PSY220 - 2. altruism and Aggression Flashcards

Question

When will they help: Taking Responsibility

Answer 1

They believed in emergency occurred but were undecided whether to act, Participants invariably denied the influence of the group Diffusion of responisbility: under conditions of anonimity + no personal connections More likely to help: Established groups, closer personal connections, groups where there are clear roles Compassion fatigue + sensory overload from encountering so many people in need further restraint helping in large cities across the world

Answer 2

bigger and more densely populated the city the less likely people were to help In large cities gonna bystanders are more often strangers cultures marked by amicable and agreeable were more helpful Nations have often been bystanders to catastrophes even genocide

Answer 3

Help if clear on what to do Someone with training knows how to help Ppl who know cpr are more likely to help

Answer 4

social pressures not to stand out + embarrass yourself because so many things have to be going right, it’s surprising anyone helps all the effects are in the aggregate – all are susceptible to individual differences

Answer 5

glimpse of extra ordinary human kindness and charity often trigger elevation: distinctive feeling in the chest of warmth and expansion that may provoke chills, tears and throat clenching and that often inspires people to become more self giving

Answer 6

Mind is operating on multiple tasks simultaneously limits to what we can accomplish When we’re at that limit is when something is gonna suffer (texting + driving) person not in a hurry may stop and offered to help a person and the stress, in a hurry is likely to keep going In their hurry, they never fully take time to grasp the situation Hurry, preoccupied, rushing to meet a deadline

Answer 7

On the way, all subjects passed man slumped groaning Good Sam Ahead of schedule 63% On-time 45% Behind 10%

Answer 8

Similarity is conducive to liking + liking is conducive to helping, we are more empathetic + helpful toward those similar to us dress and beliefs, birthday, a first name, or a fingerprint pattern leads people to respond more to our request for help

Answer 9

People are supposed to help others who are needy or dependent on them) norm can be abused in the case of overhelping ppl should help those who need help without regard to future exchanges Western societies apply social responsibility norm selectively to those whose need appears not to be due to their own negligence

Answer 10

political conservatives the norm seems to be give people what they deserve If we attribute the need to an uncontrollable predicament we help If we attribute the need to the person’s choices, fairness does not require us to help

Answer 11

People will help those who have helped them. | Expectation that people will help, not hurt those who have helped them

Answer 12

Reciprocity within social networks helps define the social capital – support of connections, information flow, trust + cooperative actions – that keeps the community healthy When ppl cannot reciprocate, they may feel threatened and demeaned by accepting aid

Answer 13

candidate would be evaluated on the basis of his performance on a job aptitude test chance to provide hints to candidate on test informed that employer would see these hints along with results of test High ability + high likeability: no need for help Low likeability + high ability: help is used as sabotage (overhelping) Indicating that this person needs a lot of help

Answer 14

Higher population density a better predictor of non-helping than raw population

Answer 15

dangerous situations men more often help safer situations, women slightly more likely to help More women rate helping others in difficulty as essential Women have been as likely as or more likely than men to risk death Faced with a friends problems, women respond with greater empathy and spend more time helping

Answer 16

Most of the time, they overlap, but they can conflict. | Norm of reciprocity are not being met – navigate tension between these norms

Answer 17

helped spontaneously vs. someone who engaged in reciprocal helping. Hindu Indian students: Reciprocal helping seen as equally helpful. American students: rh seen as less helpful than spontaneous helping

Answer 18

Indian Ps viewed reciprocity as a moral obligation Most American students viewed reciprocity as personal choice. In a collectivistic context, there is more requirement to help Regardless of intentions, behaviour must be progroup Someone who helps but didn’t have to are praise worthy in western societies

Answer 19

Benson et al. (1976) planted objects at large airport (completed grad school app) Attractiveness varied. DV: Researchers checked their mail to see who sent the stuff back. Results: Attractive photo led to significantly more returns than unattractive photo.

Answer 20

Magic induced a “halo effect” but it wore off. | Likeability associated with him transferred to other HIV patients

Answer 21

A host of similarity dimensions, including nationality, attitudes, and dress…people more likely to help if they know the victim is similar.

Answer 22

higher the genetic closeness higher the likelihood of help Propagating as many of your genes as possible, more you share, the more you want to save them Emotional closeness + culture must also be a factor

Answer 23

Moral exclusion: perception of certain individuals or groups as outside boundary within which you apply moral values + rules of fairness inclusion: regarding others as within your circle of moral concern Counter natural in group bias by broadening the range of people’s well-being concerns us

Answer 24

Aggression: physical/verbal behaviour intended to hurt someone Hostile aggression: aggression driven by anger + performed as an end in itself Most murders – impulsive, emotional outbursts

Answer 25

means to a desired end (personal gain, attention, or even self-defense). Assumption: If aggressor believes there is an easier way to obtain goal, aggression would not occur.

Answer 26

harm inflicted for its own sake. Often “hot” and impulsive…but not necessarily as in “revenge is a dish best served cold” (a la the Count of Monte Cristo).

Answer 27

Prediction: identical twins should be more similar in aggression Prediction adopted children’s level of aggressiveness should resemble biological parents more Results: Greater than zero genetic contribution, but not very impressive (Miles & Carey, 1997).

Answer 28

strong relationship betw testosterone level + physical violence. Increase in testosterone in winners Bidirectional influence: increased level = increased aggression, increased aggression = increased testosterone

Answer 29

low levels of serotonin + drugs that boost serotonin decrease aggression level of serotonin appears to have some a priori genetic component but it also fluctuates a lot from situation to situation.

Answer 30

Instinctive rather than self-destructive Builds up until it explodes Fails to account for variation in aggressiveness strategy for gaining resources, defence, intimidating/eliminating rivals + deterring mates from infidelity Men have inherited from successful ancestors psychological mechanisms

Answer 31

Heredity influences the neural system’s sensitivity to aggressive cues Temperament influenced by our sypathetic nervous system’s reactivity Genes predispose some children to be more sensitive + responsive to maltreatment Nature + nurture interact

Answer 32

Unleashes aggression when provoked Reduces ppl’s self-awareness, focusing attention on provocation + mentality associating alcohol with aggression Deindividuates + disinhibits

Answer 33

strongly reinforced via positive reinforcement (produces rewards) or negative reinforcement (prevents undesired outcome). Believed in 90s that swift action on all crime (zero-tolerance) reduced crime shaply

Answer 34

punishment is more likely to work at decreasing aggression if it is: 1.immediate 2.strong 3.consistent. punishment can backfire if conditions are not met Berkowitz (1998) argued that the certainty of punishment is more important than its severity.

Answer 35

Frustration aggression theory: frustration triggers a readiness to aggress Frustration: blocking of goal Grows when motivation is very strong, when we expected gratification and when the blocking is complete Displacement: redirection of aggression to a target other than the source of frustration. New target is a safer more socially acceptable target Displaced aggression is most likely when target share some similarity to the instigator and does some minor irritating act that unleashes that displaced aggression less likely to respond aggressively if that person apologizes, except responsibility or otherwise tries to make amends Frustration arises from gap betw expectations and attainment

Answer 36

Perception that one is less well-off than others to whom one compares oneself Affluence depicted in television programs in commercials

Answer 37

By experience + observing others we learned that aggression often pays Aggression is instrumental in achieving certain rewards Terrorist attacks, enable powerless people to garner widespread attention

Answer 38

Social learning theory: we learned social behavior by observing + imitating and by being rewarded in punished Bandura: Bobo doll Observing aggressive behavior had both lowered children’s inhibitions and taught them ways to agress

Answer 39

social models have great power to teach aggression, even without any real rewards or punishments Beyond what the model did: used a gun, creative new ways to hurt Bobo Even models punished has very little effect on reducing subsequent child’s aggressive behaviour Archer: Nation Homicide Rates Both winning + losing war countries leads to an increased homicide rate

Answer 40

nonaggression can also be successfully modeled through observational learning (Gibbons & Ebbeck, 1997). More likely to see prosocial behaviour

Answer 41

Physically aggressive children tend to have physically punitive parents Their parents modeled aggression by disciplining them was screaming, slapping and beating Correlation between parental absence and violence holds across races, income levels, education and locations

Answer 42

Violent subculture of teenage gangs In the south, men had to stand up for themselves and defend their honor in order to protect possessions, families and themselves Confederate insulted them passing them in the hallway The insult had a very little effect on the Northerners Southerners reacted with anger, more physiologically aroused and gave stronger shocks to another Confederate later during the study Aggressive acts are motivated by a variety of aversive experiences – frustration, pain, insults Aggression is most likely when we are aroused and it seems safe and rewarding to agress

Answer 43

Dollard (1939): The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: 1. Frustration produced by interrupting a person’s progress toward an expected goal will always elicit the motive to aggress. 2. All aggression is caused by frustrations

Answer 44

A key component: Displacement (the inclination to aggress is deflected to a more socially acceptable substitute) Influenced by Freud + psychoanalysis Catharsis: take out aggression on boss

Answer 45

Participating in aggressive sports, reduces aggressiveness on boss 1. Imagined or observed aggression is actually more likely to increase physiological symptoms. 2. Actual aggressive behavior can lower arousal levels, but if the aggressive intent remains, “cold-blooded”/calculated aggression (i.e., without the arousal component) can still occur, and does occur quite often.

Answer 46

3.If aggressive behavior feels good, then that’s a reinforcer! 4.Feelings of hostility can still persist, even after you’ve finished punching the bag. Doing nothing at all more affectively reduced aggression then did blowing off steam by hitting the bag Expressing hostility bred more hostility In the short run retaliation provide pleasure but in the long run negative feelings Ruminators displaced aggressive urges and prescribed twice as much shock

Answer 47

excitation transfer: arousal by one stimulus can intensify someone’s emotional response to another stimulus Burkowitz: Unpleasant emotions can lead to aggression: bad smell, noise, crowds, Running on treadmill makes them more attracted: attribute physiological symptoms to sexual attraction Can running on the treadmill make someone more aggressive?

Answer 48

cruelty animals imposed on each other matched the cruelty imposed on them Animals are not choosy about their targets Intense heat and psychological pain – frustration Pain heightens aggressiveness in humans Any aversive events = emotional outburst

Answer 49

Temporary climate variations can affect behavior Offensive odors, cigarette smoke and air pollution have all been linked with aggressive behavior Griffitt found that compared to student to answer questionnaires in a room with normal temperature, those who did so in an uncomfortably hot room reported feeling more tired and aggressive and expressed more hostility toward a stranger In hot Weather, drivers without air-conditioning are more likely to honk at a stalled car

Answer 50

Being attacked or insulted by someone is especially conducive to aggression Intentional attacks breed retaliatory attacks

Answer 51

Schachter and singer A given state of bodily arousal feeds one emotion or another, depending on how the person interprets and labels the arousal Arousal feeds emotions Forms of arousal amplify one another

Answer 52

Violence is more likely when aggressive cues release pent-up anger – gun Guns prime hostile thoughts Weapon is perceived as an instrument of violence rather than a recreational item – for hunters seeing a hunting rifle does not prime aggressive thoughts Changes in gun laws do seem to affect murder rates

Answer 53

Arousal + emotions are related Both need high arousal + negative emotion = high aggession Neutral emotion + low arousal = no effect Neutral emotion + high arousal = some increase in aggression Positive emotion + low arousal = less aggression Positive emotion + high arousal = more/less aggression (not straightforward) depends on several other variables, including personality variables

Answer 54

Increased rates of criminal violence including sexual portion coincided with increased availability of violent + sexual material in media that started during sexual revolution in the 60s Social psychologist report that doing such fictional scenes of a man overpowering and arousing a woman can distort one’s perception of how women actually respond to sexual coercion and increase men’s aggression against woman

Answer 55

Exposure to pornography increases acceptance of the rape myth Those exposed to sexually violent movies for three days expressed less sympathy for domestic violence victims and rated the victims injuries as less severe

Answer 56

Woman more than men, nonwhites more than whites, retard people more than others and less educated more than highly educated Six in 10 programs contain violence 73% of violent scenes, aggressors went unpunished 58%, the victim was not shown to experience pain Only 5% of violence was shown to have any long-term consequences, two thirds depicted violence is funny

Answer 57

watched a great deal admitted to 50% more violent acts Viewing violence at age 8 modestly predicted aggressiveness at age 19 but aggressiveness at age 8 did not predict viewing violence at age 19 Aggression followed viewing not the reverse Where television goes, increased violence follows

Answer 58

``` Viewing violence disinhibits Legitimizes outburst activating violence related thoughts Media portrayals evoke imitation Modeling prosocial behavior should be socially beneficial ```

Answer 59

Desensitization – psychic numbness – occurs among young man who view slasher films

Answer 60

After so many action films, youngsters acquire a script that is played when they face real life conflicts More sexual content that adolescents view the more likely they are to perceive their peers as sexually active, develop sexually permissive attitudes and to experience early intercourse Media implants social scripts

Answer 61

Heavy viewers are more likely to exaggerate the frequency of violence in the world around them into fear being personally assaulted For people who watch a lot of television, the world becomes a scary place Media portrayals shape perceptions of reality

Answer 62

Watching violent videos primes networks of aggression related ideas Television steals time from club meetings, volunteering, congregational activity, and political engagement

Answer 63

Players identify with violent character actively rehearse violence Engage in the whole sequence of enacting violence engaged with continual violence Are rewarded for effective aggression Decreases prosocial behaviors – slower to help a person

Answer 64

amplify aggressive reactions partly by diffusing responsibility greater number of people in lynch mob, more vicious + murder + mutilation social contagion - groups magnify aggressive tendencies much as they polarize other tendencies Collective mentality that mobilizes a group or culture for extraordinary actions

Answer 65

should reward cooperative, non-aggressive behavior refrain from planting false, unreachable expectation in peoples minds because frustrated expectations + personal attacks predispose hostile aggression Punishment is aversive stimulation, it models the behavior it seeks to prevent Reduce TV watching and playing video games, availability of weapons such as handguns

Answer 66

How to tease apart the direction of causality? 1. Measure and statistically control for possible third variables (e.g., intelligence, physical size). 2. Longitudinal designs. Viewing violence at age 8 predicted aggressiveness at age 19, but aggressiveness at age 8 did not predict viewing TV violence at age 19.

Answer 67

3.Experiments: Bandura and Walters (1963): Replicated Bobo Doll study with children merely watching the model hitting the doll on a videotape, rather than live. Same results. If only 1 predicts, arrow only goes in 1 direction, viewing - aggressiveness

Answer 68

1.Arousal: + arousal spills over. Something’s making me upset 2.Disinhibition – legitimization of violence. New cultural norm where violence isn’t seen as terrible 3.Imitation/behavioral scripts Know how to be violent 4.Desensitization: Ppl exposed to violence, changes threshold so they get less physiological response to same amount of violence More likely to be indifferent

Answer 69

5.Altered perceptions: Gerbner (1994) – subjects who watched more than 4 hours a day were more like than those who watched less than 2 hours a day to exaggerate the frequency of violence out there in the world and to fear being personally assaulted. if I watch more violent content, the more I believe that the world is a violent place 6.Accessibility/priming: Certain concepts can be activated in my head that triggers behaviour unconscious