Theme 2: definition and theories of antisocial behaviour

Aggression has to have the following 3 characteristics according to Baron and Richardson (1994)

1. Aggressive behaviour is characterized by its underlying motivation and not by its consequences

2. Aggression is the intention of the aggressor, which implies that the ancticipation of the aggressor is to perform an act that will cause harm

3. The victim must be motivated to avoid the aggressive act

Direct aggression

face-to-face confrontation

Indirect aggression

Harming someone behind their back

Hostile aggression

The motive is experiencing negative feelings and expressing them as aggression

Instrumental aggression

Motive is to achieve certain goal through aggression

overt aggression

aggressor is known to receiver

covert aggression

aggressor is not known to the receiver

Active aggression

Makes receiver engage in aggressive act

Passive aggression

The receiver does not participate in act at all

proactive aggression

The act is not provoked by another act

reactive aggression

aggression is provoked

Steam-boiler model

energy is produced continuously within the organism and will burst out unless the energy is released through an external stimulus

natural selection with aggression

behaviour should be adaptive to be transmitted, aggressive behaviour can be adaptive to survive (survival of the fittest) and to produce more offspring (sexual selection)

Behavioral genetic view

Shared genes are more powerful than environment in adulthood

Environment is more powerful than shared genes in children and adolescents

Shared genes make up for 50% of the variance

Dual hormone hypothesis

Low cortisol and high testosterone can cause aggression

Dual instinct theory (Freud)

Two innate forces esos (instinct for life) and thanatos (death instinct) aggression is inevitable and beyond the control of the person and need to release destructive energy

Esos

insttinct for life, drives person towards pleasure

Thanatos

Death instinct: directed at self destruction

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

There is frustration or provoction that (not always) leads to the urge of aggression that leads to aggression towards source (or displaced/triggered displaced aggression)

Provocation

Similar to frustration but must be viewed as intentional

Frustration

(partially) blocking of goal which can be viewed as accidental or intentional and not all frustration leads to aggression

Displaced aggression

Aggression is directed at someone else other than source, is immediate

Triggered displaced aggression

When an individual cannot retaliate after first trigger, the next trigger will be perceived as more triggering than usual which can lead to aggression , can be explained by lack of rumination after first trigger, is not immediate, reaciton must be triggered first

Cognitive neo-associationism

Aggression is viewed as an emotional state rather than a behaviour

Cognitive appraisal is the mediator: depends on memories and habits and can get misattributed

Describes initial reaction to be primitive: fight or flight

Aggression is a result of negative affect that then is subjected to congitive processing and activates network of aggression related thoughts and feelings

Excitation transfer theory

Describes the cognitive appraisal of physiological arousal and the intensity of anger experience which can be a function of the strength of physiological arousal generated by the aversivce event and the way in which arousal is explained and labeled

Social cognitive approach

Aggrsive responses depend on emotional state that is the result of the interpretation of arousal

Individual differences in social information processing

Involve cognitive schemata based on personal experiences

I3 theory

1. instigating factor —> provocation/exclusion

2. Impelling factor: hormones, traits for aggression

3. Inhibiting/disinhibiting factor: capacity to reduce first 2

General aggression model (GAM)

1. input

2. Processing

3. Output

Individual and situational factors influence the present internal state, followed by automatic appraisal and then controlled re-appraisal that then leads to behaviour