PSY2001 W9 Aggression (L) Flashcards
What is aggression measured?
Some tools include using analogues of behaviour, self report, observation
What is aggression?
Bandura, 1973
behaviour resulting in personal injury or destructution of property
What factors contiribute to aggression?
Societal, situational and personal factors
What are some societal factors that contribute to aggression?
disadvantaged groups, violent media
What are some situational factors that contribute to aggression?
heat, crowding, alcohol
What are some personal factors that contribute to aggression?
sex, gender, personality, attachment
What are some diffierent perspectives explaining aggresive behhaviour?
Biological, Biosocial and Social approaches
What is asocial approach explaining aggression?
social learning theory
What is a biosocial appraoch explaining aggression?
frustration-aggression hypothesis
What are two biological appraoches explaining aggression?
psychodynamic, evolutionary approaches
What is the general aggression model ?
Outlines how person and situation factors increase or decrease the likelihood of aggression through their influence on present internal state variable and how these are appraised
What is aggression?
Scherer, Abeles & Fischer 1975
Behaviour intended to harm another of the same species
What is aggression?
Baron 1977
Behaviour directed towards the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment
What is aggression?
Baron & Byrne 2000
Intentional infliction of harm on others
What is aggression?
Anderson & Bushman 2002
Behaviour directed towards another carried out with the proximate intent to cause harm
What is aggression?
Baron & Branscombe, 2012
Behaviour that is designed to harm others in some way
How is aggression measured diffirently?
Analogues of behavior [bobo dools, pressing a button to deliver a fake shock]
Signals of intention [expression of willingness to behave aggressively]
Ratings [self-report, reports by other, observation]
Indirect [non-physical,relational/psychological aggression]
What is a limite of analoguing behaviour?
Measuring aggression
Generalisability to a real life setting
What is a limite of singal of intention?
Measure aggression
intentions does not always translate to behaviour
What are 2 limites of ratings?
Measure aggression
social desirability bias
observation interpret behaviour in line with prior expectations/hypotheses
What is a limite of indirect forms of measurement?
aggression
May inflate the prevalence of aggression if comparing to direct/physical measures of aggression
What is the psychodynamic appraoch ?
Freud 1920
We have an unconscious drive known as ‘Thanatos (death instinct)’. Over time this instinct builds up creating pressure which we cannot control and makes us do something aggressive.
We deal with this tension by redirecting it to other activities = Catharsis
What is evolutionary psychology?
darwin 1859
Aggressive behaviour is used to ensure genetic survival.
Aggression is linked to living long enough to procreate ( animal behaviour: males fighting other males for mating rights, hunting for food, protecting territory and Mothers behave aggressively to protect their offspring)
Among humans -> obtain social and economic advantage to improve the survival rate of their children
What are some strenghts of evolutionary psychology as an explanation for aggression?
Appeal and resonate with the idea that violence is part of human nature
Supported when comparing to animal behaviour
What are some limitations of evolutionary psychology as an explanation for aggression?
X Unknowable and immeasurable – instincts can’t be studied / measured
X Supported by observational studies only, so we cannot establish causality
X Evolutionary tendencies to develop over thousands of years – difficult to measure in the lab
X Human behaviour aggressively outside of situation when we need to defend ourselves children
X Aggression towards our own relatives
X Could be argued that evolutionary approach is not informative for prevention or intervention work.
What is the frustation-aggresion hypothesis ?
Dollard et al 1939
Based on the catharsis hypothesis [freud] considers frustation as an antecedent to aggression. Aggression is a cathartic release of the build-up of frustration. Cannot always challenge the direct source of aggression: sublimation and displacement
What is frustration?
individual is prevented from achieving a goal by some external factor
What is sublimation?
The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard et al., 1939)
Using aggression in acceptable activities such as sport.
What is displacement?
The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard et al., 1939)
Directing our aggression outwards onto something or someone else.
What is the diagram of The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis?
Dollard et al., 1939
Drive to goal > obstacle to goal > frustration > aggression > punishment»_space;frustration > aggresion > success (sublimation/displacement) > catharisis
What is the excitation transfer ?
Zilmann 1979 1988
People experience physiological arousal in different contexts. Arousal in one context can carry over to other situations and may increase likelihood of aggressive behaviour.
Requires three conditions:
- 1st stimuli produces arousal/excitation
- 2nd stimulus occurs before the complete decay of arousal from the first stimulus
- There is misattribution of excitation to the 2nd stimulus
What are some strenghts of biosocial appraoches?
provides useful opportunities for intervention to target.
Meta-analysis of displaced aggresion found participants who were provoked be unable to retaliate directly against the source oof their frustration were significantly more likely to aggress against an innocent party than people who were not provoked – displacement
What are some limitation of biosocial appraoches?
Frustration being aroused does not always lead to aggression, and you can be aggressive without being frustrated/aroused – too simplistic
Some types of arousal (exercise) can also make us feel good
What is the social learning theory?
Bandura 1971
Aggression can be learnt
Directly (operant conditioning) and Indirectly (observational learning and vicarious reinforcement)
If aggressive behaviour is rewarded, they learn it is socially acceptable
What was the bobo doll experiment ?
Bandura and Walters 1963
Nursery school children observe adult attack a “Bobo doll” when upset:
1. in person (live)
2. videotaped
3. cartoon
4. control – saw nothing
What happens when the child is left with toys? (incl. Bobo)
Children exposed to an adult displaying aggressive behaviour demonstrated increased number of aggressive behaviours when alone.
Strongest effect for live observation
What are some strenghts of the bobo doll experiment?
√ Account from how children learn aggression from other people around them as well as through th media
√ Empirical support from any studies but many studies in lab setting increase the problem of demand characteristic and external validity
What are some limitations of the bobo doll experiment?
X Aggressive role model =/= aggressive behaviour does not consider individual difference
X Effect of violent media on aggressive behaviour not consistently replicated
X A consistent finding in the bobo doll experiments is that boys show more aggression than girls – maybe more biological aspects.
Why does gender contribute to aggression?
Men engage in aggressive behaviour more frequently (Eagly & Steffen, 1986).
There is individual variation in testosterone levels across genders, and testosterone only has a weak positive relationship with aggression (Book et al., 2001)
We learn gender appropriate behaviours (Eagly & Steffen, 1986)
- Physical aggression socially unacceptable for women
- Indirect (relational) forms of aggression may be more socially acceptable for women
This would predict that men and women would differ not in the amount, but the type of aggressive behaviours displayed
Are women aggressive?
literature reviex Denson et al 2018
women are more likely to engage in indirect forms of aggresive behaviours. In laboratory studies: women are less physically aggressive compared to men. Gender differences in aggression may be due to socialisation
What is relational aggression?
indirect
spreading rumors, gossiping, manipulating, silent treatment, excluding
What is direct aggression?
name-calling, threatening, hitting, fighting, shoving
How does personality play a role in aggression?
Bartlett & Anderson 2012
Big five personality traits and aggression
Agreeableness: negatively associated with aggression both directly and indirectly via aggressive attitudes and emotions
Neuroticism: positive association with physical aggression both directly and indirectly via aggressive emotions
How does attachment security affect aggression?
Ogilvie et al 2014
examined the relationship between attachment security and offending.
Offenders were less secure in their attachments than controls.
Insecure attachment was strongly associated with all types of criminality (i.e. sexual offending, violent offending, non-violent offending, and domestic violence)
What are some limitations of the meta-analysis on attachement security?
Ogilvie et al 2014
Excluded studies involving juvenile and female offenders
Attachment not always measured in the same way
Does alcohol contribute to aggression?
Yes, Alcohol present in 68% of incidents of physical aggression (Wells et al., 2000).
Bushman & Cooper (1990) meta-analysis of experimental studies: alcohol consumption increased aggressive behaviour in men
With indirect effects and dirrect effects.
What are some direct effects of alcohol on aggression?
comprmises cortical control and increases activity in more primitive brain areas (impairment in cogntiive function and decision making)
Psychological arousal in line with excitation transfer model
What are some indirect effects of alcohol on aggression?
placebo effect ( expectations of receiving alcohol increased aggresive behaviour)
priming effect ( activating thoughts of alcohol increased aggresive behaviour)
What did Taylor and Sears 1988 found looking at alcohol and aggression
Competitive task with another ppt involving reaction time.
Loser received electric shock from opponent each time
Shock level “supposedly” set by the ppt delivering the shock (but actually kept constantly low by experimenter).
A confederate applied social pressure to the ppt, sometimes encouraging them to increase the shock level (max = level 16)
Those in the alcohol group were more susceptible to this pressure
How does Heat contribute to aggression?
Cohn & Rotton 1997
Assessed links between ambient temperature and assaults. Increased ambient temperature is associated with increases in aggression. But the effect is not linear: It can be too hot to have the energy for aggression! Effects stronger in the evening. Potential interaction between heat and alcohol consumption.
How does crowding affect aggression?
population density linked to crime rates, increases stress, irritation, frustration and physiological arousal.
Anonymity in crowds: disinhibition ( when the usual social forces that restrain us from acting anti-socially are reduced in some way)
Deindividuation - feeling unidentifable among many others means we think we are unlikely to face consequences (fotball hooliganism, riots, onlin ebullying)
How does disadvantages groups relate to agggressin?
Socially disadvantaged groups may engage in aggression if they believe: they are unjustly disadvantaged and they cannot improve their disadvantaged position.
Rates of homicide and non-lethal violence is higher among young, urban, poor, and ethnic minority males – likely due to a mix of social and ecological factors (Tolan & Gorman-Smith, 2002)
Relative deprivation linked to vandalism, assault, burglary, riots or violent protests
What is relative deprivation?
discontent coupled with feeling that chances of improving conditions through legitimate means is minimal
How does violent media contribute to aggression?
Easy access to sanitised versions of aggression/ violence in the media has been argued to desensitise viewers: TV/film often depicts aggressors as unpunished heroes
Social learning theory argues that viewers will copy such reinforced acts, whereas the catharsis hypothesis argues it will release tension and reduce aggression
(Black and Bevan, 1992) viewing a violent film increases aggression scores compared to watching a non-violent film (priming effect)
(Greitmeyer & Mugge 2014) Meta-analysis suggested that violent video games increase aggression
What is the General Aggression Model (GAM) ?
Anderson & Bushman,2002
Fundamental idea is the interplay between personal and situational variables
Which influence 3 internal states: cognition, affect, arousal
Affecting our appraisal/decision processes. Which influence aggressive outcomes. Applied in many contexts (media, domestic violence
Used to inform interventions to reduce aggression and violence
GAM model summary
impt [person and situation] > internal state [affect, cogntiion, arousal] W appraisal [thoughtful and implusive] > Action [social encounter]
What is the temperature effect?
Anderson, Deuser & Denever 1995
Increasing temperature resulted in increased hostile affect, hostile cognition, and physiological arousal.
Therefore, hot temperatures increase aggressive tendencies by 3 separate routes (internal states).
Excitation transfer processes may then increase the likelihood of biased (hostile) appraisals of ambiguous social events, resulting in increased likelihood of aggression
What is institutionalised aggression?
Aggressive behaviours adopted by members of an institution; e.g. prisoners may form gangs that commit violence against other inmates/staff.
About 25% of prisoners are victimized by violence each year while 4–5% experience sexual violence and 1–2% are raped (Modvig, 2014)
Approximately 30% of all students annually experience some type of aggression at school (UNESCO, 2018)
What are institutions ?
Institutions are places where there are strict rules that give little choice to members of that institution. E.g. prisons, schools.
What are causes of institutionalised aggression?
Dispositional factors [personalities fo the insitution’s member (importation mode)]
Situational factors [situation in which the members find themselves (depreivation model) (crowding, uncomfortabel temperature, loss of freedom)
What is intimate partner violence (IPV)?
WHO, 2002
“any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors”
What is a IPV stat?
30% of women globally aged 15 and older have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (Devries et al. 2013). Female perpetrated IPV occurs more in societies that are modern, secular, and liberal (Archer, 2006)
=> likely reflecting changes in traditional gender roles/norms (societal influences)
What are causes of IPV?
Personal/situation factors: biology, gender, stresses (financial, unemployment, illness), alcohol consumption, football.
Social: social learning theory - learned patterns of aggression (generational cycle of abuse)
Biosocial: excitation transfer (football, alcohol), frustration aggression hypothesis (stresses), general aggression model (person/situational factors)
What is Bandura (1973) definition of aggression?
Behaviour resulting in personal injury or destruction of property
What Is Scherer, Abeles, & Fischer (1975) definition of aggression?
Behavoiur intended to harm another of the same species
What is Baron’s 1977 defintion of aggression?
Behaviour directed towards the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment
What is baron and bryne 2000 definition of aggression
Intentional infliction of harm on others
What is anderson and bushman 2002 definition of aggression?
Behaviour directed towards another carried out with the proximate intent to cause harm
What is Baron and Branscombe 2012 definition of aggression (main one)
“Behaviour that is designed to harm others in some way”
How do we study aggression?
Analogues of behvaiour, signal of intention, rating, indirect measures
How do you use analogues of behaviour when measuring aggression?
Bobo dolls or pressing a button to deliver a (fake) shock
What is the signals of intention when measuring aggression?
Expression of willingness to behave aggressively
What types of ratings are used when measuring aggression ?
Self-report, report by tohers, observation
What are some indirect measures used when measuring aggression
non-physical, relational and psychologcial aggression
What are some limits to analogues of behaviour?
can it be generalised to a real life setting
What is a limite to signals of intention
intention does not always translate to behaviour
What is a limite to rating ?
social desirability bias, observation - interpret behavior in line with prior expectations
What is a limite to indirect measures?
May inflate the prevalence of aggression if comparing to direct/physical measures of aggression
What are two biological appraoches?
Psychodynamic appraoch (freud) and evolutionary psychology (darwin)
What is the psychodynamic appraoch by freud?
Unconscious drive - thanatos (death instinct), over time this instinct builds up creating pressure which cannot be control and makes us do aggressive things.
What is used to deal with this tension
Catharsis - redirecting the tensino into other activities
What is Darwin’s evolutionary psychology?
Aggressive behaviour is used to ensure genetic survival, linked to living long enough to procreate - males fighter other mating rights, hunting foot, protecting territory, mothers aggresively to pretect their offsping, among humans - obtain social and economic advantage
What are some strenghts of biological appraoches?
appeals to the idea of violance as a human nature, supported when comparing to animals
What are some limitation of biological appraoches?
Immeasurable (instincts can’t be studied), supported by observational studies only, no causality is established, develop over thousands of years - difficult to measure in lab, human’s act aggressively outside of situation where they need to defend themselves (children), aggresion towards our own relatives, does not informe prevention and intervention
What are two biosocial appraoches?
Frustration and aggression hypothesis and excitation transfer
What is the frustration aggression hypothesis (dollard et al, 1939)
Based on catharsis hypothesis, consider frustation as an antecedent to aggresion. Aggression being cathartic which reales build up frustration, cannot always challenges the direct source of aggresion - sublimation, displacement
What is frsutration
individual is prevented from achieving a goal by some external factor
What is sublimation ?
using aggresion in acceptable activities (sport)
What is displacement ?
directing our aggression outwards onto something or soemone else
What is the excitatio ntransfer by zilmann
People expereince physiological arounsal indifferent contexts, arousal in one context can carry over to other situations and may increase likelihood of aggressive behaviour
What are the three requreid conditions
1st stimuli produces arousal excitiation, 2nd stimulus occorus before the compelte decay of arousal from the 1st stimulus. There is misattribution of excitatino to the 2nd stimulus
What are some limitations of biosocial appraoches?
frustration does not alawys lead to aggression, you can be aggressive without being frustrated/aroused - to simplistic, some types of arousal (exercice) can make you feel better
What are some strenghts of biological appraoches?
Provides useful opportunities for intervention to target, marcus-Newhall (2000) metanalysis found evidence for dis^placement
What is social learning theory (Bandura, 1971)
Aggression can be learnt, directly - operant conditioning, indirectly - observational learning and vicarious reinforcmeent) if aggression behaviour rewarded they learn it is sosically acceptable
What is the bobo doll study (Bandura and walters, 1963)
Nursery school children observe adult attack a bobo doll when upset (in person, wideotaped, carton, control)
Results of bobo doll study
Children exposed to an adult displaying aggressive behaviour demonstrated increased number of aggresiive behaviours when alone, strongest effect for live observation
Strenghts of learning model
Account from how children learn aggresion from toher people aorund them as wlel as thought social media, empricial support
Limitation of learning model
Does not consider individual difference, not consstently replicated when social media and violent behaviour
What is the difference between gender and aggression
Men engage in aggressive behaviour more frequently than women (Eagly & Steffen, 1986)
Is this difference in aggression linked to hormones?
There is individual variation in testosterone levels across genders, and testosterone only has a weak positive relationship with aggression (Book et al., 2001)
What other reasons could be behind the difference in aggression between gender?
Learn Gender appropriate behaviour: Phsyical aggression socially unacceptable for women, indirect form so aggression may be more socially acceptable for women
What did the literature reivew by Denson et al 2018 find?
Reivew of aggressive behaviour in women, overall they were more likely to engage in inidrect (relative) forms of aggressive behaviour, women were less physically aggressive compared to men in lab studies - gender differences in aggresion may be due to socialisation
What is relational aggression
manipulaitng, silent treatment, excluding, spreading rumors, gossiping
What is direct aggresion
Name-calling, threatening, hitting, fighting, shoving
What are some social factors for aggression
Personality, gender, attachment style
How is personality linked to aggression?
Bartlett and Anderson 2012 Big five personality traits and aggression agreableness, neuroticism
How is agreableness and aggression linked?
Agreeableness: negatively associated with aggression both directly and indirectly via aggressive attitudes and emotions
How is neurotocism and agresion linked?
Neuroticism: positive association with physical aggression both directly and indirectly via aggressive emotions
Wjat si attachemnt security study by Ogilvie
Meta-anlysi of 30 studies that inlcuded an overall total of 2798 offenders, examined the relatinoship between attachment security and offending
What does attachment security and aggression link?
offenders were less secure in their attachments than control, insecure attachment was strongly associated with all types of criminality
Limitation of the link between attachment security and aggression?
Excluded studied involving juvenile and female offenders and attachment not always measured in the same way
How is alcohol linked to aggression?
Alcohol present in 68% of incidents of physical aggression (Wells et al., 2000) Bushman & Cooper (1990) meta-analysis of experimental studies: alcohol consumption increased aggressive behaviour in men
What are some direct effects of alcohol on aggression?
compromises cortical control and increases activity in more primitive brain areas - impairment in cogntiive function, decisionmaking. Physicologicla arousal, in line with excitatio transfer model
What are some indirect effects of alcohol on aggression?
Placebo effect (expectation of receiving alcohol increased aggressive behaviour), priming effect (activatin gthoughts of alcohol increased aggressive behaviour
What was the stud by taylor and Sers, 1988 ?
Competiive task with other particpants involivng reaction time, lsoer received electric shock from opponent each time. A confederate applied social pressure to the particpants, sometimes encouraging them to increase the shocl level, those in the alcohol gourp were more susceptivel to this pression
What are some situational factors
Heat, alcohol, growd
How is heat linked to aggression ?
Cohn & Rotten, 1997 Assesed links between ambient temperature and assults, increased ambient temperature is associated with increase in aggression but the ffect is not linear, effects stronger in the evening, potential interaction between heat and alcohol consumptions
What is the link between crowding and aggression
Population density linked to crime rates (regoeczi, 2003) - increases stress, irritation, frustration and physiologicla arousal (lawrence and andrews, 2004)
What might explain this linked between crowding and agression
anonynimty in crowds with disinhibition and deindividuation
What is disinhibition ?
when the usual social forces that restrain us from acting anti-socially are reduced in some way (Bandura, Underwood, Fromson, 1975
What is deindividuation?
feeling unidentifiable among many others means we think we are unlikely to face consequences
What are some societal factors?
disadvantages groups, violent media
How do social disadvantgaed groups link to aggresion
they engeage in aggresion if they believe they are unjustly disadvantged and they cannot improve their disadvantegd position. Rates of homicide and non-lethal violence is higher among young, urban, poor, and ethnic minority males – likely due to a mix of social and ecological factors (Tolan & Gorman-Smith, 2002
What is relative deprivation
Discontent coupled with feeling that chances of improving conditions through legitimate means is minimal (vandalism, assault, burglary, riots)
How is violent media linked to aggression
easy access to agression and violence in media - desenstise viewers (e.g. unpunished violent heroes) Social learning theory argues that viewer will copy such reinforced acts but catharsis hypothesis argues it will relaease tension and reduce aggresion
What is general aggression model (anderson and bushmann, 2002)
fundamental idea is the interplay between personal and sitational variables, which infleunce 3 internal states (cognition, affect, arousal), affecting appraisal decision process, which infleunce aggressive outcomes, applied in many contexts (domestic violence)
GAM model ?
Input => internal state (affect, arousal, cognition) => appraisal and action
What is imput in GAM?
Person and situation factors increase or decrease the likelihood of aggression through their influence on internal state variables (i.e., cognition, affect, and arousal)
What is internal state in GAM?
Person/situational variables can affect our moods/emotions, aggressive thoughts, and arousal which affect our appraisals and therefore alter the likelihood of aggression
What is appraisal and action in GAM?
Internal states influence appraisal of the situation. E.g. if a person is emotional, highly aroused, has aggressive thoughts , negative impulsive appraisals—including a goal, plan to harm the perpetrator—are more likely. The behavioural script that was activated during the appraisal is then enacted leading to the social encounter
How does GAM explain the temperature effects - Anderson, Deuser and Deneve, 1995?
Measure hostile affect, cogntiion, perceived arousal and physiological arousal with undergradueate who played vieo games whiel room temperature was controlled. Increasing temp result in increased hostile affect, cogntion and physcial arousal, hot temp increase aggresive tendencie by 3 routes (internal states) • Excitation transfer processes may then increase the likelihood of biased (hostile) appraisals of ambiguous social events, resulting in increased likelihood of aggression
What is instituralised aggression?
Institutional aggression refers to aggressive behaviours adopted by members of an institution; e.g. prisoners may form gangs that commit violence against other inmates/staff. About 25% of prisoners are victimized by violence each year while 4–5% experience sexual violence and 1–2% are raped (Modvig, 2014) Approximately 30% of all students annually experience some type of aggression at school (UNESCO, 2018)
What are instutions?
are places where there are strict rules that give little choice to members of that institution. E.g. prisons, schools.
What causes of instiutionalied aggression
Dispositional factors, situational facotrs
What are dispositional factors
Personalities of institution members - importation omdel (e!;g. gender, personality, attachment, past experience)
What are situational factors
situation in which he members find themselves - depreivatin model e.g. crowing, uncomfortable temp, loss of freedom - linked ot GAM and frustration aggression hypotheis
What is Intimate partner violence
“any behaviour within an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological or sexual harm to those in the relationship, including acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviors” (WHO, 2002)
States with IPV
30% of women globally aged 15 and older have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (Devries et al. 2013). Female perpetrated IPV occurs more in societies that are modern, secular, and liberal (Archer, 2006)
What are some factors that cause IPV
Perosnal/situational facotrs, social and biosocial
What are some personal/situatinal facotrs IPV
biology, gender, stresses, alcohol consuption, football
What are some social factros for IPV
SLT - Learned patterns of aggression: generational cycle of abuse (Huesmann, Dubow, & Boxer, 2011)
What are some biosocal factors IPV
Excitation transfer (football, alcohol), frustration aggression hypothesis (stresses), General Aggression Model (personal/situational factors)
