Topic 20: Aggression Flashcards
What is the contemporary definition of aggression?
Perpetrator: voluntary behaviour intended to cause harm (can be physical, psychological, social, economic/financial etc.)
Target: motivated to avoid being treated in this way
Behaviour is not considered aggressive if it involves:
Accidental harm (e.g. traffic accident)
Harm that is sought out by target (e.g. sexual masochism)
Harm motivated by a prosocial goal (e.g. dental treatment)
What are the types of aggression?
Instrumental Aggression: occurs in premeditated and goal-directed manner
Hostile Aggression: involves the impulsive use of aggression
Displaced Aggression: directed against an innocent target
that is easily accessible and/or non-threatening (but that did not cause the internal state which triggered the aggression in the first place)
What is the scientific challenge of studying aggression?
Ideal: study of aggression under controlled conditions
But: ethical concerns usually forbid to provoke serious (e.g. physical) aggression in humans in the laboratory
Findings on aggression as studied in the lab may or may not generalise to real-world aggression. (not very ecologically valid)
What have scientists done to alleviate the challenges of studying aggression?
Scientists have introduced a wide range of ‘substitutional measures’ that all have different strengths/weaknesses (e.g. punching dolls, pushing a button believed to deliver an electric shock, amount of hot sauce believed to be given to others, verbal expressions of one’s willingness to use violence etc.)
How do biological theories associate with aggression?
Aggression considered a natural human instinct (i.e. a pattern of response that is genetically predetermined)
As such considered to be part of typical human development, universal, and adaptive (i.e. beneficial to individual and/or species)
Example theory:
Evolutionary Theory: aggression promotes survival by enhancing our access to resources - assumption that aggression is ‘around’ because those who acted aggressively reproduced more
How do biosocial theories associate with aggression?
Aggressive behaviour feeding from an ‘innate component’ and environmental factors
Example theory:
Frustration-Aggression Theory: declares that sense of frustration over event/situation that thwarted one’s goals invariably leads to aggression (criticism: loose definition of frustration and other factors than frustration can cause aggression)
How do social theories link with aggression?
Humans learn from experience/environmental influences when/how to behave aggressively (i.e. aggressive behaviour is shaped by reward and punishment)
Example theory:
Social learning theory (Bandura, 1973): aggression is learnt either by direct experience or vicariously (i.e. by observing others who act aggressively and are rewarded for it)
Bandura used a variety of experimental settings to show that especially children readily mimic the aggressive acts of others.
What can be done to prevent or reduce aggressive behaviour?
Aggression is a multi-causal phenomenon
Strategies to prevent and/or reduce aggression must be multifaceted and flexible (i.e. tailored towards the relevant context)
In many contexts, adequate strategies will require targeting causes of aggression at several levels:
societal/cultural
Situational
Individual (e.g. with psychological interventions)
What are evidence-based suggestions: Society - to reduce aggressive behaviour?
Aggression often linked to societal challenges such as poverty, social inequality, intergroup conflict etc.
We should:
Implement policies that minimise societal inequalities and disparities
Promote non-violent core values (e.g. fundamental human rights, social justice) and conflict resolution strategies (e.g. boycotts, demonstrations)
Pass laws against the physical punishment of children and facilitation of non-violent child-rearing.
What are evidence-based situational suggestions to reduce aggressive behaviour?
Reward cooperative and non-violent behaviour (i.e. create environments that make non-aggressive behaviour ‘worth it’)
De-anonysmise victim(s) of aggression (i.e. raise awareness for victims’ pain and injury to highlight consequences of aggression)
Reduce alcohol abuse
What are evidence-based individual suggestions to reduce aggressive behaviour?
Reduce exposure to violent models (i.e. undermine the social learning of aggression, including via the media)
Minimise hostile attribution bias (i.e. teach benign interpretations of ambiguous social situations)
Train emotion regulation and self-control (i.e. undermine the link between feeling frustrated/annoyed and acting aggressively
Train non-aggressive conflict-resolution strategies (i.e. compromise, withdrawal, forgiveness)
What is the Bobo doll study?
Pre-schoolers escorted into play area with many different children toys
Adult escorted into same room and seated in corner with ‘adult toys’ > plays with them quietly for a bit but then acts aggressively towards one toy, the Bobo doll.
Children do or do not observe the adult’s actions and are then allowed to play with a wide variety of toys themselves
Main findings:
Preschoolers who observed the aggressive model were more than twice as likely to interact with the Bobo doll in an aggressive manner than children who had not observed the aggressive model
However, if they saw that the adult model was later punished for the aggression, they did not reproduce the aggressive behaviour (= response inhibition due to vicarious punishment)
What factors have researchers tried to identify specific psychological factors that make aggression more/less likely?
cultural, situational, and personality factors
What cultural factors make aggression more/less likely?
Variation exists in cultural norms an a) what constitutes aggression and b) how acceptable aggression is
So-called honour cultures often accept aggression to deal with physical/social threats > one well-studied example: southern vs. northern culture of honour in the US
Southerners agree more with the statement that ‘a man has the right to kill a person to defend himself or his family/house’
South has higher homicide rates than North, but only for argument- or conflict-related homicides (not for homicides during robbery) (i.e. under ‘honour threat’ conditions’)
What personality factors make aggression more/less likely?
High developmental stability: aggression at 8 years of age extends into adulthood
Traits that make people prone to aggression:
Narcissism (individuals who excessively seek out approval of others to maintain high self-esteem e.g. Bushman & Baumeister 1998)
Type A personality (overactive and excessively competitive e.g. Carver & Glass 1978)
