lesson 7 - aggression Flashcards
human aggression
Hobbes 1651 said that extreme levels of aggression are natural for human beings, across history, across geographical locations, you will encounter instances of human aggression.
what is aggression?
Aggression is behaviour ‘intended to harm another of the same species’ (Scherer et al, 1975. According to this definition, harm towards objects or animals is not classed as aggression.
‘directed towards another individual carried out with the proximate intent to cause harm’ (Anderson and Huesmann, 2003)
‘directed towards the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment’ (Baron and Byrne, 2000)
‘That results in personal injury or destruction of property’ (Bandura, 1973)
commonality in definitions = intent to harm (Carlson et al, 1989)
how can we measure aggression
*Punching an inflatable (‘Bobo’) doll (Bandura et al., 1963).
*Observations from teachers and colleagues (Eron, 1982).
*Self reports of aggressive behavior (Leyens et al., 1975).
*Self report of willingness to use violence in lab (Geen, 1978).
*Selecting spiciness of hot sauce for someone else who does not like spice (Lieberman et al., 1999).
*More indirect measures required as punching people is unethical.
example of measuring aggression in the lab: shocks
*Subjects competed against “opponent” in a reaction time game
*After each trial, the loser received a shock.
2 conditions:
-Low provocation - shocks stayed at setting 2 (consistently at the lower level)
-High provocation - shocks gradually increased from 2 to 9 (increased)
- high provocation condition went to higher shock settings
does aggression translate into actual behaviour? gaming & aggression - yes
*Video games have long been thought to be associated with negative real-world outcomes.
*Aggression is the most notable of these – essentially, we use media as a model for our behaviour, or it acts as a ‘hypodermic needle’ and is injected into people who engage with it.
*Some evidence of a link between gaming and aggression (Anderson & Bushman, 2001), but the effect is small (Ferguson, 2007).
*APA confirms a link between gaming and aggression.
gender perception of aggression and videogames
71% of women think video games can lead to real world violence compared to 48% of men.
58% of men think videogames can be a useful outlet for frustrations and aggression compared to 56% of women.
conclusion about gaming and aggression
*While that link may be null (or small), other studies have shown interesting effects on wider emotional behaviour.
*Kennedy et al (2014) found that people who frequently played violent video games were less distracted by violent images in other contexts (e.g., seeing a man carrying a knife in a slideshow of images of scenery).
*A phenomenon the study author called “emotion-induced blindness”.
Types of theories of aggression:
- Innate theories of aggression (Aggression is not learned, and is universal, if it is not released it builds up until it explodes).
-Social theories of aggression (the social context in which we exist can also explain aggression, it is learnt)
psychodynamic theory of aggression (freud)
*Innate ‘death instinct’ (Thanatos).
*Thanatos theorised anger is initially directed at self-destruction, but as we develop, becomes directed toward others.
*Aggression builds up naturally and must be released.
ethological theory of aggression: Lorenz 1966
*Aggression has a ‘survival value’ functional view of aggression.
*Dual-factor theory:
1. Innate urge to aggress (inevitable)
2. Aggressive behaviour elicited by environmental stimuli (releasers)
*Lorenz (1966) mapped this to people (fighting instinct).
i.e., energy builds up and is released on another provocative behaviour of someone else.
evolutionary theory of aggression:
*Social behaviour is adaptive and helps the individual, kin, and species to survive (e.g., Buss & Shackelford, 1997).
*Aggressive behaviour - evolved to allow to procreate and pass on genes to the next generation.
*Social and economic advantage.
*e.g., high-flying executives may use aggressive behaviour to fight off colleagues for promotion.
*Inbuilt as we want to do better for ourselves and our group.
problems with the theories of aggression:
*Limited evidence for the psychodynamic theory.
*Ethological account struggles to explain the functional value of aggression in humans.
*Aggressors often find themselves punished and excluded from the group. Instead, society seems to manage aggression, e.g., by viewing aggressive sports.
*Evolutionary account takes limited empirical evidence and claims to use circular reasoning.
*Limited practical application; research has shown that attempts to release aggressive impulses do not work (e.g., Bushman, et al., 2001).
social theory of aggression: SLT, bobo doll
- observational learning: modelling, learning by vicarious experience
Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)
3 conditions:
-Observed real-life aggressive model (kicking and hitting)
-Observed non-aggressive model (played nicely).
-Control group - no model
findings:
*Children exposed to the aggressive model displayed significantly more aggression.
*Didn’t go into the situation angrily, kids may have just leant that you should play in an aggressive way ’modelling’).
*If you are taught to punch and act aggressively when angry, this is what you will model.
social theories of aggression: frustration-aggression hypothesis
“The occurrence of aggressive behaviour always presupposes the existence of frustration”; and
“the existence of frustration always leads to some form of aggression”
(Dollard et al., 1939, p.1)
frustration:
“an interference with the occurrence of an instigated goal-response at its proper time in the behaviour sequence” (Dollard et al., 1939, cited in Berkowitz, 1989, p.60)
- Aggression is the result of having one’s goals thwarted.
- If target too powerful, unavailable or not a person displace aggression onto alternative target – a scapegoat.
e.g., Hovland and Sears (1940). (Lecture 6 with prejudice).
