SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Sociobiology, Bandura
14 Jan 2017
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Altruism and Aggression
Kitty Genovese- got stabbed in the street, the man came back and killed her and no one came
to help her as she shouted out that she was dying and needed help. there was 37 people on the
street that heard something and thought about there being an attack.
Aggression
-any behaviour intended to harm another person that the target person wants to avoid
•heart surgery that ends up killing the person is not aggression
•a bungled assassination is agression
Altruism
-helping that is intended to provide aid to someone else without expectation of any reward
•the good feeling that may result is the reward
•helping someone to make yourself feel good is also considered altruism
Instinct and Evolution
-Agression/Altruism as instinctual
•freud: we have an innate urge to destroy
-sociobiology (E. Wilson 1975)
•applies darwinian idea 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
•we all evolved from a single cell organism. when we see a variation in the species it is
caused through variations in our genes
•some genes give people an advantage in certain environments
*certain behaviours that are grounded in genes maybe those behaviours give them a
competitive advantage in their environment. if an animal has stronger traits such as faster, or
longer neck to reach the trees, they could have an advantage and therefore live longer
*altruism- animals that are in a species that help one another are more likely to survive and
pass down their behaviour
Evaluating the Evolutionary Explanation of Aggression and Altruism
-largely shaped by animal studies
•can we generalize to humans?
-cross-cultural variations in aggression and altruism
•decline in violent crime rate in canada; we see different rates in different places. we are
being programmed to act in these ways.
•our genetic makeup and genes do not change quickly
*evolutionary psychology experiment/perspective, maybe genes do not determine for us to act a
certain way but they can give us a drive to act in a certain way.
Social Learning
-much of our aggression is learned in early childhood
-aggressive/altruistic behaviours are learned
•bandura (1961) doll study
-many children learn aggressive behaviour from their parents
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Any behaviour intended to harm another person that the target person wants to avoid: heart surgery that ends up killing the person is not aggression, a bungled assassination is agression. Helping that is intended to provide aid to someone else without expectation of any reward: the good feeling that may result is the reward, helping someone to make yourself feel good is also considered altruism. Agression/altruism as instinctual: freud: we have an innate urge to destroy. *altruism- animals that are in a species that help one another are more likely to survive and pass down their behaviour. Evaluating the evolutionary explanation of aggression and altruism. *evolutionary psychology experiment/perspective, maybe genes do not determine for us to act a certain way but they can give us a drive to act in a certain way. Much of our aggression is learned in early childhood. Aggressive/altruistic behaviours are learned: bandura (1961) doll study.
