Aggression

• Neural explanations


  - Limbic system (hypothalamus/amygdala)

  - Orbitifrontal cortex / serotonin
• Hormonal explanations

  - Testosterone (Giammanco et al - Castrated birds and found that testosterone levels dropped)

  - Progesterone
• Genetic explanations

  Low Activity MAOA gene

  MAOA produces enzymes that break down serotonin/dopamine

  1. Low activity gene leads to a reduced breakdown of the neurotransmitters
  2. This leads to the receptors being overloaded
  3. Less serotonin/dopamine is transmitted, leading to aggression (Brunner - Dutch Crime Family)
• Ethological Explanation

  Seeks to understand the innate behaviour of animals (including humans) by studying them in their natural environment.

  Aggression is adaptive to:

  Reduce competition (Forces animals to move to different areas, more food to go around)

  Establish dominance (May give special status and mating rights)
• Ritualistic Aggression

  FAP (Fixed Action Pattern) Stereotyped, universal, ballistic, single purpose sequence of events
• (Evolutionary Explanation) of Sexual Jealousy

  Sexual jealousy is higher in men due to a fear of cuckoldry, which leads to male retention strategies:

  Direct Guarding - Spying on your partner or attempting to block them from having the opportunity to be unfaithful

  Negative Inducement - Threatening them, such as promising to kill her our yourself
• (Evolutionary Explanation) of Bullying

  Males - Adaptive as it signals desirable characteristics for females e.g dominance

  Females - Adaptive as it secures partner’s fidelity and resources for offspring
• Evaluation of the Biological Explanation

  S: Hormones are supported by animal studies (Giammanco) / Genes are supported by case studies (Brunner) and animal studies (Goddar et al - MAOA knockout mice have increased serotonin and are hyper aggressive)

  W: Research is primarily based on case studies, animal studies or samples of prisoners (low generalisability and population validity)
• Ritualistic Aggression 


  Ritualistic signalling which leads to ritual appeasement behaviour - If every aggressive confrontation ended in death, the species would die out - adaptive

  Environmental stimulus (e.g threatening facial expression) - IRM activated - FAP deployed

  IRM (Innate Releasing Mechanism)

  FAP (Fixed Action Pattern) Stereotyped, universal, ballistic, single purpose sequence of events
• Evaluation of the Ethological Explanations

  Strength: Supported by research evidence (Tindenberg - Stickleback fish during mating season would attack different shapes with a red bottom) CP - Animal study, low generalisibility

  Weakness:

  Cultural variations to aggression (Nisbett et al - White American males from the South were more likely to act aggressively when insulted than those from the North) Suggests that cultural factors affect aggression too, it isn't just an innate, fixed response
• Evaluation of the Evolutionary Explanation of Aggression

  S: Sexual jealousy is supported by research evidence (Shackleford et al - Found that direct guarding and negative inducement are overwhelmingly used by men against women and other men)

  W: Cultural differences in aggression (Kalahari people do not value aggression at all and view it as a negative trait) Shows that it's learnt behaviour and isn't adaptive

  Methodological Issue - Very difficult to prove that aggression is evolutionary
• Social Learning Theory


  Aggressive behaviour is observed and imitated (ARRM)

  Bandura: 72 children (Non - aggressive, aggressive, control)

  Aggression Arousal - All children incl. control were taken to a room and played with toys before the toys get taken away

  Children were observed for 20 minutes at 5 second intervals

  Children who observed the aggressive role model were 3x more likely to imitate that behaviour

  Boys were likely 3x more likely to imitate physically aggressive behaviour than girls
• Evaluation of SLT


  S: Supported by research evidence (Bandura) (Poulin and Boivin: Aggressive boys were more likely to form friendships with other aggressive boys)

  W: Explains proactive aggression (confident that their aggressive behaviour will bring benefits) but not reactive aggression (using aggression to retaliate in the heat of the movement - better explained by the frustration - aggression hypothesis)

  Contradicted by research evidence - Island where TV was first introduced, no increase in antisocial behaviour was recorded following the introduction of TV
• Frustration - Aggression Hypothesis

  Dollard et al - Aggression is always a consequence of frustration and frustration will always lead to aggression. Based on the psychodynamic concept of catharsis. Our aggressive drives are similar to hunger and thirst in the sense that we engage in aggressive behaviour in order to reduce our aggressive drive.

  Dollard believed that aggressive drives are governed by external factors which block our attempt to achieve a goal. This leads to frustration, which arouses the aggressive drive
• Russel Green, F-A Hypothesis

  Male uni students were given the task of completing a jigsaw

  Three conditions:

  Puzzle was impossible to complete

  PP's ran out of time because another person in the room (Confederate) kept interfering

  The Confederate insulted the PP as they failed to complete the puzzle

  The insulted PP's gave the strongest electric shocks on average, followed by the interfered PP's, followed by the impossible task PP's. All PP's gave more intense shocks than the non frustration control group
• Berkowitz - The Role of Environmental Cues


  Berkowitz modified the original F-A hypothesis by introducing the Negative Affect Hypothesis:

  Frustration - Aggressive Cues - Aggression

  Frustration produces anger which may be converted into aggression if there is an aggressive cue present

  Did a study similar to Green, except the PP's were either near a gun, a tennis racket, or no cue. Found that those in the presence of the gun gave higher levels of shock than the other two groups (Weapon Effect)
• Evaluation of the Frustration Aggression Hypothesis

  S: Supported by research evidence (Marcus - Newhall: MA of 49 studies, found that those who were provoked but were not able to retaliate directly against the source of frustration were more likely to displace their aggression on to somebody else)

  Real life applications - gun control

  W: Contradictory research for aggression being cathartic (PP's who vented their anger on a punching bag became more aggressive instead of less) (Berkowitz 1989 - Aggression can occur without frustration, may be a symptom of more general negative emotions)
• De-individuation 


  Occurs when people, as part of a relatively anonymous group, lose their personal identity. May reduce inhibitions and free the individual from social constraints

  Gustave Le Bon - When we're in a crowd we lose our individual identity and responsibility for our own behaviour

  Zimbardo distinguished between individuated and de-individuated behaviour

  Role of Self Awareness:

  Private - Paying attention to our own feelings and behaviour (pay more attention to the crowd)

  Public - How much we care about what others think of our behaviour (crowd makes us anonymous)
• Evaluation of De-Individuation 


  S: Supported by research evidence (Douglas and McGarty - Found a strong correlation between those with anonymous usernames and those who sent threatening or hostile messages in an online chatroom) CP - Correlational study, issue of bidirectional ambiguity

  W: It's difficult to separate the effects of de-individuation from other factors affecting aggression - Why do large crowds of cricket or rugby fans rarely descend into violence compared to football fans?
• Institutional Aggression in the Context of Prisons

  There are two explanations of aggression in institutions:

  Dispositional (Importation Model)

  Situational (Deprivation Model)
• Dispositional Explanations of Institutional Aggression

  Importation Model (Irwin and Cressey): Prisoners bring in (import) their own beliefs, values, norms and attitudes. The willingness to use violence to settle disputes within prison mirrors their lives before prison. "People who prey on others on the streets also prey on others in prison".
• Research into the Importation Model (Matt DeLisi)

  Sample: 813 juvenile inmates who had experienced childhood trauma, high levels of anger and irritability, history of substance abuse / violent behaviour

  Findings: Compared to a control group of inmates with fewer dispositional features, these inmates were more likely to engage in suicidal activity and sexual misconduct
• Situational Explanations of Institutional Aggression

  Deprivation Model (Clemmer): Argues that institutional aggression is due to the prison setting itself. Environmental factors within a prison leading to aggression include:

  A loss of freedom, No independence, A lack of safety, Limited access to goods and services, A lack of heterosexual intimacy

  Aggression is also influenced by the prison regime. It is unpredictable and regularly uses "lock ups" to control behaviour which leads to frustration. This can result in violence which is an adaptive solution to the problem of deprivation.
• Research into the Deprivation Model (Cunningham et al) 


  Analysed 35 inmate homicides within US prisons. Found that motivations for killing were linked to deprivation:

  Arguments over drugs

  Personal possessions

  Homosexual relationships
• Evaluation of the Importation Model


  S: Supported by research evidence (Camp and Gaes - 561 inmates with similar criminal histories and predispositions to aggression were divided into high and low security prisons. 33% in low security and 36% in high security prisons were involved in aggressive misconduct within two years.) D - Field study, high ecological validity

  W: Ignores more significant factors (Administrative Control Model - Prison staff, culture and rules all have a bigger effect than dispositional features)
• Evaluation of the Deprivation Model

  S: Supported by research evidence (Cunningham - 35 inmate homicides)

  W: Environmental factors may not have that large of an impact (Hensley et al studied 256 male and female inmates who were given conjugal visits. There was no link between involvement in these visits and a reduction in aggressive behaviour.
• Media Influences on Aggression: Video Games


  Experimental Studies

  Correlational Studies

  Longitudinal Studies

  Meta-Analysis
• Experimental Studies (Video Games)

  Bartholow and Anderson (2002) Students played either a violent game like Mortal Kombat or non violent video game like PGA Golf Tournament. PP's then carried out the Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Task (TCRTT), a standard measure of aggression. Students who played the violent game selected significantly higher volumes of white noise to deliver to a fake opponent.
• Correlational Studies (Video Games)


  DeLisi et al studied 227 juvenile offenders, all with a history of serious aggressive behaviour, such as hitting teachers or parents. Using structured interviews, they gathered data on several measures of aggression and violent video game playing. They found that offenders' aggressive behaviour was significantly correlated with how much they played and enjoyed violent games.
• Longitudinal Studies (Video Games)

  Robertson et al studied people born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973 and measured their TV viewing hours. They found that time watching TV (violent and non violent) was a significant predictor of aggressive behaviour in adulthood. Those who watched the most TV were also the most likely to have antisocial personality disorder.
• Meta-Analysis (Video Games)


  Anderson et al conducted a meta-analysis of 136 studies. They found that exposure to violent computer games was associated with increases in aggressive behaviours, thoughts and feelings. This was true for males and females in individualist and collectivist cultures.
• Evaluation of Experimental Studies (Video Games)

  Strength: Allows for causal links to be made between aggression and violent media by isolating the variables

  Weakness: Can be artificial and lack ecological validity / mundane realism
• Evaluation of Correlational Studies (Video Games)

  Strength: Allows for us to investigate more realistic forms of aggression in a real life setting that would be unethical to study in an experiment

  Weakness: Correlation does not equal causation - we cannot infer cause and effect as there are no controlled variables, and no random allocation of PP's to violent or non violent conditions.
• Evaluation of Longitudinal Studies (Video Games)

  Strength: The dynamic nature of media influence in the long term can be studied. Makes for a more realistic way of looking at how people interact with media

  Weakness: Studies are vulnerable to confounding variables, as there are many other things which may influence aggression over a long period of time
• Non - Equivalence Problem (Video Games)

  When comparing a violent video game condition to a non violent condition, it is important that the two games are similar except for the presence or absence of violence. For example, the violent video games often used tend to be realistic, 3D complex games whereas the non violent games are often more simple 2D games. This may reduce the internal validity of the studies.
• Desensitisation (Video Games)


  When we witness violent actions, we experience psychological arousal associated with the SNS. But when children in particular repeatedly view aggression through the media, they become habituated to its effects. This means that viewing a violent stimulus would result in a reduction of anxiety and physiological arousal on repeated consumption. Funk et al - Repeated exposure to violent media promotes a belief that using aggression as a way to resolve conflict is socially acceptable / less empathy is felt for the victims / their injuries are minimised and dismissed
• Disinhibition (Video Games)


  Most people believe aggression and violent behaviour are antisocial and harmful. Therefore, there are powerful social and physiological inhibitions against using aggression to resolve conflict. According to disinhibition theory, the usual constraints are loosened after consuming such media. Aggression is often portrayed as justified, normative, and socially sanctioned in such media. Aggressive behaviour may be rewarded while the consequences are minimised or ignored.
• Cognitive Priming


  Repeated viewing of aggressive media, especially video games, can provide us with a "script" of how violent situations may "play out". Huesmann believes that this script is stored in our memory, and so we become "ready" or primed to be aggressive. This process is mostly automatic. The script is triggered when we encounter a situation that we perceive to be aggressive.
• Strengths of Desensitisation/Disinhibition/Cognitive Priming

  S: Desensitisation research (Krahe et al - PP's who often watched violent media showed lower levels of arousal as they watched a violent film. PP's also reported higher levels of pleasant arousal and lower levels of anxious arousal)

  Disinhibition research (Alioto - PP's who viewed a film depicting violence as vengeance gave more electric shocks)

  Cognitive Priming Practical Applications (Shows the importance of challenging cognitive bias and encouraging habitual violence users to consider alternatives to aggression)
• Weaknesses of Desensitisation/Disinhibition/Cognitive Priming

  Environmentally deterministic - Ignores biological factors affecting aggression such as testosterone or the low activity MAOA gene