User:Sandy~enwikiversity/Week 4 Aggression

Definitions of Aggression
What counts as aggressive behaviour is determined by the social codes and conventions around that behaviour. Antisocial behaviour – Behaviour that is social unacceptable or desirable or damages interpersonal relationships

Aggression can be social or antisocial – It is the behaviours associated with the aggression may be antisocial.

Aggression helps social animals to resolve conflict; human culture however restrains aggression and gives us the ability to resolve conflict and problems in non-violent ways.

Types of aggression

 * Hostile – angry impulsive behaviour motivated by the desire to hurt someone
 * Instrumental – premeditated, calculated behaviour motivated by another goal such as revenge to restore justice
 * Passive – harming through withholding behaviour like not passing on an important message
 * Active – harming someone through performing a certain behaviour like spreading rumours

Theories and Factors
Aggression – the fighting instinct animals and humans have directed against their own kind
 * Ethological perspectives – the study of animal behaviour in their natural settings

Evolutionary Perspective
Lorenze – the study of animal behaviours in their simulated or natural habitat A natural history of aggression The evolutionary significance of phylogenesis - how a kind of animal has developed over time What is aggression good for?
 * It has a protective function e.g. defending oneself against a threat of harm (prey)
 * Defending the and protecting the young e.g. magpies swoop to keep a perceived threat away form the nest
 * Over territory - it spaces out animals so resources aren’t depleated in one area leading to starvation (survival of the species)
 * Structuring animal society – establishing leaders and a pecking order
 * Establishing a bond – through the complex interplay of aggressive mating instincts

Instinct Theories of Aggression
According to Freud the tendency for aggression is inborn, instinctive and independent. Sex(Eros) – life giving instinct Aggression (Thanatos) – destructive death instinct|

Learning Theories of aggression
Bandura’s social learning theory suggests aggression is not an innate drive but a learned behaviour learnt the same way as social behaviours through direct experience and watching others.

Observed and copied behaviour is called modelling which can weaken or strengthen aggression depending on the observed reward or punishment associated with the behaviour.

The Bobo doll experiment showed how children copied aggressive behaviour toward an object. Subsequent studies have shown how watching aggressive behaviour can influence people of all ages to behave aggressively towards other people. Although these experiments don’t show aggressive behaviour is only learned they do show that our inhibitions against aggressive behaviour can be overcome if a model is acting aggressively.

Nature and Nurture
Both nature and nurture attribute to aggressive behaviour. Our cultural socialisation and learning can increase or decrease inborn aggressive impulses and behaviours.

Inner causes of aggression

 * Frustration aggression hypothesis – frustration being the blocking or interference of a personal goal often leads to some form of aggression while aggressive behaviour always results from underlying frustration.
 * Relative depravation theory – a sense of having less than others can lead to aggressive behaviour
 * Personality – such as a Type-A personality or the tendency to perceive others actions as hostile
 * Excitation- transfer – arousal coming from a non-aggressive source such as exercise
 * Unpleasant moods – negative moods can cause aggression in the attempt to feel better
 * Anger –may lead to aggressive behaviour if there is a belief it will make us feel better
 * Cognitive theories – Scripts on how to behave in certain circumstances are learnt such as someone pushing you, you may push back

Hostile Cognitive Biases
People with aggressive tendencies have inner biases that make them expect others to react aggressively, see ambiguous acts as aggressive and assume hurtful actions were intentional.
 * Hostile attribution bias – when there is a tendency to perceive ambiguous behaviour as aggressive i.e. an action is perceived to be intentionally hostile
 * Hostile perception bias – perceiving social interactions in general as hostile
 * Hostile expectation bias – the expectation that others will react to hostile situations with aggression

Age and Aggression – aggressive behaviour peeks at age two with 25% of toddler interaction in day-care settings involving physical aggression. This can be attributed to underdeveloped skills in conflict resolution.

Other causes of aggression may include:
 * Hormones – testosterone
 * Genetic make-up – XYY chromosome
 * Gender differences - men tend to have a flight or fight response were as woman tend to befriend the aggressor engage in indirect aggression such as spread rumours

Selfishness and Influence
Aggression can be the means to resolve conflict or a form of social influence. Factors that encourage aggressive behaviour:
 * lack of concern for morality or risk
 * strong desire for the reward
 * the belief that you will be successful

Environmental or Situational Contributors to Aggression
Relative deprivation
 * the feeling you are disadvantaged in relation to other reference groups and there is little or no hope the conditions will improve

Aggressive Cues
 * guns, knives and the colour black can be trigger aggression
 * the mere presence of a weapon can increased aggressive behaviour

Mass Media Exposure to violent media can be associated with increased aggression because:
 * We can become desensitised through frequent exposure
 * Excitation transfer – we ac become aroused
 * Modelling – roles reinforce the behaviour
 * We can acquire new aggressive responses through acquiring new scripts
 * Neoassocionist analysis (Berkowitz) – priming of images can lead to antisocial acts

Unpleasant Environments Things that make us feel uncomfortable can lead to aggression such as:
 * Hot temperatures
 * Loud noises
 * unpleasant odours
 * Crowding

Chemical Influences Can cause aggression such as:
 * Testosterone – high levels
 * Serotonin – low levels
 * Alcohol – reduces inhibitions, self awareness
 * Nutrition – depletion of vitamins, junk food

Self and Culture

 * Norms and values – cultures can promote violence
 * Poor self-control – is a predictor for violent crimes
 * Wounded pride – violent individuals have an inflated sense of their self worth and feel they are better than others
 * Violent individuals – have the trait of narcissism believing they are entitled to preferential treatment. They are willing to exploit others as they have low empathy.

Crowd Behaviour
Crowds give us anonymity and diffuse our responsibility i.e. blending in with the crowd. This deindividuation can lead to anti-social behaviour.

Emergent Norm Theory (Turner)
 * there are no clear norms of behaviour in crowds
 * looking at the behaviour of others within the group can influence how we behave
 * we are more likely to notice the anti-social behaviour within a group

Social Identity Theory
(Reicher)
 * Individuals don’t lose their identity in crowds
 * A new different (social) identity can be taken
 * Crowd behaviour is an example of intergroup behaviour e.g. police versus protesters

Ghosts of Rwanda – Reflections
I found the film a very disturbing and powerful real life example of aggression and prejudice, highlighting the power of propaganda and social influence. The propaganda so highly effective it caused people to turn on their neighbours in such a hostile and aggressive fashion. I remember some of the commentary saying after a person had taken a life for the first time it became very easy.

Knowing very little about the genocide I was astounded that firstly there was denial it was genocide at all due to the legal meaning of the term itself which lead to the lack the required intervention to put a stop to it. Secondly the support that was in place was gradually withdrawn leaving the people to be slaughtered by the 100 000s.

Words can’t describe the impact the images and story of the your girl who hid in the supposedly safe haven of a church among the slaughtered dead bodies for about 44 days before she was found and taken to a safe place had.

It was inspiring to see the efforts of some to try and save those they could but highly disturbing to see only whites being evacuated highlighting prejudice and a higher value being placed on some human life over others depending on which group you belonged to. Fortunately I was able to debrief with a friend who had a good understanding of the events as the exposure to such a profound display of human tragedy has left a lasting imprint that will not be forgotten.

../Week 5 Prejudice & Stereotypes/