Aggression Flashcards
Aggression
Intentional action aimed at doing harm or causing physical/psychological pain
Gender and aggression?
- Physical aggression vs Relational aggression
Male aggression - Inflicting more serious injury
- More likely to engage in spontaneous acts of aggression
- Encouraged when it fulfills a central part of the male role and identity
Women more engaged in relational aggression
- Sabotaging relationships or reputations
At what age period does aggression spike?
Puberty
- Burst in hormones + underdeveloped frontal lobe causes them to mainly make decisions through social norms around them
What are the three historical risk factors of aggression?
General social history
Specific criminal history variables
Past behaviour
Catharsis
- What does research show about this?
Idea that aggressive acts can let off steam and reduce agression
- Research shows it doesn’t actually dissipate anger or reduce subsequent aggression (actually causes more aggression)
Retaliation
- Overkill
- Escalation
Aggression in response to aggression
- Usually overkill (more severe than initial insult) and maximizes dissonance
- Since more severe than initial, usually escalates the conflict
Crayon study - 3-5 year olds
- Group of males vs females told to draw on a white sheet of paper
- Only 1 orange crayon and 2 white crayons
- How did each gender fight?
Boys - Physical aggression used (pushing, hitting)
Girls - Relational aggression (spreading rumours or ignoring other girl to make her cry)
Causes of aggression:
- Social-cognitive learning theory
- External causes (5)
People learn how to behave through cognitive processes (especially through imitation of others)
Alcohol
Pain, discomfort, hunger
Heat (+ global warming)
Rejection, exclusion, taunting
Frustration, deprivation, aggression
Electric shock study:
- Confederate insults participant and they either shock her w/ name tag or cloak on
- How does this cause aggression?
Deindividuation is induced by anonymity
- Allows ppl to act more aggressive bcuz of less self-awareness
How does alcohol induce aggression?
Think-Drink effect
(External cues)
Lowers inhibitions and loosens restrictions on committing negative acts
- Serves as disinhibitor and disrupts info processing + impairs reasoning (perception/interpretation)
When ppl expect alcohol to have a certain effect on them, it often does
How do pain, discomfort and hunger cause aggression?
(External cues)
Pain:
- Makes people go into fight mode of fight or flight; tends to also make people angry
Discomfort:
- Increases anger and lowers threshold for aggression
Hunger:
- Low blood sugar can increase lvls of anger and aggrression
What is the correlation between heat and crime?
- What is the third factor actually impacting this?
(External cues)
As heat increases, violent crime increases
- Heat actually increases aggression, increasing violent crime
Why does rejection, exclusion, and taunting cause aggression?
(External cues)
Social pain registers in our brains in same way as physical pain
- Also makes people feel like a victim and makes them want to retaliate
When is frustration most pronounced? (4)
What is relative deprivation?
(External cues)
Frustration:
- When goal is within reach
- Expectations are high
- Rule of fairness has been violated (depends on perception of fairness)
- Goal is blocked w/out compelling reason
Relative deprivation:
Deprivation felt when we see others enjoying a better situation or when we’re deprived if something relative to our expectations
Does violence in media cause more aggressive behaviours?
What is desensitization?
No
- Usually aggressive people are attracted to this media
Decreasingly distressed by seeing people hurt
