Social explanations Aggression

Social explanations Aggression

1. Deindividuation

   • can come from
     • anonymiity
     • contagion
     • baiting the crowd
     • faceless crowd
   • crowd theory.
     • Gustave Le Bon. combination of factors, 'collective mind'// loses self control
   • (+) Zimbardo's study
     • electric shocking of people through anonymity. female students, given hoods/masks. other introduced by name with name tags, introduced as group
   • Diener
     • children ^ to steal if in groups
   • Mullen
     • newspaper cutting of lynchings// ^ size the ^ the savagery towards victims

2. AO2

   • (-) IDA - gender bias
     • E : Cannavale// m and f groups respond diff. ^ in agg. only in m pp's
       • E: Deiner also found ^ disinhibition in m
     • P: can't be genralised to f// behave diff.
   • (+) cultural diff.
     • Robert Watson.// 23 societies, m who changed appearance ^ aggressive
     • P: similar in other cultures
   • (+) IDA - RWA
     • E: Mann - baiting the crowd
       • 21 suicide leaps, 1960-70's// 10/21 baiting occurred. ushually at night and at a distance
     • P: supports theory
   • (-) local norms must be included
     • E: Jhonson & Downing used same cond. as Zimbardo but with white robes+mask and nurses outfit. Ku Klux Klan felt they shocked more than nurses,// normative cues associated with social context
   • (-) lack of support for deindividuation,// reduced validity
     • E: meta-analysis of 60 studies// found disinhibition and antisocial behaviour are not more common in large groups and anonymous settings
   • (-) not always antisocial
     • E: research found that deinviduation can lead to prosocial or antisocail behaviour depending on situational factors// when prosocial cues given pp's ^ kind

3. Insititutional aggression

   • aggression that occurs within group or between, or in insititutions
   • The Importation model
     • Iwrin & Cressey
       • interpersonal factors
       • Gang membership
   • The Deprevation model
     • situtational factors
     • the 'pains' of imprisonment
   • between groups: genocide
     • Nazi's// murder of jews
     • Hutu's genocide -> Tutsi's in Rwanda
     • stages of genocide: 1.diff. social cond. 2.scapegoating of less powerful group 3.dehumanisation 4.passivity of bystanders
     • dehumanisation
     • obedience to authority// Milgram

4. AO2

   • prisons
     • (+) importation model// Harer & Steffenseimer data from 58 US prisons, found black inmates ^ of agg. but low alcohol+drug issues than white inmates, relfected real life
     • (-) studies found gang inmates no more likely to engage in violent activity,
       • however could be due to gang members feeling isolated then restricting opp.
     • (+) McCorkle found that overcrowding ect. significantly influence violent behavour
       • Woodhill.
   • (+) RWA P: explains violence against foreingers+refugees
     • immigrants//outgroup//dehumanised
   • (-) gender bias// can't be grenralised
     • all males.