Aggression: Evaluating Situational Explanations

These study notes follow on from the 'Aggression: Situational Explanations' notes.

Gaes et al. (1985) found that overcrowding in prisons can be the cause of not just ill health and general misconduct but also can result in aggression and violence. Gaes et al. (1985) propose that overcrowding can heighten stress and therefore result in an overreaction to other factors in the institution.

There are practical applications in our understanding that the prison environment can lead to aggression. In 2005, Wilson set up two units in HMP Woodhill where the overcrowding was reduced, music was introduced to reduce noisy conditions and the temperature was carefully controlled. He found that initiating these conditions was a successful way to lower levels of aggression.

Camp & Gaes (2005) undertook a field experiment where they randomly allocated 561 male inmates to two different categories of prisons, low security and high security. The inmates had been matched on criminal history and predisposition to aggression. Camp and Gaes (2005) found that the individuals were just as likely to behave aggressively in the low security prison (33%) as in the high security prison (36%). This demonstrates that aggression in prisons is more likely to be a result of the individuals rather than the situation. Low security prisons should have afforded less stress to the inmates and there should have been a lower level of violence.

McCorkle et al. (1995) investigated aggression in 371 state prisons in the US and found little evidence to support the link between violence and overcrowding. McCorkle points out that stress is experienced by most individuals in a prison environment, but not all individuals resort to aggression. Therefore, the assumption that stress and frustration always leads to aggression is a flawed presumption.

For More Study Notes

To keep up-to-date with the tutor2u Psychology team, follow us on Twitter @tutor2uPsych, Facebook AQA / OCR / Edexcel / Student or subscribe to the Psychology Daily Digest and get new content delivered to your inbox!