Aggression Flashcards
What is aggression?
“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”. Geen (p.3; 2001)
What is an aversive stimulus?
Direct or indirect such as physical force or verbal
What is intent to harm?
That the aggressor is motivated to cause harm
What is reactive aggression?
Reaction to a trigger, the intention to cause harm
What is proactive aggression?
Motivated by concerned greater than risk of harm
What are the personal factors for aggression?
Hormones, personality, gender, alcohol
What hormones are implicated in aggression?
Testosterone but the correlation between aggression
What happens in male to female transitions?
Decreases in aggression
What personality is implicated in aggression?
Type A personality
What are the characteristics of Type A personality
Striving to achieve, time urgency, competitiveness and hostility
How does alcohol cause aggression?
Compromises cortical control and increases activity in primitive brain areas
What did Gustafson find?
Intoxicated males are more aggressive than sober and delivered electric shocks when provoked
What are the two situational factors for aggression?
Physical environment and cultural norms
How does the physical environment effect aggression?
Prolonged heat linked to domestic violence and crowding due to personal space causes violence
Who looked at the physical environment in aggression?
Cohn and Rotton
What did Cohn and Rotton find?
Assaults are more frequent later in the evening due to working in temp controlled environments in the day so effects of temp didn’t show until people have left work
How do cultural norms affect aggression?
Subcultures where violence is accepted causes aggression
What is a case example for crowd bating?
Shawn Dykes threatened suicide from the top of a shopping centre and the large crowd taunted him and he jumped after 3 hours
What did Mann (1981) find?
21 cases where people threatened to jump to suicide in the presence of a crowd
Why does crowd bating cause aggression
Nighttime, large crowd, warm temp, long duration and the crowd is distant from the victim
What does crowd bating lead to?
Deindividuation and dehumanisation
What is dehumanisation?
Viewing the victim as inhuman
What is deindividuation?
A sense of anonymity where there is a loss of identity and reduced likelihood of punishment
What does Geen (2001) say about collective aggression?
Western demographic nations view democracy, human rights and non-violence as core values… but violence is more common US