Lecture 2: Violence & Aggression

Question 1

What is aggression?

Answer 1

Refers to behavior that is intended to cause harm or pain
Can be physical or verbal
Need to be intentional and involve intimidation (according to the HCR-20)

Question 2

What are the distinctions between types of aggression?

Answer 2

Reactive aggression: Violence as a response (hostile, hot-blooded)
eg., assault
Proactive: pre-planned violence (instrumental, cold)
eg., most sexual aggression, armed robbery

Question 3

What did Gray et al., (2019) study? (TriPM)

Answer 3

Measured how diff. forms of psychopathy relate to diff forms of aggression
-looked at boldness, meanness, disinhibition

Question 4

Results from Gray et al., (2019) (TriPM)

Answer 4

Boldness related to proactive aggression
Disinhibition related to reactive & proactive aggression

Question 5

How can we study violence?

Answer 5

Crime statistics
Self-report
Laboratory
Informants- professionals, parole officers, teacher

Question 6

Issues with studying violence

Answer 6

-Crime statistics: many crimes don’t get reported (DV, sexual assault, etc…) & homicide is rare within the general population
-Self-report: bias, ambiguity, the person has to have good personal insight
-Difficult to measure violence/aggression in a lab
-Informants: ethical issues, confidentiality, etc

Question 7

What is Cohen’s (1996) study?

Answer 7

Examined ppts responses to an insult just before someone bumps into them in the hallway
Divided ppts into North & South states
Aimed to test South’s Honor Culture
Tested handshake firmness & testosterone % levels

Question 8

What did Cohen’s study show?

Answer 8

Southern ppt’s had higher testosterone levels & firmer handshakes
Demonstrates Southern states have an honor culture (feel strongly about protecting their reputation)
May explain higher murder rates in the South

Question 9

What did Milgram’s (1960) study measure?

Answer 9

Measured obedience by seeing how far ppts would go when administering shocks to ppts

Question 10

What did Milgram’s study find?

Answer 10

65% of ppts went up to the highest level of shock (450W)
Demonstrates willingness to comply even when it results in aggression
Many factors involved in obedience

Question 11

How can lab studies measure violence & aggression?

Answer 11

Able to test causal propositions e.g., initiating aggression from violent video game
-From meta-analyses; patterns from the lab & real world were similar for gender, trait-aggressiveness, alcohol, media, temperature

Question 12

What did Bartholow & Anderson et al., (2002) study? (video games)

Answer 12

Violent video games on aggression
Two groups of UG students played either “Mortal Combat” and other played “PGA golf”
Competed against the confederate on a reaction time task
Ppts received a “punishment” of a white noise blast (1/2 of trials ppt told that opponent set level of punishment, other 1/2 reversed)

Question 13

What are the results from Bartholow & Anderson., (2002)?

Answer 13

Those who played violent video game displayed more aggression
Stronger effect for men

Question 14

What are some differences in aggression between genders?

Answer 14

Men show more aggression (90% of murders are by men)
Females (younger) show more indirect aggression (Bjorkqvist et al., 1992)
No differences in verbal aggression

Question 15

Prevalence of domestic violence (DV) & gender

Answer 15

Women face more abuse but there is a smaller gap than people think
Huge issues of reporting DV; more stigma for men
COVID-19 has led to increase in DV

Question 16

What is the impact of drugs & alcohol on violence & aggression

Answer 16

Alcohol can magnify existing problems & lower inhibition but does not cause violence itself
50% of recorded violence shows the person to be intoxicated
Bushman & Cooper., 1990: small amount of alcohol had an effect on violence in lab study

Question 17

What are aggression related cognitions?

Answer 17

Refers to beliefs & attitudes of aggression & violence

Question 18

What did Polaschek et al., (2008) measure?

Answer 18

Analyzed offence transcripts (what people thought & felt about the offense
Assigned statements from the offense to 1 or more categories (Grounded Theory Procedure)
Enabled identification of several implicit theories of violence

Question 19

What are 4 violence related implicit theories?

Answer 19

1) Beat or be beaten (violence is a hierarchy)
2) I am the law (see themselves as leaders)
3) Violence is normal (violence is a way of problem solving)
4) I get out of control (violence is inevitable)

Question 20

What did Donnellan et al., (2005) find? (self-esteem)

Answer 20

Self-esteem is negatively correlated with self-report aggression (Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire)
Narcissism is positively correlated with aggression

Question 21

What did Baumeister view about self-esteem & violence

Answer 21

Argued self-esteem (if over-inflated) if threatened leads to aggression & violence

Question 22

What did Amad et al., (2020) measure?

Answer 22

Measured global self-esteem & narcissism in 502 students in Wales & Malaysia
Recorded violence by the RPQ (Reactive & Proactive Aggression Questionnaire)

Question 23

What did Amad et al., (2020) find?

Answer 23

Low self-esteem was a predictor of reactive violence
Narcissism was a predictor of proactive violence

Question 24

What is the relation between patient SM & fear?

Answer 24

SM has bilateral amygdala damage & is unable to fear fear but can express fear
Older research focuses on the amygdala being associated w/ fear

Question 25

Feinstein et al., (2011) study of SM

Answer 25

Put SM in real fear-inducing situations (handling snakes, haunted house, muggings)
SM showed NO signs of fear but did show other emotions
Demonstrates SM has awareness of fear but is not able to process it
Pathway we use to detect fear in the environment but doesn’t appear to produce fear w/ amygdala lesions

Question 26

What did Pardini et al., (2014) study in the Pittsburgh Youth Study?

Answer 26

Followed 503 boys since 1st grade (30% selected for their antisocial behavior)
Measured amygdala volume at age 26

Question 27

Findings from Pardini et al., (2014) amygdala

Answer 27

Smaller amygdala’s showed more violence
Big differences in levels of amygdala volume between violent & non-violent groups
Stronger relationships between aggressive behavior & impulsive & pre-meditated behavior

Question 28

What did Lozier et al., (2014) study?

Answer 28

Looked at the responsiveness of the amygdala to images of fearful expressions in juveniles w/ conduct problems
Examined “callous-unemotional traits” & “externalizing behaviors”

Question 29

Findings from Lozier et al., (2014)

Answer 29

Ppts with CU traits were negatively correlated to amygdala activation
Externalizing behaviours were positively correlated to amygdala activation

Question 30

What is the prefrontal cortex divided into?

Answer 30

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC)
Ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC)
Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)

Question 31

What is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)?

Answer 31

In the PFC
Related to “executive function” such as working memory, planning, inhibition, abstract reasoning

Question 32

What is the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC)?

Answer 32

Typically involved in response inhibition
BUT much less is known about it

Question 32

What is the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)?

Answer 32

Thought to represent emotion, reward & decision making
Most famous lesion - Phineas Gage

involved in aggression

Question 33

What problems occur when PFC is damaged?

Answer 33

Explosive anger
Slower maturity
Sensitive to socioeconomic factors
Inhibition of responses

Question 34

What did Bechara et al., (1994;1999) study?

Answer 34

Gave ppts 4 decks of cards (turning certain decks resulted in rewards or punishments)
Slowly ppts learn what deck is for reward or punishment

Question 35

Bechara’s study findings

Answer 35

Damage to the OFC - ppts don’t show that learning of which decks to use for reward or punishment (play set of decks that initially look good - not able to learn rules over time)

OFC appears to be important in using emotion (reward & punishment) in guiding behaviour - “gut feeling”.

Question 36

What is the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH)?

Answer 36

Emotions influence future decision making processes by creating biomarkers (somatic markers) - change in body/brain (emotion)

Question 37

What is Siever’s model?

Answer 37

Susceptibility to Aggression and Psychiatric Diagnosis

Stimulus (provocative) - > Sensory Processing - > Info processing (cognitive appraisal) - > top-down OR bottom-up

Top-down processing: suppression/regulation (OFC) (‘brakes’)
Bottom-up: trigger (amygdala, insula) (‘drive’)