Antisocial Behaviour

Antisocial behaviour

Behaviour that harms society and its members by intentionally violating the rights of others.

• Can take many forms,

• Can be hostile,

• In response to an immediate situation

• Can be planned and deliberate

• Can be overt (e.g. physical aggression) or covert (e.g. exclusion, rumour spreading).

Factors influencing antisocial behaviour

• Diffusion of responsibility

• Audience inhibition

• Social influence

• Cost-benefit analysis

• Groupthink

Diffusion of responsibility

The assumed reduction in personal responsibility a person feels when they are in the presence of others who could also be responsible for taking action (if a person is alone, they will accept responsibility, but if several people are present, each assumes that others will do something and then not take responsibility).

Audience inhibition

Where the presence of others can make a potential helper feel self-conscious and thus inhibit helping behaviour. Bystanders may avoid helping due to fear of judgement or social embarrassment. Strongest when:

• The situation is ambiguous,

• Others appear unconcerned.

Social influence

Most antisocial behaviour can be seen as the result of learning, in the following ways:

• Direct Reinforcement - Antisocial acts are rewarded or reinforced, while prosocial acts are punished,

• Observational Learning - Observing aggression in significant others and the vicarious consequences of aggressive behaviour,

• Direct Instruction - Being taught aggression directly by people we value, and through social norms practiced in the community or society.

Cost-benefit analysis

Bystanders weigh up the pros and cons of helping before deciding whether to provide help in emergency situations.

Includes both cognitive and physiological processes - when bystanders are confronted with emergencies, they weigh up the cost and benefits of providing help compared to those for not helping.

1. Physiological arousal (Greater arousal = More likely to help).

2. Labelling the arousal with specific emotion.

3. Evaluating the consequences of helping - do the costs outweigh the benefits? Costs involve time/effort (Greater costs = Less likely to help).

Groupthink

The tendency of group members to make decisions based on maintaining group harmony and cohesion rather than critically analysing and realistically appraising the situation.

Individuals tend to put aside personal beliefs and adopt the beliefs of the group → Leads to poor moral decisions, failure to report unethical behaviour or participation in group bullying.

Groupthink causes

• Lack of diverse perspectives in groups: Group fails to consider outside perspectives. Group members may engage in more negative attitudes towards outgroup members → worsening of groupthink.

• Lack of impartial leadership: Powerful leaders failing to seriously consider others’ perspectives. They overpower group members’ opinions that oppose their own ideas.

• Stress: Placing a decision making group in stressful scenarios → groups may try to reach a consensus irrationally.

• Time constrains: Increase amounts of anxiety, leads to stress.

• Highly cohesive groups: Those that are particularly close-knit.

• Motivation to maintain other group members’ self-esteem: May not raise their voices against the group consensus.

Groupthink consequences

• More prone to making poor decisions.

• Self-censorship, holding back potentially helpful contrary opinions.

• Insufficient problem solving when failing to consider other solutions that deviate from their original plan.

• Harmful stereotypes develop when groups believe that they are inherently morally right, start to consider others as outgroups.

• Lack of creativity due to no encouragement of ideas different to the norm.

• Blindness to negative outcomes due to the belief that they are correct, prevents them from plan accordingly.

• Lack of preparation to manage negative outcomes due to overconfidence in decisions.

• Obedience to authority without question, members do not raise their opinion against negative actions of the group.

Bystander effect

A theory that states an individual’s likelihood of helping decreases when passive bystanders are present in and emergency situation. Causes:

• Diffusion of responsibility - someone else will act,

• Ignorance - others inaction is evidence no help is needed,

• Audience inhibition - fear of negative evaluation by others,

• Social influence - feeling the need to behave in correct and socially acceptable ways. Others failing to react is taken as a signal that a response is not needed.

(A combination of the same reasons and the same effects as anti-social behaviour because bystander effect can cause antisocial behaviour).

• Teaching people to recognise this theory = Encourages individual responsibility and intervention.

Latane & Darley 1968

Aim: To investigate whether the presence of others inhibits individual responses to potential emergencies.

Method:

Participants (volunteer student) placed in cubicles connected by intercom. 1 of 3 treatment conditions;

• Alone in a room

• With two other participants

• With two actors,

Participants asked to fill out questionnaire. Smoke began to fill the room.

Results:

• Alone = 75% reported smoke,

• Two other participants = 38% reported smoke,

• Two confederates ignoring smoke = 10% reported smoke.

Shows that people might fail to act even when their own safety is at risk.

Contributions:

• The presence of others reduces individual likelihood to help.

• Highlights the power of conformity and pluralistic ignorance in shaping behaviour.

Criticisms/Limitations:

• Artificial setting may lack ecological validity (but findings have been replicated and remain highly influential).

• Lack of generalisation - for men acting calm in stressful situations is culturally acceptable. Results may differ if it was with females or people from other cultures.

Bullying

The repeated and intentional use of a difference in power to repeatedly cause psychological or social harm.

• Physical - hitting, pushing,

• Verbal - name calling, threats,

• Relational/social - spreading rumours, social exclusion,

• Cyber - digital harassment through social media or messages.

Harassment

Like bullying, uses behaviour that intimidates, offends, or humiliates a person, but instead can be from a single incident and does not have to be repeated.

Types of bullying

• Face to face - direct (involves physical and verbal aggression).

• Covert - less direct, less obvious → often unacknowledged (e.g. exclusion, spreading lies, playing practical jokes, giving unreasonable expectations).

• Cyberbullying - uses communication technologies. Can be anonymous, reach a wide audience, and difficult to remove.

Bullying causes

• Power - used as a method of gaining power because their own life is out of control.

• Popularity - popular kids make fun of those who are less popular due to their need for popularity.

• Abusive homes model bullying behaviour, absent parents lead to feeling a lack of control, sibling bulling creates a sense of powerlessness.

• Escape from boredom/lack of purpose - bored and looking for entertainment / looking for attention and supervision.

• Lack of empathy - may enjoy hurting others and find it funny.

• Prejudices - kids may be targeted due to certain characteristics.

• Peer pressure - bully others to fit in with a clique.

Bulling victim blaming

• They deserve it,

• They should change,

• They caused it (taste of own medicine),

• Should have known better,

• Didn’t fight back,

• Too sensitive.