Aggression

• Proactive aggression


  planned methods of getting what you want
• Reactive aggression


  impulsive + accompanied by physiological arousal
• Wagner 


  Castrated mice found that their aggression levels went down, when injecting the mice with testosterone led to a return of aggressive behaviour
• the limbic system


  an area of the brain helps to co-ordinate behaviours that satisfy motivational + emotional urges such as aggression
• Amygdala 


  how a human + animals assess and respond to the environmental threats + challenges
• Hippocampus


  involved in the formation of the ltm allows animals to compare current threat with stimulus past experiences
• Neurotransmitters


  low levels of serotonin remove calming inhibitory efforts - this means that less control impulsive + aggressive behaviour behaviours
• Coccardo et al 


  studied adult males mz 50% concordance rate + 19% dz
• MAOA 


  also known as the warrior gene has been associated with aggressive behaviours
• Ethological explanations 


  suggest that behaviour is adaptive
• Adaptive function of aggression

  increased status in hierarchy eg getting mates

  reduces competition of resources eg food
• Ritualistic aggression


  threat displays + appeasement displays are used to resolve disputes between animals so they can reduce physical damage
• displays of ritualistic aggression

  growling

  puffing up

  showing teeth
• Lorenz 


  argues that their is an inherit neural circuit caused innate releasing mechanisms
• IRM


  triggered by a stimulus in the environment + the animals perform predictable aggressive behavioural patterns called fixed action pattersn
• Tinbergen


  male sticklebacks show highly ritualistic attack patterns to males of the same species - the sticklebacks only attack the males with a red underbelly.
• environmental stimulus - IRM - fixed action pattern
• Wolves vs doves 


  doves - non hunting specific they do not possess violent characteristic

  wolves - they expose their neck to their opponent if they identify that they are losing and admit defeat
• Sexual competition 


  ancestral males seeking females would have had to compete with other males
• sexual jealousy

  unlike women, men can never be 100% sure that they are the father of their children. This results in men being at risk of cuckoldry
• Cuckoldry


  the fear that they are raising and providing for another mans child
• social learning theory 


  suggests that social behaviour is learnt through observation + imitating the behaviour of others
• Bandura 


  says aggression can be learnt directly through operant conditioning + through indirect such as observational learning
• reinforcement 


  direct - occurs when you perform a certain behaviour + rewarded for it

  indirect - observe someone else perform a certain behaviour and they receive a positive or negative reinforcement
• self-efficacy 


  the extent to which we believe our actions will achieve a desired goal
• deindividuation


  a state when you become immersed in the norms of the group
• lebon

  individuals change their behaviours in the presence of large crowds
• anonymity 


  breeds a collective mindset
• in a group


  individuals feel they are "faceless"

  diminished fear of negative consequences + reduces a sense of guilt
• psychodynamic approach 


  if an attempt to achieve something is blocked by an external factors we experience "frustration" which creates an aggressive drive which leads to aggressive behaviours
• Berkowitz


  frustration can also lead to a range of other emotional outputs
• dispositional factors 


  highlights the importance of individual personalities
• situational factors 


  identifies causes of behaviour as existing within the environment
• importation model 


  prisons aren't completely isolated from the outside world - eg subculture of criminality
• Wilson 


  HMP Woodhill - set up two units that were less claustrophobic with views - less aggressive behaviours which show that the model is a factor into aggressive behaviours
• McCorkle et al 


  studied 371 us prisons + found that overcrowding a lack of privacy and meaningful activities all influenced inmates on inmates assaults
• Desensitisation 


  repeated exposure promotes the belief that using aggression is socially acceptable - negative attitudes are dampened + less empathy for victims
• disinhibition 


  watching/ playing violent media can change what is considered acceptable behaviours
• cognitive priming 


  aggressive media provides a script about how violent situation may play out - the script is stored in our memory + so we become ready to be aggressive