Week 6

Question 1

What is human aggression?

Answer 1

any behaviour directed toward another
individual that is carried out with the
proximate (immediate) intent to cause
harm.“ (Anderson & Bushman, 2002)
• “The target must be motivated to avoid the
behaviour.“

Question 2

What is violence?

Answer 2

• Violence is aggression that has extreme
harm as its goal (e.g. severe injury or death).
• All violence is aggression (but not all aggression is violence)

Question 3

What does animal behaviour tell us about gender differences with aggression?

Answer 3

• Male animals more aggressive, more likely

to attack, more likely to fight

Question 4

What is the hydraulic hypothesis?

Answer 4

Konrad Lorenz
Aggression instinctual
• Not caused by the environment – rather it
is ‘released’ or ‘unlocked’ in certain circumstances
• Instinctual aggression then ‘pushes out’
• Needs to be ‘released’ regularly or aggression becomes pent up

Lack of empirical support

Question 5

What are the four personality types linked with aggressive behaviour

Answer 5

• Anti-social, Narcissistic, Borderline, Paranoid personality disorders

Question 6

What is an example of clinical psychology dealing with aggression?

Answer 6

Conflict management, relationship systems, counselling for aggression

Question 7

What are neural networks?

Answer 7

Human beings when they experience things, associate it with other things and wire together their memories.
The more often nodes are activated together, the nodes become stronger.

Question 8

What is the problem with neural networks and aggression?

Answer 8

the more aggression and
violence we experience, the greater the
number of nodes and the strength of the connection

Question 9

What is cognitive neo-association theory?

Answer 9

Assumes that memories, emotions, thoughts
and plans for action are linked together in
the brain.in just this way
See Berkowitz,
the linked parts (such as the parts that register anger, contain the concepts of various swear words, or store memories of other frustrations), also become
activated.

Question 10

What is script theory?

Answer 10

• When a situation is very familiar we tend to play things out in a similar way most times until the response becomes automatic whenever that situation arises (domestic
violence can occur in this way)

It then becomes chronically accessible

Question 11

How is developmental psych linked to aggression?

Answer 11

Children who are aggresive to their peers tend to stay that way in adulthood.

Question 12

What is the subgroup of people found in developmental psych studies?

Answer 12

Sub group of people who dont follow the norm and become more aggressive throughout their lifespan. Tend to have hostile upbringings

Question 13

What are the links between emotion and aggression?

Answer 13

Anger and aggression, shame and aggression, humiliation, jealousy.

Question 14

What is the link between anger and aggression?

Answer 14

Anger is behaviour, aggression is a feeling.

Links between the two

Question 15

What is shame and aggression?

Answer 15

People who are shame prone tend to try and aggressively hide their flaws. When they act on it it fuels their shame

Question 16

Jealousy and aggression?

Answer 16

Reproductive success, aggression etc

Question 17

What is the frustration-aggression hypo?

Answer 17

Built on Freud’s ideas about frustrationin the pursuit of pleasure
• When blocked from attaining a goal frustration ensues.
• All frustration leads to aggression
• All instances of aggression can be traced back to frustration
• Clearly not always true (but often is)

Question 18

whats the link between health psychology

Answer 18

Particularly concerned with links between physical health and psychological
phenomena.
Type A personality and heart disease
Anger and hypertension
Alcoholism and aggression
Injury, recovery, trauma

Question 19

What is the link between aggression and learning?

Answer 19

Classical conditioning
Instrumental learning (Reward aggression, punishing non aggression)

Question 20

What is the link between social learning theory and aggression?

Answer 20

suggests that people acquire aggressive tendencies through
direct experience (aggressive behaviour
has brought them rewards in the past) or through observing and copying the
behaviour of aggressive role models

Children who viewed violent models subsequently displayed the novel forms of
aggression toward the Bobo doll whereas control
children rarely, if ever, did so

Question 21

How many genes are there that are indirectly linked to aggressive behaviour?

Answer 21

16/17

Question 22

What are the neurotrasmitters linked with aggression?

Answer 22

• Serotonin deficits linked to aggression
• Serotonin linked with impulse control;
low serotonin poorer impulse control
• Hi GABA levels in rodents linked with
aggression; little human data
• Dopamine levels with ADHD, impulsivity
• Impulsivity then linked with aggression

Question 23

What are the hormones linked with aggression?

Answer 23

• High testosterone linked to aggression
• Especially when also low cortisol, serotonin
• See Montoya et al 2012
• Low cortisol, low oxytocin
• But some paradoxical effects with oxytocin
• Low oestrogen, progesterone
• Some evidence, findings mixed

Question 24

What are the brain structures that link to aggression?

Answer 24

ifferent brain structures
• Damage to the frontal lobes (uninhibited)
• Structural and functional deficits in
• Orbitofrontal cortex (mostly RH)
• Anterior Cingulate Cortex (Mostly RH)
• Dorsolateral Prefrontal cortex (LH)
• Activation of Limbic System (‘old’ part of
brain; primitive instincts and survival)
• especially in Amygdala (emotion centre

Question 25

What is the link between arousal and aggression?

Answer 25

Increased aggression is associated with:
• Lower resting heart rate (even at age 3!)
• Under-arousal of both the central nervous
system and autonomic nervous system
• Lower electrodermal, cardiovascular, and
cortical (i.e., EEG) arousal
• Low basal cortisol (stress hormone) levels

Question 26

Whats the link between big 5/6 and aggression?

Answer 26

• Low agreeableness
(Straightforwardness, compliance,
altruism)
• Low conscientiousness (deliberation)
• High neuroticism (angry hostility)
• Low extraversion (warmth)
• Big 6 (HEXACO) Lee & Ashton (2004)
• Low Honesty/humility

Question 27

Whats the social interaction theory?

Answer 27

Aggression is something you do when you want to get something.