11. Aggression Flashcards
What is aggression?
- Behavior (physical or verbal) aimed at causing either physical or psychological pain
- Focus on both the behavior and the intent
What is hostile aggression?
- Act of aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain or injury
- Main purpose is to cause pain
What is instrumental aggression?
- Aggression as a means to some goal other than causing pain
- Ex: contact sports
What are different forms of aggression?
- Physical aggression: hostile behavior that inflicts physical pain or discomfort
- Verbal aggression: words that inflict pain by yelling, insulting, ridiculing, humiliating and so on
- Social or relational aggression: behaviors aimed at damaging relationships (ex: exclusion, ignoring, spreading rumors)
- Direct aggression: physical or verbal hostile behavior that directly targets another person
- Indirect aggression: hostile behavior by an unidentified perpetrator that hurts another person by indirect means
What is the evolutionary approach to aggression?
Aggression is genetically programmed for 2 reasons:
- To help establish dominance
- To protect resources
Explain culture and aggression
- Human cultures vary widely in their degree of aggressiveness, with levels of aggression changing with time and social conditions
- “Cultures of Honour”: cultures in which violence is often seen as an acceptable way to protect one’s honour and reputation
What is social learning theory
- We learn social behavior (aggression) by observing others and imitating them
- Bandura’s “Bobo” doll studies: children who had watched an adult model aggressive behavior towards the doll later imitated those behaviors. The children also engaged in novel forms of aggression towards the doll
Explain the relationship between pain, discomfort and aggression
Pain and other physical discomforts (heat, humidity, air pollution, offensive odors) can lower the threshold for aggressive behavior
What is frustration?
The perception that you are being prevented from obtaining a goal
What is the Frustration-Aggression Theory?
Theory that frustration will increase the probablity of an aggressive response
When are chances that frustration will lead to aggression increased?
- You are close to reaching your goal and are prevented from doing so
- The frustration is unexpected
When is frustration less likely to lead to aggresion?
- The situation causing the frustration is understandable
- The cause of the frustration is legitimate
- The cause of the frustration is unintentional
What is relative deprivation?
- The perception that you have less than you deserve, less than what you have been led to expect, or less than what people similar to you have
- Leads to frustration which causes aggression
- Related to social comparison theory
Explain provocation and reciprocation
- People usually feel the urfe to reciprocate after being provoked by intentional aggressive behavior from another person
- May be explained by evolutionary theories, social learning theory, and frustration-aggression hypothesis
- Most people will not retaliate if the aggression is perceived to be unintentional, or there are other known circumstances to blame
Explain social exclusion
- The pain of being excluded from a group of peers increases aggression; seen as a form of relative deprivation
- Correlational studies show a link between peer rejection and aggresion in children
- Social exclusion can motivate us to form new social bonds
What is the weapons effect?
- An increase in aggression that can occur because of the mere presence of a gun or other weapon
- Typically through priming
- Participants who were angered and in a room where a gun was present gave more intensive electric shocks than those in a room with no weapon present
- Lower homocide rates found in cities/countries that have strict gun control, compared to those that don’t
- Schemas about guns can also play a role (socio-cultural factors)
What is the relationship between porn and violence?
Viewing violent pornographic material is associated with:
- Greater sexism
- Greater acceptance of sexual violence towards women
- Acting aggressively toward women
Explain the numbing and dehumanizing effect of media violence
Repeated exposure to media violence tends to reduce sensitivity to those events
- Such exposure can numb people’s reactions to real-life aggression
- Those who play video games are more likely to be oblivious to the needs of others
- Media violence does have an impact on average children and adults, but its impact is greatest on those who are already prone to violent behavior
Does punishing aggression reduce aggressive behavior?
- Severe punishment does not seem to deter violent crime
- Physical punishment, as a means for discipline in parenting, may show effectiveness in the short-term, but not in the long-term
- Reinforcement is more successful than punishment
What is catharsis?
- Notion that “blowing off steam” (by performing an aggressive act or watching others engage in aggressive behaviors) relieves built0up aggressive energy and reduces the likelihood of further aggressive behavior
Many studies don’t support the catharsis hypothesis
- People often behave more aggressively after being given the opportunity to vent their anger
- Watching competitive or aggressive games tends to increase aggression
Explain aggression and victim blaming
Once one aggresses someone else, they:
- Experience cognitive dissonance
- Tends to derogate the victim to justify the act of cruelty
Name some strategies to deal with anger
- Communication and problem solving
- Defusing anger through apology
- Modeling nonagressive behavior
- Building empathy
