Psychology aggression – Flashcards

A set of brain structure that lie in the middle of the brain, it is responsible for emotions needed for survival like fear and aggression

A structure in the brain that recognises emotion, problems with the amygdala may cause aggression.

A case of a woman whose amygdala was electrically stimulated during an operation, she became threatening and verbally aggressive until the electrical current was turned off

In 1966 he killed 13 people, left behind a note asking doctors to examine his brain and found out that he had a brain tumour pressing against his aygfala

It is difficult to research the human brain because it is unethical to manipulate the human brain, therefore must use animal brains, which are similar but not similar enough for us to make a direct comparison.

A male sex hormone that causes aggression, both men and women have it but usually men have more

Injecting animals with testosterone or removing the testes leads to increased or decreased levels of aggression. Castrating a male animal lowers its testosterone levels, making the animal less aggressive. But if the same animal is ten injected with testosterone its aggression is restored to a level similar to that before the castration

taking blood samples from humans, measures testosterone level to compare it to their aggressiveness. Some correlations studies have found a relationship between high testosterone levels and questionnaire results showing greater reported aggression

StrengthsL In animals there is a clear cause and effect relationship between testosterone and aggression -Human studies show a relationship between aggression and testosterone in correlation studies Weakness: -Not all humans with high testosterone levels are aggressive. -This explanation of aggression completely ignores the impact of upbringing and social circumstances on our behaviour

Strengths: -Animal studies that have involved damage to or removal of the amygdala offer evidence for its link with aggression. -Case study of Charles Whitman and King are evidence Weakness: -Studying the human brain is difficult and can be very risky, there is no way to make sure areas of the brain are linked to aggression -Animal and humans are different in many ways, so animal research may not applicable to humans

Children learn aggression from watching and learning from role models

Attention: Paying attention to the person being observed Memory: Being able to remember what we have seen until it is needed Reproduction: being able to act out what we see (modelling) Motivation: The incentive to copy what has been seen

Role model: The person we observe and learn from We are more likely to model a person who is popular, attractive, a similar age or the same gender to us. Identification is when we adopt the behaviours, attitudes and beliefs of a role model.

Vicarious learning is when we learn from the fortunes or misfortunes of others, because the rewards see others receive will motivate us to copy them and get a reward too. Essentially, we are learning through the consequences of other peoples actions.

Found that children were more likely to copy a adult attacking large bobo doll if the adult was rewarded for it. If the adult was punished the child would be less likely to copy.

Strengths: -Bandura's (1961) study supports social learning theory because he found that children do copy aggression -Many tragedies such as school shootings, have been linked to TV ad video game violence Weakness: -They could be naturally aggressive -Many children watch violence but not all children copy it

-The biological theory sees aggression as something that comes from our body, something we are born with -We are driven to be aggressive through the levels of testosterone in our body, or damage to our amygdala

-Social learning theory believes we learn aggression from people around us -We are motivated to be aggressive through vicarious learning from observing other people

Aim: To investigate whether aggression varied between cultures. They were also interested in the different aggression levels between males and females Procedure: 400 psychology student volunteered to participate. hardware at university in Japan, the other half in Spain. All students were asked to complete a questionnaire that measured different types of aggression: verbal, physical, anger and hostility. The questionnaires included Likert-style questions Findings: Ramirez found that Japanese students showed more physical aggression than Spanish students Spanish students showed more verbal aggression and anger than Japanese students Males showed more physical and verbal aggression and hostility than females in both cultures. Male and females in both culture showed the same level of anger Conclusion Ramirez concluded that despite the cultural stereotype of the Japanese culture of being shy and not showing emotion, Japanese males and females were more physically aggressive than Spanish students. The finding that Spanish students are more verbally aggressive is consistent with the stereotype of Spaniards being expressive of their emotions. The study supports previous theories that males are more aggressive than females. This could be because of the way men are raised, as masculine, or because of hormonal differences between the sexes.

Strengths: -The questions produce quantitative data so cannot be interpreted differently by researchers -All students had volunteered and were fully aware that the results would be published - it was an ethical study. Weaknesses: -Some questionnaires are criticised because the answers can be interpreted in such a way that they meet the expectations of the researcher. -All the participants were psychology students - they may have guessed the aim of the study (response bias) or answered questions in a socially desirable way.

Aims: Wanted to see whether people who played violent video games became aggressive. Procedure: Laboratory experiment with 210 psychology students split into 2 groups IV = The type of video game played (condition 1= non-violent, condition 2 = violent). DV = The level of aggression shown after playing the video game (measured by how loud and long they gave a punishment to their opponent for). Participants were told the study was about the development of motor skills so they would not know the true aims. Participants were instructed to play a video game in a cubicle for 15mins against an opponent (who didn't really exist). After 15mins they were told to play a competitive game against their opponent and the winner would give out a punishment of a loud noise - they could choose how loud to make the noise. The experimenter measured how loud and long a punishment each participant gave to their 'opponent'. Findings: The longest and loudest punishments were given by the participants who played the violent video game. 2) Women gave larger punishments than men. Conclusions: Playing violent video games affected level of aggression. Video games made the participants think in an aggressive way. Long term use of violent video games could result in a permanent change to aggressive thought patterns. Evaluation: This case study can be said to be unethical because they did not protect their participants physically or psychologically.

Aims: Williams wanted to measure children's behaviour before and after television had been introduced to the town (a remote town in British Columbia, Canada) and also to compare the children's behaviour with that of other towns that did have TV. Procedure: Natural experiment IV = television before and after its introduction DV = the children's behaviour They measured a range of behaviours before and after the town received TV Two observers watched children in the school playground and classrooms but they didn't start recording until the children were used to their presence. This was to make sure the children didn't behave differently. They measured the number of physically aggressive acts (e.g. hitting) and verbally aggressive acts (e.g. teasing). They called the town 'Notel' (not it's real name) and also studied two neighbouring towns with similar population and economy - 'Unitel' (had one TV channel) and 'Multitel' (had many TV channels). All three towns were studied before TV was introduced in Notel, and for two years after. Findings: -The children were twice as aggressive after TV was introduced to Notel. -Children and adults spent less than half the time they had in the past on leisure activities. -Children began to see increased gender differences between boys and girls after watching TV -Children became less creative. -IQ scores dropped slightly after the introduction of TV. -Although aggression in all towns increased over the two-year study, aggression in Notel children increased far more in comparison. Unitel and Multitel were quite similar. Conclusions: Notel showed increased levels of aggression because of the introduction of television. Television also reduced time spent on leisure activities, lowered creativity and intelligence slightly.

Strengths: -This study was a natural experiment, which means it has greater realism than a laboratory observation -Discreet cameras were used so the children would have acted naturally because they did not know they were being watched Weakness: -Because of the close nature of the community, it might be that the children were more aggressive after watching TV, but that parents and teachers were unwilling to report this to maintain the reputation of the community -Other psychologist have reported that the programmes watched by children contained less violence than programmes watched by mainland children

Aim: Wanted to measure children's behaviour before and after television had been introduced to the town and also to compare the children's behaviour with that in other towns that did have tv Procedure: Natural experiment. Measured a range of behaviours before and after the town received television IV: Before and after television was produced DV: -Aggression of children in the playground and classroom -leisure activities the community were involved in -intelligence level of children -Creative and reading ability of children To measure aggression, two observers watched children in the school playground and classroom. They measured the number of physical aggression and verbal aggression seen. The participant's leisure time was recorded to see if time spent on leisure activities changed. They measured 3 towns: Notel-had no television, Unitel-had only one channel, Multitel-had many TV channel Findings/result: -The children were twice as aggressive after television was introduced -Children and adults spend less than half the time they had spent previously on other leisure activities -Children became less creative -IQ dropped slightly -Notel children increased far more in comparison Conclusion: Notel showed increased levels of aggression because of the introduction of television, we know this because aggression increased far more here than in towns that already received television. Television also reduced time spent on leisure activities and lowered creativity and intelligence slightly

Strengths: -Natural experiment, greater realism -Children monitored over a long period of time, behaviour before and after TV could be directly compared -Children were observed in their natural surroundings Weaknesses: -The researchers did not control what or how much TV the children were watching -Observations might be biased because the researchers may have expected higher levels of aggression

Similarities: -Both were natural experiments -Conducted in real life communities which both never had access to broadcast television. -Both studies conducted observations to measure the amount of aggression children displayed. -Both studies used questionnaires to ask teachers and parents about their children's behaviours. Differences: -St Helena was so remote that it had developed a unique culture of parental control. Notel was not unique in this way. -On St Helena most people knew each other and their families, managed to keep better watch over children -Notel was on the mainland and had access to popular cultural trends which may have been different in levels of aggression shown. -Adults on St Helena may have been reluctant to admit that the children had aggressive behaviour

Participants should not be lied to unless it is absolutely necessary

Participants should be told the real aim of the study when it is over

A researcher mush be qualified to conduct the study

Participants should not experience any physical or psychological harm (ex. distress, anxiety, embarrassment or concern)

A research method used to measure the number of times a behaviour or event occurs within one or several forms of media

1. Decide what aggressive behaviour is 2. Develop a list of behaviour or categories that could be measured as aggressive. 3. Decide on the sample they need to study 4. Tally the number of times aggression occured

Tallying: The researcher uses a tally to record how many times they witnessed the aggressive acts on the list, numbers are added to give the total number of aggressive acts. Choice of categories: The list of behaviours needs to be a good example of what is being measured. Sampling: Good content analysis depends on looking at a good sample of programmes

Each researcher has their own views, and this means that the results of a study might not be reliable. This could lead to researchers coming to different conclusions.

Who they work for: Local education authority, private schools, self employed Skills needed: Communication skills, empathic listening, be able to talk to a range of people Qualifications: Degree in psychology, experience in education, doctorate in educational psychologist Chartered status: To achieve chartered status an Ed psych must prove they are Continuing Professional Development, doing courses to keep up to date in their area of specialism

-Observation - the teacher is aksed to observe and keep records, the ed psych may go into the classroom to watch the child -Aim: try to find out what causes anger, and how to prevent/identify incidents -Ed Psych works with parents, teachers and children to solve a child's behavioural problems -The child will learn what feelings and emotions come before an outburst and taught techniques to calm down

Censorship is preventing information from being viewed that is age inappropriate, violent or sexual. The watershed is one example, in which TV channels are not to broadcast4 inappropriate content before nine

-Protects children from viewing acts they are not ready for -It stops them from imitating role models on television (social learning theory) -Studies show that the vast majority of people ar ein favour of the watershed to protect children

-Censorship restricts people's freedom to choose what they want to wach -Restricts freedom of speech -Some governments may use censorship to control members of society -Watershed may not be needed if there are fewer violent acts per hour on TV