Violence and aggression Flashcards
What is the definition of violence by Allen and Anderson (2017)?
A behaviour that is intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm
What are the 5 components to Allen and Anderson’s (2017) definition of violence?
- Aggression is a behaviour
- The behaviour must be deliberate/intentional
- The behaviour must aim to harm the recipient(s) in some form
- The aggression must be towards another person
- The action is aimed at a person who is motivated to avoid the harm
What is the difference between proactive and reactive violence?
Proactive - for gain, unprovoked, planned/premediated, predatory, little emotion
Reactive - reacting to anger/frustration, provoked, impulsive, defensive, emotional
How do we study violence?
Crime statistics, informants, laboratory behaviour, self-report
What did Cohen et al. (1996) find when looking at Southerns vs Northerns reactions to insults?
Southerns had higher testosterone levels after the insults and much firmer handshakes compared to control and Notherners
What is the problem with the Cohen et al. (1996) study comparing aggression in Southerners vs Northerners?
May be measuring anger not aggression
What did Anderson and Bushman (1997) find when looking at aggression in laboratory vs real world experiments?
Laboratory experiments can test causal propositions and therefore discover theoretical relations among variables which are never properly isolated in the real world.
Confirmed same patterns for both types of studies (e.g., gender)
What did Bartholow and Anderson (2002) find when looking at the effect of violent games on subsequent aggression?
Violent video games cause greater aggression and this effect is stronger for males
What are some limitations of the Bartholow and Anderson (2002) study examining violent video games and aggression?
Small sample size and increase in aggression could be attributed to adrenaline rather than violence
What are the differences in aggression between males and females?
Men show more physical aggression.
No differences in verbal aggression.
Females show more indirect aggression (e.g., spreading rumours).
How might alcohol effect aggression?
Not through directly causing violence but through magnifying pre-existing problems
What did Caspi et al. (2002) find in terms of genes vs environments effect on aggression?
Interaction between genes and environment.
Effect of childhood maltreatment but this effect was far greater for those with the gene for low MAOA activity
What are implicit theories and how might they relate to aggression?
In the same way that scientists hold hypotheses about how the world works, so do individuals.
Ones related to aggression may influence this behaviour
What are the 4 violence-related implicit theories Polaschek et al. (2008) found?
- Beat or be beaten
- I am the law
- Violence is normal
- I get out of control
What is the relationship between self-esteem and violence?
Low self-esteem is not related to violence.
High self-esteem, especially if over-inflated (narcissism) or if threatened, is what leads to aggression.
Low SE is predictive of reactive violence, high narcissism is predictive of proactive violence.
What is the amygdala involved in that could relate to aggression?
Fear processing, learning (aversive conditioning, appetitive conditioning)
What did patient SM (had bilateral amygdala damage) show regarding fear?
When placed on situations to elicit fear, she verbally reported fear but did not act this way - so has cognitive ideas of fear but doesn’t actually feel emotion
What did Pardini et al. (2014) find when following boys with antisocial behaviour with regards to their amygdala volume?
Those with no violence have bigger amygdalae on the left side
Strong negative relationship to overall aggressive behaviour
Left amygdala is more important to reactive aggression
What did Lozier et al. (2014) find when looking at the responsiveness of the amygdala to fearful expressions in juveniles with conduct problems and controls?
CU traits were negatively correlated with amygdala activation
Externalising behaviours were positively related to amygdala activation
Not a simple relationship - too little activation may be related to a lack of fear/empathy and proactive aggression whereas too much activation may be related to reacting with anger/fear and reactive aggression
What has damage to the PFC been linked to?
Explosive anger and violent histories
What is alcohol’s effect on the PFC?
‘Shuts down’ the PFC - like a temporary lesion
When does the PFC fully develop?
Around 25 years old
What did Bechara et al. (1999) find when looking at people with PFC and amygdala damage and the Iowa gambling task and what does it mean?
People with damage to the PFC and amygdala don’t tend to show much difference in their choice patterns.
Controls changed to a safer method without being aware of why - seems like the PFC was guiding this.
PFC appears to be important in using emotions (reward and punishment) in guiding behaviour - even unconsciously.
Somatic marker hypothesis.
What is the somatic marker hypothesis?
Emotional processes guide behaviour - particularly decision making - even if it’s unconscious
