Chapter 5 - Human Aggression and Violence

Question 1

Passive-aggressive behaviors

Answer 1

behaviors that are generally interpreted as aggressive in intent, although the behavior is passive and indirect

Question 2

The Buss classification system

Answer 2

Active aggression:

1) Direct Physical - punching, hitting, etc.
2) Indirect Physical - Practical joke, booby trap, etc.
3) Direct Verbal - Insulting the victim
4) Indirect Verbal - malicious gossip

Passive Aggression:

1) Direct Physical - obstructing passage
2) Indirect Physical - Refusing to perform necessary task
3) Direct Verbal - Refusing to speak
4) Indirect Verbal - Refusing consent

Question 3

Hostile (expressive) aggression

Answer 3

• occurs in response to anger-inducing conditions, such as real or perceived insults, physical attacks, or one’s own failures
• aggressor’s goal is to make victim suffer
• criminal homicides, rapes, violent crimes directed at harming victim
• behavior is characterized by the intense and disorganized emotion of anger, with anger defined as an arousal state elicited by certain stimuli

Question 4

Instrumental aggression

Answer 4

• begins with competition or the desire for some object or status possessed by another
• Perpetrator tries to obtain the desired object regardless of the cost
• usually a factor in robbery, burglary, larceny, and other white-collar crimes
• usually, no harm to individuals happens, unless an individual interferes with perpetrators objective.
• also a factor in calculated murder committed by a hired, impersonal killer.

Question 5

Caveats to hostile-instrumental aggression theory

Answer 5

• scholar’s Bushman and Anderson contend that this two-category division fails to take into account that many aggressive acts have multiple motives. Aggressive acts can be better understood when they are placed on a continuum that runs between controlled aggression at one end and automatic aggression at the other.

Question 6

Aggression defined:

Answer 6

Behavior perpetrated or attempted with the intention of harming one or more individuals physically or psychologically or to destroy an object. Can be criminal, but not always. All violent behavior is aggressive behavior, but not all aggressive behavior is violent.

Question 7

Violence defined:

Answer 7

Destructive physical aggression intentionally directed at harming other persons or things. All violent behavior is aggressive behavior, but not all aggressive behavior is violent.

Question 8

Psychodynamic or hydraulic model

Answer 8

Stemming from Freud’s theories, this model believes that human beings are susceptible from birth to a buildup of aggressive energy, which must be dissipated or drained off before it reaches dangerous levels. If violent crime is to be controlled, the human animal must be provided with multiple but appropriate channels for catharsis.

Question 9

Ethology

Answer 9

The study of animal behavior in relation to the animal’s natural habitat, comparing this behavior to animal behavior. Championed by Konrad Lorenz, but currently there is little evidence to suggest that most of Lorenz’s ideas are pertinent. He believed that in order to understand human aggression we must first understand animal aggression

Question 10

Territoriality

Answer 10

The instinctive or genetically programmed response to attack, or to increase aggressive behavior toward the intruder if personal space is violated. Observed in animals, and assumed by Lorenz to carry over to humans as well.

Question 11

Ritualized aggression

Answer 11

Displays of force and superiority, such as show of teeth, size, or color array in animals.

Question 12

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 12

The study of the evolution of behavior using the principles of natural selection. Sees aggression as normal, not pathological.

Question 13

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 13

Suggested by John Dollard and colleagues, this theory states that people who are frustrated, thwarted, annoyed, or threatened will behave aggressively, since aggression is a normal, almost automatic response to frustrating circumstances.

Question 14

Revised Frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 14

Led by Leonard Berkowitz, suggests the following:
1) The person is blocked from obtaining a goal
2) Frustration results, generating anger
3) Anger predisposes or readies the person to behave aggressively
Note that anger is not the only emotion that can lead to aggression. Aversive conditions (pain) or pleasant states (sexual arousal) may also lead to aggressive behavior

Question 15

Weapons effect

Answer 15

Berkowitz likened the firearm to a conditioned stimulus in that the weapon conjures aggressive associations, facilitating overt aggression. A gun, even when not used, is more likely to generate aggressive action than is a neutral object.

Question 16

Cognitive-Neoassociation Model

Answer 16

While reformulating the frustration-aggression hypothesis, Berkowitz emphasized the importance of cognitive factors. During the earlier stages after the introduction of an aversive event, there are negative affects that arise. This negative affect may be due to physical pain or psychological discomfort (a verbal insult for example). Most people are able to move on from these initial stages, and in later stages, roused people make causal attributions about the unpleasant experience, think about the nature of their feelings, and try to control their feelings and actions.

Question 17

Excitation transfer theory

Answer 17

Based on the assumption that physiological arousal, however produced, dissipates slowly over time. The transfer of arousal from one situation to another is most likely to occur if the person is unaware that he or she is still carrying some arousal from a pervious situation to a new, unrelated one.

Question 18

Rumination

Answer 18

Self-focused attention toward one’s thoughts and feelings. Ruminative thought can harbor and maintain angry feelings over a period of time, far removed from the initial provocation

Question 19

Displaced aggression theory

Answer 19

Suggested by Bushman et al, displaced aggression can occur when an individual cannot aggress against a source of provocation, such as a boss at work, but feels less constrained about being aggressive toward an innocent, non-provoking, or mildly provoking individual (or pet).

Question 20

Triggered displaced aggression

Answer 20

Following an initial provocation (boss being rude at work), the target commits a minor provocation (a cat tipping over a glass of water), which is the triggering event. This in turn prompts an aggressive response, ESP in conjunction with excitation transfer and rumination.

Question 21

Social learning factors in aggression

Answer 21

Conditions most conducive to the learning of aggression are those in which the child:

1) has many opportunities to observe aggression
2) is reinforced in his or her own aggression
3) is often the object of aggression

Question 22

Social modeling with children

Answer 22

Championed by Albert Bandura, this theory states that when a child’s imitative behavior is reinforced or rewarded by praise and encouragement from significant models, the probability that the behavior will occur in the future is increased.

Question 23

Types of models

Answer 23

Bandura identified three major types of models:

1) family members
2) members of one’s subculture
3) symbolic models provided by mass media

Question 24

Observation modeling

Answer 24

Bandura identified a variety of conditions that may be present in order for observation to lead to modeling:

1) there must be motivation to rehearse what has been observed
2) depending on what happens to the observed model, behavior may be encouraged or suppressed
3) In order to maintain aggressive behavior, it needs periodic reinforcement

Question 25

Cognitive Models of Aggression

Answer 25

• note that while observational learning is important in the process, the individual’s cognitive capacities and information processing strategies are equally important. Two main cognitive models:
  1) Cognitive Scripts Model (Rowell Huesmann)
  2) Hostile Attribution Model ( Kenneth Dodge, et al)

Question 26

“script” as related to cognitive models

Answer 26

suggests what events are to happen in the environment, how the person should behave in response to these scripts, and what the likely outcome of those behaviors would be. Can be learned through personal experience or observation, and are unique to each person. Once learned, they are resistant to change and persist into adulthood. (schemas??)

Question 27

Cognitive Scripts Model

Answer 27

Suggests that social behavior in general, and aggressive behavior in particular, is controlled largely by cognitive scripts learned and memorized through daily experiences.

Question 28

Hostile attribution bias

Answer 28

Suggested by Kenneth Dodge et al, discovered that youth (and adults) prone towards violence are more likely to interpret ambiguous actions as hostile and threatening than are their less aggressive counterparts. people with hostile attribution bias “tend to view the world through blood-red tinted glasses.” Can be viewed as existing along a continuum, exhibiting itself more in some and less in others.

Question 29

Self-control and aggression

Answer 29

Cognition provides the steering and direction to the energizing effects of anger, fear, or frustration. It is essentially the manager of emotions. It is a person’s ability to CONTROL the outward expression of anger, rather than their ability to control their inner angry feelings, that predicts aggression and violent behavior.

Question 30

General Aggression Model (GAM)

Answer 30

Proposes that aggression and violence depend on how an individual perceives and interprets the social environment, expectations about the likelihood of various outcomes, knowledge and beliefs about how people usually respond in certain situations, and the degree to which a person believes he or she has the ability to respond effectively

Question 31

Escalation cycle

Answer 31

A factor in the GAM, which begins with an initial triggering event which may be serious or benign. One person or group believes retaliation is justified, the other believes the opposite. The group who believes it was unjustified often retaliates back, and the cycle persists through several “rounds” of violent actions. This is in part due to the fundamental attribution error.

Question 32

I-cubed Theory

Answer 32

Organizes the many aggression risk factors into three categories:

1) Instigating triggers
2) Impelling forces
3) Inhibiting forces

Question 33

Instigating triggers

Answer 33

Discrete incidents that arouse tendencies or predispositions that are conducive to aggression

Question 34

Impelling forces

Answer 34

Forces that increase the likelihood of an aggressive action following the instigating trigger

Question 35

Inhibiting forces

Answer 35

Factors that increase the likelihood that aggression will be mitigated or contained.

Question 36

Types of aggressive actions (Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber)

Answer 36

1) Overt aggression
2) Covert aggression
They differ in behavior patterns, emotions, cognitions, and development

Question 37

Overt Aggression

Answer 37

1) Behavior patterns: Direct confrontation with victims, generally DEcreases with age
2) Emotions: Anger is usually an important ingredient
3) Cognitions: Lack social cognitions for coming up with nonaggressive solutions
4) Development: begins early, esp in boys

Question 38

Covert Aggression

Answer 38

1) Behavior patterns: Concealment, dishonesty, sneaky behavior; generally INcreases with age
2) Emotions: Less emotion, crimes like larceny, theft, fraud
3) Cognitions: Relies on cognitive capabilities, planfulness and deceitfulness
4) Development: Can evolve from early childhood as a learned strategy to escape punishment, but is also seen as late-onset behavior.

Question 39

Reactive aggression

Answer 39

• more “hot-blooded” actions, anger expressions, vengeful hostility
• generally a hostile act displayed in response to a perceived threat or provocation
• Roots are in frustration-aggression model (Berkowitz)
• theorized to develop in reaction to harsh, threatening, abusive environments or cold parenting (environment)
• Also influenced by genetic and temperamental factors (anxiety, emotional impulsiveness, etc).

Question 40

Proactive aggression

Answer 40

• more “cold-blooded” actions, bullying, name-calling, coercive acts
• less emotional, driven by expectations of rewards
• theorized to develop in part due to exposure to role models who are aggressive and value the use of aggression to resolve conflict/advance personal interests
• Seems to be less affected by temperament and more based on belief that said behavior will bring rewards and positive outcomes

Question 41

Gender differences in aggression

Answer 41

Growing recognition that gender differences are not simply due to biology, but primarily due to cultural and socialization processes that promote different kinds of aggression. Boys are more physically aggressive than girls, and girls are more prone to engage in relational aggression than boys.

Question 42

Media, video games, and violence

Answer 42

• research community is divided on the level to which media is suspected to influence youth
• bulk of evidence suggests that violence on TV and more importantly, participating in violence via video games, has an effect on the frequency and type of aggression engaged by youth in America

Question 43

Contagion effect (copycat effect)

Answer 43

The tendency in some people to model or copy an activity portrayed in the entertainment or news media. Said to occur when action depicted in the media or digital games is assessed by certain individuals as a good idea and then mimicked.

Question 44

Examples of the copycat effect

Answer 44

• School-shooter copycats: both media violence and the contagion effect seem to be implicated in school shootings, along with other factors, inline with a cumulative risk model/cascade developmental model of offending
• Copycat terrorists: the consensus regarding copycat terrorism is that it is especially strong following a well-publicized, successful act using a novel approach