It could be said that we all are born aggressive but as we mature to adulthood we become less aggressive, transferring our aggressive tendencies to more acceptable behaviors such as spo
It could be said that we all are born aggressive but as we mature to adulthood we become less aggressive, transferring our aggressive tendencies to more acceptable behaviors such as sports and competition. One of the ways in which theorist have describe this process learning is social learning theory. Alfred Bandura's classic Bobo doll experiment provided research evidence that aggression, like other behaviors can be learned as well. One of the challenges is how to define aggression. Anger is an abstract concept that is hard to define unless you attribute it to some overt observable behavior.
- If you have ever worked in a preschool or child day care, you may have observed volatile behaviors in some of the children such as hitting others, biting, slapping, yelling, and throwing objects at others. Would this observation support the premise that we are born aggressive and we learn not to be?
- Describe the theoretical basis of the Bandura's Bobo doll experiment. Based on the results of the experiment, explain your conclusions regarding aggressive behavior.
- Describe what is meant by the term “aggression”? What factors in an individual need to be considered when defining aggression? How can aggression be categorized?
Justify your answers with appropriate reasoning and research from your text and course readings. Comment on the postings of at least two peers and provide an analysis of each peer’s postings while also suggesting specific additions or clarifications for improving the discussion question response.
To support your work, make sure to utilize your course and text readings. When asked, utilize outside sources. As in all assignments make sure to cite your sources in your work and provide a reference for that citation utilizing APA format.
Peacemaking.html
Peacemaking
Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the result of actions reducing the need for conflict. Peacemaking finds a resolution to the perceived or real threat to interests, needs, or wants of individuals involved in conflict.
One contrast between war and peace can be seen in the life of Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel (1833–1866) became wealthy after he invented dynamite and other types of explosives. The invention of dynamite and other explosives changed the face of warfare. In his will, Nobel set up the Nobel Prize—an award given every year for distinct and significant achievements in chemistry, physics, medicine, economics, and literature. He also set up a prize for individuals doing significant activities to achieve peace.
Nobel described the as, ". . . and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
The Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is the quintessential example of what defines an individual’s or group’s efforts in achieving peace. Peace is hard to achieve and often never seems permanent. The Nobel Peace Prize is a testament of the continued challenges to achieving peace.
Throughout its over 100-year history the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for contributions toward bringing people together to reduce conflict and bring fraternity between nations (Nobelprize.org, 2009). Past laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize include Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) and former President Jimmy Carter (2002) for their decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts. It also includes organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (along with Al Gore, 2007) awarded for their efforts to inform the public about climate change.
,
Conflict.html
Conflict
When discussing conflict, the first question arising is whether conflict is purely destructive. Myers (2008) defines conflict as a "perceived incompatibility of actions or goals" (p. 468).
According to this definition, conflict is not identified as a behavior but a result of a set of behaviors in two or more individuals. In other words, conflict occurs because of a disagreement when there is a threat (perceived or real) to the interests, needs, or wants of individuals involved (Office of Quality Improvement & Office of Human Resource Development, n.d.). Conflict does not necessarily translate into hostility or violent acts. However, in some circumstances this may occur. In addition, conflict is not confined only to large entities. Whether it is young siblings having a disagreement on what television program to watch or two or more countries having a long-standing disagreement on recognizing each other's sovereignty, the principles of conflict remain the same.
Conflict is a common and necessary occurrence in organizations. Without conflict, you have complacency and lack of growth. In Week 6, you discussed the concepts of group development and groupthink. Group development is built on conflict. If conflict doesn't occur, the organization would plod along with the same mind-set without seeing any need for innovation or change. Realistically, conflicts occur all the time between individuals, within groups and organizations, and between groups and organizations. Conflict can be good only if there is a resolution. If conflict perpetuates without resolution, it would tend to grow into more hostile forms.
Next, let's discuss peacemaking.
Myers, D. (2008). Social psychology (9th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Office of Quality Improvement & Office of Human Resource Development. (n.d.). About conflict. Retrieved from http://www.ohrd.wisc.edu/onlinetraining/resolution/aboutwhatisit.htm#index
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Aggression.html
Aggression
Myers (2008) defines aggression as "physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm" (p. 345). However, this definition doesn't encompass the complexities of aggressive behavior. In real-life scenarios, any form of aggression causes harm to others. If someone yells and threatens when there is nobody else around to hear, is it considered aggression or just yelling? This is not aggression. Aggression is the act of doing harm, which may include causing harm to self, to others, to objects, or to animals.
Aggression is a behavior, not a consequence. It cannot be judged as intentional or unintentional. For instance, if you walk up to a friend and slap your friend's arm, your behavior would be considered as physical aggression. Slapping would be considered a behavior defining aggression. Now, consider a situation where you walk up to a friend and slap your friend's arm because a big bee is about to sting. In this case your act of slapping will still be considered an aggressive behavior. The consequence of your action is the bee flying off and your friend saying, "Hey, what did you do that for?"
Understanding the biological basis of aggression is not difficult if you consider it in terms of animal behavior and their need to survive. What would make an animal become aggressive? It could be to protect the young ones (maternal aggression), to hunt (to reduce the drives of hunger and thirst), or to save life from enemies. It is interesting to note that the neural pathways and brain structures associated with hunger, thirst, and reproduction are connected to the structures associated with senses and emotions. Brain structures such as the hypothalamus and amygdala have been associated with emotional responses such as fear and aggression (Passamonti, Rowe, Ewbank, Hampshire, Keane, & Calder, 2008).
See the linked document for more on aggression.
Myers, D. (2008). Social psychology (9th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Passamonti, L., Rowe, J., Ewbank, M., Hampshire, A., Keane, J., & Calder, A.(2008). Connectivity from the ventral anterior cingulate to the amygdala is modulated by appetitive motivation in response to facial signals of aggression. Neuroimage, 43(3), 562–570. Retrieved from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2581780
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
media/week9/SUO_PSY3010 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment.pdf
Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
2 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
The Operational Definition of Aggression
To measure aggression, psychologists use an operational definition. An operational definition describes behaviors that can be observed and recorded. Some of the common examples of each category of operationally defined aggressive behavior is as follows:
Physical Aggression: This could include hitting, punching, grabbing, pinching, slapping, pushing, pulling hair, biting, and throwing objects at others.
Verbal Aggression: This could include threatening to harm others. Yelling and screaming without threats is nonverbal aggression.
Self-Injury: This could include self-injurious behavior (SIB), which include banging your head or body against objects, hitting you own body with objects, and slapping or punching yourself.
Property Destruction: This could include throwing items and breaking objects such as windows, television sets, pictures, and furniture.
A good way to understand the cognitive or learned basis of aggression is by observing young children in a playground or a day-care center. Since the children are small, their aggressive acts will be proportional to their size. Nevertheless, the intensity and frequency of their physical (hitting, pushing, punching, kicking, and biting others) or verbal (yelling at others) aggressive behavior will be rather high.
If aggression has a biological component and children are frequently observed to engage in aggression, then it would be logical to assume that as you mature you will learn how not to be aggressive or, in other aspects, learn how to focus your aggressive behaviors on something that is socially acceptable such as sports and other forms of competition. This perspective is speculative, but it does help in understanding the link between the biological and learned aspect of aggression.
In the Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961), children who observed aggressive models (adults displaying aggression) were more apt to demonstrate aggression in a similar circumstance. Insofar as the observation of adult models displaying aggression communicates permissiveness for aggressive behavior, such exposure may serve to weaken inhibitory responses, increasing the probability of aggressive reactions to convert to subsequent frustrations. However, the fact that subjects expressed their aggression in ways clearly resembling the patterns exhibited by adult role models provides striking evidence for the occurrence of learning by imitation (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961).
Children learn to control aggression through rewards and punishments. The study by Bandura first allowed children to engage in behaviors otherwise admonished and then provided a method (observational learning) to be less aggressive. Observational (social) learning also provides an explanation for other types of aggressive behavior such as group behavior.
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
3 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
The Bobo Doll Experiment
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) designed an experiment to study learned aggressive behavior. Bandura used 36 boys and 36 girls with an average of age of four years. He requested one male and one female candidate to act as adult role models.
The participants were divided into 8 experimental groups with 6 in each group and a control group of 24 children. The experimental groups were further divided into two groups. One group viewed aggressive models and the other viewed nonaggressive models.
The children viewing adults being aggressive to the Bobo doll were much more likely to be aggressive than those who did not view aggressive adults. Those viewing an adult of the same gender were also more aggressive than those viewing an adult of the opposite gender.
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
4 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
References
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggression
models. Journal of Abnormal & SocialPsychology, 63(3), 575–582.
© 2016 South University
,
Aggression.html
Aggression
Myers (2008) defines aggression as "physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm" (p. 345). However, this definition doesn't encompass the complexities of aggressive behavior. In real-life scenarios, any form of aggression causes harm to others. If someone yells and threatens when there is nobody else around to hear, is it considered aggression or just yelling? This is not aggression. Aggression is the act of doing harm, which may include causing harm to self, to others, to objects, or to animals.
Aggression is a behavior, not a consequence. It cannot be judged as intentional or unintentional. For instance, if you walk up to a friend and slap your friend's arm, your behavior would be considered as physical aggression. Slapping would be considered a behavior defining aggression. Now, consider a situation where you walk up to a friend and slap your friend's arm because a big bee is about to sting. In this case your act of slapping will still be considered an aggressive behavior. The consequence of your action is the bee flying off and your friend saying, "Hey, what did you do that for?"
Understanding the biological basis of aggression is not difficult if you consider it in terms of animal behavior and their need to survive. What would make an animal become aggressive? It could be to protect the young ones (maternal aggression), to hunt (to reduce the drives of hunger and thirst), or to save life from enemies. It is interesting to note that the neural pathways and brain structures associated with hunger, thirst, and reproduction are connected to the structures associated with senses and emotions. Brain structures such as the hypothalamus and amygdala have been associated with emotional responses such as fear and aggression (Passamonti, Rowe, Ewbank, Hampshire, Keane, & Calder, 2008).
See the linked document for more on aggression.
Myers, D. (2008). Social psychology (9th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Passamonti, L., Rowe, J., Ewbank, M., Hampshire, A., Keane, J., & Calder, A.(2008). Connectivity from the ventral anterior cingulate to the amygdala is modulated by appetitive motivation in response to facial signals of aggression. Neuroimage, 43(3), 562–570. Retrieved from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2581780
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
media/week9/SUO_PSY3010 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment.pdf
Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
2 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
The Operational Definition of Aggression
To measure aggression, psychologists use an operational definition. An operational definition describes behaviors that can be observed and recorded. Some of the common examples of each category of operationally defined aggressive behavior is as follows:
Physical Aggression: This could include hitting, punching, grabbing, pinching, slapping, pushing, pulling hair, biting, and throwing objects at others.
Verbal Aggression: This could include threatening to harm others. Yelling and screaming without threats is nonverbal aggression.
Self-Injury: This could include self-injurious behavior (SIB), which include banging your head or body against objects, hitting you own body with objects, and slapping or punching yourself.
Property Destruction: This could include throwing items and breaking objects such as windows, television sets, pictures, and furniture.
A good way to understand the cognitive or learned basis of aggression is by observing young children in a playground or a day-care center. Since the children are small, their aggressive acts will be proportional to their size. Nevertheless, the intensity and frequency of their physical (hitting, pushing, punching, kicking, and biting others) or verbal (yelling at others) aggressive behavior will be rather high.
If aggression has a biological component and children are frequently observed to engage in aggression, then it would be logical to assume that as you mature you will learn how not to be aggressive or, in other aspects, learn how to focus your aggressive behaviors on something that is socially acceptable such as sports and other forms of competition. This perspective is speculative, but it does help in understanding the link between the biological and learned aspect of aggression.
In the Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961), children who observed aggressive models (adults displaying aggression) were more apt to demonstrate aggression in a similar circumstance. Insofar as the observation of adult models displaying aggression communicates permissiveness for aggressive behavior, such exposure may serve to weaken inhibitory responses, increasing the probability of aggressive reactions to convert to subsequent frustrations. However, the fact that subjects expressed their aggression in ways clearly resembling the patterns exhibited by adult role models provides striking evidence for the occurrence of learning by imitation (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961).
Children learn to control aggression through rewards and punishments. The study by Bandura first allowed children to engage in behaviors otherwise admonished and then provided a method (observational learning) to be less aggressive. Observational (social) learning also provides an explanation for other types of aggressive behavior such as group behavior.
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
3 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
The Bobo Doll Experiment
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) designed an experiment to study learned aggressive behavior. Bandura used 36 boys and 36 girls with an average of age of four years. He requested one male and one female candidate to act as adult role models.
The participants were divided into 8 experimental groups with 6 in each group and a control group of 24 children. The experimental groups were further divided into two groups. One group viewed aggressive models and the other viewed nonaggressive models.
The children viewing adults being aggressive to the Bobo doll were much more likely to be aggressive than those who did not view aggressive adults. Those viewing an adult of the same gender were also more aggressive than those viewing an adult of the opposite gender.
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
4 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
References
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggression
models. Journal of Abnormal & SocialPsychology, 63(3), 575–582.
© 2016 South University
,
Aggression.html
Aggression
Myers (2008) defines aggression as "physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm" (p. 345). However, this definition doesn't encompass the complexities of aggressive behavior. In real-life scenarios, any form of aggression causes harm to others. If someone yells and threatens when there is nobody else around to hear, is it considered aggression or just yelling? This is not aggression. Aggression is the act of doing harm, which may include causing harm to self, to others, to objects, or to animals.
Aggression is a behavior, not a consequence. It cannot be judged as intentional or unintentional. For instance, if you walk up to a friend and slap your friend's arm, your behavior would be considered as physical aggression. Slapping would be considered a behavior defining aggression. Now, consider a situation where you walk up to a friend and slap your friend's arm because a big bee is about to sting. In this case your act of slapping will still be considered an aggressive behavior. The consequence of your action is the bee flying off and your friend saying, "Hey, what did you do that for?"
Understanding the biological basis of aggression is not difficult if you consider it in terms of animal behavior and their need to survive. What would make an animal become aggressive? It could be to protect the young ones (maternal aggression), to hunt (to reduce the drives of hunger and thirst), or to save life from enemies. It is interesting to note that the neural pathways and brain structures associated with hunger, thirst, and reproduction are connected to the structures associated with senses and emotions. Brain structures such as the hypothalamus and amygdala have been associated with emotional responses such as fear and aggression (Passamonti, Rowe, Ewbank, Hampshire, Keane, & Calder, 2008).
See the linked document for more on aggression.
Myers, D. (2008). Social psychology (9th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Passamonti, L., Rowe, J., Ewbank, M., Hampshire, A., Keane, J., & Calder, A.(2008). Connectivity from the ventral anterior cingulate to the amygdala is modulated by appetitive motivation in response to facial signals of aggression. Neuroimage, 43(3), 562–570. Retrieved from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2581780
Additional Materials
View the PDF transcript for Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
media/week9/SUO_PSY3010 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment.pdf
Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
2 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
The Operational Definition of Aggression
To measure aggression, psychologists use an operational definition. An operational definition describes behaviors that can be observed and recorded. Some of the common examples of each category of operationally defined aggressive behavior is as follows:
Physical Aggression: This could include hitting, punching, grabbing, pinching, slapping, pushing, pulling hair, biting, and throwing objects at others.
Verbal Aggression: This could include threatening to harm others. Yelling and screaming without threats is nonverbal aggression.
Self-Injury: This could include self-injurious behavior (SIB), which include banging your head or body against objects, hitting you own body with objects, and slapping or punching yourself.
Property Destruction: This could include throwing items and breaking objects such as windows, television sets, pictures, and furniture.
A good way to understand the cognitive or learned basis of aggression is by observing young children in a playground or a day-care center. Since the children are small, their aggressive acts will be proportional to their size. Nevertheless, the intensity and frequency of their physical (hitting, pushing, punching, kicking, and biting others) or verbal (yelling at others) aggressive behavior will be rather high.
If aggression has a biological component and children are frequently observed to engage in aggression, then it would be logical to assume that as you mature you will learn how not to be aggressive or, in other aspects, learn how to focus your aggressive behaviors on something that is socially acceptable such as sports and other forms of competition. This perspective is speculative, but it does help in understanding the link between the biological and learned aspect of aggression.
In the Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961), children who observed aggressive models (adults displaying aggression) were more apt to demonstrate aggression in a similar circumstance. Insofar as the observation of adult models displaying aggression communicates permissiveness for aggressive behavior, such exposure may serve to weaken inhibitory responses, increasing the probability of aggressive reactions to convert to subsequent frustrations. However, the fact that subjects expressed their aggression in ways clearly resembling the patterns exhibited by adult role models provides striking evidence for the occurrence of learning by imitation (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961).
Children learn to control aggression through rewards and punishments. The study by Bandura first allowed children to engage in behaviors otherwise admonished and then provided a method (observational learning) to be less aggressive. Observational (social) learning also provides an explanation for other types of aggressive behavior such as group behavior.
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
3 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
The Bobo Doll Experiment
Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) designed an experiment to study learned aggressive behavior. Bandura used 36 boys and 36 girls with an average of age of four years. He requested one male and one female candidate to act as adult role models.
The participants were divided into 8 experimental groups with 6 in each group and a control group of 24 children. The experimental groups were further divided into two groups. One group viewed aggressive models and the other viewed nonaggressive models.
The children viewing adults being aggressive to the Bobo doll were much more likely to be aggressive than those who did not view aggressive adults. Those viewing an adult of the same gender were also more aggressive than those viewing an adult of the opposite gender.
PSY3010 Social Psychology
©2016 South University
4 Operational Definitions and the Bobo Doll Experiment
Aggression
References
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggression
models. Journal of Abnormal & SocialPsychology, 63(3), 575–582.
© 2016 South University
,
W9D
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Amanda Simpson posted May 19, 2022 7:42 PM
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Week 9 Discussion
Q1
Aggression is a behavior that is exhibited by most individuals leading to violence. In most cases, children in lower classes tend to be violent while exhibiting behaviors such as yelling at others. The observation can be used to support the argument that people are born aggressive since such children may not be much exposed to learn being aggressive. However, the behavior worsens and improves depending on the environmental exposure (Parens, 2008). People learn how not to be aggressive by exercising self-control thus lessening its intensity.
Q2
Bandura's Bobo doll experiment entailed using a bobo doll, after which young children were divided into three groups. In one group, the children observed an adult being aggressive to the doll, while in another group, they observed a non-aggressive adult to the doll, in the last group, they had b no model at all (Bandura & Evans 2006). It was observed that when the children were left with the doll, those placed with an aggressive adult towards the doll were more aggressive than those placed with a non-aggressive adult towards the doll. Based on the result of the experiment, it can be concluded that aggressive behavior can be developed through observational learning. Thus, aggressive behavior is learned and acquired through observing other people's behavior and reactions (Liu et al., 2013).
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