Aggression

1
Aggression

• Are we natural born killers?
• If not, how do we stop the violence?

2
Aggression Defined

• Intentional behavior aimed at causing either
  physical or psychological harm
• Contrast aggression and assertiveness
• Hostile vs. Instrumental Aggression
• Hostile stems from a feeling of anger. Goal is
  to inflict pain or injury.
• Instrumental aggression takes place as a means
  to some other goal (e.g., professional assassin)

3
Aggression Statistics

• 16,974 murders in the U.S. in 1998
• 15,533 murders in the U.S. in 1999
• 15,586 murders in the U.S. in 2000
• 15,980 murders in the U.S. in 2001
• Expand definition to violent crime (murder,
  non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and
  aggravated assault)
• 1,533,887 in 1998
• 1,430,693 in 1999
• 1,425,486 in 2000
• 1,436,611 in 2001

4
Is Aggression an Instinct?

• Hundreds of years of debate
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau No. We are naturally
  gentle - restrictive society makes us hostile
• Thomas Hobbes Yes!!! We are brutes and only law
  and government can help us
• Freud Supports Hobbes. Argued that we had a
  powerful death instinct known as Thanatos leads
  to aggressive actions

5
Freud and Aggression

• Believed that aggressive energy must be released
  otherwise it builds up and causes illness.
• A hydraulic theory
• Sublimation society regulates this instinct.
  Helps people to turn destructive energy into
  useful behavior
• E.g., danger seeking, competitive person becomes
  a race car driver

6
Hydraulic Theory

• A fair amount of evidence suggests that for many
  species the hydraulic theory is not true
• John Paul Scott If an organism can arrange its
  life so that there is no outside stimulation to
  fight, then it will not experience any
  physiological or mental damage as a result of not
  expressing aggression.
• However, Lorenz has found evidence with cichlids
  (Siamese fighting fish) to the contrary

7
Evolutionary Arguments

• Lore and Schultz argue that aggression has
  survival value.
• However, most species seem to have developed
  inhibitory mechanisms that allow them to suppress
  aggression
• Thus, aggression is an optional strategy
• Regional differences in aggression suggest
  strategic view of aggression

8
Regional Differences in Aggression

• Homicide rates for White southern males are
  substantially higher than for White northern
  males (especially in rural areas)
• However, they do not endorse violence in general,
  only as a tool for protection of property and in
  response to insults Culture of honor based
  upon history as herding society
• Nisbett research on southerners reaction to being
  bumped and cursed at
• More upset (cortisol increase), primed for
  aggression (testosterone increase), more likely
  to engage in aggression after the incident

9
How Useful is Aggression?

• Survival of the fittest?
• Concept of aggression leading to success appears
  to have outlived its utility
• e.g., MAD Mutual Assured Destruction arms
  policy utilized by US and the Soviet Union during
  the Cold War.
• Peter Kropotkin (1902) argued that cooperative
  behavior and mutual aid might have greater
  survival value. Altruism.
• Kropotkins work has been ignored perhaps it
  did not fit with the mindset of the Industrial
  Revolution

10
Utility of Aggression, Continued

• Catharsis Freudian belief that a release of
  energy is necessary. Fits with our everyday
  experience of blowing off some steam.
• Three methods question is do they work?
• Method One Socially aggressive physical
  activities (e.g., football)
• Neither participating or watching these sports
  decreases aggressive behavior (in fact, watching
  temporarily increases aggression).

11
Utility of Aggression, Continued

• Method Two Fantasy
• Utility is limited it reduces some, but not a
  lot of aggression
• Method Three Direct Aggression. Does lashing
  out help to reduce future aggression
• Apparently not. Actually seems to increase
  future aggression
• Cognitive Dissonance. Blaming the victim.
• Only reduces future aggression if equity has been
  restored.

12
Causes of Aggression

• Neurological and Chemical Causes
• Amygdala (located in the forebrain).
• Testosterone leads to an increase in
  aggression, but also increases during aggression
• If testosterone is linked to aggression, does
  this mean that men are more aggressive than
  women?
• Maccoby and Jacklin research suggests yes.
• Across cultures, women demonstrate less violence
• Further, during era of womens liberation,
  non-violent crime rate relative to male rate has
  increased, but not violent crime rate.

13
Causes of Aggression, Continued

• Alcohol
• 75 of individuals arrested for crimes of
  violence were legally drunk at the time of their
  arrests.
• Experimental evidence implies that alcohol
  ingestion increases aggression
• Interpretation, alcohol is a disinhibitor. It
  seems that under the influence of alcohol a
  persons primary tendencies are revealed

14
Causes of Aggression, Continued

• Pain and Discomfort
• If an animal experiences pain and cant flee,
  violence follows
• Most research has been done on heat
• Violent crime and aggression increases as
  temperature increases (e.g., baseball above 90)
• Confound is increased interaction as it gets
  warmer
• However, lab research suggests that temperature
  is key component

15
Causes of Aggression, Continued

• Frustration
• Thwarting an individuals attainment of a goal
  increases the probability of an aggressive
  response
• Frustration becomes greater the closer one gets
  to a goal, and if interruption is unexpected or
  illegitimate
• Key seems to be relative deprivation not just
  deprivation
• Revolutions are not begun by people with their
  faces in the mud, but people who have recently
  lifted their faces out of the mud and have had
  time to look around

16
Color

• Research demonstrates that room color does not
  have much of an impact
• However, uniform color has been demonstrated to
  be related to an increase in penalties received
  (in both football and hockey)
• Question is Does wearing a color make you more
  aggressive or are referees more likely to
  interpret ambiguous situations as aggressive?

17
Social Learning and Aggression

• We do learn when to not aggress
• For instance, intention of frustrator is
  considered.
• Excuses have a greater impact if given before
  frustrating behavior
• On the other hand, certain cues prime us for
  aggression (e.g., guns).
• Taking responsibility for act decreases violence
  why anonymity/deindividuation is so
  frightening.
• Zimbardo (anonymous shockers) Mullen (lynchings
  and mob size)

18
Social Learning and Mass Media

• Idea of learning from aggressive models begins
  with Bandura
• TV, as we have discussed, is full of violent
  models
• High correlation between the amount of TV watched
  and viewers subsequent aggression this data is
  correlational
• Margaret Thomas demonstrated that viewing TV
  violence can numb peoples reactions when they
  are faced with real-life aggression

19
Why does media violence affect us?

• When we summarize the ideas in the research four
  themes arise
• Seeing others being aggressive weakens our
  learned inhibitions against violence.
• Learn techniques, imitate.
• Primes anger. Makes us more aware of anger.
• Desensitization to violence.

20
Pornography and Violence Against Women

• Approximately 50 of rapes are committed by
  acquaintances
• This statistic has led many to theorize that
  confusion about sexual scripts is the problem
• Male is supposed to persist, the female to resist
• 95 of males, 97 of females believe that sexual
  advances should stop when women says no
• But 50 of those respondents also believe that
  no does not always mean no!!!!

21
Pornography and Violence Against Women

• Presidential commission on pornography concluded
  that explicit sexual material in and of itself
  did not contribute to sexual crimes, violence
  against women, or other anti-social acts.
• But. Violent pornography has been shown to
  increase acceptance of sexual violence (Malamuth
  and Donnerstein)
• Evidence that slasher movies have the same impact.

22
Can we reduce violence?

• Pure reason? No, ineffective.
• Punishment? Overall findings are mixed
• More effective when applied in the context of a
  warm relationship
• Overly restrictive punishments are frustrating,
  which can lead to aggression
• What does that say about prison? Remember
  Zimbardo prison study.
• Moderate vs. severe punishment and cognitive
  dissonance.

23
Can we reduce violence?

• Punishment of aggressive models? e.g., public
  floggings, death penalty
• Death penalty institution does not decrease
  homicide rate in a country.
• In lab, seeing an aggressive model punished does
  not reduce future aggression (seeing them
  rewarded does increase aggression however.)
• Presence of non-aggressive models? Yes.
• Remember, we often conform to others when we seek
  out information on how to act

24
Can we reduce violence?

• Rewarding alternate behavior patterns?
• Brown and Elliott have demonstrated that ignoring
  aggression while rewarding positive behaviors
  reduces aggression
• Issue is, negative attention is better than no
  attention at all for some
• Building empathy towards others?
• Feshbachs have demonstrated that increasing
  empathy can reduce aggression (difficult to
  dehumanize someone you feel for)