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
What are the subcultures that have collective aggression?
Football hooliganism: ritualised aggression linked to social status, values and group norms
Gangs: violence may be seen as a part of life as a may of solving disputes
What are the explanations of aggression?
Ethology, psychodynamic, biological, evolutionary social, bio-socio, social, frustration-aggression, excitation transfer
What is the argument for the evolutionary social account?
Complex social behaviour is adaptive, helps species to survive and promotes survival of genes
What is the argument for biological accounts of aggression?
Aggression across human society must serve a purpose and aggression is an innate action tendency or instinct
What are the characteristics of instincts?
Goal directed, terminates a specific consequence, beneficial, adapted to a normal environment, shared by members of a species, unlearnt
What does Darwin say about aggression?
There is the same emotional state across species (evolved, adaptive and useful) that indicates what the animal will do
How is aggression a form of social competence?
We learn when aggression is appropriate
How is aggression a form a communication?
As threat displays in humans indicate aggression and if recognised harm can be avoided
What are the limitations of evolutionary accounts?
Insufficient explanation for all forms of aggression
Difficult applying studies of animals to humans
Lack of evidence for genetic underpinning
Bio-social accounts are more popular
What does bio-social accounts say about aggression?
Arousal+situation= aggression. Aggression is innate not an instinct
What is the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
A frustrating event causes aggression
What is the catharsis hypothesis?
Aggression is due to the need to release frustration
Who looked at catharsis?
Bushman, Beimeister and Stack
What did Bushman, Beimeister and Stack find?
People who hit a punching bag are more likely to punish people who transgressed against them
What is the excitation transfer model?
Learnt aggressive behaviour and arousal and the individuals interpretation of the arousal state causes aggression
What does heightened arousal lead to in the excitation transfer?
We are more aggressive than usual
What are the social accounts of aggression?
Social learning theory which can lead to cognitive schemas and the media
What is the process of social learning theory in aggression?
Acquisition of behaviour, instigation of acts, maintenance of behaviour
What does aggression depend on in SLT?
Person’s experience of others’ aggressive behaviour, how successful the aggression was, likelihood of aggression being rewarded or punished, cognitive social and environment factors
What did Straus, Sugarman and Giles-Sims find?
Children not spanked shows less antisocial behaviour after 2 years
What does learnt patterns of aggression lead to?
Generational child abuse, stress (domestic violence), divisions of power, high levels of alcohol consumption, family being a source of frustration
What did Anderson and Bushman, 2001, find?
There is a link between violent video games and aggression
What did Berkowitz, 1984 find?
Media can trigger violence as an automatic reaction to aggression scenes
What is the explanation for Berkowitz’s findings?
Ideomotor response and priming
What is priming?
Activating schemas that influence processing of new information
Who found the general aggression model?
Allen, Anderson and Bushman (2018)
What is the two processes of the general aggression model?
Distal and Proximal
What is in the distal processes of the general aggression model?
There are biological modifiers such as hormonal imbalances and low serotonin and there is environmental modifiers such as culture and exposure to violence which lead to personality
What is the first stage of proximal process of the general aggression model?
There are inputs from personal and situational factors
What is the second stage of proximal process of the general aggression model?
There are routes. Stage 1 inputs influence the present internal state (thoughts, emotion, arousal). The interaction of these will enhance or diminish aggression
What is the third stage of proximal process of the general aggression model?
The outcome which is the appraisal of the situation and a decision on how to respond
Who found the I3 model of aggression?
Finkel and Hall (2018)
What are the processes of the I3 model?
- The strength of the environmental stimuli which can lead to aggression
- Situational and personal factors can determine how aggressively we react.
- Situational and personal factors influence how likely we are to aggress
What is traditional bullying?
One person or a group of
people repeatedly
demonstrate aggressive
behaviour towards another
person or group of persons
with an ‘imbalance of
power’
What is cyberbullying?
An aggressive intentional act
carried out by a group or
individual, using electronic
forms of contact, repeatedly
and over time against a
victim who cannot easily
defend him or herself
What is cyber aggression?
Intentional harm delivered
by the use of electronic
means to a person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful, or unwanted.”
How does cyberbullying differ from traditional bullying?
Less proximity to the victim, anonymity, lack of facial cues, frustrations are online, unclear social norms
