SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: The Good Feeling, Social Learning Theory, Sociobiology
Document Summary
Explaining altruistic and aggressive behaviour: individual-based explanations. Aggression is any behaviour intended to harm another person that the target person wants to avoid: heart surgery is not aggression, a bungled assassination is aggression. Altruism is helping that is intended to provide aid to someone else without expectation of any reward: the good feeling that may result is the reward. Aggression/altruism as instinctual: freud: we have an innate urge to destroy. Sociobiology (e. wilson 1975: applies darwinian ideas to animal/human behaviour, aggressive/altruistic behaviour is selectively targeted to increase the chances that our own genes will be passed on to subsequent generations. Evaluating the evolutionary explanation of aggression and altruism. Cross-cultural variations in aggression/altruism: decline in violent crime rate in canada. Aggressive/altruistic behaviours are learned: bandura (1961) doll study. Altruism: clary & miller (1986): parental influences on future child volunteering. Aggression => viewing: viewing => aggression. Factors: imitation, cognitive priming, legitimization, desensitization, arousal, aggression => viewing.