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Aggression

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According to text, it is a behavior whose goal is the injury of the person ... fixed action patterns, e.g., geico-geico bird, ground wasps, those darn ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Aggression


1
Lecture 8
  • Aggression

2
Altruism Aggression
  • 1. Critical Issue
  • Whey people dont help.
  • 2. Philisophical Issue
  • Are we good or evil?
  • 3. Research Causes of helping behavior
  • 4. Control How to increase helping.
  • 1. Critical Issue
  • Intraspecies Aggression
  • 2. Philisophical Issue
  • Are we good or evil?
  • 3. Research Causes of aggression
  • 4. Control How to decrease aggression.

3
I. Defining Aggression
  • According to text, it is a behavior whose goal is
    the injury of the person toward whom it is
    directed.
  • Ok, but not so easy (as discussed in class)

4
II. Instinct Theories of Aggression
  • A. Lorenz and other functional ethologists.
  • 1. Aggression is a series of pre-programmed
    responses similar to imprinting (i.e.,
    instinctual bonding of newborns with mothers)
  • a. imprinting is a series of fixed action
    patterns, the closer the object is to a hen, the
    greater the bonding between chick and object.

5
(No Transcript)
6
Konrad Lorenz and His Goslings
7
  • b. there are many other fixed action patterns,
    e.g., geico-geico bird, ground wasps, those darn
    starlings in my fireplace.
  • c. Aggression then, is seen as the release of a
    fixed action pattern towards a specific target.

8
ASE (attack) FAP
IRM (stimuli)

IM

Action Specific Energy (ASE) or in this case
attack energy builds up Until an appropriate
Innate Releasing Mechanism (IRM) or stimuli
(e.g., Robins red breast, Black-birds red
wings) Comes along and blocks the Inhibitory
Mechanism (IM), releasing the Fixed Action
Pattern FAP) for Attack
9
  • 2. Build-up of ASE can override IM.
  • E.g., Lorenz (1963) Male tropical fish
  • Male tropical fish other male fish
    of same species
  • If no males other fish of
    different species
  • If only females of same species
    the male will attack them eventually

10
  • 3. Monkeys and Humans facial expressions?
  • 4. Releasing ASE in humans?
  • Lorenz says sports is the answer.
  • 5. Human aggression
  • a. Lorenz thought humans only mammal to
    systematically kill other members of own species.
  • b. Not true, but we are very aggressive, other
    animals often have stronger inhibitions .
  • c. This is due to
  • 1). Weak inhibitions
  • 2). Weapons
  • d. Descriptive evidence distance,
    psuedospeciation
  • e. Lab evidence Milgram experiment on obedience
    and distance
  • And Zimbardo experiment on anonymity and electric
    shocks.

11
B. Freud
  • 1. Eros vs. Thanatos
  • 2. Eros (life force)-love, sex, procreation
  • Topology
  • Id sexual energy or libido, the Id wants
  • Ego the reality principle, it gets
  • E.g. Self, Other, Others, Chicken, Cow
  • Superego preconscious, it often inhibits
  • E.g. Self No!, Other Maybe, Others No!, Chicken
    No!, Cow Hmm.

12
  • 3. Thanatos (death force) hate, death wish,
    aggression turned outward
  • Id, Ego and Superego work same way but for
    aggression.
  • Note similarity between id, ego, and superego and
    ASE, IRM, and IM
  • Both Freud and Lorenz were catharsis theorists
    aggressive energy will build until released
    either through sports or displaced aggression.

13
III. Learning Theories (from some instinct to
none)
  • A. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard
    Miller) Frustration always leads to aggression
    and aggression always presupposes frustration.
  • 1. Problem?
  • 2. Modified hypothesis Frustration may lead to
    aggression, but aggression always presupposes
    frustration.
  • 3. Research Hovland Sears (1943) lynchings
    and the price of cotton Miller Bulgelski
    (1938)prejudice and frustration.
  • 4. Other Problems
  • a. etiology biological or learned?
  • b. lab studies show that aggression not only
    response to frustration (e.g., Myers and
    experimental neurosis rats, cows, and sheep
    freeze, attempt to escape, cry, and show overall
    disintegration of behavior.

14
  • B. Berkowitzs Cue Theory
  • 1. Brings back biological component. Frustration
    leads to anger, anger leads to a readiness for
    aggression.
  • 2. Aggression will occur if there are cues for
    aggression in the situation or from past
    situations.
  • 3. Research

15
a) Berkowitz LePage mean of shocks given as
a function of anger and cue value
Cue Not angered Angered
Toy Gun 2.40 5.87
Raquet ------ 4.60
None 3.07 4.67
16
b) Berkowitzs Kirk study of shocks given
after being angered or not and watching Kirk
Douglas get beaten up on the film, The Champion
or not
  • Aggressive Film Neutral Film
  • Angered Not Angered Angered Not Angered
  • Kirk Bob Kirk Bob Kirk Bob Kirk
    Bob
  • 6.09 4.53 1.73 1.45 4.18 4.00 1.54 1.64

17
  • c) What is the problem with these studies?
  • d) What is the solution?
  • Geen-arcades, Boyanowski- RCMP, Car Gun study.
  • e. Road rage? have peaceful signs or cues.

18
  • C. Zillmans Excitation Transfer Theory
  • 1. Stolen from Schachters Two-factor theory of
    emotion Arousal Leads to Cue seeking in order to
    label emotion. Cues lead to specific emotion
    (e.g., Schachter Singer study When aroused we
    take on the emotion of the confederate, crying or
    laughing).
  • 2. When we are aroused either through
    frustration, sex, or whatever, and there is a cue
    in the environment, we will aggress.
  • 3. What Zillman doesnt stress and the book
    doesnt mention, is that frustration can also
    lead to helping behavior (e.g., Davitz and
    frustrated children watching film).
  • 4. Theory accounts for both aggression and
    helping
  • 5. Application Arousal and the Canadian
    Kidnapping Crisis. (Sorrentino, Vidmar,
    Goodstadt, 1972). Also Remember Pearl Harbor,
    Remember the Maine, Tonkin Gulf and the Viet Nam
    War.

19
D. Social Learning Theory (Bandura and Walters)
  • A. Most Popular Theory (especially if you are
    opposed to violence on TV or in the Movies).
  • B. Basic Tenet Learning can occur without
    reinforcement, simple modeling will result in
    imitation.
  • C. Classic Study by Bandura (1965) on learning
    verus performance

20
Bandura (1965). Mean number of hits after
observing model hit Bobo doll and being rewarded,
punished, or no consequences
21
Mean Number of hits After children are told they
will receive a reward for doing what the model did
22
  • Bandura study shows that learning takes place
    without direct reinforcement, but note that
    watching the aggressor punished reduced imitation
    as reward increases it.
  • Note also that the measure of aggression here is
    beating up on a Bobo doll.
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