Social Psychological Theories of Aggression Essay

The article See Aggression...Do Aggression discusses aggression, which is the biggest social problem facing America and the entire world. The article delves deeper into the question of why people are aggressive. Psychologists have theoreticized that aggression may stem from genetics or pent up frustration, but the most common and accepted is the theory that aggression is learned. This final reason for aggression is what prompted Bandera, a founder of the “social learning theory” and his team, Dorothea and Sheila Ross, to conduct “the Bobo doll study.”

The fundamentals of the social learning theory significantly describe offenders and their criminal behavior which is learned based on observation and imitation. A researcher by the name of Albert Bandura along with coworkers tested the social learning theory with several experiments on children and their imitation of aggression based on what they saw and were exposed to. Bandura’s focus was to prove that human behavior such as aggression is learned through social imitations and copying the actions of others. Walters (1966) gives details about the Bobo doll experiment and explains its purpose related to learning a violent behavior based on observation. In the experiment, the tested subjects were children of both sexes, ranging from the ages of three to six years. Some of the children were exposed to a non-aggressive adult, while the other children were placed in a room with an aggressive adult who would both physically and verbally attack the Bobo doll. The control group in the experiment was not exposed to any adult. During the second phase of the experiment, the children were left in a room by themselves with the toys, and watched to see if they would demonstrate the aggressive behavior like that of which they observed adults doing earlier. Walter (1966) describes the results as “children who had been exposed to an aggressive model showed more imitative physical and verbal

One social psychological theory of aggression is social learning theory. SLT argues that like all behaviour, aggression is learned through both direct and indirect reinforcement. Behaviour which is reinforced, be that positively or negatively – positive reinforcement occurs when the behaviour causes desired outcomes, negative reinforcement occurs when the behaviour causes undesirable outcomes - is more likely to be learned and repeated. Operant conditioning states that learning the behaviour occurs through direct reinforcement, for example if a child cleans their room and is given some sweets (positive reinforcement) or when a child cleans their room so their parent stops

Behaviorists argue that people are not born with a violent disposition; rather they learn to think and act violently as a result of their everyday experiences (Bandura, 1977). Albert Bandura (1977) states behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. This popular behavioral notion is known as the social learning theory. Bandura believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Studies of family life, for example, show that aggressive children often model the violent behaviors of their parents. In 1961, Bandura conducted the famous bobo doll experiment in which children observed the people around them behaving in various ways. The experiment involved exposing children to two different adult models; an aggressive model and a non-aggressive one. After observing the adults and their aggressive or non-aggressive behavior, the children were later allowed to play in a room with the Bobo doll by themselves. When they played with the doll by themselves, alone in a room, they began to imitate the actions they had previously observed by the adults. The children who had observed the adults aggressively playing with the doll imitated a similar aggressive behavior while playing with the doll alone. Those who observed the

The study consisted of 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School, ages between 3 to 6 years old. The children were split into three groups based off their aggression judgment from teachers and parents. The first set of children were shown aggression by adults, both male and female, beating up a Bobo Doll. The second set of children ascertained an adult model who exhibit no aggression and the control group was not acquaint to any model. The first set of children were placed in a room with the Bobo Doll after 10 minutes of watching the adult model. The results showed that the first set of children who watched the aggressive model showed

In 1961, psychologist Albert Bandura came up with the Social Learning Theory which stated that children learn social behavior, such as aggression, and alter their own through the process of observational learning- observing someone else’s behavior. To test this theory, he created the Bobo Doll Experiment. During this test, three groups of 24 children were places in different rooms with different environments. In one room, 24 children were exposed to non-aggressive behavior towards a bobo doll. In the second room, the children were exposed to aggressive behavior towards the doll. The third room served as the control group; The 24 children in that room were simply taught to ignore the doll. The results showed that the children who witnessed the violent behavior quickly picked up on it and began to act the same towards the doll. Those 24 children made more immitative aggressive responses than those in the non-aggressive and control groups (McLeod 2011). This famous experiement credits many psychologists who believe genetics has nothing to do with criminal

The non-aggressive group of kids watched a video in which the doll was being treated nicely. Lastly, the control condition group was not exposed to any video. Subsequently, children were taken to room full of toys including the Bobo Doll. The observation covered 20 minutes with a kid alone in the room. The results were labeled that children from the aggressive model group tend to imitate more aggressive responses that the other two groups. Also, researchers found that there is a difference between genders; meaning that boys tend to copy the physical aggressive behavior from the same-sex child in the video. And, they also discovered that girls were more tended to show verbally aggressive behavior. In recap, simply, paying attention to a particular behavior like the one showed in the video, would lead to imitation if it calls our

There has been extensive amounts of research on the human processes that involve the brain. An increasing amount of studies determined differences, in regards to the brain, both structurally and chemically between the two genders. In recent years, a number of neuroimaging studies have investigated the neural bases of aggression and violent behaviors. To study the development of aggression, as well as the reasons behind it, is critical as aggressive behaviors are often associated with problematic outcomes such as delinquency, substance abuse, criminal offences and related problems of psychosocial malfunction (Barber & Weichold 2007). One of the most profound stereotypes associated with this topic states that male individuals are predominantly more aggressive than female individuals, especially in terms of physical aggression. In order to understand the differences in such behaviors, it is crucial to understand the origin of neural anatomy in aggression and violent behaviors. There has been significant progress in the understanding of the area of which men and women differ in their biopsychological processes.

In the discussion of the Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiments, one controversial issue has been that observing violent behavior is subjected to imitation which can influence aggression behavior throughout life. On the one hand, logicians argue that the base of aggression is biological. On the other hand, some people assert that releasing aggression is essential for a healthy lifestyle. Others even maintain that imitating behavior is a necessary component of life. In my view, imitating behavior is a vital component in the growth of humanity. However, understanding the aspects of imitation and the effects it has on behavior as well as in life should be enforce on the youth and adult to reduce unacceptable behavior.

They hypothesized when children are presented with either aggressive or nonaggressive behaviors from their models, the children will readily imitate the behaviors. The test subjects in this case were pre-school aged children from the Stanford University Nursery; 36 males and 36 females aged from 37 months to 69 months, the mean age being 52 months. In this study, the independent variable was either an aggressive or a nonaggressive model. The aggressive models would spend their first minute quietly playing with the toys in the room and would spend the rest of the time using a sequence of aggression they repeated three times: laid Bobo on its side, sat on it and punched it in the nose, raised it, struck it on the head with a mallet, tossed it aggressively and kicked it around the room. The children in the control group were given no adult model. The dependent variable was the imitative physical aggression displayed by the children; three judges recorded the children’s behavior every five seconds for 20 minutes, whether the child had struck the Bobo doll with the mallet, sat on it and punched it in the nose, kicked it, or tossed it in the air. The children who observed the aggressive model had higher levels of imitative physical aggression (M = 12.725, p < .001) than the children who observed the nonaggressive model (M = 1.05) and the control (M = 1.6) groups. It is important to note this is experimental research. This is when the scientist uses a systematic and scientific approach to the scientific method where variables are manipulated. In this study a behavioral perspective was taken as how the behaviors of the children were affected by certain role models. Bandura, Ross, and Ross concluded at the end of this study the observation of cues produced by the behavior of others is effective in eliciting a certain response.

Bandura preformed the experiment to prove that behaviors were learned through social imitation and copying, not through genetic factors. He was trying to prove that a child’s behavior would be learned from copying an adult’s behavior. The actual Bobo Doll was an inflatable toy that was five feet tall and it was supposed to come back up after being knocked over. Children were tested, because they have not learned as much on the rules of society. The children were between 3 to 6 years old. He his proposals were that children that see an adult in an aggressive behavior would be likely to react the same way, children that see an adult in a non-aggressive behavior would be more likely to act non-aggressive, children will copy the behaviors of the adult, and male children would be more aggressive than female children. To test the theory that boys would be more aggressive than females, he picked 34 females and 34 males. The control group consisted of 12 females and 12 males and would not be exposed to an adult. The second group, was exposed to the adults with aggressive behaviors. The third group was exposed to an adult with passive behaviors. To test the theory, a child was placed in a room with an adult with toys. The adults then attacked, verbally and physically, the toys in group 2. The third group’s adults peacefully played with the toys. The control group had no adult in the room present. After completing this part of the experiment, the students moved to another room filled with toys. The children were told they were not allowed to play with the toys, which was supposed to make the child angry. Results for the experiment include: the children exposed to adults with aggressive behaviors acted more violently, the boys also had more of an aggressive behavior, the children exposed to adults with non-aggressive behavior acted less violently. Based on the findings, the experiment proves that behaviors

The first concept of social learning theory is the transmission of violence, which implies that violence is learned and influenced by behaviors that one is exposed to through childhood. Furthermore, these influences result in teaching a child that violence is acceptable to express oneself and solve problems that carries on into adulthood. Second concept defines and explains how an individual develops his or her own meanings to a specific behavior. These definitions have been identified as both general and specific. The third concept to be explored is differential reinforcement, which “Refers to the balance of anticipated or actual rewards and punishments that follow or are consequences of behavior.” * Imitation, which is the fourth concept of the social learning theory, “Refers to the engagement in behavior after the observation of similar behavior in others.”* "Because the family is a main socializing institution and the main source of childhood learning, aggression modeled between parents not only provides scripts for violent behaviors but also teaches the appropriateness and consequences of such behavior in an intimate relationship to children through direct and vicarious reinforcement of rewards and punishments."* William Goode, the main resource theorist, asserted that all social systems, including families, depends on some level of force in order to function, and the more resources an individual can

They dishonorably problems on their physiological and sociological problems in the public’s eye. frequently a cultural back ground or spiritual in addition the individual or societies turn into a target for their problems. The frustration–aggression theory has been studied since 1939, and there have been modifications. Dill and Anderson present a study that questions whether frustration that is justified or not plays a role in future aggression (Frustration–aggression hypothesis, n.d.) The Sexual characteristics and stage of development are part of the blame that is in the location of the public’s eye this makes a mark. Understanding the perspective of this the people treated prejudicial individuals

Other related theories, such as the Social Learning theory (Bandura, 1977), states that people gain aggressive behaviour by either direct experience or by observation. The Script theory by Huesmann (1994) is similar to the Social Learning theory, however it assumes that children learn aggressive ‘scripts’ or behaviour by observing violence in the mass media and video games. Scripts are unconsciously learned and re-enacted in similar situations (Huesmann, 1994).

Two theoretical explanations are provided for social aggression: social cognitive theory (Bandura, 2009, as cited in Martins & Wilsons, 2012) and information processing theory (Huesmann, 1998, as cited in Martins & Wilsons, 2012). Social cognitive theory reveals that observation of social interactions and media displays can contribute to one’s attainment of knowledge. Therefore, when children watch violent scenes on television, they may mimic those aggressive behaviors in real life. Information processing theory states that once the information from the environment is learned, it can be retrieved and emphasized through responses to social situations. In this way, the violent behaviors children learned through television are encoded into memory and normalized through everyday use.