Aggression and Prosocial Behaviour

• Alcohol myopia


  Alcohols effects on individuals perceptual and cognitive functioning
• Effects of excessive alcohol intake

  -Sensitive to cues

  -Increases reactivity

  -Reduces regulation

  -Reduces thinking about consequences
• What is meant by "loosing ourselves in the crowd"

  Deindividualisation

  
  

  Crowd or mob mentality

  
  

  ID taking over
• What's deindividualisation


  Not feeling like an individual anymore
• Define prosocial behaviour


  Voluntary behaviour performed with intention of benefiting another
• Copy cat effect


  a tendency for some people to model or copy a behavior or activity portrayed by the news or entertainment media

  
  

  EG: school shootings
• What are the effects of exposure to violence in the media

  -Difficult to differentiate between fantasy violence and real violence

  
  

  -Den sensitisation

  
  

  -Increases aggression in children in:

  •Short term

  •Sporting arena

  
  

  Not proven to be linked with aggression as adults.
• What's the social cognitive explanation for aggression

  Maladaptive thinking patterns
• What is the reason behind crowd violence

  Deindividuated
• which theorist coined deindividuated as cause of crowd violence

  Gustav Le Bon
• Deindividuation builds on Freud's ideas, expand on this

  Struggle between ID and Superego.

  
  

  In crowd our superego disappears, ID in charge, animalistic.
• Unconscious drives from the ID obeying the pleasure principle seeks what things


  Food

  Water

  Power

  Sex
• Effects of exposure to pornography and aggression

  No strong link, effect subtle and not obvious.
• Werther Effect


  An increased rate of suicide when suicides are reported dramatically in the media.

  
  

  Strong and direct link

  With self harm.
• Who is at higher risk of self harm in regards to the werther effect

  Relatability to those depicted in the story

  
  

  Occurs if close proximity to where Hugh profile story publicised
• Does exposure to violent media lead to aggression?

  No cause and effect.

  
  

  Positive correlation 0.3%

  
  

  Increased violent media equates to increased aggressive behaviour.
• Is exposure to violence in media a cause of violence in adults

  Not proven to be linked with aggression as adults.
• Criticism of Bandura's social learning theory

  Doesn't explain social learning in animals

  
  

  Reliance on expectancies suggests cognitive processes essential to form expectancies, animals don't have this so it doesn't explain how this occurs in animals.
• Principles which govern the levels of consciousness

  ID : Pleasure principle

  Ego : Reality principle

  Superego : Moral principle
• Albert Bandura thought personality was interaction between what


  -Traits

  -Thoughts

  -Environment that their behaviours expressed in

  
  

  Through the process of "reciprocal determinism" that these things affect each other.
• Media guidelines on reporting of suicide include

  -Avoid starting tv newscast with suicide story.

  -Avoid including suicide in headlines

  -Avoid suicide story on cover

  -Avoid romanticising/sensationalising

  -Avoid details of methods used

  -Keep numb of suicide story's minimal

  -Use coding language in reporting
• expectations


  Bandura thought expectations was the most important part of cognition that determines personality
• Criticisms of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs (self actualisation theory of personality development)


  -Concepts subjective

  -Motivation for self actualisation is descriptive.

  -Needs hierarchy developed with no concept of "lower order needs" as they were all rich celebrities so they were consequently driven by "higher order needs"
• Alcohol myopia definition and main effects

  Theory to explain effects on perceptual and cognitive functioning.

  
  

  -Sensitive to cues

  -Increases reactivity

  -Reduces regulation

  -Reduces thinking about consequences
• Alcohol and violence


  Alcohol is NOT a primary contributor to violence.

  
  

  There is an ASSOCIATION between alcohol and violence.
• Statistics on alcohol


  5.9% deaths globally caused by harmful use of alcohol (3.3 million).

  
  

  Between 2000-2006 47% all homicides in Australia alcohol related.

  
  

  Deaths involving physical altercations, blunt force injury's, stab wounds most frequently associated with alcohol.
• Deindividuation and anonymity can lead to what

  Both anti social and pro social behaviour.

  
  

  Context dependent
• Best known example of deindividuation in action and its main message

  Stanford prison experiment

  
  

  Behavior is determined by environment and situation not personality, we have capacity
• In order to become a brutal guard in the Stanford prison experiment what needed to occur

  -Identification (not conformity) with the mission/leadership in order to engage.

  
  

  -Leadership/Fellowship
• Psychological violence


  Ostracism and rejection
• Hypervigilance and hypersensitivity in response to ostracism and rejection is due to what process

  Evolutionary response, prehistoric times ostracism from tribe meant death.
• Ostracism, rejection and aggression.


  Victims of ostracism and rejection leads to aggression to bully's and to uninvolved.
• When does deindividuation and anonymity lead to increased aggression towards strangers

  -Crowds large

  -Distance from victim large

  -At night
• What are the effects of exposure to violence in the media

  -Difficult to differentiate between fantasy violence and real violence

  
  

  -Den sensitisation

  
  

  -Increases aggression in children in:

  •Short term

  •Sporting arena

  
  

  Not proven to be linked with aggression as adults.
• Altruism is due to what key characteristic

  Empathy which occurred due to parenting strategies
• Altruism and liklihood to be altruistic is influenced by

  -Modeling

  -In a rush or not

  
  

  Religious and personality variables did not affect helping behaviours