here if document is corrupted DESCRIBE RESEARCH INTO 2 OR MORE ENVIROMENTAL STRESSORS ON AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR?

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DESCRIBE RESEARCH INTO 2 OR MORE ENVIROMENTAL STRESSORS ON AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR?

The two environmental stressors I have chosen to discuss are temperature and over-crowding.

      A theory that best describes environmental stressors on aggressive behaviour is the negative affect escape (NAE) theory; this claims that when the unpleasant stimuli increases so does the negative affect (the mood) and this leads to an increase of aggressive behaviour or an increase in the escape behaviour, if a person cannot escape they will become more aggressive and this can relate to temperature because it is something we cannot escape, so when the unpleasant stimuli becomes extreme people rather focus on their escape or they will become passive.

     Temperature can play an important role with aggression, Baron and Bell did research involving the effects of heat on aggression by seeing how willing a participant would be to give electric shocks to another, they found that temperatures within the range of 92-95F generally increased the level of aggression. However when the temperatures became too extreme they found the levels of aggression decreased, in these conditions the participants were stressed and did not want to handle the person’s angry reactions, because they didn’t want the hassle of the added stress. Baron and Bell’s study showed a curvilinear effect (where the relationship between heat and aggression both increase together but as it gets to a certain point the aggression decreases) between temperature and aggression which was predicted by the NAE theory saying that when temperature becomes very high an individual seeks to escape lowering aggression, but at lower temperatures the negative affect leads to aggression. This is also supported by Ransberger and Baron who had studied US archival records and found that the riots increased up to the temperature of 85F and then declined after this point. However Anderson did not agree with this theory of aggressive behaviour decreasing after extreme heat, he considered the effects of temperature on different forms of aggressive behaviour such as, assault, murder and rape. He found that there was a steady increase in all of these aggressive acts as the temperature rose, with no sign of any reduction in the extreme heat.

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     Another theory that is used to describe temperature on aggressive behaviour is the routine activity theory put forward by Cohen and Felson they state that opportunities for interpersonal interaction is high in the summer due to the change of their pattern in their routine activity, because in the summer it is much more likely for people to be outdoors increasing their contact with people leading to an increase in aggression as well. However this is more of an indirect link as there is no proof to show this.

     Also it is claimed there can be a ...

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