About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about institutional aggression, focusing in particular on: (i) research into prisons demonstrating the increased prevalence of aggression and violence in these institutions; (ii) dispositional explanations for increased institutional aggression, including the importation theory; (iii) situational explanations for increased institutional aggression, including the privation theory; (iv) the general aggression model and how dispositional and situational explanations can combine to create the increased prevalence of aggression found in institutions.

About the lecturer

Dr Eduardo Vasquez is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. His research interests include aggression, inter-group relations/conflict, and the influence of alcohol on social behaviours. Some of Dr Vasquez’s recent publications include 'Are you insulting me? Exposure to alcohol primes increases aggression following ambiguous provocation' (2014), 'Any of them will do: In-group identification, out-group entitativity, and gang membership as predictors of group based retribution' (2015), and 'The sexual objectification of girls and aggression towards them in gang and non-gang affiliated youth' (2017).