Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression. Two social psychological theories of aggression are deindividuation and the social learning theory
Outline and evaluate two social psychological theories of aggression.
Two social psychological theories of aggression are deindividuation and the social learning theory. Both of these help to explain why people are aggressive. Deindividuation is when people are thought to be more aggressive because of the fact that they have been deindividuated; they have had their individual identity taken away from them so they blend into society and those around them. Individuals can be deindividuated when, for example it is night time or when they are in a big crowd because they won’ be easily recognisable by themselves. Studies have provided evidence that deindividuation can be an explanation for aggression. Check for example found that on an anonymous survey of male students, a third of them said that they would commit rape if they though there was no chance of them being caught. This shows that if their individual identity was taken away from them; they were deindividuated; they were more likely to be aggressive. However this was only a study of their intentions and not their actual behaviour so might not really be that reliable in providing support for deindividuation as a theory of aggression. Other studies have found that if people are deindividuated t night time, when it is dark and no one would recognise them; they are also more likely to be aggressive. Mann for example found that on a study of baiting crowds, some people were more likely to urge a person to jump from a building if he incident took place at night time. This study however was only on a few people on events which happened before so also might not really be that valid. Deindividuation as a theory of aggression is quite valid as it does have research evidence, both of real life and lab studies to provide evidence which supports it, however it does not explain why, for example males tend to be more aggressive than females in certain situations and only gives a general explanation for why people are aggressive in certain factors e.g. if it is night time or they’re in a big crowd for example.
