Topic Ten Flashcards
Defining and measuring aggression
Topic One:
Definition of aggression
Measuring aggression
- issues
- methods
Common to all definitions of aggression is:
- the intent to harm
Measuring aggression:
- researchers have developed an operational definition so that they can manipulate and measure aggression through substitutions.
Topic Two - theories of aggression
Biological explanation:
Psychodynamic theory:
Ethology two-factor theory:
Evolutionary theory
Biological explanation: Aggression = innate action tendency
Psychodynamic:
Freud proposed that human aggression stems from an innate ‘death instinct’
Ethology two-factor theory:
Approach that argues that animal behaviour should be studied in the species’ natural physical and social environment. Behaviour is genetically determined and is controlled by natural selection.
- Fighting instinct = Innate impulse to aggress, which ethologists claim is shared by humans with other animals.
Evolutionary theory = views complex social behaviour as adaptive, helping the individual, kin and the species as a whole to survive
Topic Two continued…
What is the main focus of biosocial theories?
Frustration hypothesis?
Excitation-transfer model?
Social learning theory?
Biosocial theories = In the context of aggression, theories that emphasise an innate component, though not the existence of a full-blown instinct.
Frustration hypothesis = Theory that all frustration leads to aggression, and all aggression comes from frustration. Used to explain prejudice and intergroup aggression.
Excitation-transfer model = The expression of aggression is a function of:
- a learned behaviour
- arousal or excitation from another source
- The person’s interpretation of the arousal state
Topic Three - Variants of aggression
Individual differences linked to aggression:
The three D’s
Situational variables linked to aggression:
What is the general aggression model?
individual differences:
Personality:
- tendency to aggress develops early in life and becomes stable
- Low self-esteem and poor frustration tolerance are associated with high aggression
Type A personality:
- Associated with susceptibility to coronary heart disease
- Type A people are overactive and excessively competitive
Hormones:
- grey area
Gender and socialisation:
- Men tend to be more aggressive than women across cultures and socioeconomic groups.
- Men are more likely than women to be physically violent
Catharsis:
- refers to the process of using our behaviour as an outlet or release for pent-up emotion - the cathartic hypothesis
Three D’s:
Disinhibition:
= A breakdown in the learned controls (social mores) against behaving impulsively or, in this context, aggressively. For some people, alcohol has a disinhibiting effect.
Deindividuation:
= Process whereby people lose their sense of socialised individual identity and engage in un-socialised, often antisocial, behaviours.
Dehumanisation:
= Stripping people of their dignity and humanity.
Collective aggression = Unified aggression by a group of individuals, who may not even know one another, against another individual or group.
Situational variables:
Physical environment:
- Two aspects of our environment have been reliably implicated in increasing levels of aggression, heat and crowding
General aggression model:
- includes both personal and situational factors, and cognitive and affective processes in accounting for different kinds of aggression
- Interplay of factors activate three kinds of internal state (affect, cognition and arousal)
Topic Five: Explanations of prosocial behaviour
Define prosocial behaviour
Define helping behaviour
Define altruism
What is the evolutionary theory of prosocial behaviour?
Stevens two reliable explanations of cooperative behaviour in animals and humans:
Prosocial behaviour = acts that are positively valued by society
Helping behaviour - subcategory of prosocial, intentional and benefits another living being
Altruism - Subcategory, refers to an act that is meant to benefit another, rather than one self (selfless)
Evolutionary theory - the biological position is that humans have innate tendencies to eat, drink, mate and fight - and to help others.
- This could be why humans have been so successful in an evolutionary sense.
Explanations of cooperative behaviour:
- Mutualism - cooperative behaviour that benefits the co-operator as well as others; a defector will do worse than a co-operator.
- Kin selection - in which a co-operator is biased towards blood relatives because it helps propagate one’s own genes; the lack of direct benefit to the co-operator indicates altruism. (evolutionary)
Topic Five continued…
What is the bystander-calculus model of helping
What is perspective talking
Ways we can learn to be helpful (3)
What is the just-world hypothesis
Bystander calculus model = In attending to an emergency, the bystander calculates the perceived costs and benefits of providing help compared with those associated with not helping
- First, we are physiologically aroused by another’s distress
- Second, we label this arousal as an emotion
- Third, we evaluate the consequences of helping
Perspective talking = being able to see the position of another person from that person’s point of view.
Ways we can learn to be helpful:
Giving instructions:
- Telling a child what is appropriate establishes an expectation and a later guide for action
Giving reinforcements:
- Acts that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated
Exposure to models:
Just-world hypothesis: people need to believe - perhaps for their own security - that the world is a just place where people get what they deserve.
Topic Five continued…
What is the bystander-calculus model of helping
What is perspective talking
Ways we can learn to be helpful (3)
What is the just-world hypothesis
Bystander calculus model = In attending to an emergency, the bystander calculates the perceived costs and benefits of providing help compared with those associated with not helping
- First, we are physiologically aroused by another’s distress
- Second, we label this arousal as an emotion
- Third, we evaluate the consequences of helping
Perspective talking = being able to see the position of another person from that person’s point of view.
Ways we can learn to be helpful:
Giving instructions:
- Telling a child what is appropriate establishes an expectation and a later guide for action
Giving reinforcements:
- Acts that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated
Exposure to models:
Just-world hypothesis: people need to believe - perhaps for their own security - that the world is a just place where people get what they deserve.
Topic Six:
What is the bystander effect?
What is Bystander intervention?
What 3 factors influenced bystander effect?
Bystander effect = People are less likely to help in an emergency when they are with others than when alone. The greater the number, the less likely it is that anyone will help.
Bystander intervention = This occurs when an individual break out of the role of a bystander and helps another person in an emergency.
Factors:
- Diffusion of responsibility. Other onlookers give an opportunity to transfer the responsibility for acting, or not acting, on to them.
- Audience inhibition. Other onlookers can make people self-conscious about an intended action; people do not want to appear foolish by overreacting.
- Social influence. Other onlookers provide a model for action. If they are passive and unworried, the situation may seem less serious.
Topic Seven:
What motivates people to help others (4) - Dan Batson
What 2 components does prior commitment emphasise as an explanation for prosocial behaviour?
- Egoism - prosocial acts benefit one’s self. We may help others to secure material, social and self-reward, and to escape punishment
- Altruism - prosocial acts contribute to the welfare of others. Acting altruistically does not imply that someone should reciprocate. This kind of prosocial motivation is esteemed in many cultures.
- Collectivism - prosocial acts contribute to the welfare of a social group, e.g. one’s family, ethnic group or country. Of course, actions that benefit one’s ingroup may harm an outgroup
- Principlism - prosocial acts follow a moral principle, such as ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. Although he link between moral reasoning and prosocial behaviour is not strong, the two processes are related.
Prior commitment:
Feeling responsible for providing aid increases the likelihood of prosocial behaviour. This is called prior commitment, a specific form of responsibility that can induce a prosocial act.
