Aggression

1
Aggression

• Why do humans behave aggressively?

2
Origins of Aggressive Behavior

• Where does aggression come from?

3
Origins of Aggressive Behavior

• Innate
• Instinct (Freud)
• Psychodynamics (post-Freud)
• Neurophysiology
• 2. Learned (Social Learning
• or Modeling)
• Television violence
• Punishment of children
• .

4
Instinct Freud

• Thanatos (Death instinct)
• Late addition to the theory
• Provoked by Freuds horror at the carnage of WWI
• Catabolism that must be turned outward to
  preserve the individual
• Can also be directed inward suicide

5
Psychodynamics

• Domestic violence (Conrad Morrow, 2000)

6
Domestic Violence

• An estimated two million women are severely
  abused by male partners annually in the United
  States (Straus Gelles, 1990 Straus, Gelles,
  Steinmetz, 1980).
• Women are at higher risk of being attacked or
  killed by a partner than by a stranger (Browne
  Williams, 1993).

7

• In 1992 and 1993, the most recent years for which
  statistics are available, female victims of
  violence were six times more likely to be
  attacked by someone they knew than were male
  violence victims.
• In 1992, 28 of female homicide victims were
  murdered by their husbands, former husbands, or
  boyfriends, compared to 3 of male homicide
  victims murdered by wives or lovers (U. S.
  Department of Justice, 1995).

8
What is the cause of Domestic Violence?

• Many explanations
• Biological causes such as temporal lobe epilepsy
  (Elliott, 1977)
• Social causes such as imitative learning
  (Hotaling Sugarman, 1986 Straus, Gelles,
  Steinmetz, 1980 Straus Yodanis, 1996)
• Sociocultural factors such as gender inequalities
  (McHugh, Frieze, Browne, 1993),
• Sociological factors, for example, poverty
  (Belle, 1990)

9
The Personality of the Batterer

• as many as 80 of male batterers may exhibit some
  type of character pathology
• a smaller, but substantial, subgroup of male
  batterers display borderline traits

10
Borderline Personality

• BPO vs. BPD
• BPO
• a) a proclivity for intense, unstable
  interpersonal relationships characterized by
  intermittent undermining of the significant
  other, manipulation and masked dependency b) an
  unstable sense of self with intolerance of being
  alone and abandonment anxiety c) intense anger,
  demandingness and impulsivity, usually tied to
  substance abuse or promiscuity (Dutton, 1995,
  p.211).

11
Theory

• borderline personality may originate in childhood
  failure to integrate conflicting images of self
  and other. (Good vs. Bad) Splitting is used as
  an ego defense to protect against inconsistencies
  in the environment hence, others are perceived
  as all good or all bad, depending upon the
  current situation (Kernberg, 1975).

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• Mahler suggested a specific origin for borderline
  personality in the stage known as
  separation-individuation. Disruption at this
  point in development due to long term separation
  or loss inconsistent, unreliable or neglectful
  parenting or abuse can cause increased anxiety
  in the child, and lead to the failure to
  internalize a safe, comforting other (Mahler,
  Pine Bergman, 1975).

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• BPD
• DSM Diagnostic Category
• 9 criteria
• 5 must be present

• BPO
• Long-standing pattern of
• unstable relationships
• unstable sense of self
• poor affect regulation

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BPO among Batterers

• High BPO scores correlated with
• chronic anger
• jealousy
• trauma symptoms
• dissociation
• anxiety
• depression
• significantly higher physical verbal abuse of
  partners

15

• Borderline Patients report
• higher rates of early childhood abuse
• longer abuse histories
• more multiple abusers and multiple types of abuse
• higher rates of physical abuse (40 -60)
• higher rates of sexual abuse (25 -70)
• perpetrator was more often an immediate family
  member

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Dissociative Process

• a disruption in the usually integrative
  functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or
  perception. . . (DSM -IV, APA 1994, p.477).

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Dissociative Process

• biologically based trauma response
• elementary mental structures composed of related
  perceptions and behaviors are split off from
  ordinary consciousness
• yet still influence on behavior and experience
  (according to Pierre Janet, in Kihlstrom, Glisky
  Angiulo, 1994).

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Dissociative Structure

• contains the information split off from
  consciousness including
• memories
• thoughts
• emotions
• physiological responses
• perceived meaning of the traumatic event

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Responses
Stimuli
Dissociative Structure
Meaning Propositions
Emotions
20
State Dissociation

• the subjective experience of disengagement from
  the self and the environment
• altered perceptions and sensations that occur
  during the dissociative process

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Trait Dissociation (Chronic)

• the repeated use of dissociation in response to
  stressful situations

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DISSOCIATIVE MODEL OF TRAUMA
Dissociated Structure
stimulus
meaning
Trauma
State Dissociation
response
emotions
Dissociative Process
Normal State
Environmental cue
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Hypothesis One

• Subjects who score 60 or above on the BPO scale
  (Borderline Subjects) will score highly on
  measures of childhood trauma and trait
  dissociation.

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Hypothesis Two

• Borderline Subjects exposed to the Abandonment
  Stimulus will score higher on measures of
• state dissociation
• state anger
• and willingness to use force
• than either Non-borderline Subjects or
  Borderline Subjects exposed to violent news.

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Method
2 x 3 Factorial Design
Non-Violent News (Control)
Abandonment News
Violent News
High BPO
Low BPO
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Independent Variables

• BPO High / Low
• High BPO Subjects
• gt60 on the Borderline Personality Organization
  Scale
• Low BPO Subjects
• lt 60 on the Borderline Personality Organization
  Scale

• Condition
• Non-Violent News
• (Control)
• weather, art, etc.
• Violent News
• crime, war stories
• Abandonment News
• stories about the abandonment or neglect of
  children

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Independent Variables

• Construct Borderline Personality Organization
• Instrument Borderline Personality
• Organization Scale
• (Oldham, Clarkin, Applebaum, Carr, Kernberg,
  Letterman, Haas, 1985)
• 30 item scale

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• 4) It is hard for me to be sure about what
  others think of me, even people who have known me
  very well.
• 11) It is hard for me to trust people because
  they so often turn against me or betray me.
• 20) I need to admire people in order to feel
  secure.

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Dependent Variables

• Construct Willingness to use Violence
• Instrument Modified Conflict Tactics Scale
  (Straus, 1979)
• 19 item scale
• Subscales
• Reasoning
• Verbal/Symbolic Aggression
• Physical Violence

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• Discuss the issue calmly.
• Insult or swear at the other one.
• Threaten to hit or throw something at the other
  one.
• Throw, smash, hit or kick something.
• Slap the other one.

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Dependent Variables

• Construct State Dissociation
• Instrument Dissociative State Scale
• (Conrad Gray, 1995)
• 50 item scale
• (Cronbachs a .94)

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State Dissociation
Sample Items To what extent have you been
feeling the following in the past 10 - 15
minutes 13) the sensation of standing or
sitting next to your body, at a slight
remove. 16) feeling disconnected from your
body. 38) feeling as if you were going through
the motions like an actor or a robot.
I
I
I
I
I
1
2
3
not at all
extremely
33
Dependent Variables

• Construct State Anger
• Instrument Spielberger State-Trait Anger
• (Spielberger, 1985)
• 10 item scale
• (Cronbachs a .853)

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State Anger
Sample Items How do you feel right now 3) I
feel angry. 5) I feel like breaking things. 8) I
feel like hitting someone.
I
I
I
I
not at all
very much so
2
3
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Results
36
Participants

• 109 male undergraduates

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Results
Ethnic Background Age White 59.6 Mean -
22.52 African American 12.8 Median -
28 Hispanic 5.5 Asian 11.9 Native
American .9
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Measures

• Mean S.D.
• BPO 58.79 17.81
• DSS 31.72 20.46
• State Anger 1.31 .50
• Verbal Aggression 12.01 4.35
• Violence 10.00 3.30

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BPO by Abuse
c2 23.475 df 3 plt .001
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BPO by Trait Dissociation
c2 26.933 df 1 p lt .001
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Correlations
DSS Anger Verbal MC
Physical BPO .47 .40 .38
-.42 .37 DSS .40
.42 -.34 .45 Anger
.41 -.16
.38 Verbal -.35 .51
DSS Dissociative State Scale MC Marlowe
Crowne Angr State Anger Scale Vrbl
Verbal Aggression
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Multiple Analysis of Variance Condition by BPO
High/Low on Physical Violence, Verbal
Aggression, State Dissociation with Fathers
education, Trait Dissociation,
Marlowe-Crowne
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BPO Main Effect F(3,89) 2.56 p .06
Verbal Aggression F 4.63 p .002
eta2.12 Condition by BPO
Interaction F(6,180) 2.8 p .01 Verbal
Aggression F 6.43 p .002 eta2.06
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Low High BPO BPO
45
Condition by BPO on Verbal Aggression
Control
Violent
Abandonment
46
Condition by BPO on State Dissociation
Control
Violent
Abandonment