Social Psychological Explanations of Aggression

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF AGGRESSION

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORYAggression is a learnt behaviour!

BanduraAttention - we watch our model's aggressive behaviourRetention - we store it in our LTMReproduction - we imitate the aggression in a similar situationMotivation - we expect rewards for imitating

Motivating Factors: •The reward is more valued than the punishment – Direct reinforcement: reward for copying aggression – Vicarious reinforcement: the consequences of others •The model is similar to/of higher status than us •The task isn’t too easy or difficult – self-efficacy (confidence to imitate and get the same outcome)

Supporting Research: Bandura Kids in 2 conditions, aggressive and non aggressive In the aggressive group the model acted aggressively towards the bobo doll Children in this group had higher physical & verbal scores for aggression and both genders were influenced by the male model Concluded observation can lead to imitation and people will imitate males as aggression is a male behaviour!

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