Nida Dyer 1

Aggression Essay Plans

THE ROLE OF GENETIC FACTORS IN AGGRESSION
Intro:
Aggression is behaviour directed towards another intended to
harm or injure.
Assumes aggression is caused due to internal factors.
Factors include genetic influences, biochemical influence and
brain structure.
Paragraph 1:
Biochemistry studied in 2008 by Nelson and noted selective
breeding experiments can lead to more aggression.
Cairns 1983 showed this in this study of mice. He created
highly aggressive males and female mice that showed
aggressive behaviour in middle age rather than old or young.
Selective breeding suggests that aggression will be inherited.
Shows how important genetic process in understanding
human behaviour.
Evaluation:
Difficult to generalise as it is animal research different
physiology
Deterministic says that selective breeding will lead to
aggression
Ethical issues research conducted on animals.
Doesnt take into account Evolutionary approach suggests
that aggression is caused in terms of individuals survival and
reproduction.
Paragraph 2:
Research not carried out on animals was Sandberg 1961 who
identified XYY karyotype.
Most people have XY but it is possible for some men to have
XYY.
Research of Court-Brown found sample of 314 patients with
XYY and found they have an increased likelihood of aggressive
behaviour and therefore requested tem to be hospitalised
immediately.
Evaluation:
Research was considered correct without critical examination.
Sample bias only researched on XYY type chromosome
Doesnt show cause and effect
Does not take into account social learning aggressive
behaviour is learnt and repeated
Paragraph 3:
Theilgaard 1984 is likely to correct when she says the issue is
more complex as a whole many other influences such as
neural and hormonal mechanisms.

Nida Dyer 2
Aggression Essay Plans
He researched the personality traits of XYY men compared it
to XY and XXY men. Part of the research compared the
aggressiveness of the men.
Theilgaards research shows that 1 in 10,000 men have XYY
and that no single characteristic except height has been
associated with the XYY condition.. Since research in this area
is conflicting, not possible to conclude that XYY chromosome
causes aggressive behaviour.
Evaluation:
Social desirability men could have claimed they are more
aggressive than they really are.
Doesnt take into account other biological factors such as
testosterone, which has proven to play a part.

Paragraph 4:
Another factor that plays a role in brain structure. Amygdala is
responsible for processing emotions.
If amygdala is removed than aggression is proven to reduce
but a loss of emotions will also occur.
Phineas Gage had a railroad accident and 3 foot inch think rod
damaged his prefrontal cortex. Memory was still intact and
emotions still visible but he became very violent.
Conclusion:
Nature and nurture debate
Aggression is difficult to operationalize. Was the aggression
instrumental done for a cause of survival, or hostile
intended to harm without a valuable reason.

Nida Dyer 3
Aggression Essay Plans

INSTITUTIONAL AGGRESSION
Intro:
Aggression is behaviour intended to harm or injure directed
towards another human being could include physical and
psychological harm.
Institutional aggression occurs when aggressive behaviour
becomes the norm of an institution.
Paragraph 1:
Importation model developed by Irwin and Cressey 1962
claims that prisoners bring their own personal traits and
history which influences they way individuals behave and
adapt to the environment.
They argue that the normative system developed on the
outside is imported into the prison.
Supported by a study of 202 new inmates in a Canadian
prison. Inmates were given a self-report on levels on alcohol
consumption by the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS).
Found that high levels of aggression were associated with high
scores on ADS.
Supports the idea that it is the prisoners causing aggression
not the institution.
Evaluation:
Self report social desirability
Demand Characteristics
No direct cause and effect shown which makes it unreliable.
Doesnt take into account SLT aggressive behaviour is learnt.
Paragraph 2:
De-individuation is supported in Zimbardos study here he
focuses on the environment of the prison and suggest that it
causes the violence and not personality of the individual as his
study gave everyone a 50% chance to be chosen.
He had 24 males, split into two groups, one-group guards and
the other group prisoners. Guards had complete control over
prisoners and treated prisoners brutally.
Prisoners conformed and started acted harshly back.

Nida Dyer 4
Aggression Essay Plans
Concluded that both groups were de-individuated lost their
identity.
Evaluation:
Low ecological validity does not relate to real life difficult to
generalise.
Deception participants not told the real aim and therefore no
consent.
Gender Bias all males, maybe women would react differently.
Doesnt take into account evolutionary aggression done in
terms of individuals need and survival.

Paragraph 3:
Deprivation model developed by Peterson and Peterline 1999.
Argues that aggressive behaviour is the product of stressful
and oppressive environment.
Supported by research done by Hodgkinson et al 1985 found
trainee nurses more likely to suffer violent assault that
experienced nurses as trainee nurses still training and more
likely to face the violence of patients.
Evaluation:
Doesnt take into account biological aggression can be
inherited.
Sample bias only done in a hospital with nurses.
Individual differences people have different locus of control,
can have internal or external.
Conclusion:
Dispositional hypothesis personality plays a role
Aggression difficult to operationalize hostile or instrumental?
Individuals interpretation of aggression and therefore will be
different for everyone.

Nida Dyer 5
Aggression Essay Plans

GROUP DISPLAY AS AN ADAPTIVE RESPONSE

Intro:
Aggression is behaviour directed towards another intended to
harm or injure.
About relationship between group membership and displays of
aggression.
Explains why people behave differently in a group links to
evolutionary which explains aggression in terms of
reproduction and survival in which instrumental aggression
may be necessary.
Paragraph 1:
Xenophobia is fear of outsiders
People create in-groups and out-groups in which they divide
up people and are more likely to be aggressive in out-groups.
Aggressive behaviour in groups is seen in Sports events
Evans and Rowe 2002 analysed 40 football matches between
1999-2000.
Match was played between English club side and English
Nationside. They interviewed officers after the game.
Concluded that nationside more aggressive as it was outgroup.
Links too evolutionary because aggressive behaviour needed
for survival.
Evaluation:
Retrospective data collected from the past so may not be as
accurate.
Social desirability officers answer to make themselves look
good
Sample bias only studied one game

Nida Dyer 6
Aggression Essay Plans
Paragraph 2:
Warfare is another factor of group display.
Frued in 1930 suggested that humans have a death instinct
called a Thantos that leads id to self-destruction. Desire then
becomes an urge to be aggressive.
Only way to prevent the aggressiveness is to redirect it into
physical activities and sports.
Evaluation:
Falsifiable cannot be scientifically tested.
De-individuation ma play a role
Does not take into account individual differences may be
forced to go war to war and therefore no option but to be
aggressive and defend yourself.
Paragraph 3:
Religious Rituals are another places where aggressive
behaviour is in a group is displayed.
One type of Muslims celebrates Ashura where they harm
themselves.
Sosis 2009 believes religious rituals are a crucial feature to the
success of a religion. By harming themselves, individuals show
commitment to a group.
Supports Zimbardos theory of de-individuation as it suggests
that individuals lose their identity and do the same as the
crowd.
In addition, Deiner conducted observation of 1,300 trick or
treating children in the US findings showed that children
more likely to steal money when in large groups and wearing
costumes hidden identity = de-inviduation.
Evaluation:
Difficult to distinguish between the type of aggression.
Religious groups do not always lead to aggression, for
example religious festival of Eid.
Conclusion:
Reductionist - doesnt take into account:
SLT aggression is learnt
Biological aggression is inherited
Psychodynamic the result of unresolved conflicts
in childhood.

Nida Dyer 7
Aggression Essay Plans

NEURAL AND HORMONAL MECHANISMS IN AGRESSION

Intro:
Aggression is behaviour directed towards another intended to
harm or injure.
Assumes that aggression is located within the biological make
up of the individual.
Includes neural transmitters and hormonal mechanisms.
Paragraph 1:
Two types of neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.
Serotonin though tot reduce aggression low levels linked
with aggression.
Delville 1997 found drugs increasing serotonin production
lead to reduced levels of aggressions suggesting that low
serotonin = low aggression.
Added support from Raleigh et al 1991 study on monkeys
and found difference in aggression linked to serotonin levels.
Evaluation:
Low ecological validity lab experiment

Nida Dyer 8
Aggression Essay Plans

Difficult to generalise to humans as it is an animal research

and we have different physiology.
Does not take into account evolutionary approach to
aggression.

Paragraph 2:
Dopamine also has role in aggression low dopamine = low
aggression
Buitelaar 2003 found antipsychotics, which reduce dopamine
activity in the brain shown to reduce aggression.
Evaluation:
Limited as recent study by Coupiss and Kennedy 2008
experimented on reward pathways of mice.
Found that reward pathways of mice engaged whilst in
aggressive event.
Results suggest that individuals would intentionally seek
aggressive encounter to experience rewarding sensation.
Doesnt take into account Social learning Theory that suggests
behaviour is learnt.
Paragraph 3:
Male sex hormone testosterone though to have influence on
aggression
To test this Klinesmith et al 2006 had male college students
provide saliva to measure levels of testosterone after split into
2 groups; one with gun and other with childs toy.
Gun group was more aggressive and had more testosterone.
Evaluation:
Deterministic says that more testosterone will lead to
aggression.
Population validity college students
Gender bias all males other research suggest testosterone
and aggression higher in females
Reductionist doesnt take into account other factors i.e. brain
structure
Conclusion:
Most experiments carried out on animals and therefore is
difficult to generalise
Aggression is difficult to operationalize it may have been
used a means to survival.

Nida Dyer 9
Aggression Essay Plans

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Intro:
Aggression is behaviour directed towards another intended to
harm or injure.
Defined as learning behaviour controlled by the environment
rather than innate or internal forces.
Includes operant conditioning - reward and vicarious reenforcement punishment.
For aggression to be learnt ARRM Attention, Retention,
reproduction and Motivation.
Paragraph 1:

Nida Dyer 10
Aggression Essay Plans
To test if children learn through imitation, Bandura 1961
conducted experiment.
Nursery split into 3 groups. Group 1: children watched adult
verbally and physically abuse bobodoll. Group 2: Children
watched adult played calmly. Group 3: children saw no adult.
Bandura built frustration in he children then all taken into
individual rooms consisting of bobodoll.
Results: children exposed to violence showed violence
behaviour towards bobodoll, others showed less aggressive
behaviour.
Evaluation:
Difficult to distinguish between real or play fight.
Difficult to generalise taken place in USA Stanford Nursery
Individuals interpretation of aggression is different
Doesnt take into account evolutionary approach

Paragraph 2:
Easy to distinguish between real and play fight was
experiment conducted by Anderson and Dill.
Their experiment supports Social Learning Theory
2 groups, one played violent video games and other played
calm video games.
After playing both groups given the chance to punish each
other. The group who played violent video games was more
likely to punish.
Evaluation:
Individual differences different personality, maybe people
generally were more aggressive.
Socially sensitive research participants can learn violence
Low ecological validity doesnt relate to real life.
Doesnt take into account biological
Paragraph 3:
Bandura and Walter in 1963 had high ecological validity.
Had 3 groups, all saw a video of adult behaving aggressively
to bobodoll but different endings.
Group 1: saw adult punished. Group 2: saw adult rewarded.
Group 3: saw no consequence.
Children played depending on the film ending they saw.
Evaluation:
Demand characteristics
Population validity
Doesnt take into account psychodynamic
Conclusion:
Aggression is difficult to generalise- hostile or instrumental?

Nida Dyer 11
Aggression Essay Plans

Deterministic
Doesnt take into account pro social learning. This is where
children learn to emphasise. The more they emphasis the less
likely they are to be aggressive.

EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION TO HUMAN AGGRESSION

Intro:
Aggression is behaviour directed towards another intended to
harm or injure.
Evolutionary theory explains aggression as an adaptive
response in terms of the individuals survival and pro-creation.
Reason for aggression is survival and pro-creation forces
drive you to be aggressive.

Nida Dyer 12
Aggression Essay Plans
Second Intro:
Men develop strategies to keep women away from infidelity.
This includes mate retention, cuckoldry, sexual jealousy and
uxorocide.
Women more concerned with emotional infidelity and men
with sexual infidelity.
Men put these strategies in place due to lack of evidence that
the child is theirs.
Paragraph 1:
Mate retention includes direct guarding and negative
inducements.
Direct guarding is where the man restricts his partners sexual
autonomy. modern example of this is vigilance, when he
comes home earl to see what his wife is doing.
Negative inducement includes threats of infidelity sexual
jealousy is the number 1 cause of violence against women.
Shackelford 2005 found men who used mate retention are
more violent shows a clear link and suggest that mate
retention is the main cause of violence.
Evaluation:
Fails to mention why mate retention was caused in the first
place no cause and effect.
Social desirability.
Doesnt take into account genetic factors, which say that
aggression is inherited.
Paragraph 2:
Social desirability does not play a role in cuckoldry and sexual
jealousy study.
Cuckoldry: man financially providing for a child, not sure if it is
his, can lead to him providing for anothers offspring to lower
cuckoldry risk sexual jealousy is used as an adaptive function.
Wilson et al 1975 studied women who described their husband
as jealous more likely to be a victim of violence.
72% of these women needed medical attention following male
assault.
Evaluation:
Does not examine the cause of aggression why were men
angry in the first place? May not have been jealousy.
Gender bias Archer 2000 found equal rate of assault in men
and women women also engaged in mate retention.
Doesnt take into account Social Learning Theory which
suggests that behaviour is learnt.
Paragraph 3:
Men can guard against partners infidelity by either conferring
benefits or inflicting costs.

Nida Dyer 13
Aggression Essay Plans
Daly and Wilson 1988 found that death of a partner from
physical violence might be unintended outcome of an
evolutionary adaption designed for control not death.
July 2002 Pipat admitted battering his wife to death after
visiting ex lover.
Evaluation:
Case study difficult to generalise
Doesnt take into account psychodynamic theory, which
suggests unresolved conflicts in children.

THE EVOLUTION OF HOMICIDE

Lack of resources inability to attract long-term mates
appears to lead to increased social competition.
Loss of status: male-male homicide caused, could be
catastrophic for survival and reproduction.
Sexual jealousy men talking to your woman love triangle.
Evaluation:
Doesnt explain why people react in different ways when faced
with the same problem.
Overall Evaluation:
Aggression difficult to operationalise hostile or instrumental
reductionist doesnt take into account other theories.

DEINDIVIDUATION IN TERMS OF AGGRESSION

Intro:

Nida Dyer 14
Aggression Essay Plans
Aggression is behaviour directed towards another intended to
harm or injure.
Not all aggressive behaviour is between individuals but the
idea of large anonymous group membership is explored.
Individuals tend to behave in a more anti-social way than they
would on their own.
Second Intro:
Theory is largely based on Gustave Le Bons theory of classic
crowd.
He claimed that in a crown the combination of anonymity,
suggestibility and contagion means that a collective mind
takes possession of the individual.

Paragraph 1:
The psychological state of deindividuation is aroused when
members join a large group.
Factors that contribute are anonymity and altered
conciusmess due to drugs or alcohol.
Focus of deindividuation has been on anti-social behaviour.
Supported by Zimbardo as he created anonymity in his prison
experiment by making the participants wear uniform.
He had 24 males, split into two groups, one was guard and
other was prisoners. Both groups were in uniform and started
acted aggressively toward one another shows that
individuals lost their identity and take form of the new identity
they have become in their uniform.
Evaluation:
Population validity
Difficult to generalise America Stanford prison
Doesnt take into account Social Learning Theory Behaviour
is learnt.
Gender biased Cannavale et al 1970 found that male and
female groups responded differently under deindividuation
conditions. Only males increased aggression not female group.
This suggests that ales may be more prone to aggressiveness
when deindividuated than females.
Paragraph 2:
Another explanation of deindividuation is the faceless crowd.
This refers to the crowd as a whole being faceless but
individuals inside will not act that that normally.
Mullen 1968 analysed newspaper cuttings of sixty lynching in
the United States between 1899 and 1946. He fond that the
more people there are in the mob, the greater the savagery in
with which they killed their victims.
Supported research from Mann 1981. He analysed 21 suicide
leaps reported in US in 1960s and 1970s. He found 10/21
cases there were a crowd gathered and urged person to jump.

Nida Dyer 15
Aggression Essay Plans
These incidents took place at night so identity was hidden and
had large crowd which supports idea of anonymity.
Evaluation:
Difficult to generalise Study took place in America.
Western culture may be different in different places.
Doesnt take into account evolutionary theory aggression is
adaptive response in terms of survival and reproduction.
Cultural differences Robert Wotson 1973 analysed 23
societies who changed appearance prior going to war. Those
who changed their appearance the most were more
aggressive and destructive than those in plain clothes.
This suggests that individuals even within a mob have
individual differences and cultures react differently.
Paragraph 3:
Prentice-Dunn et al 1982 offer an alternative explanation.
They claim that anonymity reduces self awareness.
If an individual is self focused, they tend to focus on and act
accordingly to, their internalised attitudes and moral
standards, thus reducing the likelihood of anti-social
behaviour.
If an individual submerges themselves within a group, they
may lose their focus becoming less self aware and less able to
regulate their own behaviour.
Evaluation:
Un-falsifiable cannot be tested and proven that individuals
lose their identity.
Doesnt take into account genetic factors individuals could
have inherited aggression genes?
Evidence seems to be mixed a Meta analysis of 60 studies of
deindividuation (Postmes and Spears 1998) suggests there is
insufficient support for deindividuation theory and anonymity
and mobs. Neither was there much evidence about self
awareness.
Conclusion:
Aggression is difficult to operatoinalise hostile or
instrumental?

Nida Dyer 16
Aggression Essay Plans