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A Level Psychology > Aggression > Flashcards

Aggression Flashcards

1
Q

What is the limbic system?

A

Subcortical structures in the brain (including the hypothalamus and amygdala) thought to be closely involved in regulating emotional behaviour including aggression

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2
Q

What is serotonin?

A

A neurotransmitter with widespread inhibitory effects throughout the brain. It has a key role in aggressive behaviour

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3
Q

What is testosterone?

A

A hormone from the androgen group that is produced mainly in the male testes (and in smaller amounts in the female ovaries). Associated with aggressiveness

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4
Q

What does the limbic system theory, by Papez, suggest about how aggression is caused?

A

The reactivity of the amygdala in humans has proven to be an important predictor of aggression

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5
Q

What is the amygdala?

A
  • Most important structure
  • Has a key role in humans and nonhuman animals in how an organism assesses and responds to environmental threats and challenges
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6
Q

What did Katarina Gospic et al do?

A
  • Lab method
  • Ultimatum Game
  • 2 players
  • The proposer offers to split money in a certain way with the responder
  • If the responder accepts, the money is split as proposed
  • But if the responder rejects the offer, both receive nothing
  • Participants in this study played as responders while having their brains scanned by fMRI which highlights activity in different areas of the brain
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7
Q

What did Katarina Gospic et al find?

A
  • When responders rejected unfair offers (an aggressive reaction to social provocation) scans revealed a fast and heightened response by the amygdala
  • They also found that a benzodiazepine drug (which reduces arousal of the automatic nervous system) taken before the game had 2 effects on responses to unfair offers. It halved the number of rejections (i.e. reduced aggression) and decreased the activity of the amygdala.
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8
Q

Name strong evidence for the association between reactive aggression and amygdala activity.

A

Katarina Gospic et al

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9
Q

How does serotonin cause aggression?

A

Decreased serotonin may well disturb the reduced firing of neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex when there are normal levels of serotonin, reducing self-control and leading to an increase in impulsive behaviour including aggression

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10
Q

What did Matti Virkkunen et al do?

A
  • Compared levels of a serotonin breakdown product in the cerebrospinal fluid of violent impulsive and violent non-impulsive offenders.
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11
Q

What did Matti Virkkunen et al find?

A
  • The levels of a serotonin breakdown product in the cerebrospinal fluid were significantly lower in the impulsive offenders
  • They also suffered from more sleep irregularities
  • This is significant because serotonin regulates sleep patterns. Disturbance of this pattern strongly implies some disruption of serotonin functioning, further supporting the role of serotonin
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12
Q

Name supporting evidence for the role of serotonin in aggression.

A

Matti Virkkunen et al

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13
Q

How does testosterone cause aggression?

A
  • It is a reliable observation that males are generally more aggressive than females
  • Testosterone is responsible for the development of masculine features and also has a role in regulating social behaviour via its influence on certain areas of the brain implicated in aggression
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14
Q

Name an animal study of the influence of testosterone on aggression.

A

Giammanco et al

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15
Q

What did Giammanco et al do?

A
  • Demonstrated experimental increase in testosterone is related to greater aggressive behaviour in several species (and the converse is true, with decreases leading to reductions in aggression in castration studies)
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16
Q

What does the MAOA gene do?

A
  • Breaks down 3 neurotransmitters (noradrenaline, serotonin, dopamine) in the brain after they have carried nerve impulses from one cell to another
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17
Q

What are the 2 different forms of the MAOA gene?

A
  • Low activity (MAOA-L)

- High activity (MAOA-H)

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18
Q

Which form of the MAOA gene is associated with high aggression?

A

Low activity (MAOA-L)

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19
Q

What did Stuart et al do?

A

Studied 97 males convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) and found that the most violent of them had low activity MAOA

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20
Q

What did Frazzetto et al do?

A

Found an association between asocial aggression and low activity MAOA but only in those who had experienced trauma in the first 15 years of life

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21
Q

What is the ethological explanation of aggression?

A

Aggression is beneficial to survival

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22
Q

Why is aggression beneficial to survival?

A
  • Reduces competition

- Establishes dominance hierarchies

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23
Q

How does aggression reduce competition?

A

A defeated animal is rarely killed but rather forced to establish territory elsewhere, this means that members of a species are spread out over a wider area and have to discover resources in a different places which reduces competition pressures and the possibility of starvation

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24
Q

What is ritualistic aggression?

A

A series of behaviours carried out in set order

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25
Q

What did Lorenz find concerning ritualistic aggression?

A

Early observations of fights between animals of the same species found how little actual physical damage was done

  • Most aggressive encounters consisted mainly of a period of ritualistic signalling
  • Furthermore, Lorenz pointed out that intra-species aggressive confrontations end with ritual appeasement displays (showing neck)
  • These indicate acceptance of defeat and inhibit aggressive behaviour in the victor, preventing any damage to the loser
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26
Q

How is ritualistic aggression adaptive?

A

If every aggressive encounter ended with the death of one of the combatants, that could threaten the existence of the species

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27
Q

What is an innate releasing mechanism (IRM)?

A

A biological structure or process (e.g. in the brain) which is triggered by an external stimulus that in turn triggers a fixed action pattern

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28
Q

What is a fixed action pattern (FAP)?

A

A sequence of stereotyped pre-programmed behaviours triggered by an innate releasing mechanism (IRM)

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29
Q

What are the 6 main features of a fixed action pattern (FAP)?

A
  • Stereotyped
  • Universal
  • Unaffected by learning
  • Ballistic- the whole sequence of behaviours must follow once a FAP is triggered
  • Single purposed
  • Response to identifiable specific sign stimulus
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30
Q

What did Tinbergen do?

A
  • Presented male sticklebacks during mating season with a series of wooden models of different shapes
  • Regardless of shape, if the model has a red spot the stickleback would display a FAP
  • If there was no red spot, there was no aggression even if the model looked like a stickleback
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31
Q

What is the evolutionary explanation of aggression?

A

Explaining aggression in terms of changes in species over millions of years; characteristics that enhance survival and reproduction are naturally selected

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32
Q

Why are males aggressive according to the evolutionary explanation?

A

Threat of cuckoldry so they use mate retention strategies, sexual jealousy and bullying

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33
Q

What are the 2 mate retention strategies?

A
  • Direct guarding

- Negative Inducements

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34
Q

What is direct guarding?

A

Male vigilance over a partner’s behaviour

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35
Q

What are negative inducements?

A

Issuing threats of dire consequences

36
Q

What did Wilson et a do?

A

Found that women who reported mate retention strategies in their partners were twice as likely to have suffered physical intimate partner violence (IPV)

37
Q

What is bullying?

A
  • A power imbalance in which the stronger individual uses aggression repeatedly to weaken a person
  • it is used as an adaptive strategy to increase chances of survival by promoting their own health
38
Q

How do men use bullying?

A
  • Suggests dominance
  • Secure access to females
  • Wards of threats from males
39
Q

According to the evolutionary approach, why are females aggressive?

A
  • Verbal aggression not physical
  • Aggressive to protect offspring
  • Use bullying as a method of controlling their partner and secure their fidelity
40
Q

What are the 3 social psychological explanations of aggression?

A
  • Frustration-Aggression hypothesis
  • Social Learning Theory
  • De-individuation
41
Q

What is the Frustration- Aggression hypothesis?

A

A social psychological theory that argues anger, hostility and even violence are always the outcome when we are prevented from achieving our goals

42
Q

Why is the release of aggressive behaviour considered cathartic, according to the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

A

Aggressive behaviour reduces the aggressive drive and the frustration is satisfied
- We feel better for ‘getting it off our chest’

43
Q

What did Pastore do?

A
  • Distinguished between justified and unjustified aggression
  • Found that participants expressed much lower anger levels when displaying justified frustration
44
Q

Why could aggression be expressed indirectly?

A

Because the cause of frustration is:

  • Abstract
  • Too powerful and we risk punishment
  • Unavailable
45
Q

What is displaced aggression?

A
  • In order to experience catharsis, a scapegoat needs to be found to release aggression
  • Displacement is often referred to as ‘kicking the dog’ effect because a person may have an impulse to attack the source of their frustration but cannot
46
Q

What is the social learning theory as an explanation of aggression?

A

A way of explaining aggression that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors

47
Q

How does the social learning theory suggest that aggressive is learned?

A
  • Observation of role models (significant others)
  • Positive, negative, vicarious reinforcement
  • Mediational Processes
  • Identification
  • Self-efficacy
48
Q

What are the 4 mediational processes required for observations of learning t take place?

A
  • Attention
  • Retention
  • Motor Reproduction
  • Motivation
49
Q

What is self-efficacy?

A

The extent to which our actions will achieve a desired goal

50
Q

What is Bandura’s Bobo Doll study?

A
  • Kids observed an adult model assaulting ‘bobo doll’
  • Without being instructed to do so, many of these children imitated the aggressive behaviour they had seen performed by the model, physically and verbally
  • There was also a control group who observed the adult behaving non-aggressively and so the children were non-aggressive
51
Q

What is de-individuation?

A
  • An individual loses their personal identity and takes on the identity of the social group when they have anonymity
  • The result may be to free the individual from the constraints of social norms
52
Q

What are the conditions for de-individuation leading to aggression?

A
  • Darkness
  • Uniform
  • Disguise
  • Drugs/Alcohol
53
Q

What are the 3 most important factors for de-individuation in a group?

A
  • Anonymity
  • Shared or diffused responsibility
  • Group size
54
Q

What is anonymity?

A

‘I cannot be found so I am not accountable’

  • Reduces private-self awareness
  • Reduces public self-awareness
55
Q

What is shared or diffused responsibility?

A

‘I am not responsible for my actions, I can share the blame or place the responsibility on a higher power’

56
Q

What is reduced private-self awareness?

A
  • We think less about our own beliefs

- Less self-critical

57
Q

What is reduced public self-awareness?

A
  • We care less about what people think about us
58
Q

What is institutional aggression?

A

Aggressive or violent behaviour that takes place within the social context of a prison or other formal organised settings

59
Q

What are the 2 explanations of institutional aggression?

A
  • Dispositional Explanations

- Situational Explanations

60
Q

What is the situational explanation of institutional aggression?

A

Any explanation that identifies the causes of behaviour as existing within the environment, which may include other people

61
Q

What is the deprivation model?

A

The deprivation model argues that prisoner aggression is the product of oppressive conditions of the institution itself

62
Q

What are situational factors of institutional aggression?

A
  • Organisational
  • Physical
  • Staff characteristics
63
Q

What is organisational?

A
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Policies & procedures
64
Q

What is physical?

A
  • Security level

- Availability of resources

65
Q

What is staff characteristics?

A
  • Gender
  • Level of experience
  • Relationship to and interactions with prisoners
66
Q

What is the dispositional explanation of institutional aggression?

A

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality (their disposition)

67
Q

What is the importation model?

A
  • Prisoners bring their own social histories and traits with them to the environment influencing their behaviour in prison.
  • The willingness of inmates to use violence inside prison to settle disputes reflects their lives before they were imprisoned
68
Q

What are the 3 prison subcultures according to Irwin and Cressey?

A
  • The Criminal Subculture
  • The Convict Subculture
  • The Conventional/ Straight Subculture
69
Q

What is the Criminal Subculture?

A

Inmates follow norms and values inherent within their criminal career

70
Q

What is the Convict Subculture?

A
  • Inmates raised in prison

- This group is most likely to turn to aggression as the main form of coping as thy seek power

71
Q

What is the Conventional/ Straight Subculture?

A
  • One-time offenders and not part of criminal culture before entering prison
  • They do not tend to be very aggressive
72
Q

What is the media?

A

Communication channels, such as TV, film and books, through which news, entertainment, education and data are made available

73
Q

What are computer games?

A

A game generally played on-screen using a keyboard, mouse or other controller. Types include simulations, first-person shooters, adventures, sports, and role playing games, often conducted using an online service

74
Q

Name an experimental study of the effects of computer games on aggression.

A

Gentile and Stone

75
Q

What did Gentile and Stone do?

A

Found short term increases in physiological arousal, hostile feelings and aggressive behaviour after violent game play compared to non violent play

76
Q

Name a correlational study of the effects of computer games on aggression.

A

DeLisi et al

77
Q

What did DeLisi et al do?

A
  • 227 juvenile offenders, all with history of serious aggressive behaviours
  • Found that the offenders aggressive behaviour was significantly correlated with how often they played violent computer games and how much they enjoyed them
78
Q

Name a longitudinal study of the effects of computer games on aggression.

A

Anderson et al

79
Q

What did Anderson et al do?

A
  • Surveyed 430 children between the ages of 7 and 9 at two points in the school year and found
  • Rated by themselves and by peers and teachers
  • High exposure to violent video games were more likely to be more verbally and physically aggressive
80
Q

Name a meta analysis study of the effects of computer games on aggression.

A

Bushman and Huesmann

81
Q

What did Bushman and Huesmann do?

A

Found that the short term effects of violent media were greater for adults and long term, for children

82
Q

What are the 3 media influences on aggression?

A
  • Desensitisation
  • Disinhibition
  • Cognitive priming
83
Q

What is desensitisation?

A
  • Repeated exposure to violence reduces normal levels of physiological and psychological arousal (associated with anxiety), making aggressive behaviour more likely
  • The more violence you watch, the more acceptable the aggressive behaviour becomes and the less anxious and physically aroused they are about it.
84
Q

What is disinhibition?

A
  • Exposure to aggressive media makes it appear that aggression is the norm and often it is justified or rewarded
  • This creates new social norms in the viewer making aggression more likely.
85
Q

What is cognitive priming?

A
  • Watching violent media creates a ‘script’ or way of responding
  • This is automatically activated if any aspect of the original situation is present
  • Viewer is primed to respond aggressively to cues because of the network of memories involving aggression that they hold

A Level Psychology (11 decks)

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