UNIT 3: AGGRESSION PSYCHOLOGY AQA A2 ALEVEL REVISION

PSYCHOLOGY


UNIT 3:


AGGRESSION

Aggression: a hostile or destructive mental attitude or behaviour.

Social learning theory ­

In order for an individual to learn any form of behaviour, the following four conditions must be
present:

1. Attention to action
2. Remembering the action
3. Ability to replicate the behaviour
4. Motivation to replicate the behaviour.



Observation and imitation ­

It is claimed that…

Further research conducted by Bandura identified that children were far more likely to be
aggressive if given rewards.
Study provides support for social learning theory as the children in the study didn't learn
the aggressive behaviour through operant conditioning but through vicarious
reinforcement.
Evaluation:
X ­ Cultural bias as it's…

The study was designed to last for 14 days.
Each participant underwent strict mental health testing.
Those assigned as prison guards were informed not to cause physical harm to the
prisoners.
Participants were paid $15 a day for their participation.
Zimbardo tried to create a representative sample of participants in…

Culturally relative: white middle class sample which shows low population validity.
Demand characteristics
Done in the US so is culturally specific
Lacks ecological validity BUT the students knew they was in an experiment and not in a real
prison setting.
Zimbardo's over involvement meant it was not objective.

Additional research…

Collected data on warriors who changed their appearance prior to going to war ­ wearing
face paint, masks etc. he looked at data which detailed the extent to which their victims
were tortured, mutilated or killed.

Evaluation:

Over simplistic ­ only looks at social aspects and it only comes from…