Social Psychology - Aggression
- Created by: Laura Bradley
- Created on: 17-05-16 20:17
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- Aggression
- Definitions
- Aggression = the public, the media, even psychologists: all have a tendency to stigmatise and pathologies individuals involved in threatening behaviour as psychologically and sociology abnormal or deficient
- Aversive = something that arouses a strong dislike
- Soc con = a theory of knowledge in sociology that examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality
- Aggression
- There are many ways of defining aggression, but it usually depends on the theory the authors are trying to explain (helps to narrow it down)
- Many different forms of aggression - two definitions in slide don't include self-harm, collective aggression, verbal aggression etc. (see Dickerson 2012)
- Dimensions of aggression (Anderson and Huesman 2003)
- Aggression falls on a spectrum which has 4 variables/dimensions
- Two types of aggression - hostile and instrumental. Hostile = impulsive and instrumental = premeditated
- But what about indirect aggression?
- There is a dichotomy between person and situation
- Evolutionary approach - Lorenz (1966)
- Aggression comes from within the person
- Adaptive theory - aggression is an evolutionary response
- Helps with the self and genes therefore increases survival chances
- Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
- Dollard et al. (1959) original theorists (classic)!
- Al frustrations lead to aggression - Doods and Sears (1939) - see Dickerson 2012
- Miller (1941) questions this theory, stating that frustration does not always lead to aggression, but there is always frustration involved in aggression (it is just not the cause)
- Doesn't have to be real frustrations - these frustrations can be perceived, for example Catalano et al. (2002) found a positive correlation between job loses and violence
- Aggression comes from the situation
- Dollard et al. (1959) original theorists (classic)!
- Aversive stimuli - Berkowitz (1989)
- An unpleasant source acts as a cue, which activates a hostile memory or idea
- Aggression is an automatic response
- Aggression is in the situation
- Test this through hand in ice bucket
- Excitation transfer - Zillman (1972)
- This is vey narrow theory
- States the theories mentioned previously (aversive stimuli frustration and evolutionary) have no purpose or meaning involved
- This theory gives an overlap between the person and the situation
- We have a physiological arousal (from a previous situation) which we misattribute to a provoking situation and this then brings about aggression
- How to study aggression?
- Experimental mainly
- Have a trigger that will then make the participant feel aggressive
- But how do you trigger aggression? And how to measure this?
- Ice bucket
- Electric shocks
- Hot sauce
- Hurting bugs
- Dolls
- Measure heart rate (physiological) while watching a violent film
- Measuring size of gun participant takes
- Questionnaire
- Scenario
- General aggression model - Anderson and Bushman (2002)
- Something occurs which will affect how you see the situation that creates the aggression The person interacts with the situation and then three things will affect it - cognition (media - violence is more available now), affect (emotion) and arousal (physiological response). We then appraise the situation and make a decision of how to sct (thoughtful action or impulsive action).
- How we dealt with the situation the fisrt times affects how we deal with it differenlt the next time it happens
- Critique
- Evolutionary = difficult to test
- Frustration-aggression - vague and has evolved since
- How we you measure aggression? Lacks ecological validity; individualistic; context dependent; aggression is encouraged and allowed in a research setting
- Deindividuation - Zimbardo (1962); Diener (year)?
- Loss of identity due to the group membership
- Critique of both theories
- Social identity deindividuation effect (SIDE)
- Deindividuation - Zimbardo (1962); Diener (year)?
- Loss of identity due to the group membership
- Critique of both theories
- Social identity deindividuation effect (SIDE)
- States that an individual does not lose their identity but changes it to fit with the group
- This is not just related to aggression, can be for pro-social behaviour
- Support lacking
- Still individualistic
- Meaning behind aggression?
- Social identity deindividuation effect (SIDE)
- States that an individual does not lose their identity but changes it to fit with the group
- This is not just related to aggression, can be for pro-social behaviour
- Deindividuation - Zimbardo (1962); Diener (year)?
- Support lacking
- Still individualistic
- Meaning behind aggression?
- Social identity deindividuation effect (SIDE)
- Intergroup conflict - Social identity theory
- Livingstone and Haslam (2008) - chronic conflict
- General description of SIT and then apply to aggression
- Critique of both theories
- Explains conflict but not aggression
- RCT ignores the conflict/meaning/history of real life groups
- Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)
- Competition for resources
- Look at psychologist links for critical perspective
- Critique of both theories
- Explains conflict but not aggression
- RCT ignores the conflict/meaning/history of real life groups
- Critical perspectives
- Violence is legitimised in the media and video games - find studies!
- How is purpose constructed? See Benson et al. (2003)
- What is the reason for aggression? See Day et al. (2003)
- Agression as a social construction See Courtenay (2000)
- Definitions
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