Aggression

1
Aggression

• An act carried out with the intention to harm
  another person
• Instrumental aggression a means to an end
• Hostile aggression an end in itself

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2
Aggression

• What causes people to behave aggressively?
• Social learning
• Deindividuation
• How does our environment affect the likelihood of
  aggressive behaviour?
• Heat, noise, crowding

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3
Social Learning Theory (SLT)

• Environment
• Observation
• Model
• Imitation
• Observed consequences
• Vicarious reinforcement and punishment

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4
Social Learning Theory

• Bandura (1965)
• Observational learning of aggression
• Mead (1965)
• Cultural transmission of aggression
• Patterson et al (1989)
• Learning of aggression within family

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5
Deindividuation

• Normal constraints on behaviour are weakened when
  a person loses their sense of individuality
• Crowds, uniforms, drugs alcohol
• Less likely to be identified held responsible
  for aggressive behaviour
• Anonymity?deindividuation?aggression

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6
Deindividuation
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7
Deindividuation
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8
Deindividuation
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9
Deindividuation

• Zimbardo (1969)
• Hooded PPs were more aggressive
• Zimbardo (1973 Stanford Experiment)
• Guards aggression increased by uniforms,
  sunglasses, night-time
• Mullen (1985)
• Violence of mob lynching a function of crowd size

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10
Environmental Stressors

• Heat
• Noise
• Crowding

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11
Environmental Stressors

• Stress ? Arousal ? Aggression
• As arousal increases it becomes easier to trigger
  an aggressive response (up to a point)

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12
Environmental Stressors
Likelihood of aggressive behaviour
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Level of stress