1. How does aggression develop?
Unit 2 -Understanding other people
Lesson 2

2. Lesson objectives You will be able to;
Describe and evaluate studies of the development of aggressive behaviour.

3. In your pair discuss the above question.
Starter
What are the 3 suggested explanations for Aggression?
In your pair discuss the above question.

4. Biological investigations into the causes of aggression.
Initially research into aggression and its development were carried out on animals because of the fact it was impossible to manipulate hormones and explore the brains of Humans. However science has progressed and developed techniques that allow us to study the Human brain directly.
This is shown in the following studies.

5. Young et al (1959)
He wanted see what effect hormones has on aggressive behaviour. To do this he injected pregnant rhesus monkeys with testosterone and observed the aggression in the offspring. It showed that in females it made them behave like male monkeys (challenging for dominance and engaging in rough and tumble play). He concluded that testosterone plays a vital part in aggression.

6. Raine (1997)
He investigated the brains of murderers. He gave 41 murderers in California a PET scan (positive emission tomography – gives a detailed 3d image) and compared with a similar group of non murderers. He found that there were some differences such as in the prefrontal cortex he activity was lower in murderers than in non murderers. He concluded that when the prefrontal cortex isn’t functioning properly I can lead to people committing violent crime.

7. Psychodynamic investigations in to the causes of aggression.
Barker (1941) investigated the frustration aggression theory.
He kept children waiting a long time before they were allowed to play in a room full of attractive toys. Their behaviour was observed. He found that children were more aggressive and destructive that children who had not been frustrated by being kept waiting. The therefore concluded that frustration does lead to increased aggression.

8. Freud's theory of aggression has been harder to support but there is some evidence about people being unable to stop themselves from becoming aggressive.
Magargee and Mendelsohn (1962) investigated if there was a link between aggression and personality type. They interviewed people who had committed brutally aggressive crimes and gave them personality tests. They found that the criminals seemed to have been over controlled and repressed their anger until it built up to an extent that it exploded following a trivial event. They concluded that if people didn’t let their aggression out in small amounts it builds up to an uncontrollable level.

9. Evaluation of the frustration aggression studies.
If the participants are violent offenders we have to be careful about applying a conclusion to the rest of the population.
People lie
Hard to standardise frustration – What's frustrating to one person may not be for another.

10. Social learning studies on aggression
One of the key studies that has been carried out on social learning was carried out in 1963 by Bandura. (Think back to last lesson)
Was did Bandura carry out and what did he find?

11. Another study on social learning theory was carried out by Liebert and Baron (1972). They investigated if watching violent TV affected the aggression of children. The children were split into 2 groups one watching a violent programme and the other an exciting sports event. They were then observed at play. He found that the group who watched the violent programme were more aggressive than the other group. He concluded therefore that watching violent TV does increase levels of aggression.

12. Evaluation of social learning theory
Think about why the findings of these 2 studies may not explain what happens outside the lab?
Discuss in your groups.

13. Evaluation of social learning theory of aggression.
Lab based research – all variable controlled as much as possible.
Lab based research doesn’t reflect what happens outside i.e. if parents see aggressive behaviour they will explain to the child that its wrong.
There is also contradictory evidence from Charlton et al (2000) about watching TV and aggression. They used the island of St Helena so what affect the introduction of TV would have on a community (2 year study). They found merely watching aggressive role models was not sufficient to make a child copy aggressive behaviour. (Positive response to this study as it was VALID – done in normal surroundings so you can be confident it’s the child's natural behaviour).

14. Plenary
Describe one study in which the development of aggressive behaviour was investigated. In your answer include the reason why the study was conducted, the method used, the results obtained and the conclusion drawn.
Reason
Method
Results
Conclusion (4 marks)