Aggression Flashcards
aggression
- behaviour that is intended to harm another individual who does not wish to be harmed
- Not assertiveness, not accidental
types of aggression
- hostile, instrumental
- physical, relational
- impulsive, cognitive
hostile vs. instrumental aggression
- hostile: goal is pain (ex. Fistfight)
- Instrumental: pain is means to an end (ex. Boxing)
physical vs. relational aggression
- physical: a physical action (ex. punching, hitting, theft, etc.)
- relational: harming relationships or social status (ex. social exclusion, gossiping, humiliation, shaming, manipulation, coercion, smear campaigns, false accusations, cyberbullying)
- Consequences can be deadly, or worse than death (ie. Exile)
impulsive vs. cognitive aggression
- impulsive: emotional, in the moment
- cognitive: planned
causes of aggression
- situational: aspects of environment (FAE rampant here)
- individual differences: something about the person
situational causes of aggression
- modeling
- attention as reward
- media influence
- relative poverty
- social exclusion
- guns
- frustration-aggression theory
- heat
modeling
- watching others to learn how to behave in society
- ex. violent movies, violent parents
- social learning theory (Bandura/Bobo Doll)
- vicarious operant conditioning (cognitive)
- observational learning -> learn consequences of others’ behaviour
attention as reward
- mass killings and school shootings follow a “contagion model”
- giving attention/press to shooters encourages copycats
media influence
- anecdotal, correlational, and experimental evidence that movies, music, and video games could influence us
- ex. correlation between violent video games and aggressive behaviour
violent video game experiments
- Participants played either violent or non-violent video games, then could choose to blast unpleasant noise in the headphones of other players (operational measure of aggression) -> aggressive games led to aggressive behaviour
- Age and gender didn’t influence results
- In a different study where people could choose to blow up opponent (violent) or transport them to another place (non-violent), found no differential affect for autism spectrum disorder and no evidence for influence of violent video game
poverty
- Key: Income inequality
- Greater income inequality -> more homicide
- within neighbourhoods, nations, etc.
- May explain homicide difference between Canada and US
social exclusion (study)
- Study where people interact with 4-5 others for a few minutes, then anonymously pick someone they want to work with
- People are then told that either nobody wants to work with them, or everyone wants to work with them
- Then they are given a new partner, have to decide whether to give noise blasts -> excluded = more noise
- Mood was not a variable
guns
Having people do studies with either a gun or a badminton racket in the room -> more shocks given when gun in room
frustration-aggression theory
- Frustration leads to aggression (ie. Cat who can’t get outside to catch birds may get aggressive and become more likely to scratch you)
- May help explain aggression related to income/poverty
- Goal blockage -> frustration
- Influenced by closeness to goal and perceived injustice (ex. Researchers butt in a line -> more aggression when close to front and unjustified)
heat
- Violent crimes increase when it’s hot; no effect on non-violent crimes
- The hotter it is, the more pitchers hit batters
- Depends on your subjective perception of the heat
individual differences
- Being male is a predictor of physical violence
- Race, religion, mental illness are not predictive
- Previous history predictive
- Gender differences:
- Men associated with hostile/direct aggression, women associated with relational/indirect aggression
aggression and technology
- Can magnify impact of aggression
- Physical (ex. Guns, bombs)
- Relational (ex. Internet, media shaming)
ways to reduce aggression
- catharsis (ex. violent sports) ineffective -> football/hockey/punching a punching bag increased aggression (increases ruminating); non-violent sports effective
- provide better role models
- empathy (imagining other perspective, empathy training)
- apologizing
- reappraisal (better outcomes than suppression)
Gross et al. emotional regulation and conflict study: what did they find?
- participants trained in cognitive reappraisal (type of emotional regulation) expressed less negative emotions towards outgroups and more positive positions related to conflict-related policies
- these effects persisted across time
Gross et al. emotional regulation and conflict study: what did they do?
Took Jewish-Israeli participants and measured levels of intolerance towards Palestinians (or their least favourite outgroup) after cognitive reappraisal instructions (experimental group) or no reappraisal (control group)
