Aggression Flashcards
What is ‘aggression’?
Behaviours performed with the goal of harming another person
What different types of aggression can you get?
- hostile aggression
- instrumental aggression
- relational aggression
What is hostile aggression?
Stems from feelings of anger, aimed at inflicting pain/injury on another person
What is instrumental aggression?
Performed to reach a goal, as a means to an end
What is relational aggression?
Harming through damaging social relationships
What is the behavioural genetics view of aggression?
Aggression is partly inherited
[we know how to be aggressive from a young age]
Freud, Lorenz - aggression is an inborn drive
What is the evolutionary perspective of aggression?
Aggression is particularly adaptive for men
–> dominance –> paternity
Aggression is more frequent in males because they have higher testosterone levels
Females tend to use relational aggression more than physical aggression
How might aggression be learned?
It may be learned through received/observed reward (Social Learning theory)
We see someone getting rewarded for behaving aggressively –> makes us more likely to use aggression in similar situations
How might culture influence aggression?
Cultural rules restrict & govern aggression
E.g. peaceful tribes vs. ‘culture of honour’
What is a ‘culture of honour’?
This culture accepts & justifies aggression in response to threats to one’s honour
Which researcher/s did a study on cultures of honour?
Vandello et al. (2009)
What did Vandello et al.’s (2009) study on culture of honour involve & find?
Pps in Chile (culture of honour) & Canada (control) listened to an argument between a couple about either…
1) another man (jealousy)
2) another topic (non-jealousy)
Pps were asked whether aggression was acceptable in that situation
–> pps from Chile were more accepting of aggression in the jealous situation
It didn’t differ in how much each group accepted aggression in the non-jealous situation
What are some social determinants of aggression?
- provocation
- frustration
- weapons
- discomfort
DeWall et al. (2007) tested whether provocation led to aggression. What did they do & find?
Pps received feedback from a confederate on their interview performance, they were either…
1) provoked (given negative feedback)
2) not provoked (given positive feedback)
Pps then evaluated the confederate’s performance
–> when pps had been provoked, they gave more negative evaluations of the confederate’s performance
Who proposed the Frustration-Aggression model?
Dollard et al. (1939)
What is the basis of the Frustration-Aggression model?
We feel frustration when we don’t achieve a goal → leads to the instigation to aggress (or other responses, e.g. withdrawal) → results in outward aggression
Why is poverty related to aggression?
People whom are poor/in poverty are frustrated because they cannot achieve their goals
Aggression is often not directed towards their source of frustration. What is this called?
Displacement
What is a limitation of the Frustration-Aggression model?
It is an extreme theory - assumes that all aggression is caused by frustration
Who revised the Frustration-Aggression model?
Berkowitz (1989, 1993)
How did Berkowitz (1989, 1993) alter the Frustration-Aggression model?
He agrees that frustration can lead to anger but states that anger and an AGGRESSION CUE must be present to instigate aggression & lead to outward aggression
What does emotion/appraisal theory state in relation to emotions we may feel when we don’t achieve a goal?
Not achieving a goal leads to ANGER when a person feels it is someone else’s fault but to SADNESS when a person feels it is their fault
What is the weapons effect?
The presence of a weapon can increase the probability of aggression
Who did a study on the weapons effect? What did they find?
Berkowitz & Le Page (1967) made pps angry (gave them negative feedback) then had them give electric shocks to a confederate & measured the length of their shocks
A gun OR badminton racket was in room
–> when a gun was in the room, pps gave longer shocks = more aggressive
How can discomfort increase aggression?
Heat has been found to increase rates of violent crime (more in hotter years & summer months)
There is only more aggression up to a certain temperature (75˚F)
More rape, murder & DV (inside) in summer
As well as heat, what other sources of discomfort have been found to increase aggression rates?
- pain
- unpleasant environments (loud, crowded)
Who proposed the General Model of Aggression?
Anderson & Bushman (2002)
What components are in the General Model of Aggression?
- Input variables
- Situational factors / person factors
- Influences your current internal state (affect, cognition, arousal)
- Influences appraisal & decision processes
- Leads to thoughtful action/impulsive action (e.g. aggression)
Situational factors influence your internal state → increases arousal → feel angry → more aggressive thoughts
Give examples of situational factors.
- provocation
- frustration
- exposure to aggressive models
- cues associated with aggression
- discomfort/negative affect
Give examples of person factors.
- negative affect
- irritability
- beliefs about aggression
- pro-aggression values
- Type A behaviour pattern
- hostile attributional bias
Aggression influences how we _______/_______ a situation.
Aggression influences how we appraise/evaluate a situation.
When we feel angry it leads to more aggressive thoughts (we feel like we are being attacked, don’t deserve it) & makes it more likely that we decide to…
…behave aggressively (impulsive action)
Person factors:
The world is a bad place –> beliefs about aggression –>…
…behave more aggressively
How does arousal influence a person’s likelihood of aggressing?
Arousal can increase a person’s tendency to behave aggressively
Arousal is often not related to the cause of the frustration/anger
What affect can violent video games have on aggression levels?
Violent videogames increase…
- aggressive thoughts
- angry feelings
- physiological arousal
- aggressive behaviour
Violent videogames decrease…
- empathy
- compassion
- pro-social behaviour
As well as the media/videogames, what other things are linked to increased violence?
- poverty
- low IQ
- single parent family
- broken family
- abusive parents
–> more likely to experience aggressive cognitions & affect & develop an aggressive personality
Repeated violent videogame playing can lead to…
- aggressive desensitisation
- aggressive expectations
- aggressive perceptions
- aggressive behaviour scripts
- aggressive beliefs & attitudes
What is ‘aggressive desensitisation’?
Aggressive acts don’t see as cruel
We feel less sympathy for victims
What are aggressive expectations?
We expect others to attack us
We learn to behave aggressively when someone provokes/frustrates us
What are aggressive perceptions?
If someone has an aggressive personality, they are better at detecting aggressive facial expressions
What are aggressive behaviour scripts?
We believe that the world is a bad place –> overestimate the occurrence of crime
What might aggressive beliefs & attitudes lead to?
We may develop an aggressive personality & have more aggressive thoughts & affect
How might aggression levels be affected by alcohol?
Consuming alcohol leads us to behave more aggressively & have stronger reactions to provocations
Why does alcohol have this effect on aggression levels?
Alcohol causes us to become disinhibited - aggression is a failures of our self-control (we can’t inhibit our impulses)
Baumeister et al. (2007) - alcohol can deplete our self-control
Alcohol causes a biased & narrow perception of a situation (impacts our cognition) → we aren’t capable of giving more logical meaning to situations
How might we be able to control our aggressive impulses, according to Reading (2008)
We should improve our communication & increase our empathy levels
Attempt to understand why the person is attacking/frustrating you
How else might we be able to control our aggressive impulses?
We can express our anger non-aggressively
- e.g. write a letter (Pennebaker, 1990) –> helps us express our feelings & let go of the anger
What method does NOT help to control our aggressive impulses?
Catharsis (“blowing off steam”) (Denzier & Foerster, 2012) –> increases our aggression
What is anger rumination & when do we do it?
We often engage in anger rumination when we are in anger-provoking situations
This is when we spontaneously reflect on the situation using a self-immersive (1st person) perspective
What effect does anger rumination have on our emotions?
Anger rumination perpetuates our feelings of anger
How might we be able to reduce the negative effects of anger rumination?
We should think about the situation from a 3rd person perspective - distance ourself from the situation, adopt a more detached perspective
Pps received provoking comments from a confederate. They reflected on their feedback by taking on a self-distanced OR self-immersive perspective OR did not reflect on their feedback.
Who did this study & what did they find?
Mischkowski et al. (2012) measured the duration & intensity of noise blasts that pps gave the confederates (= aggressive action)
Found that the self-distance group had fewer aggressive thoughts & angry feelings, & displayed less aggressive behaviour towards the confederate (gave shorter noise blasts)
How might we prevent experiencing aggression from another person’s actions?
Weiner et al. (1982) - apologising can be effective
Baron (1976) - we can use humour (but it doesn’t work in all situations)
How might we prevent aggression in society?
Punishments should be prompt & justified
Reading (2008) – we can train people to prevent aggressive responses that focuses on communication & empathy/perspective taking
What happens to the frequency of our aggressive thoughts if we have the goal to aggress, according to Denzler, Förser & Liberman (2007)
We have the goal to aggress → increases the accessibility of aggressive thoughts
What happens to the frequency of our aggressive thoughts after goal fulfilment, according to Denzler, Förser & Liberman (2007)?
After goal fulfilment we have reduced accessibility of aggressive thoughts
What did Denzler, Förser & Liberman (2007)’s 3 experiments involve?
Experiment 1:
- accessibility of aggression increased after imagining an aggressive situation compared to a non-aggressive situation
Experiment 2:
- found similar effects for non-aggressive conflict-resolution → there was a post-fulfilment reduction in actual aggressive behaviour
Experiment 3:
- aggressive acts that don’t constitute goal fulfilment increase the accessibility of aggression
