AGGRESS

ION
What is Aggression?
Behaviour
that is intended to

cause or harm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m2epjtq8eY&feature=more_related
Acts of Aggression
• Fighting

• Rioting

• Genocide

• War
 Psychological Approaches to
Studying Aggression
• Social Psychology
– Social Learning Theory
– Deindividuation
– Institutional Aggression
• Biological Explanations
– Neural & Hormonal mechanisms
– Genetic factors
• Evolutionary Perspectives
 Social Learning Theory
The specific forms that aggressive behaviour
takes, the frequency with which it is
displayed, and the specific targets selected
for attack are largely determined by social
learning factors

Albert Bandura - 1973

The Bobo Doll Experiment
 The Bobo Doll Experiment
Hypotheses
1. Children witnessing an adult role model behaving in an overly
aggressive manner would be likely to replicate similar behaviour
themselves, even if the adult was not present.
2. Subjects who had observed a non-aggressive adult would be the least
likely to show violent tendencies, even if the adult was not present.
They would be even less likely to exhibit this type of aggression than
the control group of children, who had seen no role model at all.
3. Bandura believed that children would be much more likely to copy the
behaviour of a role model of the same sex. He wanted to show that it
was much easier for a child to identify and interact with an adult of the
same gender.
4. The final prediction was that male children would tend to be more
aggressive than female children, because society has always tolerated
and advocated violent behaviour in men more than women.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdh7MngntnI
 The Bobo Doll Experiment
Results
• Children exposed to the aggressive model were more
likely to show imitative aggressive behaviour
themselves
• Boys were nearly three times more likely to replicate
physically violent behaviour than girls
• Subjects exposed to the non-aggressive model, or no
model at all, showed little imitative aggressive
behaviour
 The Bobo Doll Experiment

• What do these results tell us about real-world

issues?

• What are some examples of aggression that is

acquired through Social Learning?