Aggression; Attraction & Culture
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PSY4151 - MODULE 3 – AGGRESSION; ATTRACTION & CULTURE Prescribed text: Vaughan, G. M., Hogg, M. A., Maltby, J., Day, L., & Has suRvival value and animal is consideRably moRe aggRessive to Macaskill, A. (2016). PeRsonality and social psychology (custom membeRs of its own species. Humans also have an inheRited fighting publication). Sydney, AustRalia: PeaRson AustRalia. instinct (innate impulse to aggress). Implications foR humans: 1/ when we staRt being violent, we don’t seem to know when to stop, CHAPTER 8 – AGGRESSION 2/ to kill we generally need weapons. DEFINITIONS AND MEASUREMENT 3. Evolutionary psychology: survival of fittest Definitions DeRived fRom DaRwinian theoRy: specific behaviouR has evolved to AggRession can be studied in expeRimental or naturalistic settings. promote survival of genes, i.e. live long enough to pRocReate. Definitions on what is ‘aggRessive’ diffeRs; it’s paRtly shaped by FoR humans, the goal to aggress is adaptive including social and societal and cultuRal noRms. economic advantage, either to depend the ResouRces we have oR acquiRe new ones. Michael Carlson: AggRession is the ‘intent to harm’. Social and biosocial explanations: role of learning in social context Measuring aggression Two biosocial theories (in the context of social aggression, theories In pRactice, most scientists use definitions that coRRespond to their that emphasise an innate component, though not the existence of a values (a higher order concept thought to provide a structure for full blown instinct): organising attitudes). Different attempts to opeRationalise aggression using analogues (substitute for real thing), e.g.: 1. Frustration-aggression hypothesis - Bandura’s inflatable bobo doll Based on John Dollard’s proposition: all fRustRation leads to - Pushing electRic button to shock someone aggression and aggression comes fRom fRustRation. Used to explain - Self-reports prejudice and inteRgRoup aggRession. Operational definition: defines a theoretical term in a way that Flaw: loose definition of fRustRation and the difficulty in pRedicting allows it to be manipulated or varied. which kinds of fRustRating ciRcumstances may lead to aggression. GENERAL THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 2. Excitation-transfer model Explanations fall into two bRoad categoRies: biological and social (the The expRession of aggRession is a function of: 1/learned behaviouR, nature-nurture contRoveRsy). 2/ some excitation fRom another souRce, and 3/ the person’s inteRpRetation of the aRousal state. TheoRy can be applied to the Biological explanations experience of sexual aRousal as well. AggRession is an instinct (pattern of genetically predetermined responses), therefore should show the characteristics of an instinct. Hate crimes: class of violence against members of a stereotyped According to Arthur Riopelle, an instinct is: group. - Goal-directed and terminates in a specific consequence Aggression can be learned - Beneficial to the individual of the species Social learning theoRy (SLT): championed by Bandura – human social - Adapted to the normal environment behaviours is not innate but leaRned fRom appropriate models. - Shared by most membeRs of the species (individual FeatuRes: manifestation vaRies) - The acquisition of behaviour or a behavioural sequence - Developed in a cleaR way as the individual matuRes - The instigation of oveRt acts - Unlearned on the basis of individual expeRience. - The maintenance of the behaviour Three approaches: SLT emphasises the role of experience which can be direct or vicarious. Learning by direct experience (acquiring a behaviour 1. Psychodynamic theory: aggression = innate & functional because we are rewarded) is based on B.F. Skinner’s operant Frued pRoposed that human aggression stems fRom an innate ‘death reinforcement principles, behaviouR is maintained by RewaRds and instinct’, Thanatos, which is in opposition to ‘life instinct’, Eros. punishments. 1-factor theory: functional aspect of is to release the natural build- Learning by vicarious experience (acquiring a behaviour after up of tension. observing another person was rewarded for it) learning occurs Neo-Freudian’s moRe modern view is that people seek healthy through the process of modelling (tendency to reproduce the action, release for the primitive survival instincts basic to all animal attitudes and emotional responses exhibited by a real-life or symbolic model) and imitation of otheR people. 2. Ethology: aggression = innate but elicited Ethology is a branch of biology devoted to the study of instincts Children leaRn Rules of conduct fRom those aRound them, so (fixed action patterns), among all members of a species when living aggression becomes internalised. Once established, aggressive in their natural environment. sequences aRe peRsistent. If behaviouR = leaRned, change is possible. 2-factor theory: 1/urge to aggress is innate, 2/expRession is According to Bandura, whetheR a peRson aggResses in a situation conditional on appRopRiate simulation by enviRonmental releasers depends on: (specific environmental stimuli thought to trigger aggressive - A peRson’s previous expeRience of otheR’s aggRessive behaviouR responses). - How successful aggressive behaviouR has been in the past maRital satisfaction; behaviouR pRomotes Relationship and tRust 1 PSY4151 - MODULE 3 – AGGRESSION; ATTRACTION & CULTURE CHAPTER10 – CULTURE Ethnology = the science of Races. THE CULTURAL CONTEXT Rise of cross-cultural psychology What is culture? How much and thorough what processes does it Etic-emic distinction: affect people? How is culture affected by people? -etic = analyses of behaviouR that focus on universals, e.g. we all This chapteR investigates the universality of social psychological eat, sleep and pRocReate, e.g. poweR distance processes and about the Relevance of social psychological pRinciples -emic = analyses howeveR, would focus on the varied ways in which to cultures in which such principles were not developed. these activities was carried out in any specific cultural setting. E.g. Are they simply diffeRences in normative practices, or do they go amae, (passive love) is pRobably limited to Japan. Emic constRucts much deepeR—reflecting basic perceptual and cognitive processes, may gRow into etic ones, if they aRe appRopRiately investigated and or possibly even brain activity? established acRoss cultuRes. LOCATING CULTURE IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CULTURE, THOUGHT AND BEHAVIOUR Has social psychology neglected culture? Culture, cognition and attribution Ultimate attRibution erRoR: tendency to attribute bad outgroup and Experiments laRgely RegaRd cultuRe as the unpRoblematic backdRop good ingroup behaviour internally (disposition), and to attribute to research, but this method may prevent researchers realising that good outgroup and bad ingroup behaviour externally (social). cultuRe may itself be a vaRiable that influences the pRocesses being studied; if psychological vaRiables aRe manipulated only in one Fundamental attRibution erRoR: bias in attributing another’s cultuRal context, how can we be suRe that the effect of the behaviour more to dispositional than to situational causes. manipulations will be the same in anotheR cultuRe? CorRespondence bias: a general attribution bias in which people Defining culture have an inflated tendency to see behaviour as reflecting - Franz Boas: cultuRe = “the social habits of a community” (corresponding to) stable underlying personality attributes. - Peter Smith & Michael Bond: cultuRe = “systems of shaRed Western = individualist = linear and analytic thought pRocesses. meanings”. - Culture = “the set of cognitions and practices that characterise a Eastern = collectivistic = holistic and Relationship centeRed. WeakeR specific social gRoup and distinguish it fRom otheRs”. Essentially, confiRmation bias. cultuRe is the expRession of group norms at the national, Racial Richard Nisbett, used “geogRaphy of thought” do suggest that East and ethnic level. & West have diffeRent systems of thinking. WesteRneRs: CULTURE, HISTORY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY - stRuggle with “regression to the mean” by assuming Early on, VölkeRpsychologie (folk psychologists) recognised that peRmanence, existing tRend will continue groups differ in beliefs and pRactices and descRibing and explaining - downplay situational influence these differences should be the focus of social psychology. - are moRe susceptible to stereotype rebound effect (the HoweveR, as social psychology gained momentum, focus shifted to tendency for people who are instructed to suppRess theiR the individual rather than the group. steReotypes to subsequently show evidence of stRongeR steReotype expRession. Origins in cultural anthropology FactoRs which influenced ways of constRuing the self: Entativity: the property of a group that makes it seem like a coheRent, distinct and unitaRy entity. 1. Secularisation (focus on the here and now rather than the afterlife), 2. Industrialisation (people as mobile units), 3. Culture, conformity and obedience Enlightenment (a philosophy that endowed individuals with the Smith and Bond’s meta-analysis (statistical procedure that combines rationality and the ability and intellect to manage their social lives data from different studies to measure the overall reliability and and to constRuct and maintain complex systems of normative social strength of specific effect) of replicated Solomon Asch’s studies of behaviour: cultuRe). confoRmity to gRoup pRessuRe found consideRable vaRiation in the degRee of conformity acRoss different cultuRes à confoRmity is Franz Boas