Unit 11: Aggression

Question 1

Define aggression.

Answer 1

behaviour intended to harm another individual

Question 2

Define violence.

Answer 2

extreme acts of aggression (distinguished from less harmful aggressive behaviours)

Question 3

Define instrumental aggression.

Answer 3

inflicting harm in order to obtain something of value

Question 4

Define emotional aggression

Answer 4

inflicting harm for its own sake

Question 5

What are the differences in aggression across cultures?

Answer 5

1. Aggression levels tend to be higher in individualistic cultures (e.g. USA) and lowest in collectivist cultures (e.g. China).
2. Differences in the forms that violence typically takes and people’s attitudes toward various kinds of aggression. For example, in the United States there is more gun-related violence compared to the rest of the world and attitudes about guns tend to be more permissive and positive in the US.
3. What is considered to be aggression and unacceptable in relation to children is different.

Question 6

What is the proposed reason why some cultures are nonviolent?

Answer 6

Because their promotion of cooperation and their lack of competition may promote non-violence.

Question 7

In what ways do men and women engage in aggression differently?

Answer 7

Men tend to be more overtly aggressive (physical aggression and direct-verbal aggression) than women. Women tend to be more indirectly or relationally aggressive than men.

Question 8

Briefly explain aggression from the evolutionary psychology perspective.

Answer 8

According to the evolutionary psychology perspective, warriors would have been more likely to attract mates and be accepted as part of a group. Therefore, individuals who were aggressive and fought had a greater likelihood of reproductive success and they passed these tendencies to their offspring. The population-wide effect of this would be that tendencies toward aggression evolved to become part of human nature.

Question 9

What is the evidence for the evolutionary perspective’s explanation of aggression?

Answer 9

1. Aggression is inhibited against those genetically related to us in order to promote the survival of genes to the next generation. Evidence indicates that children living with a step-parent or foster parent are much more likely to be fatally abused than children living with both biological parents.
2. Sexual jealousy triggers aggression for the purpose of enhancing the male’s confidence in his paternity of offspring. Male-to-male violence is most likely to occur when one male is perceived as challenging another male’s status or social power (e.g., by attempting to challenge his sexual relationship). Male-to-female violence is mostly triggered by sexual jealousy.
3. When women aggress they do it to protect their own lives and their offspring against threats to others. Protecting themselves is relevant because offspring are dependent on their mothers for survival. This may be why women are less likely to use physical aggression and instead employ indirect aggression.

Question 10

What is the evidence against the evolutionary perspective for aggression?

Answer 10

The significant research literature on learning (e.g. Bandura).

Question 11

Describe the role of genetics in aggression.

Answer 11

Twin and adoption studies provide some evidence to support the role of heritability in human aggressive behaviour. However, the evidence is much stronger for physical aggression than it is for the heritability of relational aggression. Furthermore, it appears that a genes-environment interaction may be necessary given that in one study when a child with a genetic predisposition for aggression was in a prosocial environment, the aggressive behaviour was reduced and prosocial behaviour increased.

Question 12

Describe the role of hormones in aggression.

Answer 12

There is a correlation between higher testosterone levels and aggression in men, women, and transgender individuals.

Question 13

Describe the role of neurotransmitters in aggression.

Answer 13

Low levels of serotonin in the nervous system are associated with high levels of aggression.

Question 14

Describe the role of the brain and executive functioning in aggression.

Answer 14

1. Abnormalities in frontal lobe structures (prefrontal cortex = executive functioning) are associated with tendencies toward aggressive and violent behaviours.
2. There is a link between poor executive functioning and aggression.
3. In aggressive teenagers there is less activation in the areas of the brain associated with self-regulation and moral reasoning and increased activation of the reward circuit when observing someone inflict pain on another person.

Question 15

What roles does positive reinforcement play in the learning of aggressive behaviour?

Answer 15

Positive reinforcement is when aggression produces desired outcomes. Positive reinforcement is a type of reward that increases the use of aggression.

Question 16

What roles does negative reinforcement play in the learning of aggressive behaviour?

Answer 16

Negative reinforcement is when aggression prevents or stops undesirable outcomes. Negative reinforcement is a type of reward that increase the use of aggression.

Question 17

What roles does punishment play in the learning of aggressive behaviour?

Answer 17

Punishment reduces aggressive behaviour under certain circumstances. Specifically, when punishment immediately follows the aggressive behaviour, when punishment is strong enough to deter the aggressor, and when punishment is consistently applied and perceived as fair and legitimate by the aggressor. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that the certainty of punishment is more important than its severity. Punishment does not reduce aggression when it is perceived as unfair or arbitrary. Instead, it actually creates an escalating cycle of aggression in these situations. In addition, punishment can offer a model to imitate and can increase aggression, especially when it is delivered in an angry or hostile manner.

Question 18

Describe the social learning theory as it relates to aggression.

Answer 18

Behaviour is learned through the observation of others as well as through the direct experience of rewards and punishments. People can learn aggressive behaviours, attitudes, and beliefs from aggressive models. Learners construct aggressive scripts that serve as guides for how to behave and solve social problems. These scripts can be activated and followed automatically in various situations, leading to quick and unthinking aggressive responses. Non-aggressive models decrease aggressive behaviour.

Question 19

How do social learning approaches account for gender differences and cultural variation in aggression?

Answer 19

Males and females are rewarded and punished differently for aggression and are presented with different models of aggression. Overt aggression is more socially acceptable in males roles than in female roles and males are more likely to be rewarded for aggressive behaviour. In contrast, females receive more social rewards for relational aggression than do males.

Question 20

How does a culture of honour account for gender differences and cultural variation in aggression?

Answer 20

A culture of honour emphasizes honour and social status and the role of aggression in protecting that honour and particularly applies to males. Conflicts and disputes are viewed as challenges to social status and reputation and they trigger aggressive responses. Rates of violence are higher in cultures of honour and so is acceptance of using violence to protect one’s honour. The key is that individuals believe that most people in their culture have positive attitudes toward aggression in response to threats to one’s honour.

Question 21

Is aggression determined by forces of nature, nurture, or a combination of the two?

Answer 21

Aggression is determined by the interaction between innate predispositions and environmental and social factors.

Question 22

State the original frustration-aggression hypothesis as proposed by Dollard and others.

Answer 22

The original frustration-aggression hypothesis proposes that: (1) frustration produced by interrupting a person’s progress toward a goal will always elicit the move to aggress, and (2) all aggression is caused by frustration.

Question 23

How has displacement been used to explain aggression against the source of frustration?

Answer 23

It refers to aggressing against a substitute target because aggressive acts against the source of the frustration are inhibited by fear or lack of access. In this case, the aggression is deflected from the target to a substitute target.

Question 24

How has catharsis been used to explain aggression against the source of frustration?

Answer 24

Catharsis is a reduction of the motive to aggress that results from any imagined, observed, or actual act of aggression. It is a displacement of aggression in safer ways.

Question 25

What problems with the original frustration-aggression hypothesis were identified by other researchers?

Answer 25

1. Evidence suggests that frustration does not always produce aggressive inclinations and all aggression is not caused by frustration.
2. Researchers identified theoretical weaknesses and inconclusive results related to the concept of displacement.
3. Researchers have not found evidence to support the concept of catharsis.

Question 26

Summarize Berkowitz’s reformulation of the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Answer 26

The theory was reformulated to propose that frustration is one of many unpleasant experiences that can lead to aggression by creating negative, uncomfortable feelings. It is these negative feelings, not the frustration itself that can trigger aggression.

Question 27

How does the process of excitation transfer facilitate aggression?

Answer 27

The process of excitation transfer is when the arousal created by one stimulus can intensify an individual’s emotional response to another stimulus. Stimuli that increase arousal such as physical exercise, noise, heat, violent motion pictures, and arousing music all increase aggression.

Question 28

Describe how the arousal-affect model explains aggression.

Answer 28

Noxious stimuli and negative affect increase aggression. Most aggressive incidents can be directly linked to some type of provocation, and the negative affect caused by the provocation plays a critically important role in triggering aggression. Positive affect decreases the likelihood of aggression.

Question 29

Describe how situational cues can influence aggression.

Answer 29

Any object or external characteristic that is associated with (1) successful aggression or (2) the negative affect of pain or unpleasantness can serve as an aggression-enhancing situational cue. Situational cues can have strong effects increasing people’s hostility and likelihood of aggression. Additionally, stimuli that may be aggression-enhancing cues for one person may not be for another person.

Question 30

What is the “weapon effect”?

Answer 30

The weapon effect is the tendency of weapons to increase the likelihood of aggression by their mere presence.

Question 31

How does mitigating information affect higher-order cognitive processing and aggression?

Answer 31

Mitigating information is information about a person’s situation indicating that he or she should not be held fully responsible for aggressive actions. Mitigating information has the effect of inhibiting aggression.

Question 32

How does hostile attribution bias affect higher-order cognitive processing and aggression?

Answer 32

Hostile attribution bias is the tendency to perceive hostile intent in others. It has the effect of facilitating aggression.

Question 33

How does alcohol affect higher-order cognitive processing and aggression?

Answer 33

Alcohol facilitates aggression by:

1. reducing anxiety which lowers people’s inhibitions against aggression
2. disrupting information processing by narrowing people’s focus of attention such that intoxicated people tend to respond to initial, salient information about the situation and often miss later, subtle indicators
3. people who expect alcohol to make them more aggressive are more likely to behave more aggressively after consuming alcohol

Question 34

Summarize the immediate effects of exposure to violence in the media on aggression.

Answer 34

1. Exposure to violent video games is associated with aggressive behaviour after playing the game
2. As amount of time playing violent video games increases so do aggressive behaviours, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect
3. More exposure to violent video games is associated with lack of empathy and prosocial behaviour

Question 35

Summarize the long-term effects of exposure to violence in the media on aggression.

Answer 35

1. Exposure to violent media early in life predicts individuals’ aggressiveness and criminality as adults
2. Childhood preferences for violent media predict later violence and aggression

Question 36

What are the processes that mediate between exposure to violence and aggression?

Answer 36

1. Hostile attribution bias
2. Desensitization to violence
3. Cultivation

Question 37

What is desensitization to violence?

Answer 37

Desensitization to violence is a form of habituation that refers to a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence. When people become desensitized to violence, they become more accepting of it because familiarity reduces physiological arousal to a stimulus.

Question 38

What is cultivation?

Answer 38

Cultivation is the process by which the mass media construct a more violent version of social reality for the public that people perceive as true. This makes people more fearful and distrustful and they then become more likely to behave aggressively in what they perceive to be a threatening situation.

Question 39

Describe the effects of exposure to non-violent pornography on aggression.

Answer 39

Non-violent pornography is not associated with sexual aggression. This is because it elicits positive affect and only low-to-moderate levels of sexual arousal.

Question 40

Describe the effects of exposure to violent pornography on aggression.

Answer 40

Violent pornography is associated with increased sexual aggression. This is because it elicits high arousal, negative emotional reactions (e.g. shock, alarm, disgust), and aggressive thoughts. This effect is gender-specific. Violent pornography is associated with increases in male-to-female aggression but is not associated with male-to-male aggression.

Question 41

What are five things that can be done to reduce aggression and violence in society?

Answer 41

1. Reward non-aggressive behaviour
2. Provide attractive models of peaceful behaviour
3. Reduce access and display of weapons
4. Develop good communication skills in families and relationships, thereby helping to avoid misperceptions, jealousy, and distrust
5. Reduce frustration by improving the quality of life in housing, healthcare, employment, and child care