Psychology a level - PART 2 aggression

ao1 and ao3

what is deindividuation

a social psychological explanation for aggression that suggests people enter a deindividuated psychological state, used to explain people’s loss of individual identity in crowds

who first introduced the concept of deindividuation to explain crowd behaviour

Gustave Le Bon (1895)

Diener’s (1980) 4 critical factors for deindividuation

strong feeling of group membership

increased levels of arousal

focus on external events

feeling of anonymity

define Prentice-Dunn and Roger’s (1982) distinction between public and private self-awareness. which is most closely linked to deindividuation?

public self-awareness: concern of the impression of yourself others perceive and judge

private self-awareness: sense of self including thoughts, values, and morals

true individuation occurs when private self-awareness is lost

research on de-individuation using self-report

Dodd (1985) asked 229 undergraduate psychology students “if you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?” with anonymous results

36% showed some form of antisocial behaviour. 26% criminal acts including robbery, murder, and rape. only 9% prosocial behaviour

summarise the ‘deviance in the dark’ study of deindividuation

Gergen et al (1973) placed 8 strangers in a dark room for 1 hour and observed their behaviour. p’s quickly started kissing and touching each other. in a second study where p’s knew they would not remain anonymous afterwards saw this behaviour to be far less frequent

Zimbardo study on deindividuation (not Stanford prison expt)

used female undergraduate p’s in 2 conditions: either dressed in a lab coat with white hoods over faces or wearing large name tags. all p’s observed a woman being interviewed and then assessed her performance by administering electric shocks. witnessed both a pleasant and obnoxious interviewee

anonymised group shocked both p’s equally, while identifiable condition shocked obnoxious interviewee more

2 real-world studies of deindividuation

Watson (1973) studied 24 different cultures and found warriors in face and body paint more likely to kill, torture, and mutilate prisoners

Silke (2003) studied violent assaults during the Troubles and found 206/500 cases were carried out by offenders wearing masks or disguises

2 explanations of institutional aggression in prisons

importation (dispositional) model, deprivation (situational) model

what is the importation model

a dispositional explanation of aggression in prisons that suggests prisoner’s personalities developed through nature and nurture before prison is what causes violent behaviour within the institution as they bring these aggressive traits in with them

what is the deprivation model

a situational explanation of aggression in prisons that suggests it is caused by a lack of resources and the nature of the prison-regime, such as a lack of safety, space, cleanliness etc

study by DeLisi on importation model

DeLisi et al (2011) studied a group of juvenile offenders in California

found those with ‘negative’ backgrounds, such as trauma, were more likely to engage in sexual misconduct, suicidal behaviour, and physical aggression

study by Steiner on the deprivation model

Steiner (2009) studied 512 US prisons and found inmate-on-inmate aggression was more frequent in overcrowded prisons and prisons with more inmates in protective custody

study by Camp and Gaes (2005) supporting importation model

studied 561 inmates with similar criminal histories and predispositions to aggression. randomly placed half in high-security prison and other half in low-security. 36% prisoners involved in aggression in high-security prison, 33% in low-security.

role of situational factors is minimal

study on deprivation of heterosexual relationships in causing aggression in prisons

a study of 256 males and females across 2 prisons found no link between involvement in conjugal visits and reduced aggressive behaviour

undermines deprivation model

study by Cunningham (2010) on deprivation model

analysed 35 inmate-homicides in Texas prisons between 2000-2008. found the perpetrators’ motivations often linked to drugs, sexual activity, and personal possessions, and the homicide was often against a roommate

what one type of media does the spec focus on in media influence on aggression

computer games

how is behaviour conditioned through computer games

the player’s character is positively reinforced through rewards, causing indirect learning

study on link between TV-viewing and aggression

Phillips (1983) found a significant rise in murders following a televised boxing contest as opposed to the Superbowl

study on desensitisation in video games using EEG

p’s who routinely played violent video games responded less to violent images, shown through diminished amplitude of their brain waves

also found the smaller the amplitude of these brain waves, the more likely a p was to be aggressive towards their partner

3 explanations of the link between media and aggression

desensitisation, disinhibition, cognitive priming

what is desensitisation

reduced physiological and psychological response to an aggressive/violent stimulus

what is disinhibition

a psychological state within which individuals lack normal levels of restraint

what is cognitive priming

media creates a mental script or schema for how aggressive events will carry out, so aggression occurs more readily in the individual when these events arise in real life

study on desensitisation using skin conductance

p’s showed either a violent or non-violent film and their sensitivity was assessed using skin-conductance

p’s who were habitual consumers of violent media showed lower levels of arousal to violent film clips, and gave louder bursts of white noise to a confederate without provocation

study on disinhibition

study found that p’s who saw a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more and longer electric shocks to a confederate

the media presented the aggression as socially acceptable, showing the link between aggression and social norms

study showing link between complexity of computer games and aggression (undermining violent-media explanations)

Zendle et al (2018) pointed out that violent games are often more complex, and found that when complexity was controlled the effects of violent games were the same as non-violent ones

study on desensitisation caused by computer games

Bushman (2009) found that p’s who played violent video games for 20 minutes prior to witnessing someone injured in a fight took longer to help than a control group

study showing no link between media and desensitisation

Belson (1978) studied 1,500 teenage boys and found no correlation between hours watching violent TV and anti-social attitudes

which model explains how private de-individuation occurs? what can this be applied to?

the social identity model (Reicher)

the internet, which allows for anonymity