Aggression: Hurting Others

1
Chapter 10

• Aggression Hurting Others

2
Aggression

• Definition Physical or verbal behavior that is
  intended to hurt another person
• It is behavior (not angry feelings)
• It is intended (not accidental harm)
• It is aimed at hurting (not assertiveness or
  playfulness)

3
Type of Aggression
What is Aggression?
Definition
Example
Attempt to hurt another without obvious
face-to-face conflict
Indirect Aggression
Spreading a rumor that your ex-romantic partner
has a sexually transmitted disease
Direct Aggression
Hostile Aggression
Instrumental Aggression
4
Type of Aggression
What is Aggression?
Definition
Example
Indirect Aggression
Behavior intended to hurt someone to his or her
face
A hockey player punches another player
Direct Aggression
Hostile Aggression
Instrumental Aggression
5
Type of Aggression
What is Aggression?
Definition
Example
Indirect Aggression
A boy punches another player who bumped into him
while playing basketball
Aggression driven by anger and performed as an
end in itself hot process
Direct Aggression
Hostile Aggression
Instrumental Aggression
6
Type of Aggression
What is Aggression?
Definition
Example
Indirect Aggression
Aggression that is a means to some other end
cold process
Direct Aggression
A mother spanks a child to discourage him from
repeating a tantrum
Hostile Aggression
Instrumental Aggression
7
Theories of Aggression

• Three big ideas
• There is a biologically rooted aggressive drive
• Aggression is a natural response to frustration
• Aggressive behavior is learned

8
Aggression as Biology

• Instinct theory Aggressive behavior is
  instinctual (unlearned and universal)
• Current trend is against humans having an
  instinct for aggression
• Neural influences
• Prefrontal cortex is smaller and less active
  among certain aggressive groups
• Genetic influences
• Our inherited tendencies to respond to
  environmental stimuli seem to be related to
  aggressive behavior
• Certain animals (e.g., pit bulls) are bred for
  their aggressiveness
• Biochemical influences
• Testosterone and alcohol lead to aggression

9
Alcohol and Aggression

• Alcohol enhances aggressiveness by reducing
  self-awareness and ability to consider
  consequences
• Violent people are more likely (1) to drink and
  (2) to become aggressive when intoxicated
• More than half of rapists report drinking prior
  to their crimes (McDonald et al., 2000)
• 65 of homicides and 55 of domestic altercations
  involved alcohol (APA, 1993)

10
Central Park Mob (2000)
11
Aggression as a Response to Frustration

• Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
• The theory that aggression is an automatic
  response to any blocking of goal-directed
  behavior (ex. road rage)
• This is designed to explain hostile aggression,
  not instrumental aggression
• Displacement The redirection of aggression to a
  target other than the source of the frustration.
  Generally, the new target is a safer or more
  socially acceptable target
• A man who hits his wife because he is angry at
  his boss

12
Deprivation and Frustration

• Deprivation predicts aggression when individuals
  are frustrated by the gap between their
  expectations and their attainments
• Relative deprivation the perception that one is
  less well off than others to whom one compares
  oneself
• As television ownership became widespread, crime
  rates increased (possibly because people felt
  deprived relative to television characters)

13
Aggression as Learned Social Behavior

• Aggressive behavior is often rewarded
• An aggressive child who is able to intimidate
  other children will likely continue to be
  aggressive (Patterson et al., 1967)
• Aggressive hockey players tend to score more
  goals and spend more time in the penalty box
  (McCarthy Kelly, 1978)
• Canadian teenage hockey players whose fathers
  applaud aggressive play show the most aggressive
  behavior and attitudes (Ennis Zanna, 1991)
• Terrorism Kill one, frighten ten thousand

14
Aggression as Learned Social Behavior

• Social learning theory Behavior is learned
  through the observation of others as well as
  through the direct experience of rewards and
  punishments
• We watch to see whether others are rewarded or
  punished for their behavior

15
Social Learning Theory

• Bobo doll study (Bandura, 1961)
• Nursery school children worked on an interesting
  art project while an adult in another part of the
  room attacked a Bobo doll
• Pounds it with a mallet, hits it, kicks it,
  throws it
• Yells sock him in the noseknock him downkick
  him
• This lasts for about 10 minutes

16
Social Learning Theory

• Children then go to another room with very
  attractive toys
• After two minutes, the child is not allowed to
  play with the toys any longer because they must
  be saved for the other children
• All the children were frustrated because they
  were not allowed to play with the very attractive
  toys
• Children are then taken to a room with less
  attractive toys. Two of the toys are a Bobo doll
  and a mallet
• What do you think these kids did with the Bobo
  doll and the mallet?

17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
Social Learning Theory

• Children who saw the aggressive adult model were
  MANY TIMES MORE LIKELY TO ATTACK the Bobo doll
  with the mallet
• Often repeating the exact words used by the adult
  model
• Children who did not see the adult model attack
  the Bobo doll were EXTREMELY UNLIKELY to attack
  the doll
• Observing aggressive behavior had lowered their
  inhibitions and taught them ways to aggress

21
Social Learning The Family

• We observe aggressive models in everyday life
• Physically aggressive children tend to have had
  physically punitive parents, who disciplined them
  by modeling aggression with screaming, slapping,
  and beating (Patterson et al., 1982)
• This is passed from generation to generation
  (Bandura Walters, 1959 Straus Gelles, 1980)
• Although most abused kids DO NOT become abusive
  parents, 30 do later abuse their own children
  (4x the population rate Kaufman Zigler, 1987
  Widom, 1989)

22
Social Learning The Media

• Increased rates of violence and sexual coercion
  have coincided with increased media portrayals
• Typical American child sees 200,000 acts of
  violence on TV by age 18 (Plagens et al., 1991)
• By age 80, the average American would have spent
  approximately 10 years of their life watching
  TV!!!!!
• Children who watch a lot of violent TV are more
  violent towards peers

23
Social Learning Television

• High exposure to media violence is a major
  contributing cause of the high rate of violence
  in modern U.S. society (Craig Anderson
  testifying before the Senate)
• Watching a lot of television appears to have the
  following influences
• Desensitization to violence and graphic sexuality
• Altered perceptions (e.g., the world is a violent
  place)
• Cognitive priming

24
Violent Video Games

• Playing violent video games is associated with a
  history of property destruction and fighting
• Video Games (Anderson Dill, 2000)
• Study 1 Correlation between amount of time
  playing violent video games and aggressive
  delinquent behavior .46
• Explanations?

25
Violent Video Games

• Study 2 Experiment
• College students randomly assigned to play
  Wolfenstein (violent game) or Myst (nonviolent
  game) 3 times over a week
• Then played a competitive game with another
  student (who could push button faster) and set
  level duration of noise blast other person
  would receive
• Participants who played the violent video game
  used louder and longer noise blasts against their
  opponents

26
The Effects of Playing Violent Video Games

• Compared with nonviolent games, violent games
• Increase arousal
• Increase aggressive thinking (e.g., people are
  more likely to guess that others will respond
  with violence)
• Increase aggressive feelings
• Increase aggressive behaviors

27
Watching Violence Magnifies Violent Inclinations

• Movie-goers filled out an aggression
  questionnaire as they entered and left
• a violent movie or
• a nonviolent movie
• Those choosing the violent movie were more
  aggressive to begin with
• They became even more aggressive after watching
  the violent movie (Black Bevan, 1992)

28
Impact of Pornography on Aggression

• Pornography Explicit sexual material
• Some pornography depicts women as sexual objects
  and trivializes rape
• Participants who viewed pornography
• Became habituated
• Recommended a lighter sentence for a rapist and
  were less supportive of the womens liberation
  movement
• Had more negative attitudes toward women
• More likely to say they would force a woman to
  perform sexual behaviors against their will and
  that they would commit rape if they were assured
  of not getting caught
• Effects were especially strong for violent
  pornography

29
Exposure to Pornography

• Repeated exposure to films featuring uncommitted
  sex tend to
• Decrease attraction to ones partner
• Increase acceptance of extramarital sex and of
  womens sexual submission to men
• Increase men perceiving women in sexual terms
• After viewing an aggressive-erotic film, college
  men delivered stronger shocks than
  beforeespecially to a woman (Donnerstein, 1980)
• Could pornography (or other media) explain why
  studies of male college students find that about
  33 report they would rape a woman if they could
  be assured that they would not be caught
  (Malamuth, 1981)?

30
Other Influences on Aggression

• Aversive Incidents
• Arousal
• Aggression Cues
• Group Influences

31
Other Influences on Aggression

• Aversive Incidents
• Pain
• Many species exhibit a pain-attack response in
  response to physical pain
• Attacks
• During a competitive game, participants received
  increasingly severe shocks from opponents and
  responded with their own escalating shocks
  (Ohbuchi Kambara, 1985)
• Heat
• Major league pitchers throwing more balls at
  batters
• More aggressive horn-honking
• Riots are more likely on hot days
• Violent crimes are more likely during hot weather
• Manipulating temperature causes greater
  irritability

32
Other Influences on Aggression

• Arousal
• Bodily arousal feeds emotional responses
• Schachter Singer (1962) injected participants
  with adrenaline (which causes arousal). They told
  half the participants that the drug would produce
  symptoms of arousal and half were not told of the
  effects
• Participants who were not told of the effects
  experienced stronger emotional reactions in
  response to confederates in the waiting room
  (more anger at a hostile person and more
  amusement at a funny person). Participants told
  of the effects did not have very strong
  reactions.
• Different forms of arousal may amplify each other
  (e.g., heat and frustration)

33
Other Influences on Aggression

• Aggression Cues
• People give longer shocks if a rifle and a
  revolver (supposedly left over from another
  study) were in the room than when badminton
  rackets were present (Berkowitz LePage, 1967)
• Guns may serve as primes for aggressive behavior
  and place additional distance between aggressor
  and victim
• Those who have guns in their homes are 2.7 times
  more likely to be murdered (nearly always by a
  friend or family member Kellermann, 1993,
  1997)but there may be other differences between
  those who have guns and those who do not

34
Other Influences on Aggression

• Group Influences
• As a riot begins, aggressive acts spread quickly
  from the trigger event and normally law-abiding
  people may behave aggressively
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Deindividuation

35
Summary of Aggression Research

• Increased aggression is predicted by
• Males
• Type A personalities
• Alcohol use
• Violence viewing
• Anonymity
• Provocation
• The presence of weapons
• Group interaction

36
Reducing Aggression

• How can we reduce aggression?
• Catharsis hypothesis the aggressive drive is
  reduced when one releases aggressive energy,
  either by acting aggressively or by fantasizing
  aggression
• Catharsis does not appear to occurrather,
  individuals become more violent after watching
  aggressive programming

37
Reducing Aggression

• Social Learning Approach
• Reward cooperative, nonaggressive behavior
• Punish aggressive behavior (less consistently
  effectivemay only work under ideal
  circumstances)
• Model and reward sensitivity and cooperation from
  an early age
• Reduce exposure to media portrayals of violence
  (and inoculate children against unavoidable
  exposure)
• Reducing the availability of aggressive
  instruments and primes (e.g., handguns)