Aggression - Class Notes

Question 1

What is aggression?

Answer 1

Any behaviour aimed at causing physical or psychological harm.

Question 2

What are the two types of aggression?

Answer 2

Instrumental (cold) and hostile (hot).

Question 3

What is instrumental aggression?

Answer 3

Planned out, calculated, and intent on achieving a goal.

Question 4

What is hostile aggression?

Answer 4

Aggression driven by impulsive anger or physiological arousal.

Question 5

What are 4 reasons why people aggress?

Answer 5

Biological causes, sociobiological (instinct) theories, social learning theory, and the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Question 6

What is some potential evidence that aggression has biological roots?

Answer 6

Animals can be bred for aggressiveness, twin studies indicate impulsive temperaments are genetic, and aggression has been linked to testosterone and neural factors.

Question 7

At what age do male testosterone levels taper off?

Answer 7

25. Also the age that car accident rates go down.

Question 8

What part of the brain is associated with aggression?

Answer 8

The frontal lobe is associated with inhibiting responses and thinking things through. Low frontal lobe activity is associated with aggression.

Question 9

What did Cosmides and Tooby posit about the sociobiological theory of aggression?

Answer 9

Certain traits are adapted for the survival of the species, and aggression is one of those traits.

Question 10

What did Lorenz theorize about the killing potential of different species?

Answer 10

Most species have a balance between natural killing potential and their natural inhibition against aggression to conspecifics. Humans are the exception because of the tools we have created.

Question 11

What is the major problem with sociobiological (instinct) theories of aggression?

Answer 11

They do not explain all forms of aggression, nor do they account for situational factors.

Question 12

What is the social learning theory of aggression?

Answer 12

Aggression is learned or modelled from observing others, especially children watching adults (Bobo doll study).

Question 13

What were the specific findings of the Bobo doll study?

Answer 13

Males were more aggressive than females, there was more same-sex learning, males showed more physical aggression, females showed more verbal aggression.

Question 14

What different ways of learning did elaborations on the Bobo doll study devise? Ordered from most to least effective.

Answer 14

Real people, real people on TV, and cartoons.

Question 15

What is the initial frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer 15

Goals being blocked lead to frustration which lead to aggression.

Question 16

What is the modified frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer 16

The more important a goal that is blocked, the more frustration is experienced. Frustration does not necessarily lead to aggression, but instead leads to an emotional readiness to aggress.

Question 17

According to the modified frustration-aggression hypothesis, what determines if frustration will lead to aggression?

Answer 17

An environmental cue or trigger that subconsciously instructs someone on how to deal with that frustration.

Question 18

What is the Berkowitz Weapon Effect?

Answer 18

Either a gun or a tennis racquet was placed in view of a participant giving shocks to another. If the gun was present, and the shocker was made frustrated, shock levels were higher than if the tennis racquet were present.

Question 19

What did a longitudinal study find about if violent people watch violent TV or if violent TV made people violent?

Answer 19

Boys who preferred violent TV at 11 were more aggressive at 19, but boys who were aggressive at 11 did not prefer violent TV at 19.

Question 20

What are 3 ways in which violent TV might influence us?

Answer 20

By habituating people, cultivating a false worldview, and causing violence to seem acceptable.

Question 21

What correlational evidence is there for violent pornography and sexual aggression against women?

Answer 21

The two are positively correlated. Violent porn consumption and sexual assault rates increased from 1968-1977, and both decreased from 1977 until 1988.

Question 22

How does violent pornography influence viewer’s attitudes towards sexual violence?

Answer 22

When exposed to violent porn where the woman ends up enjoying it, men are more likely to believe that women really do enjoy rape.

Question 23

Do men exposed to violent porn find it sexually arousing?

Answer 23

Men who have a high “likelihood to rape” found it the most arousing.

Question 24

In Jacques and Tiura’s survey, what percentage of men acknowledged some type of sexual aggression?

Answer 24

43%

Question 25

In Jacques and Tiura’s survey, what percentage of sexual assault incidents involved the man drinking alcohol?

Answer 25

39%

Question 26

In Jacques and Tiura’s survey, what percentage of sexual assault incidents involved the woman drinking alcohol?

Answer 26

40%

Question 27

During cases of sexual aggression in Jacques and Tiura’s survey, what were the trends?

Answer 27

Most occurred during a date, or in situations where they were both drinking. Perpetrators tend to have an established relationship with the girl, tended to try to get her away from her friends, and tended to misperceive her intentions.

Question 28

What does research suggest about the automatic power-sex association?

Answer 28

When primed with power words, men with a high likelihood to rape found women more attractive than if they were neutrally primed.

Question 29

What is likelihood to rape?

Answer 29

A measure of a man’s likelihood to sexually assault a woman, based on the premise that he would not be punished.

Question 30

Is there any truth to the anger/catharsis idea?

Answer 30

No, research even shows the opposite: people who express more anger become more angry.

Question 31

What are 4 reasons why expressing anger may be worse than repressing it?

Answer 31

It does not deal with the underlying problem, it may cause guilt or anxiety, it may isolate people from social support, and it may cause people to feel the need to justify their actions (reduce dissonance).