Outline And Evaluate Two Social Psychological Explanations Of Aggression 24 Marks
Outline and evaluate two social psychological explanations of human aggression
(24 Marks)
Deindividuation theory is a social psychological explanation of aggression. It explains how rational individuals can become aggressive hooligans in a mob or crowd as it suggests that losing their sense of identity and self awareness deindividuates people. Individuals in groups fail to see the consequences of their actions, and the social norms they would normally follow are forgotten and this is when aggressive behaviour occurs. Deindividuation causes people unquestioningly to follow group norms instead of personal norms and sometimes these group norms lead to aggression. According to Zimbardo, in a crowd we feel anonymous and unaccountable and thus are less concerned about negative evaluations by …show more content…
Bandura stated that aggressive behaviour is learned either through direct experience of vicarious experience. Direct experience refers to if a child is rewarded for being aggressive, that behaviour is positively reinforced and more likely o be repeated. Vicarious experience refers to when a child sees a role model behaving in a particular way and imitates the behaviour of the model. Aggression is learned through reinforcement of direct experiences and imitation of aggressive models. Bandura believed that four criteria need to be met for imitation to occur; attention to role model, then retention where the observed behaviours are memorised, then reproduction of the target behaviour, and lastly motivation where direct and vicarious reinforcements as well as punishments influence the motivation to imitate. There are a number of factors that influence imitative behaviour. Individuals are more likely to copy modelled behaviour if it results it outcomes that they value and the model is powerful and admired and similar, for example age,
(24 Marks)
Deindividuation theory is a social psychological explanation of aggression. It explains how rational individuals can become aggressive hooligans in a mob or crowd as it suggests that losing their sense of identity and self awareness deindividuates people. Individuals in groups fail to see the consequences of their actions, and the social norms they would normally follow are forgotten and this is when aggressive behaviour occurs. Deindividuation causes people unquestioningly to follow group norms instead of personal norms and sometimes these group norms lead to aggression. According to Zimbardo, in a crowd we feel anonymous and unaccountable and thus are less concerned about negative evaluations by …show more content…
Bandura stated that aggressive behaviour is learned either through direct experience of vicarious experience. Direct experience refers to if a child is rewarded for being aggressive, that behaviour is positively reinforced and more likely o be repeated. Vicarious experience refers to when a child sees a role model behaving in a particular way and imitates the behaviour of the model. Aggression is learned through reinforcement of direct experiences and imitation of aggressive models. Bandura believed that four criteria need to be met for imitation to occur; attention to role model, then retention where the observed behaviours are memorised, then reproduction of the target behaviour, and lastly motivation where direct and vicarious reinforcements as well as punishments influence the motivation to imitate. There are a number of factors that influence imitative behaviour. Individuals are more likely to copy modelled behaviour if it results it outcomes that they value and the model is powerful and admired and similar, for example age,