PSYC2040 - WEEK 9

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 

• Behaviour that violates the social norms, rules or laws of a community in which an individual resides 

• Disrupts the rights, safety or wellbeing of others 

• Can manifest as: 

  • Aggression 

  • Rule breaking  

  • Deviant behaviours 

  • Criminal behaviours 

BOBO DOLL STUDY

• children displayed aggression regardless of condition

• children exposed to aggressive model more likely to imitate specific modelled behaviours

• children exposed to aggresive model displayed similar agression as unmodelled children.

COGNITIVE NEO-ASSOCIATION THEORY EXPLAIN … WELL, BUT NOT ….

Reactive, proactive

BEING IN A BAD MOOD CAN…

increase helping because people want to reduce their bad mood

AGGRESSION

• Any intentional behaviour aimed at inflicting physical or psychological harm to another living being 

• Intention to harm must be present 

PROACTIVE AGGRESSION

• Premeditated means to some desired end 

• Cold, controlled, instrumental 

• Not accompanied by aggressive affect (eg. Anger) 

REACTIVE AGGRESSION

• Driven by emotional arousal, anger 

• Hot, impulsive response to threat, frustration, provocation 

• Primary goal is the infliction of harm on provoking stimulus 

DIRECT AGGRESSION

• Aggression enacted against a target individual directly and with purpose 

• Physical aggression 

• Verbal aggression 

INDIRECT AGGRESSION

• Aggression that is not enacted against a target individual directly but still intended to harm target  

• Relational aggression (damaging social reputation and status) 

• Object-direct aggression (damaging objects that hold meaning to a person) 

PASSIVE AGGRESSION

Aggression that is enacted through being non-responsive or withholding positive behaviour 

ANTISOCIAL - INSTINCT AND EVOLUTION

• Freud proposed aggression was part of our nature 

• Psychodynamic theorists conceptualise aggression as a behaviour triggered when frustrated or upset 

CATHARSIS HYPOTHESIS

• Engaging in aggression or anger-venting behaviours drains aggressive drive/energy and reduces later aggressive behaviours 

• 'get it out of your system' 

• Later evidence proposes that aggressive venting may increase anger and aggression if it involves rumination about the source of provocation 

ANTISOCIAL - EVOLUTION APPROACH

• Aggression is an 'adaptive' trait, providing a way to deal with external threats to survive 

• Part of fight or flight  

ANTISOCIAL - COGNITIVE NEOASSOCIATION THEORY

• Negative affect can be aroused by aversive stimuli  

• Negative affect stimulates 'fight' response (increases aggressive tendencies) and 'flight' response (increases avoidant tendencies) 

• Other personality and situational factors determine whether aggression, avoidance or neither response manifests.  

ANTISOCIAL - TRAIT AGGRESIVNESS

• Propensity to engage in aggression, hold hostile cognitions, express anger 

• Engage in aggression irrespective of provocation 

• Strong inverse relationship with agreeableness 

MACGIAVELLIANISM

• Manipulative, exploitative for personal gain 

• Deceitful, deceptive 

• Disregard for morality 

• Mistrustful view of human nature 

PSYCHOPATHY

• Antisocial nature, antisocial behaviour 

• Disregard for morality 

• Impulsivity, recklessness 

• Remorselessness, lack of empathy 

NARCISSISM

• Inflate, grandiose view of self 

• Sense of entitlement, superiority 

• Lack of empathy 

• Fantasies of dominance, success, admiration 

ANTISOCIAL - DEINDIVIDUATION

• A process whereby people lose their sense of socialised individual identity  

• People refrain from exercising aggressive, impulsive and selfish tendencies because they are individually identifiable 

• Groups or crowds relax these restraints 

ANTISOCIAL - ENGAGED FOLLOWSHIP

• An individual may engage in antisocial behaviour if it is presented by someone in a positive of leadership as necessary for the achievement of collective goal individual identifies with 

• Ex. Stanford prison experiment  

ANTISOCIAL - SOCIAL PROCESSES

Social norms 

• People engage in more aggression and antisocial behaviour if it is perceived as normative in a group context  

Social learning theory 

• Aggression and antisocial behaviours can be developed through observational learning 

• Ex. Bobo doll study – children who observed aggressive model more likely than those in non-aggressive or control conditions, to engage in additional aggressive behaviours modelled to them 

ANTISOCIAL - MEDIA AFFECTS

Potential mechanisms: 

• Social learning 

• Excitation transfer 

• Priming aggression 

• desensitisation 

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Any behaviour performed with the goal of helping or benefitting another regardless of the motive behind the behaviour 

PROSOCIAL - INSTINCT AND EVOLUTION

Prosocial behaviour is an 'adaptive' trait, as cooperation is important for survival.

Norm of reciprocity 

• Helping others increase likelihood others will help up in the future = increases survival 

Kin selection 

• Tendency to be more likely to give help to blood relatives than strangers even when costly = increase chance relatives will survive = ensure genes continue  

PROSOCIAL - SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY

• Most social behaviour stems from desire to maximise benefits and minimise costs  

• Helping can be rewarding  

  • Increases probability of reciprocation 

  • Relieves personal distress 

• Helping can be costly 

  • Takes up resources 

  • Poses risk to health, safety 

PROSOCIAL - PERSONALITY

Agreeableness 

• Characterised by cooperativeness, sympathy, generosity, helpfullness 

• Facilitates behavioural tendencies that foster harmonious social relations and likeability  

Dispositional empathy 

• Stable trait tendency to experience empathy under any circumstance  

• Three components 

  • Empathic concern 

  • Perspective taking 

  • Personal distress 

PROSOCIAL - EMPATHY ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS

• Empathy produces altruism 

Altruism  

• Any behaviour performed with the sole purpose of helping with no expectation of reward 

• Even when helping is costly  

• If empathy is high, help is provided regardless of costs or benefits 

• If empathy is low, help is provided only if benefits to help are high  

PROSOCIAL - SOCIAL PROCESSES

Socialisation 

• Children instructed to be helpful are more likely to help 

• Helpfulness can be internalised as important value 

Social learning theory 

• People imitate prosocial behaviour modelled to them previously 

Social norms 

• People engage in more prosocial behaviour if it is perceived as normative in group context  

PROSOCIAL - MEDIA EFFECTS

• Elicits increased empathy, prosocial thoughts and helping behaviour 

• Children who played violent co-operative game showed greatest prosocial behaviour than other participants in other conditions 

RECIPIENT CHARACTERISTICS

• Greater recipient shared identity -> more helping  

• Greater recipient attractiveness -> more helping 

Attribution of responsibility 

• If person in need perceived as not responsible for misfortune -> more help 

Bystander effect 

• Individuals tend to be less likely to help in an emergency sitution when they are with others than when they are alone  

BYSTANDER EFFECT - STAGE 1

Stage 1: Noticing an event  

• Barriers: 

  • Distraction 

  • Cognitive load 

BYSTANDER EFFECT - STAGE 2

Stage 2: Interpreting event as an emergency 

• Barriers: 

  • Ambiguity 

  • Pluralistic ignorance: bystanders assume that others' inaction in an emergency means nothing is wrong 

BYSTANDER EFFECT - STAGE 3

Stage 3: Assuming responsibility  

• Barriers: 

  • Diffusion of responsibility: bystanders sense of responsibility to help decreases as number of bystanders increases.  

BYSTANDER EFFECT - STAGE 4

Stage 4: Knowing how to help 

• Barriers 

  • Lack of knowledge  

  • Lack of ability 

BYSTANDER EFFECT - STAGE 5

Stage 5: Deciding to implement the help 

• Barriers 

  • Audience inhibition: bystanders are afraid of helping because they are anxious they will be negatively evaluated by others 

  • Confusion of responsibility: bystanders are afraid of helping because they fear newly-arriving bystanders will believe they are the perpetrator 

CLASSIC BYSTANDER EFFECT

• Functions at the individual level 

• Produced by internal, psychological processes 

• Proposes that likelihood that individual helps decreases the more bystanders are around 

• Individual differences do not mean everyone will show bystander effect 

AGGREGATE BYSTANDER EFFECT

• Functions at group level 

• Produced by laws of numbers/probability 

• Proposes that likelihood that a victim receives help tends to increase the more bystanders are around 

• Individual differences mean that some people will help no matter what