social-psychological explanations of aggression: de-individuation

Question 1

Zimbardo argued that our behaviour is usually constrained by social norms- most forms of aggressive behaviour are discouraged. But when we become part of a crowd we lose restraint and may behave in emotional, impulsive and irrational ways= we become

Answer 1

de-individuated and lose our senses of individual self-identity and responsibility for our behaviour- responsibility becomes shared throughout the crowd, so we ignore social norms and experience less personal guilt at harmful aggression directed at others

Question 2

several conditions of de-individuation promote aggressive behaviour e.g. darkness, drugs, alcohol and uniforms. But a major factor is

Answer 2

anonymity- “anonymity shapes crowd behaviour”

Question 3

why does anonymity mean we have less fear of retribution?

Answer 3

we have less fear of retribution because we are a small and unidentifiable parts of a faceless crowd- the bigger the crowd the more anonymous we are

Question 4

explain how anonymity reduces two types of self-awareness

Answer 4

1- private self-awareness is reduced because our attention is focused outwardly to the events around us, so we think less about our own beliefs and feelings- we are less self-critical and evaluative
2- public self-awareness is reduced as we realise we are anonymous and our behaviour is less likely to be judged by others- we no longer care how others see us so we become less accountable for our aggressive and destructive actions

Question 5

who conducted a classroom exercise to illustrate de-individuation?

Answer 5

Dodd

Question 6

explain Dodd’s procedure

Answer 6

• asked over 200 undergraduate psychology students: “if you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?”
• 3 independent raters who did not know the hypothesis decided what categories of antisocial behaviour the responses belonged to

Question 7

what did Dodd find?

Answer 7

• over 1/3 (30%) of responses involved some form of antisocial behaviour with the most common to rob a bank
• a few students opted for murder, rape and assassinations of a political figure
• less than 10% were prosocial such as helping people
• in terms of how people imagine they would behave, this study demonstrates a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour

Question 8

what are the evaluation points for de-individuation?

Answer 8

• research support from Dodd
• further research support of analysis of online
  behaviour
• useful real-life applications
• contradictory evidence (Gergen)

Question 9

explain how there is further research support of analysis of online behaviour

Answer 9

• analysis of aggressive online behaviour in chatrooms and instant messaging has identified a strong correlation between anonymity and ‘flaming’- sending or posting threatening and/or hostile messages
• this suggests that the existence of a link between anonymity, de-individuation and aggressive behaviour in a context that has even greater relevance today

Question 10

explain how there is useful real-life applications

Answer 10

• de-individuation theory can help us to understand aggressive behaviour in online gaming services such as Xbox live
• these services have many features that promote a psychological state of de-individuation: a reduction of personal identity e.g. players using ‘handles’ to identify themselves and an arousing and immersive environment and the presence of a ‘crowd’ in the form of a potentially worldwide audience
• this increases the external validity of the explanation because this real-life application confirms the relevance of de-individuation concepts to aggressive behaviour, especially the role of anonymity in creating conditions of de-individuation and reductions in private and public self-awareness

Question 11

explain how there is contradictory evidence (Gergen)

Answer 11

• in their ‘deviance in the dark’ study, Gergen et al placed groups of 8 strangers in a pitch-black room for one hour, and told them to do whatever they wanted with no rules to stop them
• it did not take long for them to stop talking and start kissing and touching each other intimately
• the study was repeated, but this time the Ps were told they would come face-to-face with each other after an hour of darkness; the amount of touching and kissing declined dramatically
• despite a guarantee of anonymity creating the conditions for de-individuation, aggressive behaviour was not an outcome of this study