Describe and evaluate one social psychological theory of aggression.

Bandura found that people are likely to copy another person's behaviour if the model is similar to them, if the model is admired and has desirable characteristics, if the model is rewarded or if they are directly rewarded for their behaviour.

However Bandura's study does lack ecological validity as it was set in artificial environments, the Bobo doll was also designed to be hit. But on the other hand Patterson et al. (1989) demonstrated that role models are important in the development of anti-social behaviour and that parents are the most important ones. This suggests that social learning is important in real life and that children who are raised in homes of high aggression, little affection, and little positive feedback are found to be very aggressive. As predicted by the social learning theory, there are cross-cultural differences in aggression and this is supported by the study by Margaret Mead (1935) who compared 3 New Guinea tribes living close to each other.

From Bandura's social learning approach is an important one and believes that the models that are imitated determine three aspects of aggressive behaviour, the exact type of aggressive behaviour shown, the frequency of the aggression shown and the targets for the aggression.

The social learning theory can account for cultural and individual variations too, and it can also explain why we behave aggressively in some situations and not others. Context-dependent learning is also explained as some times aggression is appropriate and at others it is not. However it could be argued that Bandura's approach is limited in scope and that aggressive behaviour does not depend only on observational learning. Cross-cultural evidence demonstrated that aspects of aggression are innate and twin studies have also provided evidence of the importance of genetic factors.

The social learning theory can account for individual and cultural variation in aggression but it is unlikely that learning accounts for all aggressive behaviour. In nearly every society men are more aggressive than women. Twin studies indicate genetic differences in aggression, suggesting that the social learning theory may have underestimated the role of biological factors in determining aggressive behaviour. Other theories include Excitation-Transfer Theory which does not account for individual differences and cultural variations and only accounts for a small amount of aggression. Relative Deprivation Theory which is limited as it does not give an explanation to why people feel aggressive. Deindividuation which does not account for all aggression and lacks consistency.