Aggression Flashcards
What is frustration?
feeling of being blocked from goal
What is anger?
an emotional state
What is aggression?
behavioural expression of anger; intent to cause physical/psychological harm to someone
What was the original frustration-aggression hypothesis?
- frustration always results in aggression
- aggression is only caused by frustration
- relationship between frustration and aggression is automatic (uncontrollable)
What is the archival data supporting being hot creates frustration?
- more riots in summer
- baseball violence increases as temperature increases
What is a lab experiment supporting being hot creates frustration?
in warm lab, more likely to shock learner with high volts
What field experiment supports being hot creates frustration?
- person blocking turning lane
- people without A/C, hotter it is predicts how long they honk horn
What was the lab experiment on pain and frustration? What were the results?
- rate business ideas people came up with
- could give person reward or punishment
- hand either in ice water or room temp water
- when in pain, give less rewards and more punishments
What was the scenario study on justification and anger? What was the result?
- give frustrating scenario
- either provide justification for it or not
- rate how angry you would be
- less angry if situation is justified
What was the experimental method on intent and aggression?
- learner shock experiment
- participant is learner first
- overhear confederate (teacher) say “I can’t hurt anyone” or “people deserve punishment”
- confederate gives strong or weak shocks
- switch roles and participant chooses shock level for confederate
What was the result of the intent and aggression experiment?
- no intent to hurt: given low shocks
- intent to hurt: given high shocks
- retaliation aggression is correlated with intent (NOT actual actions)
What are Goffman’s 3 types of remedial exchange?
- justifications - alternative reason for doing frustrating thing
- excuses - had no choice
- apology - take accountability and express remorse
What was the apology experiment method?
- participant insulted or not when they arrive
- different researcher apologizes (or not) for first researcher’s behaviour
- learner shock experiment where participant is teacher
What were the results of the apology experiment?
- insult, no apology: high shock
- insult, apology: medium shock
- control (no insult): low shock
- mitigating info lowers aggression
- another experiment finding: mitigating info decreases aggression but NOT anger
What was the experimental method on alcohol and aggression?
- given alcohol or not
- frustrated or not
- given chance to retaliate
What are the findings of the alcohol and aggression experiment?
- not frustrated: not aggressive in both conditions
- frustrated: sober slightly aggressive; drunk extremely aggressive
- drunk decreases cognitive inhibition and increases arousal so more aggressive (can’t think clearly)
When can you be aggressive without frustration?
- aggressive cues primes brain for aggressive thoughts
- unaware so unable to override relationship
- cues = situations (film, faces) and objects (weapons)
What was the weapons as primes experiment? What were the findings?
- shown weapons or plants
- look at reaction times to aggressive and non-aggressive words
- weapon prime: faster rxn to aggressive words
- plant prime: equal rxn time to all words
What is the Zillman hypothesis?
frustration increases arousal which leads to aggression
- arousal intensifies emotions and behaviours
- arousal interferes with rational thought
What was the learner shock experiment and arousal method?
- participant is teacher
- get teacher and learner to fill out opinion survey
- confederate disagrees with all of participant’s opinions (frustration)
- teacher shown video (neutral, slightly or very arousing)
- participant decides level of shock
What were the findings of the learner shock and arousal experiment?
- neutral video: low shock
- violent (slightly): medium shocks
- erotic (very): high shocks
How does rational thinking influence the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
- can inhibit anger leading to frustration
- maybe can inhibit frustration leading to anger
How do aggressive cues influence the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
- cues lead to anger and aggression
- maybe can lead to frustration
- when aggressive and angry (maybe frustrated) spreading network activation can cue more anger/aggression
How does arousal influence the frustration-aggression hypothesis?
- arousal can cause frustration, anger and aggression
- being frustrated, angry or aggressive increases arousal
What is violence?
extreme acts of aggression
What is hostility?
negative attitude towards others/other groups
What is proactive/instrumental aggression?
- harm inflicted to get to alternative outcome
- if easier way to achieve goal, not aggressive
What is reactive/emotional aggression?
- harm is inflicted for it’s own sake
What is a culture of honour?
- encourages violence in response to threats against power/honour
- higher rates of aggression
Which type of culture and gender is most aggressive?
individualist men
What are the 3 aspects of bullying?
- intentional harm
- power imbalance
- repetition of behaviour
What age group has most crime involvement?
teens and young adults
What is the role of gender and aggression?
- men more directly (physically) aggressive
- women more indirectly (relationally) aggressive
What big 5 traits are correlated with aggression?
- low in agreeableness
- low in openness
- high in neuroticism
If in provoking situation, which 2 traits are correlated with aggression?
- emotional susceptibility (feel vulnerable to threats)
- type A personality (driven by feeling of inadequacy/needing to prove self)
What is the dark triad?
- 3 traits associated with aggression
1. narcissism - inflated self view and low empathy
2. machiavellianism - manipulativeness
3. psychopathy - high impulsivity and low empathy
What is the evolutionary explanation for aggression?
- men: better soldiers attract more mates
- women: need to protect offspring
What physical/hormones are linked with aggression?
- MAOA gene
- high testosterone and low cortisol
- low serotonin
- frontal lobe abnormalities
- reward system activates when watching someone in pain
Does corporal punishment decrease aggression?
No - increases it (shown positive outcome of aggression)
When does punishment work?
- immediately follows behaviour
- strong enough to deter aggressor
- consistent + aggressor sees as fair
What is social learning theory in aggression?
- aggression learned by observing others and own experiences resulting in rewards or punishments
- boys and girls taught about aggression differently
What is catharsis? What was the proposed mechanism? Does it work?
- reduction of urge to aggress because of real, imagined, observed aggressive act
1. aggression reduces physiological arousal
2. reduced arousal, less angry and therefore less aggressive - NO (excitation transfer= arousal by 1 stimulus intensifies emotional rxn to another stimulus)
What is the hostile attribution bias?
tendency to perceive hostile intent in others
What is alcohol myopia?
narrowed focus of attention when drunk, can exasperate aggression (rumination)
What is the general aggression model?
- unpleasant experiences, cues and characteristics create negative emotions, high arousal and aggressive thoughts
- whether aggression happens is result of higher order thinking
What is the I cubed theory?
- Instigation - social factors trigger aggressive urges (provoked)
- Impellance - personality and situation promote urge to aggress (e.g. rumination)
- Inhibition - self control battles instigation and impellance
What is the biggest predictor of violence?
media consumed
What is the confluence model of sexual aggression?
if high on risk factors for sexual aggression, even non-violent porn increases risk of sexual aggression
What are the 4 types of interventions in aggression?
- self control
- cognitive reappraisal - interpret provocations in non-personal way
- cognitive control - regulate emotions
- mindfulness - accept feelings
What is behavioural modification in aggression?
reinforcing non-aggressive behaviours
What is multi-systematic therapy?
- addresses needs at multiple levels
- e.g. olweus bullying prevention program works on individual, classroom, school and community level
