Agression Flashcards
(16 cards)
What is aggression?
Intent to harm or injure outside the rules of the game
What is assertion?
Within the rules and spirit of the game and there is no attempt to harm (outside the rules)
What are some major causes of aggression in sport?
- perceived unfairness during play
- frustration at poor performance
- excessive pressure to win
- retaliation to incident
- copying others behaviour
- reaction to hostile situation
- nature of game
What are the 4 theories of aggression?
- instinct theory
- social learning theory
- frustration-aggression hypothesis
- aggressive cue hypothesis
What is the instinct theory of aggression?
Suggests aggression is genetically inherited and that violence lies within everyone due to a basic instinct to dominate
It highlights that aggression is innate and present in all
What are strengths of the instinct theory of aggression?
- can be natural human instinct to be aggressive as a result of genetics
- aggression can be hard to control
- some people are always/consistently aggressive
What are weaknesses of the instinct theory of aggression?
- not all human cultures show aggressive behaviour
- too simplistic and generalised
- aggression is usually provoked not spontaneous
- aggression is often learnt or copied from others
What is the social learning theory of aggression?
Aggression is nurtured through environmental forces and learned by watching and copying role models then becoming accepted mode of behaviour if reinforced
aggression is not innate and is learnt through vicarious experiences
What are strengths of the social learning theory of aggression?
- bobo doll experiment supports idea adding validity
- evidence to suggest some parts of personality are learnt by watching and copying role models
What are weaknesses of the social learning theory of aggression?
- people can be aggressive without seeing aggression
- doesn’t explain aggression in young children
- people with similar role models show different aggression levels
What is the frustration aggression hypothesis?
Frustration develops when need to achieve a goal is blocked leading to aggression occurring due to combination of need to achieve a goal (innate) and frustration at not being able to achieve it (environmental)
aggression met with success leads to catharsis whereas aggression met with punishment leads to further frustration
When is frustration more likely to produce an aggressive response?
- individual is close to achieving their goal
- frustration is caused deliberately
- blocking of goal is unfair
What are strengths of the frustration aggression hypothesis?
- more realistic than instinct theory
- evidence of it happening in sport
- catharsis is experienced after aggression
- acknowledges a link between frustration and aggression
- could help coaches manage aggression in certain players
What are weaknesses of the frustration aggression hypothesis?
- frustration doesn’t always lead to aggression
- aggression can occur without frustration
- unpunished aggression doesn’t always lead to catharsis
- doesn’t take into acoount those born with instinctive aggression
- not everyone becomes frustrated when goal directed behaviours blocked
What is the aggressive cue hypothesis?
States that frustration leads to an increase in arousal which in some situations will lead to aggression in the presence of an aggressive cue
What can act as an aggressive cue?
- baseball bats/ice hockey sticks
- nature of the game
- padding/objects associated with aggression
- perceived unfairness
- nature of event
- people
