Aggression

Aggression

1. Aggression: A form of antisocial behaviour: generally considered to be behaviour that harms of intends to harm someone or something

2. Biological

   • Brain damage
     • The limbic system, part of the central nervous system is linked to agression
     • The prefrontal lobe controls instints such as eating, sexual behaviour, and aggression and knows when such behaviour is appropriate or not
     • Brain disease, damage or trauma affecting these areas can lead to high levels of aggression
     • Psychosurgery
       • Removes or destroys part of the brain which is not functioning properly
       • A probe is inserted into a precise location and is then heated at the end to kill the nerves
       • Usually directed to amygdala and limbic system
       • Surgery on amygdala has been successful in reducing aggression
       • Is invasive and can cause long term and irreversable damage to brain
     • Raine
   • Hormones
     • Males tend to be more aggressive than females due to high levels of chemicals and hormones such as testosterone
     • More testosterone is found in violent criminals than non-violent
   • Genectics
     • Extra Y chromosomes found in violent offenders produces extra tall and aggressive males when the 23rd chromosome fails to divide
     • This also makes them produce more testosterone which can cause violent behaviour
   • Drugs
     • Ritalin stimulates activity in the brain and is often used to control ADHD
     • Ritalin has been found to reduce aggression by stimulating the prefrontal cortex which allows control of aggressive instincts caused by the limbic system
     • Less extreme and invasive than surgery and easier to administrate and control
     • Problems of dependency and side effects

3. Psychological

   • Psychodynamics and Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
     • Freud
       • Thanatos is an unconscious drive or instinct to cause aggressive behaviour.
       • It builds up until it can no longer be controlled leading to self destruction and aggression.
       • Ego defence mechanisms can prevent self destruction
         • Displacement, being aggressive to others
         • Sublimation and Catharis: channeling aggression into acceptable activities such as sport or watching some one engage in aggression to relieve built up aggressive energies, reducing likihood if further aggressive behaviour
           • People are taught techniques to mange anger and aggression
           • Watching aggression may lead to further aggression
     • Dollard
       • His Frustration aggression hypothesis suggested frustration and a trigger was needed to release aggressive behaviour
         • Avoiding situations that cause frustration: stay away from initially cause of frustration and the behaviour that follows
           • Proposes the idea that anger can be controlled before the event
           • You can't always control events that make you frustrated
       • Argued that aggressive instinct didn't suddenly spill over into aggressive baehaviour for no reason
     • Barker
   • Social Learning Theory
     • Suggests that aggressive behaviour is caused by seeing how other people behave and copying it
     • Observation- Seeing how people behave
       • In new situations we look to others to see how to act.
       • Imitation- Copying behaviour
         • Children encounter more new situations so are more likely than adults to copy what they see
         • Vicarious learning- Learning by watching behaviour
           • Instead of direct reinforcement, if a child see someone get reinforced for their behaviour, they are more likely to imitate it
             • If some is rewarded for aggressive behaviour a child may imitate it
     • Role models
       • Children are more likely to imitate role models if they are similar (gender, age), attractive, powerful or caring
     • Monitoring
       • We judge our own behaviour. Reinforcement from ourself as pride and self satisfaction will strengthen the likelihood of us repeating the behaviour as we feel good about ourselfs
     • Punishment
       • Punishment can have the opposite effect of what it intends to do. As parents are role models children are likely to imitate aggressive behaviour parents unintentionally teach them
     • Implication
       • We learn to be aggressive through observation and imitation of models around us.
       • We are more likely to imitate those who are successful (Vicarious learning)
       • Our behaviour may be reinforced when we behave aggressively
     • Punishment
       • According to SLT letting people observe aggressive role models receive punishment when they show violent behaviour or observing non-aggressive models reduces aggressive behaviour
       • Reserch supports the idea
       • Is difficult too remove all reinforcement, it can come from several sources
     • Changing Models
       • Changing the models people are exposed to, non-aggressive models= non aggressive behaviour
       • Difficult to change all models people are exposed to
     • Bandura