Tahreem Naz

Outline one social psychological theory of aggression

Aggression is an act that is carried out with the intention to harm another person and is viewed as one of the most disturbing forms of human social behaviour. Some psychologists believe that aggression is a legacy of our evolutionary ancestry, while others might believe it is best explained by the ‘social learning theory’.

One of the most powerful sources of learning behaviour is imitative learning where we learn from observing others and imitating their actions. This is clearly shown in Bandura’s (1961) study, which involved children observing aggressive and non-aggressive adult models and then being tested for imitative learning in the absence of the model. Children in the aggressive condition reproduced a good deal of physically and verbally aggressive behaviour resembling that of the model, whilst the children in the non-aggressive condition exhibited virtually no aggression towards the bobo doll. In addition, the boys reproduced more imitative physical aggression than girls, but they did not differ in there imitations of verbal aggression. The boys showed more aggressive behaviour when the adult model was the same-sex which suggests that behaviour is likely to be imitative when the role model is not the same gender.

Furthermore, according to social learning theory theorists, if behaviour is to be imitated it must be seen rewarding in some way. Bandura and Walters (1963) found that children who saw the role model being rewarded for aggressive acts showed a high level of aggression and those who saw the model being punished showed a low level of aggression. Bandura called this type of learning vicarious reinforcement where the children were learning about the likely consequences of actions, and then adjusting their subsequent behaviour accordingly. This clearly supports the fact that behaviour must be seen as rewarding for it to be imitated. Bandura suggested that along with vicarious reinforcement, there are five steps in the modeling process: attention, retention, reproduction, reinforcement and motivation. Attention is given to the behaviour, of the role model, for example the role model kicking the bobo doll. Retention involves remembering the act of the role model and then reproducing the kicking which may be reinforced either negatively or positively. If the behaviour is rewarded then the motivation is to repeat the behaviour. This process clearly implies that children learn behaviours through observations and learn whether the behaviours are worth repeating, which means that vicarious reinforcement alone is not enough-imitation requires skill.

In addition to this, Bandura (1986) claimed that in order for social learning to take place, the child must form mental representations of events in their social environments. The child must also represent possible rewards and punishments for their aggressive behaviour in terms of expectancies of future outcomes. When appropriate opportunities arise in the future, the child will display the learned behaviour as long as the expectation of reward is greater than the expectation of punishment. This suggests that when a child carries out or imitates the mental representation, the child will know whether to expect a punishment or a reward, but will be most likely to imitate behaviour such as aggression expecting to be more rewarded than punished for the aggressive behaviour.

Evaluate one social psychological theory of aggression

Aggression can be explained by the social learning theory, suggesting children learn behaviours through imitations.

The social learning theory favours the nurture side as it assumes aggression is learnt in an environment through observations and imitations of role models. However, it has been criticised for ignoring other factors such as genetics, biochemistry, cultural factors, etc. Albert et al (1993) found a positive correlation between testosterone and aggression implying a nature side to aggression. Therefore, a combined approach may be more credible as the social learning theory may not fully explain aggression.

On the other side, a major strength of social learning theory is that unlike operant conditioning it can explain aggression in the absence of direct reinforcement. Although Bandura et al’s (1963) participants behaved more aggressively after observing an aggressive model, at no point were the children directly rewarded for an action either aggressive or non-aggression . Consequently, the concept of vicarious reinforcement is necessary, to explain these findings for this reason social learning theory may be a concept that explains aggression.This also suggests that the children may have carried out an aggressive act simply because of imitation and not due to other factors involved including rewards and punishments.

Furthermore, exposing children to aggressive behaviour with the knowledge that they may reproduce it in their own behaviour raises ethical issues. Participants were not protected from psychological and physical harm and as a result, experimental studies such as Bandura’s bobo doll, would no longer be allowed to take place. This suggests that it is difficult to test experimental hypotheses about the social learning of aggressive behaviour in children and for this reason it is difficult to establish social learning theory as an explanation for aggression.

Another issue is that many studies carried out, used children . Social learning theory is based around Bandura’s bobo doll study which may question applicability to adults. However, Phillips (1986) found that daily homicide rates almost always increased in the week following a major boxing match. This suggests that viewers were imitating behaviour that they watched, clearly implying that social learning is evident in adults as well as children, and for this reason adults can also learn aggression through social learning theory.

Many might critisise Bandura for ignoring other influences that may be able to explain aggression . Dollard at al (1939), suggested that aggression is the result of frustration building up and not due to imitation. This clearly suggests that Bandura ignored many factors such as cognitive and biological, despite being aware of such potential factors but never gave them the academic attention they deserved. This shows that social learning theory is reductionist as it does not account for other factors that may explain aggression.

In addition, Bandura’s studies on social learning theory were done in America using American participants and researchers. Bandura assumed the results that he found can be generalised universally, but different cultures may produce different findings. Therefore the theory implies ethnocentrism and etic analysis, as it has assumed that the social learning theory is applicable worldwide.

Moreover, social learning theory is deterministic. It assumes that everyone that observes aggressive role models will learn aggression, however this is not always the case. Some people may be opposed to the idea of carrying out aggressive acts because of seculisation and internalising norms and values of society, suggesting that conscious thoughts and free will can prevent learning aggression. Therefore the social learning theory provides a narrow explanation of aggression.