Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour

Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |2 Table of Contents Essay Question: __________________________________________________3 Word Count: ____________________________________________________3 1964 (Not Including References in Text) ____________________________3 1. 2. Introduction: ________________________________________________3 Biological Perspective: ________________________________________3 2.1. Twin Studies _____________________________________________4 Adopted Children _____________________________________4

2.1.1. 3.

Learning Perspective: _________________________________________5 3.1. Behaviourism ____________________________________________5 Classical Conditioning _________________________________5 Operant Conditioning __________________________________6

3.1.1. 3.1.2. 3.2.

Social Learning___________________________________________6 Frustration Theory_____________________________________7

3.2.1. 4. 5. 6.

Biosocial Perspective _________________________________________8 Conclusion: _________________________________________________9 References: ________________________________________________11

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |3 Essay Question: Critically review the major theoretical perspectives on the development of aggression and violent behaviour

Word Count: 1964 (Not Including References in Text)

1. Introduction: The issue of aggressive and violent behaviour is an issue which can be explained through several perspectives. In modern the two perspectives that tend to clash most are the social learning and biological perspectives of explaining behaviour (Walters & White, 1989:455). Thus it is the purpose of this assignment is to explore why these two ideologies clash in their description and then to explore ways in which the two can complement each other to describe the formation of aggressive and violent behaviour.

2. Biological Perspective: The biological perspective of criminal behaviour maintains that criminal behaviour is, at least partially, explained by physiological and neurological factors (Siegel, 2008:11). This perspective, thus, deals with both hereditary behaviour such as temperament and behaviour caused by substance abuse such as alcohol abuse (Bartol & Bartol, 2011:53, 65). It is important to remember that the biological school in the modern day is not deterministic or at least not as deterministic as it was. In Raine (2004:43) the term predisposition is used. This is an important word because it implies likelihood for a person to exhibit aggressive or violent but not certainty. For instance, a person with a predisposition to act in an aggressive may or may not

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |4 manifest and furthermore this aggressive behaviour doesnt always become violent. 2.1. Twin Studies Twin studies and the study of siblings are a good basis for discovering whether or not the biological approach has any credence. Raine (2004:44, 45) states that identical twins who share the exact genetic makeup are more likely to exhibit the same criminal tendencies than non-identical twins in which 51.5% of identical twins were found to exhibit criminal tendencies while only 20.6% of non-identical twins were shown to exhibit criminal tendencies. While, this may be refuted because of the similar social environments in which twins are raised there is strong evidence that even when raised apart the more genetically similar siblings are the more likely they are to share similar traits as shown in Passer and Smith (2008:71) wherein identical twins separately raised were found to have a 0.75 similarity in intelligence while regular siblings scored only 0.21 similarity. This shows that there is a strong predisposition for twins to exhibit the same behaviours or personality traits while siblings show a lesser predisposition to exhibit the aforementioned traits. Therefore, twin studies shows that genetic predisposition does, to some degree, influence the way in which aggressive or violent behaviour develops. 2.1.1. Adopted Children Some scientists believe that there is a genetic link that results in aggressive and violent behaviour as well as criminal tendencies. Walters and White (1989:476) discuss several studies involving genetic hereditary of criminal behaviour. The one that is discussed most is that of adoptees. In the study they find that while there is a significant link to the relationship between adopted children and their biological parents it is of only a small significance. Brennan and Mednick (1993:21) also find in their literature review that the majority of studies show a significant correlation of a link between adopted children and their biological

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |5 parents. They show that adopted children whose biological mothers were alcoholics that exhibit anti-social personalities had a one-in-three chance of being diagnosed with an anti-social personality too. However, Walters and White (1989:476) also show that in studies conducted with both environmental and biological factors taken into account that environmental factors show much more significant results than those of biological factors. This is not to say that there isnt a biological factor in criminality but rather to say it plays a lesser role than does environment. There is a definite synthesis when an adopted child has criminal biological parents and is raised in an environment conducive to criminality that the results show a far more significant result than that of environmental and biological factors alone (Walters & White, 1989:476; Brennan & Mednick, 1993:21).

3. Learning Perspective: The learning perspective is a perspective that deals largely with the idea that ones environment shapes their personality and the way in which they will respond to different situations. Behaviourism and social learning are the concepts that peoples responses to stimuli are conditioned or learned through a series of interactions with their environment (Bartol & Bartol, 2011:86, 91). 3.1. Behaviourism Behaviourism is a psychological concept that behaviour is learned (Passer & Smith, 2008:9). Two very important aspects of this theory are classical and operant conditioning. The reason that these two concepts are very important is that in their conception they both showed that there is a definite connection between learning and outcomes known as association. 3.1.1. Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is the concept that a response can be conditioned if an association between two unrelated stimuli is formed. Pavlov developed a

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |6 method in which to test this by using dogs (Passer & Smith, 2008:214). Pavlov used a tuning fork that elicited no response from the dog when making a tone and food that elicited the response of salivation. By ringing the tuning fork every time the dog was given about to be given food, the dog began to associate the ringing of the tuning fork with being given food and then began to salivate every time he heard the tuning fork. 3.1.2. Operant Conditioning Operant condition was introduced by Skinner and varies from classical conditioning that the principle is not to show that the conditioned behaviour is an automatic response but rather to show that the response is based on the consequences of the action being done (Passer & Smith, 2008:223). An example of this in criminality could be extended to drunk driving in that a driver driving drunk for the first time is stopped by police and arrested is less likely to repeat the behaviour because the circumstance of his response or behaviour is not desirable while a drunk driver that often drives drunk and is never arrested for it is more likely to exhibit the behaviour because there is very little negative association between drinking and driving. 3.2. Social Learning Social Learning is an extension of both operant and classical condition. The theory is a generalization of the concepts put forward by Skinner and Pavlov (Bartol & Bartol, 2011:91). This theory tries to link the social environment of a person with the way in which they react by means of association and learning. Socialization is an important aspect of this theory. Socialization is the idea that the societal environment shapes the associations an individual has with certain behaviours (Giddens, 2009:291). Socialization according to Jenkins (in Haralambos & Holborn, 2004:826) even defines an individuals identity. Jenkins says that peoples identities are never independent of the context of the environment or interaction with other individuals. This is reflective of the core

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |7 edicts of social learning theory that purports that identifying with one group of people will in some way shape the way in which you behave and, therefore, that behaviour is learned through these interactions. The same can be said of violent and aggressive behaviour because it is itself behaviour and therefore, from the perspective of social learning, is learned. While the concept of rape being a patriarchal construct for men to exhibit power over women is somewhat outdated Lea and Auburn (2001:13) have identified that rape, like other behaviours, is perpetuated through social norms. Social norms and learned behaviour do not rule out thoughts of an abnormal behaviour they do, however, tend to regulate whether or not people will act on them. Thus, by normalising or being able to justify a social faux pas the incidence of the faux pas will likely increase. For instance, a public figure being acquitted of rape charges on the basis that the victim was fed breakfast. 3.2.1. Frustration Theory Socialized behaviour could then be said to be the pursuit of social approval or the avoidance of social shame (Wright & Hensley, 2003:74). So removing the prospect of shame from a type of behaviour results in that behaviour becoming more prevalent. However, Wright and Hensley also explain another way in which social learning can explain aggressive or violent behaviour, at least in serial murderers. They explain that behaviour exhibited by an individual requires resolution and, in this case, approval from a loved one. If this resolution or approval fails to take place the individual may then become frustrated or humiliated. For instance, a child bringing home a good test result from school to a parent whose approval the child seeks and the response is negative without reason (the opposite of the expected outcome) the child then becomes frustrated. The extension of frustration theory to serial killers is obviously unique but the concept can be extended to more normal forms of aggressive or violent

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |8 behaviours. Frustration as mentioned above and in Bartol and Bartol (2011:98) is the result of positive outcomes being thwarted despite exhibiting positive behaviour. So it is easy to see why aggressive or violent behaviour could manifest in everyday life. A mother frustrated that her children wont behave resorts to shouting, a more aggressive behaviour, to achieve the satisfaction of a positive result and thus associating the aggressive behaviour with the positive outcome. The same can be said of the mothers shouting not working and then her resorting to violence to elicit the desired response.

4. Biosocial Perspective What many of the biological reviews above find is that many show that in unison with the social learning theory that the results reflected are more significant than both the results found when testing for environmental influence and those found when testing for biological factors (Walters & White, 1989:476). This sheds light on an integrated theory of explaining aggression and violent behaviour. Hicks, Krueger, Iacono and Patrick (2004:925) explain that they find positive and significant results when testing the heritability of certain disorders and their likelihood of manifesting certain disorders meaning that there may be a genetic predisposition toward developing some disorders in the children of people who have one or more disorders themselves. However, they also show that there are social factors acting on the inherited predisposition toward a disorder (Hicks, Krueger, Iacono & Patrick, 2004:926). This means that biological and social factors can act independently of one another but are more likely to develop in children being raised in an environment conducive to aggressive and violent behaviour that have a hereditary predisposition toward acting in these ways too. In connection with a social learning theory like frustration theory it makes sense that someone with a predisposition toward violent or aggressive behaviour that theyd become more susceptible to becoming frustrated.

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

Page |9 However, these two perspectives are often at odds with one another and the research almost always tends to favour the social learning side of the argument as described by Walters and White (1989:476). Much of the data collected on the genetic heritability of aggressive and violent behaviour is accrued in a manner that does not separate those being genetically tested from the social environment in which they are raised, even in adoption studies there are some discrepancies of this nature when it is acknowledged that many adopted children in Denmark are adopted by parents of the same socio-economic background and therefore likely to be exposed to certain risk factors prevalent in them (Walters and White, 1989:475).

5. Conclusion: The issue with studying solely through the scope of a social learning theory is that they do not account for the existence of those who do not develop violent or aggressive behaviours when exposed to certain risk factors or frustrations or those that do not experience these social factors while still developing these same behaviours. While it is true that there will always be an exception to the rule this exception must also have an explanation. In some cases the positively significant results of biological explanations for some behaviours does imply that a biological approach could explain these discrepancies. However, viewing behaviour formation purely from a biological perspective is definitely unreliable as even the most convincing research reviewed shows that at most that these behaviours are a predisposition rather than an inevitable outcome. This means that the biological perspective may supplement social learning theories to better understand the outliers when trying to understand aggressive and violent behaviour. So the biosocial perspective of aggressive and violent behaviour formation makes sense. A child born with a predisposition toward these behaviours is more likely to exhibit them than a child without the predisposition raised in an environment conducive to these

Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

P a g e | 10 behaviours (Brennan & Mednick, 1993:21). Therefore, explaining more of the populations likelihood to develop those behaviours.

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Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311

P a g e | 11 6. References: Bartol, C.R., & Bartol, A.M., (2008). Criminal Behaviour: A Psychological Approach, (9th Ed). Pearson Education Inc.: United States of America: New Jersey. Brennan P.A., Mednick S.A., (1993). Genetic Perspectives on Crime. Acta Psychiatr Scand, 370, 19-26. Giddens, A. (2009). Sociology (6th Ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press. Haralambos, M., Holborn, M., & Heald, R. (2004). Sociology Themes and Perspectives (6th Ed.). England: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. Hicks, B.M., Krueger, R.F., Iacono, W.G., McGue, M., Patrick, C.J., (2004). Family Transmission and Heritability of Externalizing Disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 61, 922-928. Lea, S., Auburn, T., (2001). The Social Construction of Rape in the Talk of a Convicted Rapist. Feminism & Psychology,11(1), 11-33. Passer, M.P., & Smith, R.E. (2008). Psychology the Science of Mind and Behaviour, (4th Ed). New York: Mcgraw: Hill. Raine, A., (2002). Biological Basis of Crime in Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control, 43-74. California: Oakland: ICS Press. Siegel, L.J. (2004). Criminology Theories, Patterns, & Typologies, (8th Ed). Canada: Wadsworth. Walters, G.D., White, T.W., (1989). Heredity and Crime: Bad Genes or Bad Research? Criminology, 27(3), 455-484.

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Biological, Social and Biosocial Perspectives on the Formation of Aggression and Violent Behaviour By Christopher Richard Isaac 21798311