Lecture 9 Flashcards
Define aggression
Behaviour intended to harm another, this includes words and actions.
Define instrumental/proactive aggression
Inflicting harm to obtain something of value, this can include personal gain, attention or self defence. The aggression is often calculated, however, aggression will not occur if there’s an easier way to obtain the goal. This is the endpoint on a continuum.
Define emotional/reactive aggression
Inflicting harm for their own sake, it’s often impulsive. This is the endpoint on a continuum.
Discuss the cultural differences in relation to aggression
There is a higher amount gun related violence in the US.
Western Europe has a high amount of aggression from football supporters.
There is a higher amount of dating violence from Israeli Arabs compared to Israeli Jews.
Groping is common on public transportation in Japan.
Discuss genders and violence
Males are more physically aggressive and their verbal aggression is more direct.
Women are more aggressive in an indirect way, for example telling lies to get someone in trouble.
What’s the evolutionary perspective in terms of the origins of aggression
Individuals that could fight would have greater reproductive success and would be more likely to be accepted in the group. These tendencies will be passed on to the offspring. Males are more competitive and they need to gain status, so they need to be aggressive. Also males often get sexual jealousy as they are usually uncertain which offspring is theirs. Women can be aggressive as they need to defend their offspring and they care more about protecting their own lives so that they can raise the offspring.
What are the biological factors in terms of the origins of aggression
Research suggest aggression is inherited somewhat, however, there hasn’t been much research in this field and the research is difficult to gather (twin studies). However, there are some biological factors like testosterone, which has a strong correlation with aggression.
The index ring finger ratio; men with longer ring fingers are associated with higher prenatal testosterone levels, however, there is a weak correlation with this finding. Serotonin reduces aggression, which is found when people take drugs to boost serotonin.
When people have abnormalities in their frontal lobe, they’re more aggressive because executive functioning is disrupted. Executive functioning allows people to respond reasonably rather than being driven purely by external stimuli.
What are the behavioural factors in terms of aggression
Positive reinforcement; being aggressive and getting a desirable outcome.
Negative reinforcement; being aggressive stops undesirable outcomes happening.
Punishment; this helps stop aggression when it immediately follows the aggression, it’s strong enough and it’s consistently and fairly applied. If this isn’t met, then it can backfire.
Social learning theory; behaviour is learned via the observation of others aka role models. From this, people develop positive attitudes towards the behaviour. The models construct aggressive scripts which are then copied. Gee and Leith observed the aggressive behaviour of US and Europe hockey players. US players would have been more exposed to aggressive hockey players in the past. The US players were significantly more aggressive.
What makes people become delinquent?
Bandura claimed it was because their self sanction mechanisms don’t work, aka they believe their behaviour is acceptable.
They have a disengagement with their moral self sanctions; they justify their behaviour, they have palliative comparisons (other people do worse things), they have euphemistic labelling (using language to detract emotional intensity, e.g., friendly fire instead of accidental murder), they minimise the consequences and they dehumanise the victims as well as blaming them.
Discuss temperature and aggression
Baron measured the number of riots in American cities and correlated it with the temperature at the time. Riots were highest when the temperature was 81-85 degrees and then after this, the riot count decreased. Vrijj found that people were more aggressive in hotter temperatures (21 degrees vs 27 degrees).
What’s the excitation transfer theory?
When people experience discomfort, they have increased arousal and a negative effect, this causes them to be aggressive towards a salient/visible object.
Does wearing black make you seem more aggressive?
Yes. Frank showed referees videos of footballers. The footballers were either wearing black or white. The referees judged how aggressive the tackles were and when they wore black, the tackles were rated as more aggressive. The same was done with bar fights, again, people who wore black were perceived as more aggressive. People also act more aggressive when dressed in black.
Does watching violence make people more aggressive?
There’s reports of people imitating murders from films. Also, Eron found that kids who watched more TV when young, significantly more of them became criminals and they committed more serious acts. However, it could just be that aggressive people watch more TV and perhaps low intelligence people like aggressive films more, so you can’t infer cause and effect. Aggressive prisoners committed significantly more aggressive acts after watching an aggressive film. There’s also strong links with aggression and video games.
Discuss how media can cause aggression
It can trigger hostile thoughts and it desensitises people to violence.
