Social psychologcal explanations of aggression

Question 1

Social learning theory

Answer 1

• based on the work by Albert Bandura. It owes a lot to the behavioural approach to psychology as it too, explains behaviour primarily in terms of learning through experience.

SLT tries to explain proccesses that lead to learning, maintaining and using new behavioural actions. Bandura and colleagues were particulaly interested in ‘how children learn aggression and violence’.

Question 2

Social learning theory

Bandura believed that four things must happen for the imitation of aggressive to occur

Answer 2

1. Attention - attention must be paid to the model’s aggressive behaviour
2. Retention - individuals must store the observed aggressive behaviour in their memory
3. Reproduction - individuals must be given the opportunity to copy this behaviour
4. Motivation - individuals must have a reason to copy the behaviour

Question 3

Social learning theory

Key principle

Answer 3

behaviour is imitated for a reason - the behaviour has to be seen as to be rewarding.

Question 4

Social learning theory

Results

Answer 4

The girls with the aggressive adult showed more physical aggressive responses if the adult was male, but more verbal aggressive responses if the model was female. However boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls. There was little difference in verbal aggression between genders.

Question 5

Social learning theory

Sykes deprivation model

Answer 5

In 1955, Syke studied the aggression of prisoners/inmates and claimed that situational factors (environmental approach) led to aggression within the prison institution. Sykes argued that the origin of inmate aggression came from within the institiution walls rather than from outsde.

Question 6

Sykes deprivation model

Five deprivations - Deprivation of liberty

Answer 6

prisoners cannot be trusted to live within the laws of society, so they lose their civil rights

Question 7

Sykes deprivation model

Deprivation of autonomy

Answer 7

prisoners have no choices to make on a daily basis and staff control behaviour

Question 8

Sykes deprivation model

Deprivation of goods and services

Answer 8

prisoners do not have access to many things that are accessible in the outside world

Question 9

Sykes deprivation model

Deprivation of heterosexual relationships

Answer 9

heterosexual prisoners are without a companion and therefore lose a part of their personal identity

Question 10

Sykes deprivation model

Deprivation of security

Answer 10

prisoners are often fearful for their safety around prisoners who are more aggressive

Question 11

Sykes deprivation model

Evidence

Answer 11

Steiner (2009) found that inmate-on-inmate aggression increased when there was overcrowding within the prison. Inmates experienced deprivation of security and deprivation of goods and services which increased aggressive behaviour.

Question 12

Sykes deprivation model

Evaluation

Answer 12

It fits with a classic idea that frustration leads to aggression. It’s easy to see why the forms of deprivation identified by Sykes would lead to aggression. However, some researchers have said this hypothesis is too simplistic.

• fails to acknowledge the biological approach and there may be physiological factors at play
• suggest that the environment may not be the only cause of institutional aggression and inmates may have an aggressive predisposition

Question 13

Dysfunctional Institutions

Answer 13

Stanley Milgram believed that people are loyal to the hierarchy of the organisation, but sometimes the hierarchy encourages cruel behaviour.

Question 14

Dysfunctional Institutions

Zimbardo - features of dysfunctional institutions

Answer 14

• isolated from the oustide world
• own set of values
• cohesive group: don’t question orders
• under pressure to act quickly
• diffcult situation to manage
• out-group seen as troublemakers

Question 15

Dysfunctional Institutions

Strengths

Answer 15

This model has strong real-life application and can be used to help reduce aggressive behaviours in prison settings.

Question 16

Dysfunctional Institutions

Weaknesses

Answer 16

This theory fails to consider biological influences on aggression and assumes aggressive behaviour can be explained using situational factors alone.

Question 17

Dysfunctional Institutions

Standford prison experiment
Aim

Answer 17

To investigate how easily participants would conform to the roles of ‘guard’ and ‘prisoner’ in a role-playing exercise that stimulated prison life.

Question 18

Dysfunctional Institutions

Stanford prison experiment
method

Answer 18

Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison. He advertised asking for volunteers to participate in a study of the pscyhological effects of prison life.

Question 19

Stanford prison experiment
participants

Answer 19

More than 70 participants answered the ad and were given diagnostic interviews and personality tests to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse

The study comprised of 24 male college students ( chosen from 75 volunteers) who were paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment.

Question 20

Standford prison experiment
procedure

Answer 20

Prisoners were treated like every other criminal, being arrested at their own homes, without warning, and taken to the local police station.

They were then blindfolded and driven to the psychology department of Stanford University, where the basement had been set out as a prison, with barred doors and windows, bare walls and small cells.

When the prisoners arrived at the prison, they were strip searched, had all their personal possessions removed and locked away, and were given prison clothes and bedding. Also ID number were used as a way to make the prisoners feel anoymous.

Guards wore special sunglasses, to make eye contact with prisoners impossible. The guards worked shift patterns. Guards were instructed to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order in the prison. No physical violence was permitted.

Question 21

Standford prison experiment
Results

Answer 21

Within a very short time, both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles, with the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily. The “prison” environement was an important factor in creating the guards ‘brutal behaviour’. Therefore, the findings support the situational explanation of behaviour.

A central finding in Zimbardo’s experiment was that humans have a natural tendency to be aggressive if they think they can get away with it, being disguised, or part of a crowd, will therefore lead to increased aggression.

Question 22

Standford prison experiment
Conclusion

Answer 22

One strength of the study is that it has altered the way US prisons are run.

Another strength of the study is that the harmful treatment of participants led to the formal recogntion of ethical guidelines by the American Psychological Association.

Question 23

Stanford Prison Experiment

Weaknesses

Answer 23

• Most of the research studies that support this model have been tested on male-only prisons and therefore there is a sample bias
• This theory only applies to prison inmates and doesn’t explain aggressive behaviour in the outside world

Question 24

The importation model

Irwin and Cressey (1967)

Answer 24

The explanation of this model focuses on the personality characteristics that inmates take with them into prison. Just because a criminal is living out a prison sentence doesn’t men that they let go of their values, attitudes and experiences when attending prison.

Question 25

The importation model

Keller and Wang (2005)

Answer 25

Keller and Wang found that prison violence is more likely to occur in men-only prisons with higher security inmates than those prisons who had less. This supports the ideas proposed by Irwin and Cressey that the inmates had brought the violent behaviour with them into the institution.

Question 26

The importation model

Irwin and Cressey (1967)
Evaluation - strengths

Answer 26

A strength of the importation model is that it fits with what we know about conformity - prisoners will conform to the majority subculture and adopt behaviours even when they believe they are wrong.

• fails to look at more than one factor contributing to aggression
• doesn’t consider situational factors.