SP Aggression and Conflict Flashcards
What is the definition of aggression?
Both from the book and the other source
SMC: Behaviour whose immediate intent is to hurt someone
Geen: Aggression is the delivery of an aversive stimulus from one person to another, with the intent to harm and with an expectation of causing such harm
What is Intergroup Aggression?
Any behaviour intended to harm another person because they are a member of an out-group, the behaviour being viewed by its target as undesirable
What are the two types of aggression?
- Instrumental aggression (‘cold’)
- Behaviour aimed at achieving a particular goal, to control other people or obtain resources
- Hostile aggression
- Behaviour that is mainly aimed at hurting another person. Driven by physiological arousal, hostile affect.
Are the two types of aggression exclusive?
No, Most aggressive acts consist of a combination of both,
e.g. punching someone in the face is hostile aggression, but it will also deter them from fucking around, thus instrumental
What was the first experimental operationalisation of aggression?
Aggression machine: Developed by Arnold Buss (1961)
- Precursor to Milgram’s shock experiment, but the ‘teacher’ gets to pick the shock level which can be used as aggression measure
What are some other experimental operationalisations of aggression?
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Hot sauce paradigm: Similar to aggression machine, but instead the ‘teacher’ gets to pick how much strong hot sauce the person has to eat.
- Since it’s assumed the hot sauce causes pain, the decision to make them eat more signals greater intent to cause harm (aggression tadaa)
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Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP): Similar to aggression machine, but its between two people and is a competitive reaction time task
- Whoever is slowest gets shocked, the shock is determined by the winner.
Are these operationalisations valid?
These measures have some construct validity as its been shown that participants who are more aggressive in the lab are also aggressive outside, so its not just delivering shocks because they think it facilitates learning
What did Lorenz say?
“Man is an animal that always benefits from having a fighting instinct: for territory, women, and food.”
What evidence shows that aggression is a consequence of evolution?
- When a mating-goal is made salient, men are more aggressive towards other men, but not towards other women
- No effect on women
- Effect disappears when this dominance can be confirmed in another way
Aggression isn’t the only way to gain status and resources.
But it is a technique used as we strive for mastery of material resources as well as respect and connectedness to others
What is Catharsis?
The phenomenon by which aggressive feelings, motives, and impulses are supposedly ‘drained off’ through violent action
Does catharsis work?
No, it doesn’t
Aggression causes more aggression and anger
Especially when focusing on the source of frustration
Usually, aggressing doesn’t lead to feeling better/sense of relief
Less arousal, but still as much for aggression
What evidence exists for a hereditary base of aggression?
- ‘Warrior mice’ and domestication of the Russian silver fox
- Heritability of self-reported aggression scores ranges from 42 to 78%
- Correlation between self-reported aggression scores within pairs of monozygotic twins
- Environmental influence not ruled out
Warrior Gene (MAO-A) is related to aggression and delinquency in teenagers and young adults with a history of childhood abuse
What effect does serotonin and testosterone have on aggression?
- Serotonin is negatively related to aggressive behaviour
- Deprivation of sources of certain serotonin-related amino acids (tryptophan, in cheese, soya, sunflower seeds) leads to an increase in aggressive behaviour
- Testosterone has a positive effect on aggression in animals, while the effect in humans is less obvious
- No effect when administering testosterone vs placebo to men
How is alcohol related to aggression?
There’s a relationship between alcohol and aggression, e.g. alcohol is a factor in 2/3 of murder cases and in extreme domestic violence scenarios
Influence of alcohol also partly explained by influence of expectations
What is alcohol myopia?
Alcohol myopia: Alcohol hinders the assessment of the consequences of behaviour
- Focus on direct cues over more complex considerations, and a narrower range of information
- Related reduced functionality of prefrontal cortex
What does the general aggression model (GAM) explain?
Look at the picture in my notes, stupid site doesn’t let me :(
Inputs: Cost/Benefits
What alters the balancing of costs vs rewards of aggression?
- Possibility of punishment can deter aggression
- Low perceived cost (strength, weapons)
- High perceived benefit: idealistic thinking?
- Perceived cost and benefit is relative
Inputs: Threats
How do threats affect aggression?
- Physical threat/self-defence
- In response to threat to self esteem
- People with low self esteem might lack the resources to cope with frustration, thus more aggression
- People with high, but unstable/insecure self esteem are more likely to respond to social rejection with aggression
- Threats to self-perceived superiority vs social inclusion might have different effects.
- The presence of an audience may make aggressive response to self-esteem threats more likely.
Inputs: Threats
How do reminders of mortality affect aggression?
- People typically respond by reaffirming their basic world views, e.g. ideological or religious beliefs
- McGregor gave politically liberal and conservative students statements from ‘someone else’ that attacked their political view, and the students could pick how much hot sauce the person would consume
- Statements that mentioned mortality resulted in higher hot sauce rates
Inputs: Negative emotions
What is the role of negative emotions in aggression?
Frustration-aggression theory: A theory holding that any frustration -defined as the blocking of an important goal- inevitably triggers aggression
This theory has been proven slightly wrong, it isn’t the blocking that causes aggression, but by the negative feelings that result.
