Social Psychological Explanations For Human Aggression Flashcards
What is the frustration hypothesis and who creates the idea?
- Dollard (1939)
- believed aggression is the consequence of the feeling of frustration.
Define frustration. And why does it create aggression?
- frustration is working towards something ie a goal and being slowed down or stopped by a real or imaginary barrier.
- frustration is an unpleasant feeling and to be relieved.
- it is relived by aggression
What are the two reason why aggression occurs through frustration?
- Proximity to the goal
2. Whether the aggression will remove the barrier causing the Frustration.
What is the idea of proximity to the goal?
- the idea that you will become more frustrated the closer you are to achieving the goal and will be more aggressive. Compared to being a far away from achieving the goal.
What is the idea behind whether aggression will remove the barrier that is causing the aggression?
- if the aggression is unlikely to remove the barrier of frustration, aggression is less likely to happen
- ie being aggressive to a machine that has broken - won’t help
- however If a bloke is coming to fix the machine and is being slow, being aggressive may speed him up. Therefore aggression would occur.
Name a piece of research into the frustration hypothesis.
Harris (1974)
- he tested proximity to the goal by having someone push in a queue.
- he found people for more aggressive when they pushed in near the front and less aggressive at the back.
- proving being closer to the goal makes you more aggressive.
Name two pieces of evaluation into the frustration hypothesis.
❌ reductionist- reduces aggression to just frustration - doesn’t consider aggression for protection and murderers and psychopaths which is premeditated.
❌ lacks predictive validity - the fear has is mostly hypothetical scenarios so most people say how they think they would react when they may react in a completely different way.
What is the social learning theory?
- believes people learn behaviour from role models and experiences as they try and imitate them.
- no one is born a certain way - ie aggressive.
What type of reinforcement is likely to create imitation? And why?
- positive reinforcement
- die to there being a reward the behaviour is more likely to be imitated.
What is the reinforcement called when you see someone else do the behaviour? And what is it?
Vicarious reinforcement
- seeing someone perform a behaviour and gaining a reward= more likely to imitate.
- example: bully uses aggression to get money (reward) individual sees this and wants the same reward.
What are the 4 cognitive processes needed for behaviour to be learned?
- Attention
- Retention
- Motivation
- Reproduction
What is the attention phase in the cognitive processing?
Attention is where the behaviour is first noticed. Aggressive behaviour in this case.
What is the retention stage in the cognitive process?
Retention is the stage where if the behaviour is memorable it will be stored and remembered, it is not the behaviour won’t be remembered.
- aggressive behaviour normally remember because it activates a lot of emotions.
What is the reproduction stage in the cognitive process?
Reproduction is the stage where the individual must be able to reproduce the behaviour.
- if they aren’t strong or big enough the behaviour won’t be reproducible and the behaviour won’t be repeated.
What is the motivation stage in the cognitive process?
Motivation is the stage where the person WANTS to perform the behaviour.
- if they weren’t happy about the aggressive act the first 3 stages could be met but won’t perform the behaviour because they don’t want to do it. - proof of individual differences.
What research is used to test the effectiveness of these 4 processes?
Bandura and Ross and Ross
36 boys. 36 girls ages 3 - 5 years old
2 adults ( 1 male + 1 female)
Spilt into groups and adult performs actions on dolls/toys and shouts noises such as ‘bang’ to see if the children tried to
Imitate their behaviour.
Found same sex groups imitated more.
Proving that the 4 stages are key
Name a piece of research for the influence from the media?
Mota Motas
- found that aggressive behaviour seen on televisions was identified by Portuguese students and made them aggressive . Backs SLT
Name a piece of research for the influence from the environment.
- guerro
- wanted to know if being exposed to street violence would make the indivual more aggressive.
- tested 5 - 12 year old -4,500 of them.
- found that exposure the street violence did make children more aggressive. ✅SLT
Name two pieces of research for the SLT in regards aggression.
✅ explains why people only get aggressive in certain situations and not anywhere, which is what the biological approach suggests.
❌ no longitudinal studies only shows short term affects doesn’t see if imitation lasts.
When does de - individualisation occur?
- when in a group or a crowd.
Why does being in a group or a crowd increase the likely hood of aggression?
- when in a group/crowd your sense of identity is lost.
- own morals and beliefs are loosened and you adapt the groups morals.
- you feel less guilt as you share the blame between the crowd/group.
What can affect the likelyhood of de- individualisation?
- larger crowd = more chance of losing identity ( greater distribution of responsibility
- drugs/alcohol lose sense of responsibility easily persuaded to adapt your own morals.
- self - awareness reduced in a group - lots of environmental stimulus = uncharacteristic behaviour.
What are the two types of self awareness?
- Public self- awareness
2. Private self - awareness
What is public self - awareness? And what influences it?
- the appraisal of others
- in a group the appraisal is multiplied massively = more likely to change to the groups morals for appraisal.
What is private self - awareness? What happens to this in a group?
- your own thoughts
- distracted by environmental stimuluses can’t listen to own morals.
Name a Piece of research into de - individualisation.
Postman +spears
Meta analysis of 60 studies
Found weak evidence supporting de - individualisation
Not widespread across all groups
Name two pieces of evaluation for de -individualisation.
✅ practical applications - darkness increases loss of identity so having mor elite areas reduced antisocial behaviour as people will feel more accountable.
❌ narrow application as only explains aggression in specific contexts when aggression occurs in many other circumstances.
