Social Psychological explanations of Aggression Flashcards
What does the social learning theory suggest?
That behaviour is learnt either through direct experience or vicarious reinforcement
Name the first social psychological theory
Social learning theory
What is direct experience?
Where an individual performs an aggressive act and receives a reward for that behaviour. E.g. earns respect
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Where a person learns through watching the consequences of someone’s behaviour (role model). If someone sees someone being rewarded for acting aggressively they are likely to imitate that aggression
What are the 4 stages to SLT?
ARRM
Attention - must be paid in order to learn from aggression. More attractive, more likely to be copied
Retention - must remember in order to imitate
Reproduction - must be physically able to imitate aggression observed
Motivation - if person was rewarded, more likely to want to copy
Research into SLT
Bandura et al (1961)
Bandura, Ross and Ross (63)
Williams
Research of Bandura et al (1961)
72 ppts Stanford uni nursery
Equal number males and females
1/2 exposed to agg role model, 1/2 not
Experimental group - 1/2 same sex RM, 1/2 opposite sex
Child played in one corner, adult in other (exposed to aggression or not)
Taken into another room, would they play with agg toys or non agg toys?
Research of Williams
Studied levels of physical and verbal aggression in a Canadian community after the introduction of TV
Levels of agg increased post introduction
Research of Bandura, Ross and Ross (1963)
Video clip showing adult being verbally and physically aggressive towards bobo doll.
3 conditions:
Model reward
Model punish
No consequence
Children placed in room, not allowed to play with toys, angry and frustrated
Taken to another room, played with toys for 10 mins, agg rated.
After, all children offered reward if could imitate behaviour shown
Evaluation points for SLT
Supporting research Cultural issues - !Kung San Tribe Gender issues Real life behaviour Too simp Deterministic
What is the second social psychological theory of aggression?
Deindividuation
Who proposed the theory of deindividuation?
Festinger
What is deindividuation?
‘A process whereby people lose their sense of socialised identity and often engage in unsocialised often anti-social behaviours’
Why do people refrain from acting in an aggressive manner?
Consequences/punishments
Guilt (morally wrong)
Public perception (de-valued, lose friends, less likely to be liked)
Who are Hogg and Vaughn?
Deindividuation
When in large crowds, aggressive behaviour may become more relaxed and so we may engage in ‘an orgy of aggressive, selfish and anti-social behaviour’
