Social Psychology of Aggression

1
Social Psychology of Aggression
2
Lecture Overview

• Aggression Defined
• Exploring Theories of Aggression An analysis of
  crime statistics
• Individual Difference Factors
• Preventing Aggression

3
Aggression

• Aggressive Action
• Intentional behavior aimed at causing either
  physical or psychological pain
• Hostile Aggression
• An act of aggression stemming from feelings of
  anger and aimed at inflicting pain
• Instrumental Aggression
• Aggression as a means to some goal other than
  causing pain

4
(No Transcript)
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
Biological Theories of Aggression

• Psychoanalytic View
• Freuds Thanos- Death Wish
• Ethological View Aggression as Internal Energy
  (Lorenz, 1974)
• Organism continually builds up aggressive energy.
  Whether energy leads to aggression depends on
• amount of energy built up
• strength of external stimuli that elicits
  aggressive response
• Inhibitions against killing within own species
  never developed in humans

8
Biological Theories of Aggression

• Developmental course of aggression may be
  different for girls compared to boys (Loeber
  Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998).
• Greater proportion of girls in adolescence become
  aggressive without a prior history of aggressive
  behavior
• Girls involvement in serious violence peaks at
  an earlier age compared to boys.

9
Biological Theories of Aggression
Developmental Period Manifestation Gender
Difference Infancy Frustration,
rage no Toddlerhood Instrumental
aggression few Pre-School Personal
aggression yes Physical fighting yes Element
ary School Indirect aggression yes Middle and
High School Group and gang fighting yes Aggra
vated assault yes Sexual violence yes Ho
micide yes
10
Biological Theories of Aggression

• Causes of Gender Differences
• Testosterone
• Testosterone linked to aggression in other animal
  species.
• Cross-sectional studies fail to find support for
  testosterone-aggression link in humans (Archer,
  1991)
• Longitudinal study failed to find covariation
  between testosterone and aggression in humans.
• Evolutionary Accounts
• Low status men more likely to engage in physical
  confrontations (Archer et al. 1995)
• Social Role Model
• Gender differences accounted for by differences
  in socialization

11
Gender and Aggression
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
Frustration Aggression Theory

• Frustration always leads to aggression and
  aggression is always caused by frustration
• Example of evidence against
• Bomber pilots report feeling excited and elated
  while in flight and during attacks
• Frustration is an unpleasant experience, and
  perhaps it may provoke aggression because of this
  fact (Berkowitz). It is not the only cause of
  aggression, however.

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Does the finger pull the trigger or does the
trigger pull the finger?

• Weapons Effect (Berkowitz LePage, 1967)
• Exposing subjects to aggressive cues increases
  aggression

• Alternative Explanations?

18
(No Transcript)
19
Displaced Aggression Theory

• Displaced aggression
• Aggression against someone other than the source
  of provocation when a person is unwilling or
  unable to aggress against the source of
  provocation

20
Displaced Aggression Theory

• Penderson et al. (2000)
• Participants solved anagrams under conditions
  designed to either provoke or not provoke
  aggression.
• Whether or not aggression triggered was also
  manipulated.

21
Discomfort and Aggression(Carlsmith Anderson,
1979)
22
Discomfort and Aggression

• Negative-Affect Escape model
• Heat increases aggression but only up to a point
• Violent offenses increase linearly at night and
  curvilinearly during the day (Rotton Cohn)

Source Based on data from Rotton Cohn (2000)
23
(No Transcript)
24
Effects of Culture on Aggression

• Culture of Honor (Nisbett)
• Persons living in the south and in the west more
  likely to accept interpersonal violence as a
  means of protecting honor

• People from the south and the west more likely to
  engage in aggression.
• Companies in the south and in the west more
  likely to accommodate an applicant who admits
  murdering someone in the name of defending ones
  honor

25
Social Learning Theory

• According to this theory, we learn social
  behavior by observing others and imitating them
• Albert Bandura (1961, 1963)

• Does media violence lead to aggression?
• Phillips (1983, 1986)- Boxing matches and
  homicide

26
Social Learning Theory

• Pornography
• Donnerstein (1980)-
• Ss angered by female confederate
• IV Film type (rape, consent, nonerotic
  violence)
• DV Level of shock administered
• Malamuth (1981)-
• IV Rape or Consent Film
• DV Content of Sexual Fantasies

27
Sexual Arousal and Aggression

• Freud thought sexual arousal and aggression
  linked.

• Relationship, however, depends on degree of
  sexual arousal

• Influence of link between sexual arousal and
  aggression differ for men and women
• Sexual primes increase aggression directed at
  female face compared to neutral objects for men
  but not for women (Mussweiler and Forster, 2000)

28
Excitation Transfer Theory (Zillman, 1983, 1988)
Arousal Misattributed to new situation
Near miss in traffic
Residual Arousal
Frustration
Arousal
Arousal Attributed to Traffic
29
Individual Differences

• Genetic Explanations
• Old Explanations Atavism
• New Explanations Bad Brains?
• Aggressive Personalities and Attribution Styles

30
(No Transcript)
31
Bad Brains?
32
Bad Brains?

• Antonio Damasio
• Orbitofrontal Dysfunction
• James Blair
• Amygdala Dysfunction

Lock em up and throw away the key?
33
Biological Theories of Aggression

• Behavioral Genetics View
• Genetically related individuals more similar in
  their aggressive tendencies compared to those who
  are not genetically related
• Aggression in Adopted Children
• Both Adopted and Bio Parents gt Bio Parents Only gt
  Adopted Parents Only gt Neither Adopted or Bio
  Parents
• 50 of variation in aggressive behavior accounted
  for by shared genetic makeup.

34
Aggressive Personalities and Attribution Styles

• Type A personalities more likely to engage in
  hostile aggression compared to Type Bs (no
  differences in instrumental aggression)
• Attributions made for others actions in ambiguous
  circumstances also affects aggressive responses
• Hostile Attribution Bias
• Tendency to perceive hostile intensions or
  motives in others actions when these actions are
  ambiguous

35
Preventing Aggression

• Punishment
• Catharsis
• Preattribution
• Exposure to nonagressive models
• Social skills training
• Incompatible responses
• Humor, mild sexual arousal, empathy toward victim