Lecture 8: Aggression and Violence

Question 1

What is:

aggression

Answer 1

A behaviour intended to harm another individual.

Question 2

What is:

emotional or hostile aggression

Answer 2

Inflicting harm for it’s own sake; the aggressive act itself is the endpoint.

Question 3

What is:

instrumental aggression

Answer 3

Inflicting harm in order to obtain something of value; the aggressive act is the means to some end.

Question 4

What are the evolutionary perspectives for why aggression occurs?

Answer 4

• The benefits of aggression: more resources (e.g. land, food), more respect and acceptance (i.e. higher status), and more mates (which means more offspring!).
• There are well-known gender differences in demonstrating aggression. Men are more likely to engage in physical aggression, whereas females are more likely to aggress in defense of offspring. Females place more value on their own lives, and are thus less risk-taking. They are also more likely to aggress emotionally.
• However, aggression is only one technique among many that humans use as they strive for mastery and status (e.g. cooperation and forming alliances can also lead to the benefits listed above).

Question 5

What are the biological factors that contribute to aggression?

Answer 5

• There is some evidence for being genetically predisposed to being more violent than others (“violence genes”).
  
  • However, there are other environmental factors that have to occur in order to trigger them, and environmental factors that can prevent the behaviours from being expressed.
• Studies have found positive correlations between testosterone levels and aggression.
  
  • But there are lots of limitations to this research. A lot of it is correlational, meaning that we’re unsure of the causal direction (i.e. being more aggressive could produce more testosterone), and potential third variables (e.g. stress).
• Studies have found negative correlations between serotonin levels and aggression.
  
  • Menopausal women experience a drop in serotonin levels. There was an “air rage” incident of a menopausal woman who slapped a passenger and was uncooperative with the air attendants, which she attributed to her changing hormone levels.
  • “Intermittent explosive disorder,” moments of violence such as road rage, is also linked to low serotonin levels.
• Damage to the prefrontal cortex can impair executive function (i.e. ability to plan and inhibit actions).
  
  • Alcohol also impairs this area, and thus executive functioning. This is why alcohol can lead to increases in aggression.

Question 6

How does an authoritarian (or RWA) personality contribute to aggression?

Answer 6

People high on this scale have:

• Rigid, unbending beliefs (i.e. highly biased processing);
• An unquestioning acceptance of authority;
• And show rejection and aggression against those who dissent or deviate from the established social order.
• RWA is believed to develop through early interactions with parents. For example, parents with a preoccupation with social status will communicate this to their child.

Question 7

What attitudes did Benjamin (2006) find correlated to authoritarian personality?

Answer 7

Benjamin (2006) found significant correlations between levels of authoritarianism and attitudes toward wartime violence, penal code violence, and corporal punishment (but not domestic violence).

Question 8

How is aggressive behaviour influenced by rewards and punishment?

Answer 8

It’s clear that aggressive behaviour is strongly affected by learning, but how so?

• positive reinforcement: When an aggressive behaviour gets us the outcome we want, it reinforces the aggressive act.
• negative reinforcement: When an aggressive behaviour helps us avoid a negative outcome, it reinforces the aggressive act.
• punishment: Can reduce aggressive behaviour in certain cases, but can also lead to increases in aggression modeling.

Question 9

When is punishment most effective?

Answer 9

Punishment is most effective when:

• It immediately follows the aggressive act;
• It’s strong/aversive enough to deter an aggressor;
• It’s consistently applied every time the aggressive act occurs;
• And is perceived as fair and legitimate by the aggressor.

Question 10

How does social learning theory and Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment relate to aggression?

Answer 10

• Behaviour is learned through the observation of others as well as through the direct experience of rewards and punishments.
• In Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment, children watched adults behave aggressively or neutrally towards an inflatable clown doll, and then punished or rewarded for their behaviour. The children then modelled the behaviour of the adults who were being aggressive. The children didn’t just behave aggressively towards the Bobo Doll, but they were also more likely to choose violent toys such as guns.

Question 11

What are:

violent scripts

Answer 11

Learning that aggression is the appropriate way to deal with problems and conflicts.

• e.g. If you grow up witnessing domestic abuse. If the adults act violently towards each other, you learn that this is appropriate behaviour in these situations.
• e.g. Kids involved in gang violence are also learning that aggression is the appropriate response to being provoked, and how you should solve your problems.

Question 12

What is:

the frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 12

Predicts that frustration:

• Occurs when a person is blocked from a goal;
• Always elicits the motive to aggress;
• Causes all aggression;
• And allows us to use aggression as a psychological drive (i.e. frustration allows us to feel displacement and catharsis in order to relieve our feelings of aggression vicariously).
  
  • There’s no evidence that catharsis happens through aggression. Watching people behave aggressively tends to increase tendencies to be aggressive.

Question 13

What is:

relative deprivation

Answer 13

Occurs as a result of social comparisons with either other individuals or other social groups. It can occur even in absence of realistic (absolute) deprivation.

Question 14

What is:

egoistic relative deprivation

Answer 14

The sense that you are doing less well than other individuals.

Question 15

What is fraternal relative deprivation, and under what conditions does it lead to intergroup conflict?

Answer 15

The sense that one’s group is not doing as well as other groups. Feelings of fraternal deprivation can lead to intergroup conflict under these conditions:

• Not possessing x (and someone else does).
• Wanting x.
• Feeling entitled to x.
• Attaining x is possible, so there’s no reason a change can’t happen.
• Not your fault that you don’t have x, so you deserve it.

Question 16

What is:

cognitive-neoassociation theory

Answer 16

The idea that many different things can give rise to negative feelings.

• e.g. “Heat-induced discomfort makes people cranky. It increases hostile affect (e.g., feelings of anger), which in turn primes aggressive thoughts, attitudes, preparatory behaviors (e.g., fist clenching), and behavioral scripts (such as “retaliation” scripts). A minor provocation can quickly escalate, especially if both participants are affectively and cognitively primed for hostility by their heightened level of discomfort. A mild insult is more likely to provoke a severe insult in response when people are hot than when they are more comfortable.”—Anderson, 2001

Question 17

When does ostracism lead to aggressive behaviour and why?

Where Does Aggression Come From?: Situational Influences

Answer 17

• Ostracism threatens four fundamental needs: belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence.
• Ostracism leads to attempts to repair the threatened needs, i.e. positive, prosocial behavior (trying to reclaim one’s position in the group), but may at times lead to aggression (if one feels control has been taken away, or that they are invisible or don’t matter—they have no control over the situation).

Question 18

What is social rejection and how is it demonstrated in the Cyberball experiment?

Answer 18

Social rejection is a retaliation against those who’ve rejected you. In Cyberball, people throw the ball around on the computer. People will throw you the ball a few times then just start playing with each other. Even if you tell people that the computer is doing this, and not other people choosing to not throw the ball to you, you’ll still feel excluded because we’re so sensitive to rejection.

Question 19

What is the:

culture of honor

Answer 19

The name for the tendency of white southern men in the US to endorse violence if they believe it’s protecting their property or homes. Archival research has also shown that homicide rates are consistently higher in the Southern US compared to the Northern US.

Question 20

How did Nisbett et al. (1993) explain the higher homocide rate in the Southern US?

Answer 20

• They found that up north, the homicides that were happening as a result of a felony gone wrong (e.g. armed robbery casualties). On the other hand, in the southern states, the situation was more likely to be emotionally aggressive (e.g. you come home to find your wife cheating on you and shoot the man, or both of them).
  
  • i.e. The violence rates didn’t have to do with socioeconomic status or other things, but the situation.
• White Southern men more likely to endorse aggression in defense of property or in retaliation for insults. They’re more likely to respond to an insult with anger. An explanation for this is that in the Southern states, people are more likely to be farmers. In order to prevent people from stealing your crops or you sheep, you have to build up a reputation that you’re tough and won’t take people messing with you.
  
  • However, many people protest against this stereotype of harmers.

Question 21

How did How did Cohen et al. (1996) explain the higher homocide rate in the Southern US?

Answer 21

These researchers did a study at the University of Michigan of white men who grew up in the Southern or Northern United States. Researchers set up a scenario where the participant gets insulted by a confederate, in this case, called an asshole. Researchers manipulated whether or not they were insulted, and whether or not there were other people around to hear the insult. The researchers looked at physiological responses, such as cortisol and testosterone levels. There was also a behavioural measure of aggression. There was a study with a narrow hallway that participants had to walk through once they finished the experiment. Normally, people would allow the other person to walk past. Researchers looked at how close the participant got to the other person before moving to the side. The closer they were before they moved, the more aggressive this behaviour was interpreted as.

Question 22

How does the gun culture of the United States promote aggression?

Answer 22

The prevalence of violent/gun crime in the United States compared to other countries is way higher compared to other politically stable, industrialized nations. There’s a culture around the right to bear and use firearms. Many people see it as a means of resisting a tyrannical government (as foreseen in Constitution), but also a way to protect one’s home. Many states grant immunity to persons who shoot home intruders (even if they are unarmed, leaving the home, etc.).

Question 23

What is the:

norm of family privacy

Answer 23

The idea that private homes are havens; may exempt family life from public standards of behaviour (“what goes on in your own home is none of my business”). Family members are frequent targets of aggressive behaviour.

Question 24

What is the:

general aggression model

Answer 24

This is the best model we have today to predict whether or not someone will behave aggressively.

• The inputs are the person, i.e. individual differences such as their upbringing and RWA levels, and the situation, i.e. if they’re really hot and uncomfortable, or if they’ve just been insulted.
• Affect refers to how accessible feelings of aggression are to you, if you’re primed for them.
• Your past experience will also feed into this model for the next time you come across this type of situation.

Question 25

How did Huesmann et al. (2003) demonstrate the effects of violent media on aggression?

Answer 25

This study examined relations between TV-violence viewing at ages 6-10 and adult aggressive behaviour 15 years later. The sample consisted of children who grew up in the 1970s & 1980s. Researchers measured many different variables (including many potential “third variables”). Fifteen years later, researchers used a composite adult aggression measure: self-reports, other person reports, and archival state data (e.g. arrests, convictions, traffic violations). The key findings were:

• Childhood exposure to media violence predicts young adult aggressive behavior for both males and females.
• Identification with aggressive TV characters (especially same-sex characters), as well as the perceived realism of TV violence, also predict later aggression.
• These relations persist even when other variables such as socioeconomic status, intelligence, and parenting factors (e.g. parental aggression, parenting practices, etc.) are statistically controlled.

Question 26

How did Konijn et al. (2007) demonstrate the effect of violent media on aggression?

Answer 26

This study notes that video games have gotten a lot more realistic over the years. They predicted that this will make it easier to identify with the characters, and that stronger identification with the characters will lead to increased increased aggressive behaviour. Participants were adolescent boys randomly assigned to 1 of 4 video game conditions: violent fantasy, violent realistic, non-violent fantasy, and non-violent realistic. The participants come into the lab and played for 20 minutes, then engaged in a competitive task with a partner whom they could blast with a harmful noise. They were told that anything above a level 8 could cause hearing damage. The dependent variable was what level they set the noise at for the first trial.

Question 27

How did Coyne et al. (2004) demonstrate the effects of indirect aggression in media on behaviour?

Answer 27

• These researchers looked at “indirect” aggression, which includes verbal aggression (e.g. spreading rumors) and physical aggression (e.g. destroying property) that is acted out behind the victim’s back; as well as relational aggression, and non verbal aggression (e.g. rolling eyes). Indirect aggression was believed to be particularly common among females, though more recent findings contradict this!
• In this experiment, participants (male and female) came into the lab and watched a 20 minute video and were told that this was a TV show. This video was centered around two females who were having a friendship dispute. In order to deal with this situation, one of the females reacted with either direct aggression, indirect aggression, or no aggression. The aggression in these videos was awarded and deemed as normal. The dependent variables was the evaluation of a research assistant, who was told to be not very nice towards the participants, and the amount of money he should receive.

Question 28

What is:

desensitization theory

Answer 28

This theory predicts that most humans have an innate negative emotional response to blood, gore, violence (it makes you cringe, your heart speeds up, etc.). But with repeated exposure, this response habituates we become desensitized to violence. According to desensitization theory, once this happens, we’re more likely to think about violence, or about planning violent acts. Evidence that violent video games can lead to lowered physiological reactions to real-world violence both in the short and long-term.

Question 29

What is:

observational learning theory

Answer 29

This theory predicts that, through the observation of violent acts, we learn three social-cognitive structures:

• Schemas about a hostile world, wherein we’re biased to attribute hostility to others’ actions even if they’re behaving neutrally.
• Aggressive scripts for problem-solving, i.e. aggression is an appropriate way to solve problems.
• Normative beliefs about the acceptance of aggression, i.e. aggression is common and acceptable.