Social Psychology

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Social Psychology

• Chapter 10
• Aggression Hurting Others

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Aggression

• Physical and/or verbal behavior intended to hurt
  someone (self and/or others)
• Includes
• Hitting, punching, kicking, slapping, etc.
• Use of any type of weapon (gun, knife, car,
  wooden spoon, coat hanger, belt, etc.)
• Biting sarcasm, name calling, gossip, lying, etc.

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Types of Aggression

• Hostile aggression
• Aggression driven by anger
• Goal is to injure
• Instrumental aggression
• Serves a larger purpose
• Which type of aggression is it?
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSWEWN8pGOL0feature
  related

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Theories of Aggression Biological Explanations

• Aggression is instinctual
• It is innate, unlearned and demonstrated by each
  member of a species
• Pros
• Everyone demonstrates an aggressive nature at
  some point
• Cons
• Cannot account for individual differences
• Does not take into account environmental cues

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Theories of Aggression Biological Explanations

• Evolutionary perspective
• Aggression can be adaptive as it promotes the
  survival of the fittest
• Passing on of genes
• A means of getting more resources (food, status,
  plunder, etc.)

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Theories of Aggression Biological Explanations

• Neural influences
• Specific areas of the brain can influence
  aggression
• Amygdala stimulated ? aggression
• A less active prefrontal cortex (may serve to
  limit aggressive tendencies) may lead to more
  aggressive behavior

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Theories of Aggression Biological Explanations

• Genetic influences
• Lets face it, some people are born more
  aggressive than others
• Of identical twins with a criminal record, their
  twin has a criminal record 50 of the time
• Of fraternal twins with a criminal record, their
  twin has a criminal record 20 of the time
• Some animals are bred to be aggressive
• Research studies show you can breed aggressive or
  passive mice over the course of many generations

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Theories of Aggression Biological Explanations

• Biochemical influences (blood chemistry)
• The impact of alcohol
• People are more likely to respond to provocation
  aggressively when drinking
• Lowers inhibitions and lowers self-awareness
• Higher levels of testosterone can lead to more
  aggressive behavior
• Low levels of serotonin (elevates mood) seems to
  be related to increased levels of aggression

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Theories of Aggression A Response to
Frustration?

• Frustration-aggression theory
• Frustration ? aggression
• The more frustrated we become, the more likely we
  are to act aggressively
• Frustration defined
• Being blocked from achieving a goal
• Higher the motivation ? higher frustration
• Closer to goal ? blocked ? higher frustration

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Theories of Aggression A Response to
Frustration?

• Frustration leads to
• Aggression when we perceive the blockage as
  unjustifiable
• E.g. You cant do it cause I said you cant do
  it
• Anger when we perceive the blockage as
  justifiable
• E.g. You cant do it because you might fall and
  get hurt

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Theories of Aggression A Learned Behavior?

• Remember reinforcement theory?
• What is positive reinforcement?
• E.g. your parents tell you how proud they are
  when you hit someone who was picking on your
  sibling
• What is negative reinforcement?
• E.g. Make someone do your homework by
  threatening them ? youre not having to do
  homework

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Theories of Aggression A Learned Behavior?

• Banduras social-learning theory we learn by
  watching others who serve as models
• Four steps to learning via observation
• Pay attention to model
• Process and remember the behavior
• Must be able to perform the behavior
• Repeat behavior - based on whether model was
  reinforced or punished (E.g.. aggression/Bobo)

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Theories of Aggression A Learned Behavior?

• Aggressive models in everyday life
• Family
• Use corporal punishment What are you really
  teaching your children?
• Subculture
• Environment outside the home (e.g., neighborhood)
• Role of ethnicity (e.g., machismo)

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Theories of Aggression A Learned Behavior?

• Aggressive models in everyday life (cont.)
• Media
• Children/adolescents tend to act more
  aggressively after viewing violent content
• Backyard wrestling
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vIavidHaYeYofeature
  related

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Aversive incidents The role of pain
• Includes physical and psychological pain
  (frustration)
• E.g. consider if you were part of Milgrams
  experiment, but you actually received real shocks
• Would you say oh, its in the name of
  scienceits all for a good cause or Just wait
  until I get to deliver the shocks. Science,
  schmience, youre going to pay.

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Aversive incidents The role of heat
• Lets face it, when it gets hot externally there
  is a tendency to get hot (mad) internally as well
• Aversive incidents The role of crowding
• How do you feel when your personal space is being
  violated?

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Aversive incidents The role of an attack
• Many people respond to an attack (physical and/or
  verbal) with an attack of their own
• Remember, two wrongs dont make it right, but
  some believe they make it even

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Media influences Pornography and sexual
  violence
• Men who view sexual violence tend to
• Believe that no really means yes
• In movies, women scream and kick, then kiss back
• Become desensitized and downplay the violence
• She wasnt hurt that badly, the rape wasnt that
  brutal
• Aggress against women
• E.g. relationship between rape and sexual
  magazines

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Media influences Television
• Calvin Hobbes overheads
• For your consideration
• Kids spend more time watching TV than doing any
  other activity (even more than time spent in
  school)
• By the end of elementary school, children have
  viewed about 8,000 killings and 100,000 other
  acts of violence
• 98 of homes have a TV (more than have bathtubs
  or phones) 66 have 3 or more TVs

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Media influences Television and correlational
  studies
• Does watching television cause aggressive
  behavior? The problem with directionality
• Does watching violence ? aggressive behavior
• Aggressive people ? watch violence
• Third factor (such as intelligence) involved?

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Media influences Television and experiments
• The conclusion drawn, based on a number of
  experiments, is that watching violence can breed
  violence, especially when
• The aggressive person is viewed favorably
• The violence is perceived as being justified
• The victim is not shown to be suffering or in
  pain
• The aggressor is not punished (no consequences)

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• How violent programs can affect behavior
• Causes one to feel aroused ? behavior
• Kids watching teenage mutant ninja turtles
• Disinhibits
• Violence doesnt seem that violent
• Imitation
• Revisit the wrestling examples

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Factors That Contribute to Aggressive Behavior

• Televisions effects on cognition
• Desensitization
• Horror movies across time
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v81qweiWqyTU
• What do cartoons teach children (that coyote
  keeps coming back for more)?
• Movie Wrestling with Manhood

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Group Influences

• Social contagion group effect where aggression
  breeds higher levels of aggressiveness.
  Components
• Deindividuation
• Group polarization and group-fed arousal
• We all agree this varmit should die. How we
  gonna do it? I think we should whip him.
  Well I say lynch him. Well I think we should
  shoot him. I know. Well whip him first, then
  shoot him and then leave him hanging from a tree.

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Factors to Consider

• Aggression is more likely to result when
• A male is observed acting aggressively
• A person is naturally aggressive (Type A)
• Alcohol has been ingested
• Viewing violence
• Anonymity
• Provocation
• Presence of a weapon
• Group interaction (bigger the group ? more
  violence)

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Reducing Aggression

• The catharsis hypothesis
• Pent up aggression should be released in a
  controlled way
• Using oversized boxing gloves
• Using foam bats
• Hitting a punching bag
• Go into a room and scream and scream and
• Etc.
• Problem it doesnt really work. Why not?

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Reducing Aggression

• Social learning principles
• When possible, reward nonaggressive behavior
• Explain why you are rewarding the behavior
• Ignore aggressive behavior
• Try to stay away from using punishment
• Model nonaggressive behavior
• Dont do what Rosie did to her son

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Reducing Aggression

• Social learning principles
• Inoculate (educate) children by explaining that
  aggressive acts shown on TV
• Are unrealistic
• Occur much more frequently than in real life
• After watching a program, have the child explain
  to you why the show wasnt realistic
• Discuss with them why aggressive acts are
  undesirable