L13 - Aggression Pt 1 Flashcards
What is aggression?
- Intentional behaviour aimed at causing either physical or psychological pain
- Accessibility of aggressive thoughts: aggressive affect
Is all aggression the same?
- Antisocial: violates social norms e.g bullying
- Prosocial: supports social norms e.g acts of law enforcement
- Hostile: behaviour intended to harm either physically or psychologically motivated by feelings of anger and hostility e.g an unprovoked punch
- Instrumental: behaviour intended to harm in the service of motives other than pure hostility - means to an end e.g rugby tackle
Is aggression nature or nurture?
- Combo of bio/env factors
- Bio factor: tested role of MAOA gene, and in non-humans, short form of gene = greater aggression
- Env/Social factor: Childhood mistreatment by parents
Study on aggression and nature/nurture by Caspi:
- Data from 550 males in NZ
- Each ppt had a measure of MAOA genotype, env adversity and anti-social behaviour at age 26
- Results: If low MAOA activity, childhood treatment makes a large difference in anti-social behaviour, and a large relationship between it. High MAOA activity shows similar pattern but the aggression is less variable
- Combo of bio marker and the env factor causes greatest aggression
What are Neural and chemical influences of aggression?
- Amygdala associated with aggressive behaviour
- When activated = animals aggress
- Humans: activated by presentation of threatening faces and perceiving anger in others
Study looking at the amygdala:
- WHITE American ppt go into fMRI scanner, were presented with pictures of unfamiliar people who were either white/black
- Looked at different oxygenation levels changed in the brain as pictures change, measured ppts racial attitudes through explicit and implicit measures
- Implicit measures related with amygdala activity
What does Serotonin do?
Could inhibit aggressive impulses
What does Testosterone do?
Associated with aggression
What was the study looking at serotonin and testosterone?
- Higher testosterone levels among prisoners convicted of violent crime vs non-violent
- Among non-violent criminals, higher testosterone served longer before parole
- Prisoners with higher test = seen tougher by other prisoners
What is the relationship between alcohol and aggression?
- Alcohol is a disinhibitor and increases likelihood of anti-social behaviour
- Link between alcohol consumption and aggression
What was the study on alcohol and aggression?
1) Alcohol clouds our ability to behave in a rational way; we focus on immediate cues
2) Assessed intoxication and aggression at bars/clubs
- Level of intoxication of crowd and mean level of intoxication at the bar level significantly predicted frequency/severity of aggression
3) Think-drink effect - expectations of effects of alcohol
- Gave ppt non-alcohol/modest/high drink and manipulated expectancies of alcohol in the drink
- DV = ppt is unhappy with confed and has to allocate amount of hot sauce to confederate in taste test
- Found that more aggressive = more hot sauce allocated
- Expectation of alcohol predicted how much hot sauce allocated, not actual intoxication
Why are some cultures more aggressive than others? (the USA)
- Cohen conducted experimental ethnography
- Culture of honour is defined by its members strong concerns about their own and other’s reputations, leading to sensitivity to insults and a willingness to use violence to avenge any perceived wrong
- Self-protection norms are more pronounced in America south when their honour is slighted & more likely to respond with aggression
What was the exp showing how southern vs northern Americans respond to potential provocation?
- Exp 1: Southerners more likely to aggress when bumped by a confed and then insulted
- Game of chicken: confed walks into ppt, and looking at what point does ppt give way and let confed walk past them
- Southerners moved out of the way before northerners in the control condition (politeness) but lot less difference when insulted. Shows context is important for them
- Northerners moved out the way at the same distance roughly
- Looked at differences in testosterone levels if they had been insulted/not
- Southerners had a large jump in testosterone when insulted compared to the northerners.
- Control condition: didn’t matter if from north/south
What are situational causes of aggression?
- Physical env
- Social env
- Objects in env
Does temperature affect aggression?
1) How many times pitcher hit a batter, the temperature when game started
- Found that as temp increases, the more the pitcher hit a batter, the pitcher was retaliated against more
- When no hits = no motivation to retaliate = not much effect of temperature
2) Effect of aggression on serious behaviour. Broken down into season and serious crimes e.g murder and rape.
- If rates change with season, temperature has an effect. Violent crime takes place more in spring/summer time as shown by data
How does temperature affect aggression?
- Increased physiological discomfort can increase arousal
- Feelings of discomfort = misattributed to others = frustration
What was the study about global warming projections and temperature and aggression?
- As temperature increases over the years due to global warming, there is an increase in number of murders and assaults in America
What did Hsiang do? (Global study)
- Examined links between global climate change patterns and global patterns of civil conflict
- Found probabilities of new civil conflicts arising throughout the tropics doubles during el nino (warmer and less consistent weather) than La Nina (opposite) years
- Suggests that el nino might have had a role in 21% of all civil conflicts since 1950 and stability of modern society relates strongly to climate change
What is the global warming model?
- Global warming = increased heat = droughts and extreme weather patterns inc irritability (direct heat effects) = Violence prone adults causing pre/post-natal developmental problems & Intergroup conflict = violent crime, intergroup violence, civil war etc.
What is the Frustration-aggression Theory?
- Belief that you are being prevented from goal increases likelihood of aggression
- Closer you are to goal = greater aggression
- EXP: confed had to cut into queue of people either second in line or 12th and how does ppt react who was cut in front of
- More aggression by person who had been further up in queue
When does aggression increase?
- When frustration is unexpected e.g traffic jams
- Relative deprivation: feeling that we have less than we deserve
Study on relative deprivation?
- Students hired to raise money for charity, they were paid on commission with expected levels of high/low success
- High expectation ppts were more verbally aggressive to non-donors and slammed phone down harder
How does competition affect aggression?
1) Robber’s Cove Study: no contact = group contests = seek to reduce group hostilities
- Needed mutual interdependence to reduce intergroup hostility rather than simple contact
2) Some ppts think of competitive situation/control/cooperate with someone else before playing Mario Bros
- Could act non/aggressive e.g fireball/jump on them
- DV = kill ratio (being aggressive)
- Among males and females when asked to compete, kill ratio is higher, and when asked to cooperate, kill ratio is lower
Link between Ostracism and aggression:
- Strong link between feeling ostracised (feeling ignored/socially excluded by others) and aggression
- Leads to temporal need-threat model of aggression
What is the temporal need-threat model of aggression?
- Exposure to ostracism = feel pain, threats to self-esteem & belonging = anger/sadness = Appraisal and coping which is influenced by context and individual differences = Need fortification = either anti/pro-social behaviours or they seek solitude = if prolonged can lead to alienation, depression, helplessness and worthlessness
What was a study looking at Ostracism?
- Manipulating ostracism in diff ways e.g providing false personality feedback (alone in future vs many friends)
- Asked to get acquainted task
- Ostracised ppts behaved more negatively toward others
Is income inequality linked with increased violence?
Relatively Weak Linear Correlation
What were the studies on pain?
- Removing punishment elicits +ve behaviour in rats?
- Couldn’t be tested as when rats felt pain, they attacked each other
- Students hold hand in painfully cold water
- Produced higher level of aggression
