Social Psychological approaches to explaining aggression

Question 1

Social learning theory

Answer 1

Social learning theory is a theory for how we learn; it can help to explain many different behaviours, such as forming relationships and how to behave in a new job. It can also be used to explain aggressive behaviour
-Its about observation of behaviour

Question 2

Bandura theory

Answer 2

• Bandura and others believed that social learning could explain how children develop aggressive and violent behaviours.
• Basically children observe the actions of significant others (usually adults) and model their own behaviour on what they see, often imitating specific behaviours.
• One context for this could be a child observing their parents’ response to being frustrated, annoyed or threatened by someone – if it is an aggressive response the child stores it as a mental representation and uses it as a model for their own behaviour in similar situations.

Question 3

SLT bandura for television

Answer 3

-Alternatively the child might watch TV programmes or DVD films in which adults behave aggressively or violently, and the TV character becomes the ‘role model’ for the child’s own behaviour.

Question 4

Bandura original (1961)

Answer 4

Bandura et al original (1961) experiment when the children generally imitated whichever behaviour they had seen modelled, including specific imitation of violent acts.

• The fact that the children learned by vicarious experience (rather than direct experience) was important because it showed that they could learn a whole range of aggressive responses simply by being witness to such behaviours going on around them.
• This original experiment also showed that observational learning of aggression is more potent in males than females, and when the role model is of the same gender – so the status of the model is important.

Question 5

What did the Bandura original show about gender?

Answer 5

-This original experiment also showed that observational learning of aggression is more potent in males than females, and when the role model is of the same gender – so the status of the model is important.

Question 6

Bandura et al 1963

Answer 6

-Bandura et al’s experiment in 1963 demonstrated one key thing about learning aggression: observing a role model’s aggressive behaviour will lead to the child ‘learning’ (processing and remembering) the behaviour, but imitation is far more likely to occur if the child feels sufficiently motivated to do so, and a key motivation is the prospect of being rewarded.

Question 7

Vicarious reinforcement

Answer 7

• Children’s vicarious experience of an aggressive act being rewarded is sufficient enough reinforcement for them to want to imitate the behaviour themselves: the children who observed the model being rewarded were far more likely to imitate the behaviour on their own than those who observed punishment or no consequence.
• All children could accurately reproduce the model’s behaviour when rewarded for doing so (they had ‘learned’ the behaviour).

Question 8

Retention

Answer 8

‘Mental representation’ is synonymous with retention. Retention will occur if they pay attention to the models behaviour

Question 9

Bandura et al (1963) supports the theory because…

Answer 9

-Those children who observed no reward or punishment and those who observed reward, were the most aggressive. Those who observed the punishment were the least aggressive

Question 10

This supports the theory because (vicarious observational learning)

Answer 10

-When the children watch the aggressive behaviour they are vicariously reinforced as the model being aggressive has either no consequences for their actions or is rewards for the aggressive behaviour. So once the child has observed and retained the behaviour, they will then be motivated to repeat the behaviour if they know they will be rewarded or have no consequences

Question 11

The theory relies on experimental evidence which may lack ecological validity… (specify which features are artificial)

Answer 11

This is because the bobo doll is not a living person and does not react or retaliate when it’s hit, therefore the model is unrealistic and the children may know that they can hit a doll without it having consequences, so they will repeat the action they saw. Therefore not a realistic representation of aggression.

Question 12

Robertson et al.

Answer 12

Objective: To investigate whether excessive television viewing throughout adolescence is associated with antisocial behaviour in early adulthood.
Method: We assessed a birth cohort of 1037 individuals born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972–1973, at regular intervals from birth to age 26 years. We correlated the associations between television viewing hours from ages 5 to 15 years and four variables: criminal convictions, violent convictions, diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, and aggressive personality traits in early adulthood.

Question 13

Results of Robertson et al.

Answer 13

RESULTS: Young adults who had spent more time watching television during childhood and adolescence were significantly more likely to have a criminal conviction, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, and more aggressive personality traits compared with those who viewed less television. The associations were statistically significant after controlling for sex, IQ, socioeconomic status, previous antisocial behavior, and parental control. The associations were similar for both sexes.

Question 14

Conclusions of Robertson et al.

Answer 14

CONCLUSIONS: Excessive television viewing in childhood and adolescence is associated with increased antisocial behaviour in early adulthood. The findings are consistent with a causal association and support the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that children should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours of television each day.

Question 15

Strengths of Robertson et al.

Answer 15

The strength of this evidence is that, although it only demonstrates a correlation, they did a kind of matched pairs analysis in which they compared people who were similar in terms of sex, IQ, socioeconomic status, previous antisocial behaviour and parental control. Therefore there can be no ‘other reasons’ for the correlation between TV viewing and later aggression.

Question 16

Paik & Comstock

Answer 16

And finally a meta analysis by Paik & Comstock in 1994 found a strong effect size for the effect of television violence on aggressive behaviour. They also found that it affects males and females equally.

Question 17

Evaluation of strengths of support

Answer 17

The triangulated results from a lab experiment so well controlled, a longitudinal correlation (with controls) and a meta analysis so general trend, which makes it strong and reliable evidence for the role of social learning in aggression.

Question 18

IDA: Practical application

Answer 18

• The benefit of a social learning approach to aggression is that it can be used to try to reduce aggression in real life.
• Robertson et al found that excessive television viewing in childhood is associated with increased antisocial behaviour, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day - therefore parents can use this guideline to reduce their child’s chances of developing antisocial behaviour.

Question 19

IDA: Why does the !Kung San community represent evidence that the social learning theory is good at explaining cultural differences?

Answer 19

• The ‘culture of violence theory b Wolfgang et al proposes that some cultures emphasise and model aggression, while others emphasise non-aggressive behaviour and therefore produce individuals of low levels of aggression.
• For stance the Kung San people of Kalahari Desert, aggression is comparatively rare. Parents to not use physical punishment and aggression is devalued by the society as a whole.
• There absence of aggression means there is little opportunity to learn aggressive behaviour; absence of aggressive models.

Question 20

IDA: 2. What argument is given against the idea that aggression can be explained in purely biological terms as a hormonal imbalance?

Answer 20

• Biological explanations stress factors unrelated to SL
• High levels of the male hormone testosterone may also cause aggression, casting doubt on aggression being purely learnt behaviour.
• However, the Pygmies of central Africa- very little aggression takes place.
• Deaux et el point out that they lack the an aggressive male stereotype.
• These cultures clearly have the same biological sex differences, so it must be a lack of aggressive male model
• Suggests social learning is more important than biological.
• Also shows SLT is a good explanation of cultural differences

Question 21

Deindividuation definition

Answer 21

Deindividuation refers to the process of decreased self- assessment and awareness that occurs when identification of an individual is difficult or impossible.

Question 22

Deindividuation AO1

Answer 22

As Postmes (2005): “Deindividuation theory was developed to explain the violence and irrationality of the crowd. According to deindividuation theory, the anonymity and excitement of the crowd makes individuals lose a sense of individual identity. As a result, crowd members cease to evaluate themselves—they become irrational and irresponsible. All this make the crowd fickle and explosive, and prone to anti-normative and disinhibited behaviour.”

Question 23

AO1: Festinger 1952

Answer 23

Individuals in a group do not pay attention to others as individuals, and correspondingly they do not feel that they are being singled out by others. They forego their individual identity, shedding the associated norms of behaviour, and instead ‘merge’ with the crowd.

Question 24

AO1: Zimbardo 1969

Answer 24

This adoption of a group identity (rather than individual) results in individuals feeling anonymous, relieved of their self-awareness.

• Such anonymity means they are not bound by the norms of wider society, thus more primitive urges are more likely to be acted upon.
• The feeling of anonymity makes group members less likely to be identified and punished individually, thus reducing their inhibitions further.

Question 25

AO1: Anonymity; War examples

Answer 25

Anonymity also reduces their concerns about others’ evaluation of them. Under normal conditions individuals’ behaviour is controlled by the fear of guilt, shame or punishment, but the anonymity they feel in a group serves to weaken these controls. For example, many soldiers who used aggression and violence in situations like Vietnam, the Rwandan genocide and even recently in Iraq, have later struggled to come to terms with the sense of guilt and regret that haunts them.

Question 26

What is the difference between individuated behaviour and deindividuated behaviour? (Zimbardo)

Answer 26

Individuated:
-Rational + conforms to acceptable social standards
-High self-awareness
Deindividuated:
-Primitive urges, does not conform to societies norms
-Less guilt + less fear of punishment
-Anonymity

Question 27

AO2: Research evaluation; Malamuth & Check (1981)

Answer 27

Malamuth & Check (1981) questioned male students at an American university and found that almost one-third of them admitted that there was a chance they might commit rape if there was no chance of their being identified. This supports the idea that deindividuated behaviour is more likely to be anti-social and aggressive than individuated behaviour.
-However this result could not be completely accurate (lack validity) as the pps could have been subject to social desirability bias; lied to the researcher to seem more desirable

Question 28

Zimbardo (1969)

Answer 28

• Asked female students to deliver electric shocks to another student (learner was an actor). Half of them were bulky lab coats + hoods and were spoken to in groups, never referred to by names (deindividuated group)
• The others wore normal clothes, large name tags, introduced by names and could see each other whilst delivering electric shocks (individuated group)
• Results: the hood, deindividuated group gave twice as much shock, on average, as the individuated group.

Question 29

AO2: Zimbardo (1969) supports deindividuation theory because…

Answer 29

-It shows that when put in a situation where they were deindividuated, they were able to remain anonymous and so therefore felt less guilt about giving the electric shocks to the leaner, twice as much as they individuated group. This supports the theory because it shows deindividuation can result in decreased self-awareness and guilt.

Question 30

What have some critics said about the clothing?

Answer 30

-The clothing worn by the deindividuated group has been argued to resemble the KKK hoods and garments. Therefore some critics have argued that this acted as a demand characteristic so they acted as they thought this behaviour was expected of them.

Question 31

Because Zimbardo’s experiment was conducted in a lab, it could be argued that…

Answer 31

The results would not occur in real life so the theory remains unsupported.

Question 32

Robert Watson (1973)

Answer 32

Robert Watson looked at real-world anthropological data to the extent which warriors in 23 societies changed their appearance prior to going to war and whether this correlated with aggression

• Of the 13 societies that killed, tortured or mutilated their victims, all but one significantly changed their appearance.
• Of the 10 that were less brutal, seven did not change their appearance thus were not deindividuated

Question 33

One weakness of the research findings by zimbardo is…

Answer 33

Sears argues that students are relatively easily influences making them more susceptible to demand characteristics in a lab setting.

• Sear (1986) documented that increasing reliance on college student subjects in lab settings, particularly in the field of social psychology. According to sears, students have “Less-formulated senses of self, stronger cognitive skills, stronger tendencies to comply with authority, and more unstable peer group relationships.”
• therefore questions how well deindividuation can explain aggression from the evidence provided by zimbardo.

Question 34

IDA

Answer 34

• This observational data by Robert and Watson is less prone to demand characteristics than laboratory experiments. However, the humans relation files from which the data was drawn has been accused of bias.
• There could’ve been ethnocentric bias from the documents, as ignores cultural differences and misapplication from norms from one culture to another
• Assumes that the war paint or costumes are a sign of deindividuation

Question 35

Triangulation of results

Answer 35

-The triangulation of results from interviews, lab experiments and anthropological observations provides reliable evidence for the role of deindividuation in aggressive behaviour.

Question 36

AO2 Criticism; antisocial or prosocial

Answer 36

-Postmes (2005) argues that deindividuation does not necessarily lead to antisocial or aggressive behaviour e.g. doctors and nurses are deindividuated. Rather, anonymity increase their responsiveness to the normative cues present in their immediate environment.

Question 37

Triangulation of results

Answer 37

-The triangulation of results from interviews, lab experiments and anthropological observations provides reliable evidence for the role of deindividuation in aggressive behaviour.

Question 38

AO2 Criticism; antisocial or prosocial

Answer 38

• Postmes (2005) argues that deindividuation does not necessarily lead to antisocial or aggressive behaviour e.g. doctors and nurses are deindividuated. Rather, anonymity increase their responsiveness to the normative cues present in their immediate environment.
• this is a problem for the theory because it shows that deindividuation doesn’t necessarily lead to aggressive behaviour

Question 39

Postmes & Spears (1998)

Answer 39

-They performed a meta-analysis of 60 studies of deindividuation and concluded that there is insufficient support for the major claims of deindividuation theory . They found little evidence that deindividuation is associated with reduced self-awareness.

Question 40

Postmes & Spears findings suggest that…

Answer 40

-Individuals in a crowd do not lose their identity, instead they take on a collective identity. This comprises a set of norms according to which crowd members behave. For instance when princess dianna passed away a large crowd gathered in hyde park and acted very peacefully; they are acting appropriately to the norms of the situation.
This therefore weakens the support for deindividuation as a theory for aggression, but rather just explains why people behave differently in crowds.

Question 41

IDA application

Answer 41

Could be used to reduce aggression in certain situations e.g. if schools abolished uniform children would be less likely to behave aggressively
Nature vs nurture- doesn’t take into account biologically innate aggression which is more likely in some than others.