Question 7

What is research evidence for Berkowitz’s hypothesis?

Answer 7

• Green (1968): male students were made to complete a jigsaw puzzle in a given amount of time. levels of frustration were manipulated in one of three ways:
  group 1: the jigsaw was impossible to solve
  group 2: a confederate kept interfering so they didn’t finish the jigsaw in time
  group 3: a confederate gave insults as the participant failed to complete the jigsaw
  Afterwards, ppts were asked to give shocks to the confederate when they made mistakes on another task
  The insulted ppts gave the strongest shocks on average and all 3 groups gave stronger shocks compared to a control group with no frustration

Question 8

What did Pastore (1952) add to the theory?

Answer 8

• unjustified vs justified frustration
• ppts expressed lower levels of anger when a bus rode past with an ‘out of order’ sign (justified) vs when a bus rode past without this message (unjustified)

Question 9

AO3: research support ✅

Answer 9

Marcus-Newhall et al (2000) completed a meta analysis of 49 studies into displaced aggression and this supports the frustration aggression hypothesis, in particular the concept of aggression not being directed at the cause
Studies show that ppts that were provoked but unable to directly retaliate to the source were significantly more likely to act aggressively towards an innocent party than people who were unprovoked
This is exactly the outcome predicted within the hypothesis

Question 10

AO3: aggression may not be cathartic ❌

Answer 10

The FA hypothesis predicts that engaging in verbal or physical outbursts is cathartic because the aggression created by the frustration is satisfied
However, research has cast doubt on this claim. Bushman (2002) found ppts that vented their anger by repeatedly hitting a punchbag became more angry and aggressive than those that did nothing
The outcome of this study is different from the predicted hypothesis which casts doubt on the validity of catharsis

Question 11

AO3: aggression is not the only response to frustration ❌

Answer 11

It has been argued that aggression may not be the only possible response to frustration
Berkowitz (1989) reformulated the hypothesis to the negative affect theory, which argues that frustration can lead to any negative emotion, for example pain or jealousy
Equally, an individual may respond with aggression if they’ve seen if be affective before or have observed it being affective for others
This shows that frustration leading directly to aggression isn’t the only explanation

Question 12

What does social learning theory (SLT) state about aggression?

Answer 12

States that individuals become aggressive by imitating role models
Observational learning occurs and this learning is reinforced vicariously

Question 13

What is vicarious reinforcement?

Answer 13

When a person witnesses somebody else be rewarded or punished for their behaviours and imitates their behaviour accordingly

Question 14

What 4 cognitive conditions must occur for imitation to take place?

Answer 14

Attention: an individual must pay attention to the models aggressive behaviour
Retention: individuals must code and store the observed aggressive behaviour into LTM
Reproduction: individuals must be capable of imitating the aggressive behaviour
Motivation: individuals must have good reason for reproducing the aggressive behaviour

Question 15

What is self-efficacy?

Answer 15

The extent to which we believe our actions will achieve a desired goal

Question 16

What is vicarious punishment?

Answer 16

A parallel form of learning whereby if a models use of aggression is punished, the observing individual is less likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour

Question 17

What is research evidence for SLT as applied to aggression?

Answer 17

Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961) - The Bobo Doll Experiment
Aim: To investigate whether aggression can be learned through social learning theory principles.
Sample: 72 children (36 male and 36 female) aged between 3 and 6 years old
Procedure: Children were put into one of three groups for 10 minutes:
1) Aggressive model - the child played in a room while an adult hit and shouted at a “Bobo doll” a plastic inflateable toy doll which was heavy at the bottom and wobbled when hit.
2) Non-aggressive model - the child played in a room while an aduit played quietly with a construction set.
3) Control group - the child did not see a model. They were deliberately frustrated by being place in a room and they could not play with any toys. Then, they were placed alone in another room with a range of aggressive toys (mallet, gun) and non-aggressive toys (dolis, crayons) and the Bobo doll for twenty minutes whilst being observed
Results: Children who saw the aggressive model (group 1) produced more aggressive acts than group 2 and 3.
Boys imitated same-sex models more than girts. Giris imitated more physical aggression if they saw male models, and more verbal aggression if they saw female models.
Conclusion: Aggressive behaviour can be learned, in children, through observation and imitation of a model.

Question 18

AO3; supporting evidence for SLT applied to aggression ✅

Answer 18

Poulin & Boivin (2000) studied aggressive behaviour in boys aged 9 to 12 years
They found that most aggressive boys formed friendships with other aggressive boys. These friendships were long lasting and mutually reinforcing of aggression. Researchers described these groups as ‘training grounds’ for antisocial behaviour.
The boys used their alliances with each other to gain resources through aggressive behaviour meaning they frequently saw the rewards aggressive behaviour brings (vicarious reinforcement) and gained approval from other boys for acting in this way (operant conditioning).
These are precisely the conditions under which SLT predicts aggressive behaviour occurs.

Question 19

AO3: SLT overlooked different types of aggression ❌

Answer 19

There are two broad categories of aggression: reactive (hot-blooded, explosive) and proactive (cold-blooded, calculated). People who are experienced in using proactive aggression have high levels of self-efficacy - they are confident their aggressive behaviour will bring benefits. This type of aggression is well explained by SLT.
However, reactive aggressive individuals use aggression to retaliate in the heat of the moment. Reactive aggression is not premediated or planned, and occurs instantly in response to a trigger.
This suggests some aggressive actions may be instinctual, and so are not learned, as the theory would predict and may be better explained by Berkowitz’s negative effect theory.

Question 20

AO3: research evidence suffers from demand characteristics ❌

Answer 20

Children taking part in the BoBo doll experiment may have acted that way because they wanted to obey the adult, or felt that was the correct way to act
One boy was reported to of exclaimed, “Look mummy, that’s the doll then want us to hit”
This decreases the internal validity of the experiment, as the children may have felt inclined to act aggressive towards the BoBo doll simply because they had watched the vudeo

Question 21

What is deindividuation?

Answer 21

When individuals join a large crowd or group, giving them a ‘cloak of anonymity

Question 22

What are the conditions of deindividuation?

Answer 22

Personal responsibility decreases and responsibility becomes shared through the crowd
Anonymity increases

Question 23

What is public and private self awareness?

Answer 23

Prentice-Dunn and Rogers (1982)
Private: monitoring our own beliefs and feelings, decreases in a crowd
Public: how much we care about what others think of us, decreases in a crowd

Question 24

AO3: research support ✅

Answer 24

Dodd (1985) was a psychology teacher and asked 229 of his undergraduate students a question:
‘If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you wouldn’t be held responsible, what would you do?’
Independent raters who didn’t know the aim of the study placed the responses into categories
Findings:
- 36% of responses involved some sort of antisocial behaviour
- 26% were actual criminal acts, the most common being to rob a bank
- only 9% were prosocial behaviours such as helping others
This shows that the concept of deindividuation is clearly shown in real life situations

Question 25

AO3: influence of normative cues ✅

Answer 25

Deindividuation can lead to both aggressive and prosocial outcomes and normative cues determine which may occur
Johnson and Downing (1979) asked female ppts to give fake electric shocks to confederates
C1: ppts dressed in KKK like outfits
C2: ppts dressed as nurses
C3: ppts wore own clothes (control group)
Findings:
Compared with control group, C1 ppts gave more shocks at a more intense level
C2 ppts gave fewer shocks at a less intense level and were more compassionate towards the confederates

Question 26

AO3: individual differences ❌

Answer 26

Cannavale et al (1970) found that male and female participants responses differently under a deindividuation condition
Increase in aggression was only found in the all male group
One possible reason may be that males tend to respond to provocation in more extreme ways (Eagly, 2013)