Social Psychological Theories of Aggression
With increasing violence in the Big Brother House I have been asked to
create a report that explains this violence occurring in the Big
Brother House in terms of two or more social psychological theories.
In general the violence in the big brother house is escalating and
theories need to be brought to the attention of the media bosses in
order to explain this aggression. The violence does not need to be
stopped as the house mates are not breaking any of the Big Brother
rules behaving in this manner. Violence on this show can not be viewed
as a negative aspect as it increases the number of viewers. However it
does need to be explained logically.
One explanation could be the Social Learning Theory.
In order for such learning to take place a person must observe persons
behaviour and imitate this in the future. The concept of
identification is also important as the individual is more likely to
imitate some he/she identifies with, in this case it could be another
house mate or perhaps previous contestants on the Big Brother show.
For this there are three stages
· The Registration Stage, where the observer must pay attention to the
model. The observer's attention is influenced by characteristics of
both the observer and the model.
· The Storage Stage is when the observer may code and organise the
information in relation to any reinforces present, past experiences,
expectation, relevance etc…
· And finally the Retrieval Stage is when the reinforcers determine
whether the behaviour is imitated and the observer's performance will
be dependant on the person's ability to perf...
... middle of paper ...
... the Big Brother
contestants personal goals would involve daily tasks and placing
people up for eviction. When we attain these goals the energy is
released, and when we fail or the goal is blocked (for e.g. the person
put up for eviction is not evicted) then the energy becomes built-up
(frustration). This must be released and so Dollard suggested that it
was via aggression. This then parallels with Freud's explanation of
aggression in which a person becomes aggressive from frustration and
this anger is projected onto other, less powerful people or objects
(scapegoat theory). The projection is a way of protecting a person's
ego from self-aggression.
This projected aggression in a confined area with other people that
share that same space leads to arguments and (as a result) aggression
within the Big Brother house.
Aggression is any behavior that results in physical or emotional injury to a person or animal, or one that leads to property damage or destruction. Kostenik,et. al, (2014) identified that aggression can either be physical or verbal. Aggression is a behavior characterized by verbal or physical attack, yet it may be appropriate and self-protective or destructive and violent (Perry, 2007). Further, aggression is a spontaneous, impulsive act of anger. It is observable behavior which can depreciate, threaten, or hurt a person or destroy an object. It is unplanned and usually occurs during times of stress (Long and Brendtro, cited by Zirpoli, 2014). Aggression is viewed as a loss of self-control or an impulse break-through. Aggressive
The Power and Control Wheel was designed to explain a set of patterned behaviors perpetrators used to control their victims. It conceptualized that violence did not derive from a single incident/explosion, rather the violent behavior was a characteristic that was innate and/ or conditioned within the individual (Pence & Paymar, 1993). Furthermore; as depicted by the Power and Control diagram, perpetrators frequently displayed behaviors that included intimidation, using children, minimizing, denying, blaming, economic abuse, male privilege, and coercion and threats (Deb, Brisbane, 2012 or the national whatever). The Power and Control Wheel is now widely used by professionals throughout the
The focus of a psychologist’s study would be to identify the physical, social, mental and emotional issues within the environment that affect human psyche through a predisposition towards violence. This study would involve evaluation of personal life experiences of gang members, to identify the presence of common stressors and factors. Further investigation would be conducted to establish an understanding of how these factors initiate violence within the psyche.
Aggression is defined as any behavior intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid the harm according to Baumeister & Bushman (2014). A study was conducted in 1967 by Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony LePage, to determine whether the presence of weapons would elicit aggressive behavior from an individual (Baumeister & Bushman, 2014). They hypothesized that participants were likely to associate weapons, particularly firearms, to aggression and violence, which would cause observing a weapon to elicit an aggressive response. The experiment determined that the presence of weapon can elicit an aggressive response from people ready to act aggressively. In the study, participants were shocked up to seven times then given the opportunity to
Philosophers since the beginning of time have debated over the source and cause of violent tendencies in humans that in turn produce global conflicts, to solve the age old question, man or beast? Global conflict can with out a doubt be completely accredited to the human race, but what are the particular reasons for humans to cause such conflicts? There are many topics that have been argued by philosophers and historians over the connection between the reasons the human race and global conflict. One such topic is the gender based theories and sexual differences of men and women. Others believe that religion, with particular emphasis on monotheistic beliefs, is the major basis of conflict among the human race up to this day. Another important fact to take into consideration when attempting to understand why there is global conflict in the human race; is the significance of individual cultures amongst opposing or simply separated tribes, groups, states, and nations. Lastly, one must consider the physical evidence, for example, figuring out what can be learned about previous prehistoric societies from anthropology and paleontology. The basis of the debate is the nature of mankind; is it in our nature to be like wild animals with a lust to kill with the only difference between us and animals being intelligence, or is it that mankind over the time of existence have developed such things as material goods, religious belief systems, and all different ways of life that are responsible for violence and conflict throughout the history of the world. There is no clear cut answer to why mankind acts in such a way, but one can develop a very strong argument or theory which includes and relat...
Social psychologists conclude that the frustration-aggression hypothesis remains tentative and that multiple factors may be associated with the expression of aggressive behavior. Critics of the frustration aggression theory point out that frustration does tend to lead to aggression in some circumstances but not always (Berkowitz, 1990). Theorists also suggested that a broader term than frustration should be used as the source of aggression because aggression can be elicited or instigated by other factors, such as the character and perceived intent of the instigator, personality factors and life experiences of the frustrated individual, and environmental conditions (Meyer,
Burgess and Draper argue coercive patterns of family interaction represent the principal causal pathway that connects ecological instability to violence within families. They maintain this raises the possibility that some of the common correlates of such violence are themselves reactions to sudden or chronic ecological instability. For example, alcoholism, depression, and anxiety may be responses to ecological stresses in the family, such as loss of employment, excessive financial debt, or divorce. Burgess and Draper suggest that violence towards one's mate or children may consequently be a direct result of ecological instability. They argue that certain individual traits (e.g. problem drinking), which have previously been assumed to precipitate violent behavior, may actually be the result of the same factors that lead to family violence itself.
Popular Culture and Violent Behavior Introduction In 1871 E.B. Taylor defined culture as 'that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and many other capabilities and habits acquired by... [members] of society. '[1] Taylor was talking about 'high' culture, an aristocratic view of the past-times such as ballet, theatre and art. Popular culture, on the other hand, is a form of 'low' culture and is based primarily on marketing, mass production and revenue.
Assertiveness is the ability to formulate and communicate one's own thoughts, opinions and wishes in a clear, direct and non-aggressive way. People who are assertive are often competitive and their behavior is goal directed. Though they play to win they also retain fairness and act in accordance with the rights of others.
Modern violence is present all around us. No matter which way one turns, violence will be there to greet him. Whether it be on the street, in school, or even at home, violence cannot be avoided. The presence of this violence in society leads to stress. This stress is to a large extent the cause of the similarity mentioned earlier, namely drinking. Anyone from the local bully to a armed robber can be representatives of modern violence. Although it is present in everyday life, this violence can be seen easier in any form of media.
A high school student cried as she recounted being tormented in middle school by her classmates. For some reason she was targeted as a “dog,” and day after day she had to walk the halls with kids barking at her. How did it stop? The girl said she stopped it. But how? She picked out another girl, someone worse off than herself, and started to call her dog. Then the others forgot about her. Then they barked at the other girl instead. Girls may be made of sugar and spice and everything nice, but on the inside, they are just plain mean. “Girls tease, insult, threaten, gossip maliciously, and play cruel games with their friends’ feelings and set up exclusive cliques and hierarchies in high schools.” (Omaha World Herald, 10A).
Why are we as aggressive and can we develop a way to reduce our ever increasing aggressive behavior? What this research paper is going to cover just might answer that. First we’re going to go over different types of aggression and the differences between them. Next will be the several theories about aggression. This will cover from a biological and genetic point of view to how our diet affects our behaviors in negative ways. We will even look into how our culture has an effect on our aggression levels. Last is what ways can we potentially reduce and manage our angry tendencies as well as control the ever rising aggressive behavior in our society.
The psychoanalytic perspective (Erikson’s psychosocial stages), Sigmund Freud Ego or psychological defense mechanism, and behaviorism and social learning theory, are important to understanding adolescent bullying. In the psychoanalytic approach, development is discontinuous and as such occurs in stages where “people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations, and how these conflicts are resolved depends on the person’s ability to learn, to cope with others and cope with stress” (Berk 2010, p.15). According to Sigmund Freud from this theory, individuals use a mechanism called psychological defense mechanisms which when they feel an overpowering anxiety, the ego employs to protect themselves against unwanted, scary feelings or weaknesses within their psyche or consciousness. The use of these defense mechanisms can be useful sometimes and also hurtful at other times to us and others, which emanates as aggressive behavior e.g. bullying [2]. Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development are important for understanding bully behavior. According to Erikson, a “basic psychological conflict which is resolved along a scale from positive to negative determines a healthy or maladaptive outcomes of each stage” [Berk 2010, p.16], in other words as the child grows and goes through each of the psychosocial stages, he or she negotiates new cognitive and emotional experiences which enables him or her to pass through the stage with either a positive or negative outcome. The effects and results of a negative outcome from the stages can be used to describe aggressive behavior such as bullying [Berk 2010, p.16]. According to the behaviorism and learning theory, they believed that b...
Aggression is a problem that is very common in many children and that if not addressed early enough would continue through adolescence and later on in life. Aggression can be caused by a multitude of factor, which is sometimes considered part of a normal developmental stage; never the less aggression can also be a symptom of a multitude of disruptive behaviors (Barzman & Findling, 2008). It is important that parents learn to deal with this type of behaviors and find ways to effectively modify the child’s misconduct; according to Barzman & Findling (2008) the intricacy of aggression needs to be addressed through complex assessment strategies.
Toch, H (1966) The Social Psychology of Violence. . In Megargee, I & Hokanson, E (Eds.) The Dynamics of Agression (1970) Harper & Row Publishers pp. 160 -169