Social Explanations of Aggression

• The social learning theory of aggression says that aggression is learned through observation and the imitation of models.
• Factors that influence observational learning of aggression

  • Identification (more likely to imitate aggressive behaviour if they identify with the model)
  • Vicarious reinforcement (more like to imitate aggressive behaviour if our model is rewarded for their aggressive behaviour)
• What are the 4 mediational processes?

  • Attention
  • Retention (memory)
  • Reproduction
  • Motivation
• What are the limitations to Bandura's study?

  • There might have been confounding participant variables in the study.
  • Bandura couldn’t randomly allocate participants to groups. therefore he couldn't establish a direct cause and effect relationship couldn’t be established between the independent variable and the participants’ aggressive behaviour.
• Support for the social Learning theory of aggression?

  • Bandura’s Bobo doll studies showed that children are more likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour of a model if they see the model being rewarded.
  • Bandura’s Bobo doll studies showed that children imitate the aggressive behaviour of a model.
  • Bandura’s 1977 quasi experiment showed that people living in high crime rate areas display more aggression than those living in low crime rate areas.
• A support of the social learning theory explanation of aggression is that there are cultural differences in aggression. For instance, in the !Kung society aggression is not rewarded and children observe and display less aggression than children in the Western world.
• Christiansen conducted a twin study on criminal activity which found a concordance rate for criminal activity of 55% for monozygotic twins, compared to 22% for dizygotic twins.
• Hutchings and Mednick conducted an adoption study on criminal activity. They found that children who displayed criminal behaviour were more likely to have biological parents who displayed criminal behaviour.
• One limitation of the social learning theory of aggression is that it ignores genetic factors that influence aggression, such as the MAOA gene. Since both genetic and environmental factors seem to contribute to aggression, this suggests that aggression is actually caused by an interaction between both factors.
• De-individuation theory

  • It is a social explanation of aggression.
  • It sees aggression as being caused by the environment, not genetics.
• What is De-individuation theory?


  When people lose their sense of individual identity and responsibility when they are in a large group.
• According to de-individuation theory when we experience de-individuation in a large group, we lose our inhibition and fear of being judged by others.
• Factors Affecting De-individuation

  • Anonymous clothing
  • Size of the group
• Study Support for De-Individuation Theory: Zimbardo (1969)

  • Zimbardo recruited participants for a study where they could deliver painful electric shocks to someone else.
  • Participants in the control group were identifiable and participants in the experimental group were more anonymous.
  • Participants in the experimental group were more likely to display aggression.
  • Participants in the experimental group gave longer electric shocks.
• Study Support for De-Individuation Theory: Mullen's Study

  Mullen analysed lynching's in the US between 1899 and 1946. He found that the bigger the group, the more aggressive and violent the lynching was.
• A meta-analysis is when researchers combine the results from multiple studies into the same topic, to produce an estimate of the size of the effect of an intervention.
• Which of the following are ways in which Postmes and Spears’ meta-analysis doesn’t support de-individuation theory?

  • They found that being in a larger group sometimes led to more prosocial behaviour.
  • They found that de-individuation had only a weak effect on aggression.
• A final limitation of de-individuation theory is that it can’t account for gender differences in the effect of de-individuation on aggression.
• Cannavale et al found that de-individuation only increases aggression in male participants.
• Describe the results of Zimbardo’s 1969 study into aggression.

  Zimbardo found that the experimental group, who weren’t introduced to one another and wore hoods, administered electric shocks more often, and they held down the button for longer than the control group.