Social-Psychological Theories of Aggression

1. Bandura: 'We learn through observations of others.' Five stages: 1. Observation - children learn through observation of role models and imitate behaviour, including aggression. 2. Reinforcement - if the behaviour is seen to be rewarded it is vicariously reinforced and 'worth repeating'. 3. Mental Representation - children form a mental representation of the social situations that their behaviour will be rewarded in. 4. Direct Experience - if children are rewarded for their aggressive behaviour (e.g. suspended = day off school!) they are likely to repeat the same action in similar situations - this is known as direct reinforcement. 5. Self-efficacy - if the child is good at aggressive acts (i.e. they get the desired result) then their confidence in their ability to be aggressive increases
   1. Supported by Bandura's Bobo doll Study: 72 3-5 year old children were split into 3 groups. Group 1 saw aggressive behaviour towards the doll, group 2 saw non-aggressive behaviour and group 3 was a control group (no previous interaction). The children were then given a bobo doll to play with. Group 1 replicated a great deal of the aggressive behaviour (both physical and verbal), groups 2 & 3 exhibited virtually no aggressive behaviour towards the doll. Boys produced more physical violence than girls but there was no gender difference in verbal aggression. The gender of the role model had a significant influence on whether the behaviour was imitated - more likely to imitate the behaviour if the role model was the same gender
      1. This is supported by Bandura and Walter's 'consequence endings' study. Three groups of children saw a film of an adult being aggressive to the doll: group 1 saw the adult rewarded for their actions, group 2 saw the adult punished and group 3 saw no consequences (control). In subsequent play; group 1 showed high levels of aggression, group 2 showed low levels of aggression and group 3 showed medium levels of aggression - supporting the role of vicarious reinforcement
         1. Ethical Issues: Protection of participants - exposing children to the positive reinforcement of aggression may be detrimental in later life
         2. Can be used to account for individual differences in aggression - it depends if it is reinforced positively or negatively
            1. Aronson - explains cultural variations: US society is highly violent but the Pygmies of central Africa are very peaceful - different responses to aggression
      2. Questionable Validity - Nobel reported a child saying "look mummy, there's a doll we have to hit" - it's only a toy, not a human, so may think this is how you're supposed to play with it
      3. Age Bias - only young children studied, can't be generalised to adults
         1. Phillips found that the daily homicide rates in the US increased the week following a major boxing match, suggesting adults imitated the aggressive behaviour they had seen
   2. Strong Face Validity - it explains how the behaviour of role models e.g. TV stars, can be imitated and makes sense!
   3. RWA: censorship of aggression in media, e.g. don't show aggression being rewarded. NCT classes for parents to reach them how to deal with aggressive children and NOT reward htem

Nota:

• Defined by Reber and Reber as the 'loss of one's sense of identity' - deindividuation refers to the process of decreased self-assessment and awareness in situations where the identification of an individual is very difficult .

1. Deiner - 4 things cause lack of self-awareness: 1. Poor self-monitoring. 2. Reduced need for social approval. 3. Reduced inhibitions. 4. Reduced rational thinking
   2. Deiner conducted a naturalistic observation if 1,300 trick-or-treating children in the US. When the children were in large groups and wearing costumes they were likely to perform anti-social acts such as stealing sweets or money as the group reduces the possibility of personal identification
      1. Age Bias - children have less self-awareness anyway!
      2. No control of Extraneous Variables - less valid
      3. Could be prone to observer bias
      5. Large Sample Size - more reliable
2. Zimbardo suggests that people normally refrain from acting in an aggressive manner partly because there are social norms inhibiting such 'uncivilised' behaviour and partly because they are easily identifiable
   1. Supported by Zimbardo's study. Similar to Milgram - teachers and 'learners' (confederates). Female P's played the teacher and had to administer electric shocks when the answer was wrong. In one condition the Ps wore large lab coats and hoods, were talked to in groups of 4 and never referred to by name (deindividuated). In the other condition, Ps wore their normal clothes, large name tags and were introduced to each other formally. All Ps could see the learner. They were also told that the learner was either 'honest' or 'conceited and critical'. Irrespective of the description of the learner, deindividuated Ps delivered twice as many shocks as the 'individuated' group - who tended to give different amounts of shocks depending on the description given
      1. Gynocentric - can't be generalised to men
      2. Ethical Issues: Deception, Informed Consent, Protection from Harm
      3. Lacks Mundane Realism and Ecological Validity
      4. Silke analysed 500 violent attacks occurring in Northern Ireland. 206 of these were carried out by people who wore a disguise so their individual identity was not known. The severity of violent actions was linked to weather the perpetrator was masked or not
3. A major criticism of deindividuation is that it doesn't explain why not all crowds and groups are aggressive - for example the Hindu festival of Mela. Cassidy observed the festival and found crowds behaved well and increased generosity, support and orderly behaviour was noted

1. Situational Forces (Deprivation Model)
   1. Zimbardo thought people (specifically prisoners and guards) behave as they do because of the situation they are placed in. Both display a lack of respect for each other because of the social role expected of them in a prison situation.
      1. Supported by Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment: 24 men, 12 'prisoners', 12 'guards'. All had a mental health screening before the experiment began and deemed 'normal' - not aggressive. Prisoners given numbers and uniform. Guards given uniform and reflective sunglasses - deindividuation was an important part of the process. The guards grew increasingly tyrannical - would wake prisoners in the middle of the night and make them clean toilets with their bare hands etc. They played their roles even when they were unaware of being watched. The whole experiment ended after 6 days out of fear for the prisoners safety despite the intention to continue for two weeks
         1. May be subject to Demand Characteristics as Ps were asked to play a specific role, and many of the guards later claimed they had just been acting
         2. Unethical: no protection from harm
         3. RWA: Zimbardo was asked to testify about prison reform and caused US Congress to change a law regarding juveniles being housed with adult criminals before their trial
2. Individualistic Forces (Dispositional Model)
   1. Irwin and Cressey created the 'importation model' claiming that prisoners bring their own social histories and traits with them into prison, and this influences their adaptation to the prison environment. They argue that prisoners are not 'blank slates' when they enter prison and they will 'import' their normativer system into the prison. The idea that aggression comes from the individual themselves, not as a result of systems or institutions.
      1. Harer and Steffensmeier found that age, education level and race were all important factors to producing aggression. In a survey of 58 US prisons, black inmates had significantly higher rates of violent behaviour but lower rates of alcohol/drug-related misconduct than white inmates. This parallels the racial difference in these behaviours in US society, suggesting that it is one's personality or disposition that creates violence within institutions
         1. Culture Bias - Western, can't be generalised
         2. One of the most violent guards from the Stanford Prison Experiment was white and came from a well educated, middle-class family. His levels of violence do NOT parallel the behaviour of others in this social group - suggesting that he did not 'import' them into the prison situation
3. Institutional aggression involves the behaviour of those people serving in institutions (police, military etc) as well as criminal and terrorist groups