Culture, Aggressive Behavior, Social Identity and Aspects of Prejudice

Social Psychology Assignment 8
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How culture influences aggressive behavior
Aggression is cultured. In an experiment done by Kuo in 1961, he designed an experiment where he raised a cat and a rat in the same cage. He wanted to test the theory that cats instinctively kill rats as prey. However, the rat and the cat became very close companions, and even when the cat was allowed to chase and kill other rats, the cat refused to do so. The benign behavior was not confined to his one buddy, but generalized to rats the cat had never met. This experiment shows that nurture factors play an important role in causing aggressive behavior.
Secondly, according to frustration-aggression theory, the expectation can lead to frustration and aggression. The people’s perception that they are being prevented from attaining a goal will increase the probability of an aggressive response. Studies have shown that the greater the expectation to have pleasure is thwarted, the greater the aggression shown by the individual. The expectation of the reward and the disappointment causes aggression. These are environmental and cultural factors that can cause aggressive behavior.
However, it is important to note that some biological elements determine aggressive behavior. Men are relatively more aggressive than women. This has been attributed to testosterone hormone in men, which has instigated aggressive tendencies. Mammals injected with testosterone in the lab became more aggressive than those who did not get a shot of the hormone. On the other hand, laboratory animals whose testosterone is removed become less aggressive. This shows that some factors that lead to aggression are biological rather than social.
Explain the concept of social identity and describe its components.
Social identity is the perception of oneself as a member of a larger group to which they believe they belong, including national, religious, political, and occupational groups. People always identify as part of another social group, for example, black community, white community, Christian, republican, etc. These groupings form the social identity of these individuals, and they tend to ring-fence their identity and separate themselves at least in principle from other individuals they consider outsiders.
Ethnocentrism believes an individual’s culture, nation, or religion is superior to all others. It is a pervasive issue that has continued to divide people into small groups of ‘us’ vs. ‘them.’ It is likely that ethnocentrism is an evolutionary survival mechanism where an organism seeks to identify with the superior group to increase its chances of survival. The group that thinks of itself as superior and members tend to favor its own group to preserve its identity. It is a problem that has plagued many societies today, with some groups of people thinking of themselves as superior to others and the rest going up against them.
In-group bias is when individuals tend to trust and form social bonds with people of their own social group even when they do...