07. Non-Biological Explanation of Aggression

Question 1

Describe the id part of personality.

Answer 1

-Exists from birth, it is the most primitive element and is contained in the unconscious mind.
-It is the origin of the energy that motivates all of our behaviour. It contains instincts, impulses and drives that are socially unacceptable.
-Obeys the pleasure principle, as it wants immediate gratification of desires with no consideration of other factors making aggression unavoidable and inevitable.

Question 2

Describe the superego part of personality.

Answer 2

-Emerges in later development, around 5 or 6 years old, and fulfils the moral role.
-It represents our conscience and moral sense of right and wrong, plus our ideal image of ourselves that we want to live up to.
-The superego opposes the id’s aggressive drive through guilt and shame when we don’t meet moral standards. However it is just as irrational and punishing in its demands.

Question 3

Describe the ego part of personality.

Answer 3

-Develops shortly after birth (18 months), it is the logical and rational part of personality that is mostly conscious.
-Follows the reality principle as it is the interface between the id’s unrealistic desires and social reality.
-So it does not fulfil the id’s urges directly, but satisfies them indirectly or symbolically.
-It does not judge the id, as it has no sense of morality, but tries to control and direct it.

Question 4

Summarise the tripartite personality explanation.

Answer 4

-Id is one of the 3 parts of personality according to Freud. It is all that an individual wants, desires and needs.

-Superego is the opposite in that it holds our ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ and is what we should be like, as well as holding our conscience, given by society and others.

-Ego is in the middle and balances the demands of the id with the demands of the superego, to make rational decisions.

Question 5

How can the id part of personality explain aggression?

Answer 5

Id (unconscious desires).

Motivated by the pleasure principle to preserve the self, responding to the libido, aggression can be caused by meeting the needs of the id without delay.

Question 6

How can the superego part of personality explain aggression?

Answer 6

Superego (moral, guilt, shame in conscious and unconscious).

Causes conscious or unconscious suppression of negative behaviour which means aggression leaks out in dreams and displacement can occur onto other people (such as shouting at a colleague on the phone when you are upset with someone else).

Question 7

How can the ego part of personality explain aggression?

Answer 7

Ego (conscious and unconscious)

Coming to a rational decision either consciously or unconsciously to satisfy the id but also the superego. Tries to be rational to enable the id to meet its desires by balancing the moral principle of the superego in a rational way.

Question 8

Define the conscious mind.

Answer 8

-The small amount of mental activity we know.
-Holds thoughts, ideas, emotions and other aspects of thinking that we are aware of.

Question 9

Define the subconscious mind (preconscious).

Answer 9

-Things we could be aware of if we wanted or tried.
-Holds thoughts and ideas that can be accessed but are not conscious at the time.

Question 10

Define the unconscious mind.

Answer 10

-Things we are unaware of and may not become aware of.
-This is where all thoughts originate and is the main part of our mind (the biggest).
-Thoughts can be allowed into the preconscious mind or become conscious.
-Dangerous or threatening thoughts are unconsciously repressed and energy is used to keep it there.

Question 11

Define repression.

Answer 11

-Repression is an unconscious defense mechanism employed by the ego to keep distributing disturbing or threatening thoughts from become conscious.
-Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would result in feelings of guilt from the superego.

Question 12

James would like to go to a party however he is in the middle of his mock exams. Explain what the: id, superego and ego would tell him to do?

Answer 12

Id: Go to the party regardless of any negative consequences.

Superego: Do not go to the party and make him feel guilty if he was to go.

Ego: Will try to control/direct the id and satisfy the id indirectly by coming to a logical or rational solution (only to go to the party if all revision has been completed).

Question 13

Describe ‘Eros’ the life instinct.

(Unconscious energy)

Answer 13

-Unconscious instinct or drive for self preservation, enhancing and sustaining life, and sexual energy.

-Eros provided the energy to resist Thanatos, it stops us from self-destruction.

-Eros preserves life using psychological mechanisms to direct aggression outwards rather than inwards to protect the ‘self’. One mechanism is displacement which enables us to release aggression in a safe way that is not self-destructive but directed onto another person or object.

Question 14

Describe ‘Thanatos’ the death instinct.

(Unconscious energy)

Answer 14

-Unconscious drive to reduce arousal, for annihilation, destruction, to be in state of ‘non-being’ or ‘pre-birth’.

-Thanatos is an instinctive drive to inhibit the sexual instinct, therefore to destroy life, including your own. Eros and Thanatos are constantly locked together in a powerful conflict.

-Thanatos unconsciously drives aggressive behaviour due to the death instinct. Aggression is the outlet for the death instinct as, without it, someone would have a strong death instinct which would affect the person’s behaviour and thinking.

Question 15

Victor was driving to his parents on Christmas eve, he was nearly in a dangerous car accident and narrowly missed crashing into a tree. One week later, Victor kicked a ball through a glass window.

Explain how Thanatos and Eros could be responsible for this.

Answer 15

Within Victor’s unconscious energy of life Thanatos (death instinct) builds up over time, creating pressure and increasing the unconscious drive for self-destruction which could have caused Victor to be in the car accident, putting his life at risk (increasing his aggression towards himself).

Victor is also born with Eros (life instinct) which is in conflict with Thanatos as it stops self-destruction by directing Victor’s aggression away from the ‘self’ thus increasing self-preservation enabling him to narrowly miss crashing into the tree.

As Thanatos builds up creating pressure Eros displaced Victor’s aggression onto the ball, projecting aggression outwards rather than inwards which enabled Victor to release his aggression in a safe way.

Question 16

Define catharsis.

Answer 16

-Freud thought that when something that is unconscious is brought into the conscious mind, then the thoughts or memories bring emotions with them which are then released.
-He called this release of emotions ‘catharsis’. He believed that by releasing suppressed energy, this frees the person from the emotions and thoughts which had been unconscious, but were using up their energy and person can move on.

Question 17

How can aggression be explained by instinctive drives that can be satisfied by catharsis.

Answer 17

-Catharsis expressing aggression (venting anger) releases psychic energy which reduces the aggressive drive and makes further aggression less likely.
-This can be direct such as playing sport and releasing physical aggression or watching other people showing aggression in a film.
-Or catharsis of aggression can be indirect, by expressing anger rather than physical stress, which can be seen as internal release of aggression through dealing with anger.

Question 18

What is the impact of preventing catharsis?

Answer 18

-Preventing catharsis creates a build up of energy which will eventually produce destructive aggressive outbursts which is undesirable.
-There outwards can be inwards (self harm) or outwards (hurting another person).
-Internal aggression could be unconscious thoughts generating frustration and therefore aggression.

Question 19

What is catharsis?

Answer 19

-A way of ‘letting off steam’ in a safer way.

-Freud believes it’s the best way to let aggression directly (by observing others behave aggressively or venting aggression).

-It can also be achieved in a variety of indirect ways (dreaming/imagining about doing something aggressive or engaging in sports).

Question 20

Define defence mechanisms.

Answer 20

Defence mechanisms are psychological strategies that are unconsciously used by the Ego to protect the person from anxiety arising from unacceptable thoughts or feelings.

Question 21

Define displacement.

Answer 21

-Displacement is a psychological defence mechanism in which a person redirects a negative emotion from its original source to a less threatening recipient.
-Displacement is an example of achieving catharsis indirectly thought displacement of aggression: for example if someone is upset by what a friend has said to them instead of punching the friend they displace their feelings and punch a wall.

Question 22

George wants to punch his neighbours because they keep having loud parties. Instead, he slams the cupboard doors shut in his kitchen. He also shouts out loud when next door are quiet in the hopes that this will disturb his neighbours. Use your knowledge of defence mechanisms and catharsis to explain these behaviours.

Answer 22

When George slams the cupboard doors in his kitchen this is his unconscious protecting him by using the defence mechanism displacement. George is angry at his neighbour due to their loud parties, but his danger is redirected onto the cupboards (an object) which is less threatening.

When George shouts out loud this is an example of catharsis. This enables him to express his aggression due to his neighbours loud parties reducing the chance of a more destructive outburst such as punching his neighbour.

Question 23

Describe the supporting AO3 for catharsism.

Answer 23

Graham et al (2008)

Supported forwards psychodynamic theory as he suggested that expressing aggression can be cathartic. Graham suggested we should rant especially through writing rather than venting as it involves a consideration of why the individual is angry. However, venting is an uncontrollable expression of anger, but ranting allows an individual to gain control over the feelings and avoid aggressive behaviour.

Question 24

Describe the refuting AO3 for catharsism.

Answer 24

Bushman (2002)

Made 600 college students angry by getting a confederate to criticise an essay each had written. One group of randomly allocated students was allowed to vent their anger by hitting a punchbag when thinking of a confederate. Bushman also found these students blasted the confederate with the loudest and longest noises in another task compared to the control participants who didn’t vent anger.

Question 25

Describe the supporting AO3 for id, ego, superego personality components.

Answer 25

Divina 2010

Explains how the growing influence on the left hemisphere might link to Freuds idea of growth of the ego and children. Only the right hemisphere is fully functional at birth, it remains dominant the first 2 to 3 years of a child’s life, therefore infants develop patterns of emotional communication prior to developing the left hemisphere based verbal skills when the hemisphere becomes fully functional at the 3rd year. There is also a link between the right hemisphere and the unconscious mind.

Question 26

Describe the refuting AO3 for id, ego, superego personality components.

Answer 26

However, this research is not in relation to aggression and therefore may not be able to explain aggression. Suggesting that Freud’s exclamation of aggression is not supported by valid evidence therefore lowering its usefulness.

Question 27

Describe the supporting AO3 for drives of Thanatos and Eros.

Answer 27

Little Hans

Freud’s Little Hans observations displayed how Han’s anger towards his father was displaced onto horses and therefore developing a phobia of horses. Freud explained this as helping Little Hans resolve his inner turmoil of desiring his mother and wanting to hurt his father. Therefore, supporting the idea that unconsciously we have aggressive urges due to Thanatos but Eros causes us to preserve ourselves, therefore we direct our aggressive feelings towards others explaining why people may be aggressive to other people.

Question 28

Describe the refuting AO3 for drives of Thanatos and Eros.

Answer 28

Freud’s research is not scientific as it was based on letters of correspondence between Little Han’s father and Freud. It was also Freud’s interpretation of the letters and the Little Hands example is biased towards the theory that puts into question the validity of Freud’s research.

Question 29

What did Freud’s approach conclude?

Answer 29

-There are some strengths of Freud’s approach, in its ability to explain types of aggression and its application of catharsis and the understanding of that these unconscious urges explain how aggression has survival advantage.
-However, Freud’s concepts of id, catharsis, etc are not accepted within a scientific, biological approach to understanding aggression.
-Freud’s theory is also untestable because these concepts are so vague they are impossible to measure. This breaches a central requirement of science, which fundamentally underpins the biological approach.