Agression

Agression

1. Biological

   • PFC and Amugdala and neuro connections
   • Bottom up, Top down
   • Orbitofrontal cortex
   • Thalmus
   • Low serotonin, high dopamine
   • Hormonal: Cortisol, testosterone
   • Worrior gene MAOA-L
   • Ethology - humans are animals
     • Evolutionary
       • Innate
       • adaptive
       • Evolutionary modules - Schema - Effects perceptions, expectations and leads to our behaviour
       • EEA, Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness
       • Agression is naturally and sexually selective
       • Ultimate Causes (EEA) cause aggression not proximate causes
       • Aggression gives you status
       • Buss
       • Issues and debates: Social Sensitivity, Alpha agenda Bias, Lacks scientific credibility, deterministic, reductionist: (cognitive, free will, Learning, Drugs, deindividuation, War, Protection)
       • Post Hoc Speculation about EEA, Non falsifiable, it reduces the scientific credibility of psychology, can not be operationalised or tested.
     • Instinct
     • Common to a species
       • Nisbett: Southen states
     • Drive
     • Adaptive - Insurese your genes suvive
       • Dominance Hierachies, Ritulistic agression - New territories
         • Petitt - Playgroups -- AO2 docent explain adults because of there PFC - Socially sensitive if you have an agressive child its your fault for being a bad parent. Culture, !KungSan Kalahan - Possible to learn to control aggression.
         • Jane Goodall, Chimps mass slaughter
     • Extrapolation
     • Humans are animals
       • Inate releasing mechanism - Neural network
         • Fixed action patterns are defined as following by Lea (1984) 1. Stereotyped or relatively unchanging sequences of behaviours 2. Universal within a species 3. Unaffected by learning 4. Will follow the same sequence until it is completed 5. Only occur in a specific situation 6. A response to a specific stimulus
           • Tinbergen: Sticklebacks - Red Belly causes the fixed action pattern to start
         • Signed Stimulus
         • Reductionist - Ignores cognition, Social norms and values
         • But genetics in aggression - MAOA-L, supports the idea. 1 in 3 have the gene but not all agressive.
     • Some people more aggressive than others, individual differences. 0.3% homiside rates in Iceland, Honduras 1%

2. Psychological

   • LT
     • Behaviourism - Brain is a black box, only study behaviour
       • Classical Watson and Raynor, Pavlov
       • Operent - Skinner
     • SLT, Observational learning, Vicarious reinforcement. Includes Cognition
       • Model, Observational learning, Vicarious reinforcement, Cognition
       • Learn spontaneously ---> Mediating cognitive factors ---> Perform or not
       • 4 Major cognitive functions == Attention, Recording(memory), Evaluation of ability, Motivation.
       • Self-Efficacy. Reciprocal Determinism. Mental Representations and Expectations R is memories and E is rewards or punishments.
         • RD- Social Sensitivity says that perents will determine this, but dose give children free will to an extent
   • Deindivation
   • Institutional Agression
   • Media
   • Social Psychological Approaches
     • Frustration - Agression: Id - Agression, Thanatos - Death instinct, Catharsis, Displasment.
       • DOLLARD, Any event or stimulus that prevents an individual from attaining some goal and its accompanying reinforcing quality. - - Frustration is when your goal has been blocked
         • We can be aggressive without being frustrated, and we can be frustrated without being aggressive