Chapter 16: The Cognitive Approach: Relevant Research Flashcards
how does aggression begin according to the general aggression model?
Aggression begins with a social encounter that has the potential to trigger aggression
what influences how we react to aggression?
the kind of person we are and the situation we are in
when is aggression more likely?
when the situation includes provocation, frustration, or encouragement to act violently
when are personal and situational factors relevant in determining aggressive behaviour?
Personal and situational factors are relevant only to the extent that they activate aggression-related thoughts and emotions
when do violent acts become a real possibility?
When aggressive thoughts enter people’s awareness and remain easily accessible
what activates aggressive thoughts and emotions?
Any aspect of the situation that we associate with violence
video game avatars and aggression study
Both men and women were more aggressive after playing a violent video game with a male avatar than a female avatar, presumably because people are more likely to associate men with violence
violent song lyrics and aggression study
Exposure to violent song lyrics increases aggressive thoughts and feelings
hostile associations across people
Some people are more prone to make hostile associations with situations they encounter than others
cognitions in highly aggressive people
Highly aggressive people have a well-developed and easily accessible network of hostile cognitions
aggressive cognitions and violent TV
People who watch a lot of violent movies and TV bring aggression-related thoughts into awareness more easily than those who have not been exposed to a lot of violent media images
behaviour scripts
represent the ways to act that we have learned and sometimes practiced
where are behaviour scripts located?
among hostile cognitions
how do we learn aggressive scripts?
by watching aggressive models
what aggressive scripts are we more likely to act out?
ones that we have practiced
when are we more likely to act out an aggressive behavioural script?
- if it’s more accessible
- if we ruminate about the events that led to the aggressive thoughts
automatic aggression and behavioural scripts
- A lot of aggression takes place in an automatic or impulsive manner
- In these cases, highly accessible aggressive scripts can be particularly dangerous
cognitive scripts of violent-prone people
Violence-prone people continue to revisit provoking incidents, keeping their aggressive scripts highly accessible in their minds
Conditions that make hostile cognitions more accessible
- Anger
- Alcohol
- Frustration
aggression and interpreting situations
Aggressive conditions also trigger the way we interpret situations
general aggression model
- social encounters
- person & situation
- hostile, thoughts, and emotions & aggression scripts
- appraisal & decision
- thoughtful or impulsive action
aggression in boys vs. girls
Adolescent and preadolescent boys are much more likely than girls to engage in physical aggression
reactive aggression
the angry and aggressive way that some people respond to mild frustration
reactive aggression and radio study
- boys with a history of reactive aggression were more likely to see the act of another student breaking their radio as international and hostile than nonaggressive boys
- The aggressive boys had chronically accessible hostile thoughts that led them to interpret harmless acts as threatening
interventions for reducing reactive aggression
Several intervention programs are designed to reduce reactive aggression by changing a child’s aggression-related cognitions
Fast Track intervention study
- At-risk students placed in a Fast Track condition from grades 1-10, which included home visits and an enrichment program were significantly less likely to commit antisocial acts like assault and theft
- The reduction in antisocial behaviour was associated with changes in the student’s thoughts
- Students in the Fast track program were less likely to attribute a classmate’s actions to something provocative
- Students in the Fast Track program were also better able to think of constructive solutions to social problems and were better able to recognize the bad outcomes that were likely to follow if they became physically aggressive
Fast Track intervention study 10 years later
At age 26, Fast Track participants showed lower levels of aggression and lower testosterone reactivity when provoked
memory in men vs. women
- Men and women do not differ in their ability to memorize and recall information
- But, there are differences in what men and women remember
what do women remember better?
Women recall significantly more personal events than men (both positive and negative)
what do men remember better?
Men did better at recalling the facts they had learned in school or read about
men vs. women’s self-relevant information
- Genders differ in the extent to which self-relevant information is associated with emotions and the extent to which information about themselves is connected with information about personal relationships
- Women are more likely than men to encode information about themselves in terms of emotions
men vs. womens’ cognitive link between emotional memories
The cognitive link between emotional memories is stronger for women
men vs. womens’ childhood emotional memories
Women recall more emotional memories from childhood
mens’ vs. womens’ descriptions of important life events
When women write about important events in their lives, they are more likely than men to describe emotional experiences
womens’ emotional experiences and depression
This might explain why women suffer from depression more than men (they remember sad experiences more often)
self-construals in men vs. women
- Men develop independent self-construals
- Women develop interdependent self-construals
Independent self-construals
self-concepts that are relatively unrelated to the cognitive representations they have for other people
Interdependent self-construals
self-concepts that are highly related to the cognitive representations they have of others and their relationships with those people
accessibility of relationship information in men vs. women
information involving relationships is more accessible to women because of their interdependent self-construals
how do men vs. women describe themselves?
- women include more statements about their roles as parents and family members when describing themselves
- This trend applies to elementary and high school students
how do men vs. women describe themselves in pictures?
Women’s photographs that “describe themselves” are more likely to include other people than men’s
men vs. womens’ memories of group schemas
women remembered a series of words processed through their best friend and group schemas better than men
men vs. womens’ recalling of stories
- stories told by wives from married couples were more vivid and contained more details than those described by the husbands
- when asked to recall events, women were more likely to recall experiences that had to do with social relationships
cognitive explanation for depression
Depressed people remember sad experiences more easily and have difficulty keeping themselves from generating one depressing thought after another
depressive cognitive triad
three types of depressive thoughts that people with depression experience
three parts of the depressive cognitive triad
- Have negative thoughts about themselves
- Are pessimistic about the future
- Tend to interpret ongoing experiences in a negative manner
depression as a vicious cycle
Cognitive psychologists argue that negative thoughts can cause people to become depressed, leading to a vicious cycle
what people are the happiest according to cognitive psychologists?
The happiest people are those who pay attention to positive information, dismiss negative information, and interpret ambiguous information as positively as possible
what kind of outlook do most people have on life?
unrealistically positive
negative schema
a cognitive structure containing memories about and associations with depressing events and thoughts
People with negative schemas tend to:
- Attend to negative information
- Interpret ambiguous information in a depressing way
- Recall depressing memories easily
- Often associate current sad experiences with sad incidents from their past
depressed patients and word recall study
depressed patients remembered the depression-associated words better, whereas two groups of non-depressed people and patients recalled the other words better
negative schemas and memories
People processing information through a negative schema have greater access to the depressing memories stored there
recalling memories in depressed patients study
- most of the memories people recalled during the depressed period were unhappy ones.
- However, when they are less depressed, they recall happier experiences
- The same pattern is found when depressed people are asked to think about the future
how do depressed people interpret ambiguous information?
in the most negative light possible
interpreting information in depressed patients studies
- They dwell on what they did wrong and fail to give themselves enough credit for what they did right
- They selectively pay attention to negative information while ignoring or downplaying positive information
interpreting feedback and depression study
82% of depressed patients chose to look at unfavourable feedback, significantly more than nondepressed patients
negative schemas and depressive symptoms
Negative schemas go hand-in-hand with other depression symptoms
negative schemas and depression recovery
- When people recover from an episode of depression, their symptoms decline, but the underlying cognitive network often remains in place
- This makes them vulnerable to future bouts of depression
depressed patients and music study
depressed patients showed an increase in negative thoughts simply after listening to a sad piece of music
cognitive view on the cause of depression
- Negative life experiences alone are not enough to produce depression
- How we interpret the event and attribute negative experiences are important
attributional style
stable ways that people explain the causes of negative events
characteristics of people with negative cognitive style
- Attribute problems to stable and global causes
- Anticipate the most dreadful consequences possible
- Believe that the problems they encounter are the result of their own personal shortcomings
result of negative cognitive style
it makes people particularly prone to depression
stability of negative cognitive style
Is fairly stable over time
negative cognitive style and depression
People with a negative cognitive style are sometimes described as having a cognitive vulnerability to depression
battered women and depression study
found that battered women with a negative cognitive style suffered from depression and other symptoms of trauma more than other women who did not rely on this style of thinking
earthquake victims and depression study
people with a negative cognitive style were more likely to be depressed after a severe earthquake than those who do not have this cognitive style
longitudinal negative cognitive style and depression study
found that students who were identified as high risk for depression based on their negative cognitive style were much more likely to experience at least one episode of major depression over 2.5 years
how do adolescents who typically rely on a negative cognitive style to deal with their stressors respond?
they are more likely to respond by becoming depressed
pessimistic cognitive styles across cultures
collectivist cultures have more pessimistic cognitive styles
attributions across cultures
people in individualistic cultures are more likely to attribute their successes to their efforts and failures to other people or unfortunate circumstances than people in collectivist cultures
explanations for depression across cultures
The link between cognitive style and depression may be affected by culture
Aggressive cognitions
- Trigger aggressive behaviour scripts
- Affect the way people interpret situations
reactive aggression in boys
- Some boys respond in angry and aggressive ways to even mild frustrations or provocations
- They possess chronically accessible hostile thoughts that lead them to interpret harmless acts as threatening
how can we explain differences in memory?
by the way people process self-relevant information
self-construal
the extent to which someone views themselves as independent or dependent on others
depressive thoughts vs. feelings
Depressing thoughts are tied to depressing feelings
depressive schema
a cognitive structure containing memories about depressing events and thoughts
