Aggresion Flashcards
Developmental Psychology
Define aggression
“Behaviour that is intended to harm another individual who does not wish to be harmed” (Baron & Richardson, 1994).
• “Aggression is the delivery of an aversive stimulus from one person to another, with intent to harm and with an expectation of causing such harm, when the other person is motivated to escape or avoid the stimulus” (Green, 2001).
What are the 6 different types of aggression?
Emotional/ Impulsive aggression: small amount of fore thought or intent determined primarily by impuslive emotions
physical aggression: harming others physically
Instrumental/cognitive aggression: intentional and planned
non-physical aggression: doesn’t involve physical harm e.g. verbal aggresin or relational/social aggression- harming another persons relationships
cyberbullying: aggression inflicted using computers , cellphones nad other electronic devices
Is there evidence for aggression being innate?
Animals can be bred to be aggressive by breeding the most aggressive offspring with each other (Lagerspetz& Lagerspetz, 1971).
Children who are aggressive as infants also are aggressive when they are adults (Coie& Dodge, 1998; Dubow, Huesmann, & Boxer, 2003; Raine, 1993)
Identical twins are more similar than fraternal twins in their aggressive tendencies and criminal records. Criminal and aggressive behaviour is correlated at about .70 for identical twins but only at about .40 for fraternal twins (Tellegenet al., 1988).
is there ebidence for other aspects of developemnt apart from biological causing aggression?
Person- by- situation interaction: the behavioural manifestation of a given genotype depends critically on imputs from, and reactions to, the environment
e.g. individuals who have lower MAOA gene (a gene linked to aggression) were more at risk of showing a variety of aggresive behaviours as adults. However, this link was only important if the child had been mistreated (caspi et al., 2002)
Kinship also provides evidence against a bioligcla cause of aggression: Biological parents are much less likely to abuse or murder their own children than stepparents are to harm their stepchildren
relationships between stepparents and stepchildren tend to be more distant and conflicted, as well as less committed and satisfying, than between parents and their genetic offspring (Hobart, 1991).
In the US, children who are younger than age 2 are 100 times more likely to be abused to the point of death by stepparents than genetic parents, and in Canada, they are 70 times more likely to be killed by stepparents than genetic parents (Daly and Wilson, 1996). In a study of a South American hunter-gatherer people, 43% of children raised by a mother and stepfather died before their fifteenth birthday; that’s more than twice the rate of death (19 percent) of children raised by two genetic parents.
Outline the role of the brain areas in aggression
- The amygdala is a brain region responsible for regulating our perceptions of, and reactions to, aggression and fear.
- The prefrontal cortex control and inhibit aggressive tendencies.
- The cerebral cortex is less active in murderers and death row inmates (Davidson, Jackson, & Kalin, 2000; Davidson, Putnam, & Larson, 2000).
Outline the role of Testosterone in aggression
• Testosterone is associated with increased aggression in both animals and in humans (Dabbs, Hargrove, & Heusel, 1996).
fraternities that had the highest average testosterone levels were also more wild and unruly, and in one case were known across campus for the crudeness of their behaviour (Dabbs, Hargrove, & Heusel, 1996)
juvenile delinquents and prisoners who have high levels of testosterone also acted more violently (Banks & Dabbs, 1996).
Studies have also shown a positive relationship between testosterone and aggression and related behaviors(such as competitiveness) in women (Cashdan, 2003)
• Correlation or causation?
Testosterone • Engaging in aggression causes temporary increases in testosterone.
People who feel that they have been insulted show both more aggression as well as more testosterone (Cohen, Nisbett, Bosdle, & Schwarz, 1996) Playing an aggressive game, such as tennis or chess, increases the testosterone levels of the winners and decreases the testosterone levels of the losers (Gladue, Boechler, & McCaul, 1989; Mazur, Booth, & Dabbs, 1992).
Outline the role of seretonin in aggression
seretonin seems to inhibit aggression
Explain the link between alcohol and aggression
Excessive alcohol consumption is involved in a majority of violent crimes, including rape and murder (Abbey, Ross, McDuffie, & McAuslan, 1996).
Correlational and experimental research suggest that alcohol increases the likelihood that people will respond aggressively to provocations (Bushman, 1997; Graham, Osgood, Wells, & Stockwell, 2006; Ito, Miller, & Pollock, 1996).
Alcohol disrupts executive functions, which occur in the prefrontal cortex, the area that allows to control aggression.
Alcohol also influences aggression through expectations.
the sight of a bottle of alcohol or an alcohol advertisement increases aggressive thoughts and hostile attributions about others (Bartholow& Heinz, 2006)
the belief that we have consumed alcohol increases aggression (Bègueet al., 2009).
Outline the role of negative emotions in aggression
The Role of Negative Emotions in Aggression Aggression is caused in large part by the negative emotions that we experience as a result of the aversive events that occur to us and by our negative thoughts that accompany them (Berkowitz & Heimer, 1989).
Adverse event -> Anger and fustration -> aggression
Outline the role of temperature in aggression
Hotter temperatures are associated with higher levels of aggression and violence (Anderson, Anderson, Dorr, DeNeve, & Flanagan, 2000).
• Hotter regions generally have higher violent crime rates than cooler regions, and violent crime is greater on hot days than it is on cooler days, and during hotter years than during cooler years (Bushman, Wang, & Anderson, 2005).
• In tropical countries, when the weather is especially hot and dry, the likelihood of civil conflict rises dramatically (Hsiang, Meng, & Cane, 2011).
Temperature
• Misattribution of emotion
People are aroused by the heat, but they are often unaware of the extent to which hot weather is the source of their arousal. When they encounter circumstances that prompt anger—say, a frustrating driver or an irritating romantic partner— they attribute their arousal to that person, and this misplaced annoyance gives rise to amplified feelings of anger, which can lead to aggression.
Outline the impact of positive emotions on aggression
Positive Emotions Decrease Aggression
Baron & Ball, 1974
Methods:
Participants are provoked by an experimental confederate
Participants randomly assigned to view funny cartoons or neutral pictures
Participants are given the opportunity to retaliate by giving shocks as part of an experiment on learning
Results: Participants who saw funny cartoons gave fewer shocks
• Evolutionary basis
“Sweet revenge”- take pleasure in getting revenge
Personality
Personality traits that have the experience of positive arousal at their core are linked to aggression sensation-seeking, positive urgency, and behavioral approach are all positively associated with aggressiveness (Chester et al., 2016; Miller et al., 2012). Sadism is characterized by the tendency to enjoy harming other people and animals. Sadistic tendencies are reliably linked to both greater aggression and greater reports of positive affect during the aggressive act (Buckelset al., 2013; Chester et al., 2017).
• Genetics
Genotypes that regulate levels of reward-related neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin are associated with aggressive behavior (Chester, DeWall, Derefinkoet al., 2016; Chester et al., 2015).
Neuroimaging
Anger and aggressive responses to insult were associated with a neural signature of approach motivations, which are often indicative of positive affect (Carver & Harmon-Jones, 2009).
Functional MRI techniques showed that retaliatory aggression is associated with greater activation in the brain’s reward circuitry (e.g., ventral striatum; Chester & DeWall, 2016, 2017b).
serial killers ENJOY killing
Outline the positive effects of aggression:
Individuals who act aggressively tend to be those who expect that aggression will improve their affective state (Bushman et al., 2001; Bushman, Baumeister, & Stack, 1999; Chester & DeWall, 2017; Chester et al., 2015)
- Aggressive acts do appear to repair individuals’ damaged mood, and this effect is largely driven by increases in positive affect (Chester & DeWall, 2017).
- Anticipatory affect as a potent force in human behavior (DeWallet al., 2016). • Aggression is likely driven by a dynamic interaction between the negative affect that an individual currently feels and the positive affect that he or she expects to feel during the aggressive act.
Outline the Catharisis hypothesis
engaging in less harmful aggressive actions will reduce the tendency to aggress later in a more harmful way
Cartharsis hypothesis:
buthman et al 1999
• Method
Participants write an article about their opinions about a social topic such as abortion.
Another participant had read the article and provided very negative feedback about it (“This is one of the worst essays I have read!”)
Half of the participants were allowed to engage in a cathartic behavior— they were given boxing gloves, some instructions about boxing, and then got a chance to hit a punching bag for two minutes.
A chance to engage in aggression with the same person who had angered them earlier – the participant and the partner played a game in which the losing person on each trial received a blast of noise).
Results
Students who punched the punching bag set a higher noise level and delivered longer bursts of noise than did the participants who did not get a chance to hit the punching bag.
Participating in aggression simply makes us more, not less, aggressive (Bushman et al., 1999; Bushman, 2002).
Engaging in a behaviour that relates to violence increases our arousal, thus increasing the likelihood of aggression.
If we enjoy engaging in the aggressive behaviour, we may be rewarded, making us more likely to engage in it again.
Suggest cartharssis increases aggression
Could act as reward so more likely to engage in behaviour again.
engaging in less harmful aggressive actions will reduce the tendency to aggress later in a more harmful way
engaging in less harmful aggressive actions will reduce the tendency to aggress later in a more harmful way
Participating in aggression simply makes us more, not less, aggressive (Bushman et al., 1999).
Engaging in a behaviour that relates to violence increases our arousal, thus increasing the likelihood of aggression.
If we enjoy engaging in the aggressive behaviour, we may be rewarded, making us more likely to engage in it again.
How do social influences aggect aggresion?
Is Aggression Learned? Modelling
• Parenting
Children who witness their parents being violent or who are themselves abused are more likely as adults to inflict abuse on their partners and children (Heyman& Slep, 2002).
Children who were spanked by their parents were more likely to immediately comply with the parents’ demands, but they were also more aggressive and showed less ability to control aggression (Gershoff, 2002).
Banduras bobo doll study
How else is aggression learned by modelling ?
Media Violence
Media:
The more media violence people, including children, view, the more aggressive they are likely to be (Anderson et al., 2003; Greitmeyer & Mügge, 2014). Boys and girls who watched a lot of violent TV as children were more aggressive as adults (15 years later), and more likely to have been convicted of a crime (Huesmann et al. 2003).
Games: playing violent video games leads to aggresion (Bushman and Anderson, 2001)
