Lectures 13 and 14: Aggression

Question 1

What is aggression?

Answer 1

An intentional behaviour aimed at causing either physical or psychological pain

Question 2

What is the difference between antisocial and prosocial aggression

Answer 2

Antisocial aggression= violates social norms, i.e. bullying
Prosocial aggression= follows social norms, i.e arresting someone

Question 3

What is the difference between hostile and instrumental aggression

Answer 3

Hostile aggression= Behavior intended to harm, either physically or psychologically, motivated by feelings of anger and hostility, i.e. an unprovoked punch

Instrumental aggression= Behavior intended to harm in the service of motives other than pure hostility (means to an end), i.e. a rugby tackle or protesting to advance an ideological cause

Question 4

Environmental and biological influences on agression

What did Capsi et al 2002 do/find in relation to aggression and nature vs nurture

Answer 4

Biological factor- tested role of MAOA gene
–> In non-humans, “short” form of MAOA gene linked with greater aggression
Social Factor – childhood mistreatment by parents

• to what extent do either/both predict violent crime in the future (ivs)
• Data from ~ 550 males from New Zealand (used males due to only two MAOA genotypes)
• For each Pp, had measure of MAOA genotype, environmental adversity, and anti-social behaviour at age 26 (clinical diagnosis, criminal behaviour, personality measures)

Results:
This shows that the combination of having the short form of MAOA alongside the highest level of childhood maltreatment led to people being more likely to engage in antisocial acts.
If you have the short form + mistreatment, you are 3 times more likely to be convicted of a violent crime

Question 5

Neural and chemical influences on aggression: the amygdala

How is the amygdala linked to aggression?

Answer 5

The amygdala is associated with aggressive behaviour
- when activated, animals aggress
- in humans, amygdala is activated by the presentation of threatening faces and perceiving anger in others
—> Amygdala activity elicits fear response, which makes aggression more likely

Question 6

Neural and chemical influences on aggression: the amygdala

What did Phelps et al 2000 do/find in relation to the amygdala and prejudice

Answer 6

• PPS placed in MRI scanner, showed them pictures of unfamiliar Black and White individuals
• Also looked into implicit and explicit measures of prejudice
• Explicit measure; asking people questions whereby they had to think about what their attitudes are
• Implicit measure; asking people questions whereby they just answer and don’t think about their attitudes (not consciously asking their opinion)

Results:
Implicit measures are related with amygdala activity. The more prejudiced one is, the more activity there is in the amygdala when faced with White vs Black faces.

Question 7

Neural and chemical influences: serotonin and testosterone

How are serotonin and testosterone related to aggression

Answer 7

• Serotonin → may inhibit aggressive impulses
• Testosterone → associated with aggression

Question 8

Neural and chemical influences: serotonin and testosterone

What did Dabbs et al 1987 find in relation to testosterone in prison

Answer 8

• Found higher testosterone levels among prisoners convicted of violent vs. non-violent crimes
• Found that among non-violent criminals, higher testosterone served longer before parole
• Also, prisoners with higher testosterone levels were perceived as tougher by other prisoners

Question 9

Neural and chemical influences: alcohol

How does alcohol relate to aggression (steele and jacobs 1990)

Answer 9

• Alcohol is a disinhibitor and increases likelihood of anti-social behaviour
• Steele and Josephs (1990) → alcohol myopia
  – > alcohol clouds our ability to behave in a rational way; focus on immediate cues
  –> Focus on salient cues, immediate gratification, don’t think about the consequences

Question 10

Neural and chemical influences: alcohol

What did graham et al 2006 do/find in relation to alcohol and aggression in clubs?

Answer 10

• Field study
• assessed intoxication and aggression at bars/clubs
• Went to 118 clubs and bars in Toronto
• They found that the level of intoxication of the crowd and mean level of intoxication at the bar level significantly predicted frequency/severity of aggression

Question 11

Neural and chemical influences: alcohol

What did Begue et al 2009 find concerning expectations of alcohol

Answer 11

• IV1= gave Ps non-alcohol/modest BAC/high BAC drink
• IV2= manipulated Ps’ expectancies of alcohol in drink (none/low/high)
• After 20 minutes they met a confederate, who they end up not liking.
• DV = amount of hot sauce allocated to confederate in taste test

Results
- Found that the more aggressive people were in general, the more hot sauce they gave
- The expectation of how much alcohol they consumed actually predicted how much hot sauce they put in the cup, not just what they actually consumed

Question 12

Aggression across cultures

What is a culture of honour? (Cohen and Nisbett 1994)

Answer 12

• A culture of honour is defined by its members’ strong concerns about their own and others’ reputations, leading to sensitivity to insults and a willingness to use violence to avenge any perceived wrong
• Self-protection norms more pronounced in American south, when their honour is slighted, more likely to respond with aggression
• AKA when someone feels insulted, they are more likely to be aggressive.

Question 13

Aggression across cultures

What did Cohen et al 1996 do/find to explore aggression in the north vs south?

Answer 13

Experiment 1 - southerners more likely to aggress when bumped by a confederate and then insulted
- only 30% of northern pps were angry compared to around 80% of southerners

Experiment 2- game of chicken; at what point, when walking down a hall, are they willing to move out of the way from a confederate.
- The southerners were more polite than the northerners until insulted, moving away much slower

Experiment 3- effects of ‘bump’ on testosterone levels
- In the control, it didn’t matter whether they were northern or southern, testosterone was the same
- There was a significantly greater increase for those in the south after the insult however.

Question 14

What situational causes of aggression are there?

Answer 14

• Temperature
• Frustration
• Competition
• Ostracism
• Income inequality
• Pain

Question 15

Situational influences: temperature

How did Larrick et al 2011 use baseball data to look at heat and aggression?

Answer 15

In the newspaper, you get sport stats, including how many times a pitcher hit a batter on the other team, along with the temperature it was when the game started
- AKA how many times an opposing pitcher threw a ball at the batter (hitting them).

They found that the more batters hit by pitchers, the more you are motivated to retaliate

If the temperature was warmer, however, the more inclined people were to retaliate

Question 16

Situational influences: temperature

What did Anderson 1989 find in relation to aggression, temperature and violent crime?

Answer 16

Found that violent crimes i.e. murder, rape, are more likely to occur in the warmer seasons

Question 17

Situational influences: temperature

What did Anderson and Delisi (2011) find about aggression, temperature and global warming projections?

Answer 17

• Looking at archival data in America
• The hotter the year, the more murders and assaults per year

Question 18

Situational influences: temperature

What did Hsaing et al 2011 find in relation to aggression and El Nino years

Answer 18

• El nino years- result in hotter temperatures
• Examined links between global climate change patterns and global patterns of civil conflict
• Used data from 1950 to 2004, found that the probability of new civil conflicts arising throughout the tropics doubles during El Niño years relative to La Niña years.
• They suggest that El Niño may have had a role in 21% of all civil conflicts since 1950, and that the stability of modern societies relates strongly to the global climate

Question 19

Situational influences: temperature

What did Miles-Novelo and Anderson 2019 suggest about global warming and aggression?

Answer 19

• Proposed a model suggesting that as global warming increases, we will have extreme weather
• This will have direct effects (irritability) and will have effects on the economy, i.e. crop failure
• The collapse of the economy will have direct effects on development, making violence prone adults, and will directly cause intergroup conflict (i.e. civil unrest)
• All these effects will lead to more violent crime, war, and terrorism

Question 20

Situational influences: temperature

Overall, how does temperature impact aggression?

Answer 20

• Increased physiological discomfort can increase arousal
• Feelings of discomfort caused by the heat may be misattributed to other people
• Leads to frustration

Question 21

Situational influences: frustration

What is the aggression frustration theory?

Answer 21

• belief that you are being prevented from goal increases likelihood of aggression
• the closer you are to the goal, the greater the aggression

Question 22

Situational influences: frustration

What did Harris et al 1974 find in relation to frustration and queuing

Answer 22

Confederate cut into queues
–> Moved into either 2nd or 12th in queue

Results
- More aggression found by person who was 2nd in queue compared to those in 12th.

Question 23

Situational influences: frustration

What is relative deprivation?

Answer 23

• relative deprivation - feeling that we have less than we deserve
  —> aggression increases when frustration is unexpected (i.e. traffic jams, failed deliveries)

Question 24

Situational influences: frustration

What did Kulik and Brown find in relation to frustration and relative deprivation?

Answer 24

• Students hired to raise money for charity (making phone calls)
• Paid on commission- expected high or low levels of success
  –> Pps told that they will probably be more/less successful in getting donations, and will be paid a cut based on their success

Results
- High expectation participants more verbally aggressive to non-donors (and slammed phone down harder

Question 25

Situational influences: Competition

What did Sherif et al 1961 find in their robbers cove study? How does this link to competition/aggression

Answer 25

• 2 groups of boys, for about 5 days these 2 groups got to know each other without contact.
• The next stage was putting the 2 groups against each other for prizes; they found more aggression as a consequence of having this group exclusivity.
• After this, the leaders tried to reduce group hostilities by joining the groups
  –> Needed mutual interdependence (cooperation) to reduce intergroup hostilities, rather than simple contact

Question 26

Situational influences: Competition

What did Anderson and Morrow 1995 find in relation to competition and Mario

Answer 26

• some Ps think of competitive situation before playing Mario Brothers
• Control ps thought about how they once cooperated with someone

Results
- People who thought of a time they were competitive had a higher kill ratio in mario; they needlessly killed more enemies

Question 27

Situational influences: Ostracism

What is Ostracism

Answer 27

Ostracism → being ignored and socially excluded by others

Question 28

Situational influences: Ostracism

What does the temporal need threat model of aggression suggest about ostracism and aggression

Answer 28

Ostracism is linked to feelings of physical pain, problems with self esteem, anger, and resolving these feelings may lead us to aggressing

Question 29

Situational influences: Ostracism

What did Twenge et al 2001 find in relation to ostracized pps and aggression?

Answer 29

• researchers manipulated ostracism in different ways, e.g. providing false personality feedback (alone in future versus many friends)
• Pps then given a get-acquainted task, meeting new people

Results
- Ostracised Ps (relative to controls) behaved more negatively toward toward others (more negative job evaluations, blasts of white noise)

Question 30

Situational influences: income inequality

How is income inequality linked with aggression

Answer 30

The more income inequality, the higher homicide rates are. (as seen in figure)

Question 31

Situational influences: pain

What did Ajzen 1967 find about pain and aggression?

Answer 31

• Wanted to see if removing punishment would elicit positive behaviour in rats
• couldn’t be tested → as soon as rats felt pain they attacked each other

Question 32

Situational influences: pain

What did Berkowitz 1993 find in relation to pain and aggression?

Answer 32

• Students hold hand in painfully cold water
• Produced higher level of aggression

Question 33

Aggression and Cues

What is an aggressive stimulus

Answer 33

An aggressive stimulus - object whose mere presence can increase the probability of aggression

• Can be presented in different ways, i.e. pictures, words, media, supraliminal/subliminal

Question 34

Aggression and Cues

How did Anderson et al 1998 explore cues and aggression? what did they find?

Answer 34

• Pps primed with aggressive or neutral stimuli (i.e. image of gun vs image of puppy)
• Pps then see word on screen, pps asked to read these words aloud as fast as possible (e.g. assault, injure, access, mellow)

Results
- aggressive prime facilitated processing of aggressive words; people primed with aggressive prime had faster reaction times

Question 35

Aggression and Cues

What did Klinesmith et al 2006 do/find in relation to primes and testosterone

Answer 35

• Saliva sample taken from male Pps (testosterone)
• Pps interact with gun or children’s toy
• Re-measure testosterone levels
• Later, as part of taste sensitivity study, asked to add hot sauce to water – will be consumed by the next participant

(regression study, Gun vs toy is IV, Hot sauce is DV, hypothesizing that testosterone levels are the mediator of the effect; the change in testosterone levels causes the impact on hot sauce choice

Results:
- Pps who touched the gun had greater testosterone increase
- AND they added more hot sauce

Question 36

Media violence and aggression

What did Bandura et al 1961 argue about why we are aggressive?

Answer 36

Bandura et al. (1961) → social learning theory … we learn to be aggressive by observing others and imitating them

Question 37

Media violence and aggression

What did Bandura et al 1963 find in relation to learned aggression

Answer 37

• Bobo doll study
• kids see adult play with toys, either aggressive or not (rewarded or not)
• when kids play, they imitate the model, for BOTH physical and verbal aggression

Question 38

Media violence and aggression

What might Bandura’s bobo doll study suggest about how media violence may affect us?

Answer 38

• By the time we’re teens, we’ve seen on TV thousands of murders and other acts of violence
• The more violence people watch on TV as kids, the more violence they exhibit as teens and adults

Question 39

Media violence and aggression (correlational data)

How did Huesmann et al 1984 look into media violence? Why is this method good?

Answer 39

• Longitudinal study
• Measured violent TV viewing AND aggression at ages 8, 19, and 30
• Looking here, does the impact of TV violence predict what we are like in terms of violent behaviour at another point in time (Allows us to infer causality

Results
- The higher frequency of exposure to violent media= more violent behaviour later in life

Question 40

Media violence and aggression (correlational data)

What did Johnson et al 2002 find in relation to adolescent TV watching

Answer 40

• TV watching during adolescence and early adulthood predicted likelihood of subsequent aggression
• controlling for previous aggressive behaviour, childhood neglect, family income, neighbourhood violence, parental education, and psychiatric disorders

Question 41

Media violence and aggression (correlational data)

What did Huesmann et al 2003 find in relational to childhood TV watching?

Answer 41

• 6-10 year olds (1970s & 80s), followed up 15 years later

Results
- Childhood exposure to violent media leads to increased aggression in adulthood for both females and males

Question 42

Media violence and aggression (experimental data)

What did Bushman 1998 find/do in relation to media violence and aggressive words?

Answer 42

• Ps view violent or non-violent film
• Next, shown letter strings - asked ‘are they words or non-words?’ (i.e. lemon, smack, glonk)
• DV= speed of neutral words compared to aggressive words; aiming to find interaction again

Results
Ps who watched violent movie faster were on aggression words, also give more violent free associations

Question 43

Videogames and aggression

What effect did Bushman and Anderson 2002 find violent videogames had on aggressive responses?

Answer 43

• Ps play violent or control video games for 20 mins (Mortal Kombat, Future Cop vs. Austin Powers, 3D Pinball)
• Pps then asked to complete a story where Todd had been in a car accident
  –> what might todd say/do/think next

Results
If you have been playing aggressive video games, you are more likely to come up with more aggressive responses that todd may have

Question 44

Videogames and aggression

What did Guimetti and Markey 2007 find in relation to videogames and dispositional anger

Answer 44

• People randomly assigned to violent/non-violent game
• Also take a measure of dispositional anger; does this moderate the effect of video game on anger.
  –> Would people with high dispositional anger have the biggest effect of priming on anger

Results
Effects of video games strongest among individuals higher in dispositional anger

Question 45

Videogames and aggression

What did Carnagey et al 2007 find in relation to video games, desensitisation and aggression

Answer 45

• Ps play aggressive or control video game
• next, pps watched 10 minute TV show containing violence

DV= Physiological measures taken (baseline; after game; during video)- heart rate; GSR (galvanic skin response)

Hypothesis= Habituation: will people still respond to violence if they have already been exposed to violence?

Results
It would seem that being exposed to violent games causes us to be desensitized to violent films; shows habituation
–> BPM and GSR of people who played violent game lower than controls when watching violent film (less affected by it)

Question 46

Violence and desensitization

What did Bushman and Anderson 2009 find in relation to violent games and helping behaviour?

Answer 46

Experiment 1= Ps play violent or control video game for 20 mins, then hear a staged fight outside; do pps help
Result = People in the violent game condition were less likely to help, took more time to help, were less likely to even hear the fight, and rated the fight as relatively mild (not severe) when compared to the control

Experiment 2= minor emergency staged outside movie theatre; are pps more likely to help before/after the violent film?
Results = After the film, those who saw the violent film had a longer delay before helping
NOTE= People were equally likely to help before the film, suggesting this effect isnt about specific people

Question 47

Violence and desensitization

What did Fischer et al 2010 find in relation to the effects of personalisation and aggression?

Answer 47

• Pps play aggressive (boxing) or non aggressive (bowling) Wii game with personalised Mii or generic Nintendo character
  Research question = To what extent do we identify with the character we are playing with, and how does this affect our levels of aggression

Results=
shows that playing as yourself (mii) made it more likely for us to act in a more aggressive way

Question 48

Online video games

What did Hollingdale and Greitemeyer 2014 find in relation to playing online vs offline violent games?

Answer 48

• Pps played Call of Duty vs. Little Big Planet
• Later given an ‘unrelated’ task requiring chilli sauce assignment

Results
Found main effect of game type (violent/nonviolent), but no interaction or effect of online vs offline
SO no effect of online vs offline

Question 49

Reducing aggression: Catharsis

What is catharsis?

Answer 49

catharsis → “blowing off steam”

Question 50

Reducing aggression: Catharsis

Does catharsis reliably reduce aggression?

Answer 50

• limited support
• Studies suggest that trying to reduce anger by acting violently actually increases subsequent aggression

Question 51

Reducing aggression: Catharsis

What did Bushman 2002 do to explore catharsis using a punching bag?

Answer 51

Made pps angry, then:
- Gave them a punching bag with target in mind (catharsis), telling hem to punch it with the anger focus in mind to release stress
- Gave them a punching bag with distraction in mind (get fit), not making them have a target in mind
- No punching bag

Results
Catharsis group were the most aggressive and doing nothing at all was more effective at reducing aggression.

Question 52

Reducing aggression: catharsis

Bushman, Baumeister and Stack 1999: what happens when people are told catharsis works?

Answer 52

Pps who were told catharsis works were more aggressive than those who were told it doesnt

Question 53

Reducing aggression: catharsis

Bushman & Whitaker (2010): how does catharsis link to video game use?

Answer 53

Ps who believed catharsis is effective (whether manipulated or measured as an IV) were more attracted to violent video games, especially among individuals who want to get rid of their anger

Question 54

Reducing aggression: green spaces

Kuo and Sullivan 2010: how does access to green spaces reduce aggression?

Answer 54

• Examined police reports of violence taking place near housing project in Chicago (98 buildings)
• Residents were randomly assigned to building, all residents had comparable backgrounds, economic hardship

Results=
Likelihood of violent crime was lower near buildings surrounded by green spaces

Question 55

Reducing aggression: positive media

What did Friedrich and Stein 1973 find relating to positive media on child behaviour?

Answer 55

Children were more helpful after 4 episodes of Mr. Rogers

Question 56

Reducing aggression: positive media

What did Coates et al 1976 find relating to positive media on child behaviour? (Builds on Friedrich and Stein)

Answer 56

• Beneficial effects of Sesame Street for children initially low in prosocial behaviour
• Mr. Rogers was beneficial for all children

Question 57

Reducing aggression: positive media

What did Greitemeyer and Schwab 2014 find in relation to prosocial music and aggression?

Answer 57

• Ps were randomly assigned to listen to pro-integration music versus
  control
• Read lyrics as they listened to the music
• In what they thought was a separate study, could allocate aversive white noise to what they believed to be an ingroup or outgroup member (being mean)

Results:
- For the neutral music, people are more likely to be mean to the outgroup relative to an ingroup member.
- For the pro-integration music, this effect disappeared; the pro integration music served to reduce discrimination and prejudice

Question 58

Reducing aggression: prosocial videogames

What did Gentile et al 2009 find in their longitudinal study looking into children’s gaming habits on prosocial behaviour

Answer 58

• Children’s gaming habits and pro-social behaviour were assessed at two times, 3-4 months apart
• More prosocial games at time 1, more prosocial behaviour at time 2 (controlling for behaviour at time 1)

Question 59

Reducing aggression: prosocial videogames

What did Gentile et al 2009 find in their experimental study looking into the effect of prosocial games

Answer 59

• IV – randomly assigned to pro-social, anti-social, or neutral video game
• DV – assigned partner easy or hard puzzles

Results= Those who played the prosocial game were nicer (helped more)