aggression Flashcards
(19 cards)
what is aggression
- intentional behaviour done to cuase physicla or emotional harm.
types of aggression
-hostile; inflicting mental or physical pain on someone else is the main goal.- physically fighting someone.
- intrumental; inflicting pain on someone else is a means to an end; boxing fighters- beating people up for money.
- hostile an instrumental aggression may look the same (both punching)
- distinguished by goal behaviour (pain vs. money)
what are situational causes of hostile aggression
- children copy adult behaviour; mirroring
- not a new concept, but an improtant one
- healthy eating and many other things.
- seeing aggressive behaviour leads to others to copy, espeically when the aggressive behaviour is rewarded
- sports (croweds cheer for fights, rough players get playing time)
- office (cut throat behaviour - raise)
- competition.
social learning theory; albert bandura bobo doll study
social learning theory; we lern social bhevaiour (aggression) by observing others and imitating
- classical study; bobo doll
- Kids come into the lab, randomly assigned to condition
- Half saw adult beat, kick, and throw bobo
- Half saw adults in the same room with no aggression
- kid had the Chance to play with Bobo doll
- No aggression modelled- no aggression enacted
- kids who saw beating copied the aggressive behaviour and went beyond.
- kids found new ways to torture doll, use fake gun, etc.
situational causes of hostile aggression; real life social learning theory
- ## eight days after te columbine shooting, a student in Taber, Alberta committed a similar act (copycat) killing fellow student, jason lang.
causes of aggression
- social learning
- media
- income inequality
- social exclusion
- aggressive objects
- frustation
- heat & colour
- individual differences
siutational influences
Media influence
- Types of media
- Videos games
- Movies
- Music
Diverse evidence
- Anecdotal evidence; just saying this person became violent once watching video games, but not concrete evidence.
- Correlational evidence
- Experimental evidence
- Grand Theft Auto: “It’s awesome,” says James Parker, 27, a Washington computer network administrator.
- “You can carjack any car, go to the seedy part of town, beep the horn and pick up a prostitute. Then you take her to a dark street, and the car starts shaking. When the prostitute jumps out, your money is down, but your energy is full.”
- Note: People can get their money back by killing the woman.
what does research say about the link between aggressive media and violence?
Anderson. & Dill, 2000 study 1
- correlation between amount of time playing violent games and aggressive delinquent behaviour = .46
- alternative explanations?
- direction of causality
- 3rd variable; children who have no parents t home at all times have more time watching violent media = more violence
- need experiemtnal evidence.
Anderson. & Dill, 2000 study 2
- college students randomly assigned to play a video game 3 times over a week
- wolfenstein 3d; violent game
- myst; equally engaging, nonviolent game
- They then played a competitive game with another student
- DV; level/ duration of noise blast given to the opponent
- Violent video game → aggression
- But maybe this study was unique. NO
- A meta-analysis by Anderson & Bushman (2001) looking at 54 studies with 42000 participants found violent videos use associated with
- Increased Aggression
- Decreased helping
- Increased aggressive thoughts
- Increased anger
- Increased arousal
- Same effects for males and females, children and adults.
social influences; poverty
Poverty
- This may lead people to act aggressively to gain resources
- Recent research suggests that it is not really about how much you have
- But how much do you have relative to others nearby → income inequality
- I.e., having a smaller house compared to neighbours living in mansions.
- Being the only one living in poverty while you’re neighbours have more.
- Poverty - income inequality
- Evidence; greater income inequality → more homicide (neighbourhoods, nations, etc.)
- Canada < US → may explain homicide differences
Why?
- Evolutionary account- when income and inequality exists, it reminds us of the intense competition for resource (salary, mates, lifestyle)
social influences; social exclusion
- Social exclusion; humans are social creatures → it hurts A LOT when we are excluded.
- Exclusion- aggression tie is often seen in the real world, but casualty is hard to untangle.
- Social exclusion → Aggression (Twenge et al., 2001)
Method; - Participants come into the lab, chat with 4-5 people
- Choose 2 people to work with
- No one chose you (or everyone chooses you) (2 conditions)
- Next task: Opportunity to deliver white noise to a stranger (not the people who didn’t choose you or chose you)
Results - Excluded → louder & longer white noise bursts to a stranger (not those who excluded the P!, not retaliating on the first pp)
- Giving inappropriate revenge on random people because of being excluded.
Another study; the presence of guns can increase aggression (Berkowitz & LePage, 1967) - Participants made angry in the presence of:
- researchers made pp angry
- Opportunity to administer electric shocks to fellow students
- researchers mad eit clear that those things were there such as saying oh don’t mind those there.
- Did people who walked by the gun admit higher levels of shock than people who saw a badminton racket?
- Angry participants gave longer shocks when a gun was present in the room.
- Caveat: Participants had to be angry/ frustrated → researchers made them angry.
social influences; frustration
Frustration
- Frustration- aggression theory
- Frustration → aggression
- Goal blockage → frustration (striving for a goal and it is blocked)
- Closeness to goal. (more frustrating if we are closer to goal)
- i.e., im waiting for the bus and someone cuts in front of me when im towards the end of the line –> im frustrated but don’t say anything
- in compairson, if im closer to the front and someone cuts, i get angrier.
- this could be because closer= you’ve been waiting for a while whereas further in line (further in achieving goal) = more frustration.
- Perceived injustice; tied to poverty, some people get to go on vacations more and work less whereas others work 3 jobs and can’t afford it = more frustration same us (closer to percieved goal)
Harris (1974)
- Field experiment
- Confederate cut in line at crowded restaurants, movies, etc.
- Cut in front of the second in line
- Cut in front of the twelfth in line
- People are more aggressive when the confederate cut in second in line.
monkey experiment; reciprocity and empathy
- one monkey gets cucumber the other grapes for doing same task, the monkey getting cucumbers refuses cucumbers and looks at the monkey getting grapes- making it frustrated.
social influences; heat
Heat
- 260 cities in the US (Anderson, 1989)
**# of hotter days (over 32 C) predicted **
- More violent crimes
- No effect on non-violent cirmes
Experimental evidence too!
- Ps completed the study in 32c (hot!) or 21c (avg/cold) room
- Hot room → more aggressive end than a cold room
– Hotter→ ML baseball pitchers hit batters
social influences; colour
black= evil and death in most cultures
- Black clothing impact behaviour?
- NHL and NFL teams with 50% + black jerseys had the highest penalty record
- New black jersey → increased aggression
- Ps randomly given black jerseys acted more aggressively than those randomly given white.
- Preferred aggressive games.
social influences; individual differences
- 99% of rapists
- 88% of murderers
- 87% of aggravated assaulters
- … are men
Caveat: Based on arrest records, could be more - Are men more aggressive?
Depends … - Aggressive behaviour isn’t the only one.
- Punching
- Hitting
- Shooting
- Kicking
- Aggressive acts can take other forms too
individual differences; gender differences
Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz and Kaukinen (1992)
- Reputational concerns; men are more aggressive (and have a biological advantage), whereas women are said to gossip more than men (living up to their reputation)
- direct aggression: kicking, hitting, insulting (directly done; physical)
- indirect aggression: gossiping, shunning (not directly infront of the victim)
Reducing aggression
- Catharsis- blowing off steam (performing, watching or imagining an aggressive act)
- Releases built-up aggressive energy → reduces the likelihood of aggressive behaviour.
- The concept from Freud’s idea; is aggressive impulses- a hydraulic system.
catharsis study; bushman et al 1999
Bushman et al. (1999) punching bag study
Methods: IV ppl randomly assigned to…
- Read an article on the (in)effectiveness of punching an inanimate object
- Insulted by confederate – confederate left the room and given→
Opportunity to hit punching bag: present or absent
- DV: White noise towards confederate
Results
- Those who read article espousing the effectiveness of hitting inanimate objects and hitting punching bags → most aggression (Venting increases aggression)
- Regardless of the target (confederate or stranger)!
Violent sports
- Playing→ football players more aggressive towards (end) late season
reducing aggression
- Non-aggressive role models (Bandura)
- Kids act aggressively after seeing aggressive models
Reverse? - See models react non-aggressively when provoked → less aggressive behaviour.
- Defuse Frustration/Anger through an Apology
- Quickly offering an apology for misdeeds avoids frustration turning into anger.
- For example, getting cut off becomes frustrating, but if the person waves a hand and offers an apology, it may make you feel better.
reducing aggression; empathy
Empathy
- Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes decreases aggression
- A car at a light doesn’t move for 10 seconds (Baron, 1976)
- wanted to know how long it would take to honk at pedesterians
- Someone walks between 1st and 2nd car (more likely to honk)
- Someone on crutches hobbles between 1st and 2nd car
- Seeing someone pass on crutches→empathy →less aggression
aggresion; final note
- power of situation really comes into play in this
- depending on siutation we will see how the power of siutation gets people to react in different ways.
