Aggression and Prosocial Behavior

These flashcards cover key concepts related to aggression, its biological and environmental influences, as well as prosocial behavior.

Aggression

Verbal or physical behavior aimed at harming another person or living being.

Aggression explanation

Explanations:

●Instinct and evolution

●Biological

●Situational

➢Frustration, Cognitive Neuroassociation Theory

➢Environmental cues

➢Social learning / modelling

➢Deindividuation

➢Norms & roles

 

Hostile aggression

Aggression that is often elicited by anger, such as lashing out at perceived injustices.

Instrumental aggression

Aggression often used by institutions to punish wrongdoers.

Violence and gender

In most societies, since men commit over 90% of criminal and aggressive acts

• Men engage in more direct aggression

• Women perpetrate aggression more indirectly

 

AGGRESSION INSTINCT Freud

●Freud viewed aggression as a basic human instinct/ like Thanatos

 

●Current psychodynamic theorists view it as a behavioural potential that is usually activated by frustration and anger

➢  Supported by evidence that parents usually have to teach children to inhibit aggressive responses so just kicking in biting

• Aggressive motives may blend with other modes to produce behaviour not consciously intended as sadistic Such as enjoying aggressive movie or sports

• Triggers of aggression can be unconscious

AGGRESSION EVOLUTION

●Evolutionary theorists view aggression as evolutionarily adaptive

➢Has survival and reproductive value

• Cross-Species Observation: Aggression (including intra-species killing) occurs in all animals.

• Male Aggression: Typically directed at other males for access to females and to maintain territory.

• Female Aggression: Primarily elicited by attacks on their young.

• Human Evolution: Like other animals, humans are believed to have evolved aggressive mechanisms activated when survival or reproductive success of kin is threatened.

AGGRESSION BIOLOGY neurological

If aggression is part of being human (instinctual/evolutionary views), then it must involve the nervous or endocrine systems.

●Neurological

➢Brain activity in hypothalamus, limbic system, prefrontal cortex

➢Damage, delayed development can influence aggression 

• Limbic System and Hypothalamus: Involved in emotional reactions and drive states.

• Prefrontal Cortex: Involved in decision-making and organization; damage or developmental delay in this area can lead to increased aggression.

 

●Genetics

➢Highly aggressive mice/rats/rabbits can be selectively bred

➢Twin/adoption studies à 50% heritability

 

●Hormonal

➢Aggression determined by levels of particular hormones

➢Testosterone à Social dominance, aggression to maintain status is linked to impatience/irritability, criminality

 Bidirectional Correlation: Testosterone may increase aggression, but aggressive behavior can also increase testosterone levels.

Serotonin is another hormone linked to aggression

• Intentionally lowering serotonin levels of participants decrease the tolerance for frustration and increased likelihood of aggression

• Testosterone is linked to social dominance and thus leads to aggression in service of maintaining status within a social hierarchy

• Certain is linked in statue impulsivity so acting without thinking and thus leads to unprovoked and socially inappropriate forms of aggression

 

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

The theory that aggression results from the failure to achieve a goal.

• Process: Individuals set daily goals (e.g., good grades, morning routine), and the inability to achieve them leads to frustration, which then elicits aggression.

• Example: Inability to find keys leads to frustration, resulting in a short or aggressive response to others. 

Frustration accumulates from a variety of sources

●Original form:

➢All frustration leads to aggression

➢All aggressions results from frustration

 

●When source of frustration cannot be challenged…

“Scapegoating”: Displacement of aggression on a target 

Scapegoating (Displacement): When direct challenge to frustration is not possible, aggressive behavior may be diverted to another target (e.g., pushing a chair, slamming a door instead of throwing a phone when the battery is flat).

Limitations: Not all aggression results from frustration, and not all frustration leads to aggression. Other responses to frustration can include depression or increased motivation.

 

Scapegoating

Displacement of aggression onto a target when a direct challenge to frustration is not possible.

COGNITIVE NEUROASSOCIATION THEORY (Berkowitz, 1989)

 

●Extended from the Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Frustration breeds aggression to the extent that it elicits an unpleasant emotion.

• aggression appears to be innate but activation inhibition of aggression depends on culture and learning

 

●Aversive situations can produce negative affect + arousal,

which can then lead to aggression

 Mechanism: Unpleasant situations (e.g., non-smoker near a smoker in a confined area) lead to negative affect and physiological arousal (e.g., bad mood, disgust, headache), which can trigger aggression.

 

Aversive situations can include:

► Frustration

► Hot temperature

► Hostility eg roadrage

► Noxious odours

 No matter how a person is aroused, weather it may be hit weather, insult etc , negative emotions will activate similar cognition stored in memory

• That one reason why its so difficult to get rid of negative emotions 

 The general aggression model.(GAM.)

• Examine her personal situation input variables influence aggression through the recognition emotions and they generate

• Person variable such as personality traits, genetics, attitudes, values and script interact with situational variables, including aggressive cues, provocation and invasive situations to produce particular recognition and feelings

• E.g. highly aggressive individual sees guns guns will activate aggressive scripts that was subtly dry aggressive behaviour

ENVIRONMENTAL CUES

●Weapons effect:

Mere presence of weapons in environment increases aggression

 

●Weapons linked aggression in our minds, prime/ develop aggressive scripts

 

Seeing a gun -> associate it with aggression or violence

 

“Guns not only permit violence, they can stimulate it as well. The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger may also be pulling the finger.”

SOCIAL LEARNING & MODELLING

●People can behave aggressively because they see others behaving aggressively

Observational learning= learning observing the behaviour of others

Observational learning in which a person learns to reproduce behaviour exhibited by models called modelling

Badura doll

Bandura’s Bobo Doll studies

➢Showed children…

     (1) Aggressive model

     (2) Non-aggressive model

     (3) No model

➢Children exposed to the aggressive model

   displayed more aggressive behaviour when given 

   the chance to play with toys late

Likelihood of person imitating a model depends on a number of factors:

• Models prestige

• Moles likability

• Attractiveness

 

Vacarious conditioning= person learns consequences of an action by observing its consequences for someone else

Tutelage = teaching concepts of procedures primarily through verbal explanations or direct instructions

• Groups:

  • One group watched a model behave in a subdued and gentle manner with Bobo.

  • Other groups observed the model verbally and physically attacking Bobo, either in real life, on film, or in a cartoon.

  • A control group observed no model at all.

  • Results: Children who observed the model acting aggressively towards Bobo displayed nearly twice as muchaggressive behavior when playing with toys later, compared to those who watched the non-aggressive model or no model at all.

Vacarious conditioning=

person learns consequences of an action by observing its consequences for someone else

Tutelage

teaching concepts of procedures primarily through verbal explanations or direct instructions

NORMS & ROLES

●Roles can be associated with both antisocial and prosocial behaviours

• Roles significantly impact how a person behaves, especially when they identify very closely with that role.

• This close identification can lead to deindividuation, where individuals react to situations by losing a sense of their individual identity within the role.

●Certain roles can be associated with aggression

(e.g., gang member-> violence , police)

●People can become aggressive if they are in these roles

➢Deindividuation occurs and assists people to take on whatever role is implied by the situation

●E.g. Zimbardo’s Prison Study

 The Influence of explicit and implicit expectations provides basis for self fulfilling Prophecies

Deindividuation

A phenomenon where individuals lose their personal identities and ability to judge right from wrong in a crowd.

Cognitive Neuroassociation Theory

Suggests that frustration breeds aggression to the extent that it elicits an unpleasant emotion.

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Any act performed with the goal of benefiting another person, regardless of motive

Altruism

The desire to help another person with no apparent reward, even if it involves a cost to the helper

• Eg blood donation , open doors

• Prosocial behaviour can be understood on three levels micro meso and macro

• Microlevel altruistic tendencies and individual differences are considered primarily in terms of biological processes, developmental and personality factors or evolutionary theory

• Means or level, behaviours of helper recipient diet are studied according to specific situations

• Macro level or examined within the context of groups and large organisations such as volunteering

Factors influencing altruism

●Empathy

●Modelling

●Closeness

●Empathy Alturism

➢Resolve negative reactions of seeing person in distress by helping

• Seeing other person in trouble causes us to feel uncomfortable

• Ethical hedonism= the decree that all behaviour no matter how apparently altruistic is designed to increase one’s own pleasure or one’s own pain

●Modelling

➢modeling altruistic behaviour can é increase helping

➢modelling non-altruistic behaviour can ê decrease helping 

●Closeness

➢closer we are to people who need help , é Helping, more likley to help (family , fiends over strangers )

➢more distant decreases Helping

Evolutionary  perspective Alusism

• protecting oneself and once offspring is in an organisms evolutionary interest

• Helping particular those who were young

• Reciprocal altruism = Natural selection favourite animals behave altruistically if they likely benefit to each Individual overtime exceeds the likely costs

• If danger is small, but the gain in survival and reproduction or large altruism is an adaptive strategy

Altruism

The desire to help another person with no apparent reward, even at a cost to the helper.

Bystander Effect

The phenomenon where the presence of more people decreases the likelihood of an individual helping someone in distress.

Social Learning Theory

The idea that people can learn aggressive behaviors by observing others behaving aggressively.

Empathy

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another, crucial in motivating altruistic behavior.

Weapons Effect

The mere presence of weapons in an environment increases levels of aggression.

Reciprocal altruism

Behavior that benefits another with the expectation that the favor will be returned in the future.

Testosterone

A hormone linked to social dominance and aggression, with bidirectional correlation to aggressive behavior.

Genetics in aggression

Studies suggest that aggression can have hereditary components, evidenced through twin and adoption studies.

Zimbardo’s Prison Study

An experiment that demonstrated the power of situational forces and role assignment on human behavior.

Norms & Roles

Expectations that define how to behave in social situations, which can impact aggression.

Vicarious Conditioning

Learning the consequences of an action by observing its consequences for someone else.

ZIMBARDO’S PRISON STUDY (1971)

• Built a fake jail

• Arbitrarily split college students into "prisoners" and "guards"

 Both "prisoners" and "guards" were deindividuated to socialise them into their roles (e.g. uniforms)

• "Guards" became cruel and abusive, "prisoners" became compliant and powerless

  • They treated prisoners as a homogeneous group, referring to them only by their numbers.

  • Psychological abuse became common:

  • Guards forced prisoners to do push-ups for minor infractions.

  • They woke prisoners at night for counts.

  • Food and bedding were withheld as punishment.

  • Prisoners, in turn, began to show signs of extreme stress and emotional disturbance.

  • Some prisoners rebelled, while others became passive and withdrawn.

  • Several prisoners had to be released early due to severe emotional trauma, including crying, rage, and acute anxiety.

 

• Study initially planned for two weeks, but behaviour of "guards" was so abusive, it was stopped after 6 days

 

●Psychologically stable, normal members of the population had descended into abusive, degraded behaviour because the role allowed it

 

●The line between good|evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces

●The power of the situation

• The study demonstrated the powerful influence of situational factors and assigned roles on human behavior.

 

• It highlighted how ordinary people can commit cruel acts when placed in certain roles within a specific power structure, often leading to deindividuation

BYSTANDER EFFECT

 The greater number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress

 

• More likely to take action when there are no to few people present

• In large crowd; no single person has to take responsibility for an action

When are we less likely to speak up?

●We are less likely to help when others are around than when we are alone (likelihood of helping ê as # of people é)

●Why?

●Diffusion of responsibility:

When we assume others will take responsibility and our sense of responsibility to help decreases

• We don’t feel as much pressure

●Diffusion of responsibility:

When we assume others will take responsibility and our sense of responsibility to help decreases

• We don’t feel as much pressure

A model of bystander intervention

This model explains why the presence of others can act or in action

 

• In the first two stages,( noticing the emergency and interpreting its as  one) other people surface source of information such as is their crisis here or not, And a source of reassurance if they do not react strongly

 

• The next stage, the presence of others lead to a diffusion of responsibility = A diminished sense of personal responsibility to act because others are seen as equally responsible

• At this point people also consider the consequences of action on less willingness to intervene if a jeopardise their own safety or if they fear they might look foolish if they misinterpreted the situation

 

• personality influences bystander effect, specifically self transcendent values were positively related and self-enhancement and openness to change values to negatively related to helping behaviour