Lecture 2 Flashcards
1
Q
Define aggression
A
- A behaviour that is intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm
2
Q
What are the 5 components of aggression?
A
- Aggression is a behaviour, thoughts of being aggressive are not included. Getting angry or having hostile attitudes are not aggression BUT can be a measure of aggression
- Behaviour must be deliberate/intentional
- Behaviour must aim to harm the recipient in some form = harm is physical and emotional
- Aggression must be towards another person e.g punching wall in private = not aggression, BUT used as intimidation = aggression
- Action aimed at a person who is motivated to avoid the harm = hard to discern but self-harm/suicide is not aggression
3
Q
What is the difference between violence and aggression?
A
Violence is subset of aggression = physical damage
4
Q
What are the terms for aggression?
A
- Reactive: hostile, hot-blooded vs Proactive: instrumental, cold blooded
- Direct: face to face, indirect: slightly more anonymous e.g social media
- Physical vs Verbal
- Domestic Violence: coercive controlling violence
5
Q
Elaborate Proactive vs Reactive:
A
- Major distinction is motivation in aggression
Proactive:- For gain e.g money/sex
- Unprovoked
- Planned/premeditated
- Predatory
- Little emotion - cold-blooded
Reactive: - Reacting to anger/frustration
- Provoked
- Impulsive
- Defensive
- Emotion - hot-blooded
Distinction is not binary and some acts are hard to classify
6
Q
How to study violence?
A
- Crime stats: using convictions BUT most acts are not reported
- Informants: professionals or others that know them well report on activities but this has ethical issues
- Lab behaviour: difficult to get people to be aggressive in lab, some studies provoke aggression outside the lab e.g bump into a student in the corridor and insult them
- Self-report: questionnaires for behaviour: issues of lying and self-awareness as well as ethics and pragmatics
7
Q
What did Cohen et al do? (South)
A
- Thought violence occurred more in the South of USA due to excess feuds = farm type places = need to defend territory = honour culture
- Students studying in a Northern State, divided them into the state of origin
- Examined reaction to an insult - just before experiment, a confederate bumps into them in the corridor and calls them an asshole
- Took a range of measures from levels of testosterone to strength of handshake
- Found those who had been bumped into shook hands more firmly and had higher testosterone levels
- Northern - T had gone up but handshake did not change a lot, South - T had a huge increase and handshake changed a lot
8
Q
What did Milgram do?
A
- How violent someone would be to someone else under instructions to do so: learning experiments and memory as a cover: multiple ppts thought they were shocking the learner to their death
- Now use noise blasts or hot sauce to look at levels of aggression
9
Q
What did Anderson and Bushman do?
A
- Lab experiments can test causal propositions e.g playing a violent video game increases aggression, and therefore discover theoretical relations among variables that are never sufficiently isolated in the real world
- Meta-analysed studies in real world and in lab = confirmed same pattern for both types of study
10
Q
What do video games do to aggression?
A
- Two groups: one played mortal combat and the other played golf for 10 mins
- Competed against a confed on a reaction time task
- Ppts received a punishment of a white noise blast
- First half of trial ppts told opponent set level of punishment but this was reversed in second half
- Confed was female
- Told purpose was to look at effect of video games on RT
RESULTS: - Video games do cause greater aggression AND effect is stronger for men
- Without the cue to violence (golf), men were no more aggressive than women
11
Q
What is the relationship between Gender and Aggression?
A
- Men are more aggressive/violent: mate selection, defending territory
- Homicide is carried out nearly exclusively by men (10:1)
- Field and Lab studies show males show greater physical aggression (especially unprovoked)
- No differences in verbal aggression
- Females may show more indirect aggression - at least young females
12
Q
What is the relationship between Drugs/Alcohol and aggression?
A
- In 50% of official recorded violence, person is intoxicated
- Even in lab studies with small amounts of alcohol, there is a clear effect of alcohol
- But alcohol does not cause violence in itself - magnifies pre-existing problems
13
Q
Genes/Env and aggression?
A
- Nature vs nurture
- Longitudinal study with children
- Looking at childhood maltreatment: no, probable, severe
- Looked at MAOA gene
- Interaction between high MAOA and mistreatment = has effect but not much
- Low MAOA and maltreatment = very antisocial and violent
- Expression of genes depends upon environment
14
Q
What are Aggression related cognitions?
A
- Refers to beliefs and attitudes to aggression/violence
- Implicit theories: individuals hold theories about how the world works
STUDY: - Analysed offense transcripts and walk through offense
- Used a grounded theory procedure - each statement is assigned to one or more categories, they found 4 main ones
15
Q
What are the 4 aggression related cognitions?
A
- Beat or be beaten: See violence as important in societal place and in hierarchy - vigilant for possible challenges to their self-image
- I am the law: see themselves as leaders and act as judge & executioner
- Violence is normal: means of solving problems and does not have any negative connotations
- I get out of control: views violence as inevitable because they cannot stop it
