lecture 6 - agression

Question 1

two types of aggression

Answer 1

-hostile aggression
-instrumental aggression

Question 2

hostile agression

Answer 2

-is motivated by anger and hostility, and has the primary aim of harming others, either physically or psychologically

Question 3

instrumental aggression

Answer 3

-is behaviour intended to harm others in order to achieve a goal
eg attracting attention, acquiring wealth, or advancing political or ideological causes
-many acts of aggression involve a mix of hostile and instrumental motives

Question 4

situational determinants of aggression

Answer 4

Aggression is not solely caused by aggressive people, but rather by certain situational factors that can release people’s aggressive tendencies.
-hot temp
-violence/media violence
-rejection violence
-income inequality

Question 5

situational determinants of aggression,
-hot weather

Answer 5

-hot weather affects levels of aggressive behaviour and violence.
-hotter cities have higher rates of violent crime, and more violence occurs during hot months than during cool months (andeson 1987,1989)

-temp above 32c are a strong predictor of elevated violent crime rates

Question 6

-as earths temperature rises , we might expect to see increases in _____ throughout the world
-whats an explanation for this

Answer 6

-violence
-one explanation for this is that the heat can cause arousal which people may attribute to other people or circumstances, leading to misplaced anger and aggression

Question 7

situational determinants of aggression,
-media violence

Answer 7

The average American child watches 3-4 hours of television a day, and about 90% of those programs portray some form of violence (Gerbner et al.,1986).

Media violence has been shown to promote aggressive acts in real life. When a highly publicised suicide occurs, copycat suicides follow.

People tend to be more aggressive, after seeing films in which they identify with the perpetrator of the violent act (Leyens & Picus, 1973

Question 8

can watching violence on tv predict future violence of children

Answer 8

Children who watch violence on TV tend to commit serious crimes asadults, compared to kids who don’t(Leyens et al., 1975)

Question 9

situational determinants of aggression,
-media violence
limitations

Answer 9

Measures of aggression not necessarily relating to real-world violence
-Long or short lasting effects?

Playing violent video games can also lead to more aggressive behaviour in the short run.85% of American teenagers play video games regularly (Anderson &Bushman, 2001).

The average American between the ages of 8 and 18 spends about 13hours a week playing video games, with boys spending more time (just over 16 hours) on average than girls(about 9 hours, Gentile, 2009)

Constant attention to video games can create conflicts within families and may even lead to addiction. A famous example of individuals who were heavily influenced by violent video games are Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed the Columbine High School shooting in1999.

Question 10

playing violent video games correlates with

Answer 10

1) increase aggressive behaviour
2) reduce prosocial behaviour, such as helping or altruism
3) increase aggressive thoughts and emotions, especially anger
4) increase blood pressure and heart rate, physiological responses associated with fighting

Question 11

situational determinants of aggression,
-social rejection and isolation

Answer 11

social rejection and isolation are powerful triggers of aggressive tendencies

e.g., Harris and Klebold were rejected by popular students. The U.S. Department of Education report that school shooters tend to feel rejected by their peers.

However, it is clear that social rejection alone was not a sufficient cause of the behaviour and underlying pathologies of the shooters were also a factor.

Question 12

why does social rejection lead to aggressive tendencies

Answer 12

Geoff MacDonald and Mark Leary(2005) proposed that throughout human evolution, being socially rejected from the group was akin to a death warrant given our dependence on others for survival, which led to the activation of a threat defence system that includes feelings of distress and pain, and defensive aggressive tendencies.

Social cues such as hearing someone’s gossip or seeing a sneer can also trigger this threat defence system

Question 13

social rejection can lead to ________ in romantic relationships

Answer 13

Studies have shown that social rejection can lead to feelings of distress, shame, self-doubt, and a submissive posture, and also increases the likelihood of aggression in romantic relationships and physical abuse (Williams, 2007).

Question 14

-the brain region that processes physical pain lights up when experiencing _____…

Answer 14

Research has also shown that the brain region that processes physical pain also lights up when experiencing social pain, and that common painkillers can also diminish social pain (DeWall et al., 2010)

Question 15

situational determinants of aggression
income inequality

Answer 15

income inequality at the level of nation, state, county, and neighbourhood strongly predicts aggression of just about every kind.

Children in countries with greater income inequality are also more likely to experience conflict with their peers and to report being victims of bullying

Question 16

possible explanations of income inequality predicting aggression

Answer 16

Possible explanations include
- feelings of social rejection and isolation among those at the bottom of unequal societies,
- a lack of cohesiveness and trust among people,
-increased competition for economic resources and access to mates among males

Question 17

construal processes and aggression
-link between anger and agression

Answer 17

Most people who live in extremely hot environments, see lots of violent images in movies or in video games, and encounter social rejection and income inequality do so without acting aggressively.

-For centuries, social theorists have known that anger is a potent construal that leads to aggressive behaviour.
Berkowitz (1989, 1993) argues that any unpleasant stimulus triggers a fight-or-flight response of anger.

Question 18

anger related thoughts of blame and revenge , as well as patterns of fight or flight responses, make people more likely to….

Answer 18

more likely to respond aggressively when prompted by cues, such as the presence of weapons

Question 19

berkowitz experiment , anger weapons and agression

Answer 19

Berkowitz had male participants work on a series of problems with a male confederate, taking turns “evaluating each other’s performance” by delivering shocks for performances that needed improvement (Berkowitz & LePage,1967)
-when people are angry and in the presence of weapons they behave more aggressively

Question 20

dehumanisationand its link to agression

Answer 20

-extreme forms of violence such as genocide and rape, are often accompanied by dehumanisation, when people deny others their basic human nature and the unique attributes that differentiate humans from other things.

he Nazis described the Jews as “lice.” During the eighteenth-century slave trade, Europeans referred to the Africans they captured, sold, and killed as “brutes” and “beasts.

Question 21

why can dehumanisation lead to agression

Answer 21

-dehumanisation can unleash aggression for the simple reason that its easier to harm others who seem less human, less like ourselves
-dehumanizing others has been found to play a role in bullying behaviour and condoning police violence against African Americans

Question 22

group loyalty predicts ______ in dehumanisation

Answer 22

increases

Question 23

what is catharsis

Answer 23

catharsis is the release of a strong emotion, such as anger, to purge oneself of the impulse to behave inappropriately

Question 24

how can we combat anger, aggression and dehumanisation
-study done of struggling couples

Answer 24

-therapists had struggling couples strike each other with foam bats
-there’s no evidence this actually works

Question 25

catharsis experiment for aggression
-results

Answer 25

Ppts were insulted by a confederate who harshly criticized their personal writing(Bushman, 2002).

Ppts then either relaxed, hit a punching bag while keeping the image of another undergrad in their mind,

or they hit a punching bag while keeping the image of the insulting confederate in mind (the catharsis condition).

Later the participants in the catharsis condition applied the most intense shocks. The would-be cathartic exercise did not diminish aggression, it increased it.

probably betetr to not think of the situation

Question 26

cognitive control for aggression

Answer 26

People can modify their tendencies toward anger, dehumanization, and aggression through certain kinds of cognitive control. Looking upon frustrating things from a distance makes people more peaceful(Ayduk & Kross, 2008).

Asking a person to think about why “Jennifer”—using the first name—is worked up about something, results unless negative emotion than when you ask the person why “she” is upset(Grossman & Kross, 2014)

Question 27

culture and aggression

Answer 27

People in some cultures (e.g., theU.S. South) are especially likely to adhere to a culture of honour; they are inclined to respond to insults and actions that convey malicious intent with violence or threats of violence

Question 28

culture of honour in the south

Answer 28

Nisbett and Cohen (1996) argue that the culture of honour in the South is a variant of a cultural perspective found worldwide among people who earn their living by herding animals, with the associated risks of losing all wealth

Question 29

aggression and rape in US
rape and culture

Answer 29

In the United States, 50–80 percent of women have been sexually harassed, having been stalked, catcalled, or made the target of obscene comments at work or over the phone(Fairchild & Rudman, 2008).
Twenty-percent of female American teenagers have been sexually assaulted by someone they are dating. One of the most disturbing and common acts of violence against women is rape.
A survey of 86 countries found that, on average, about 20 percent of women experience sexual violence or rape in aromantic relationship at some time in their lives (UN Women, 2011

Research by Peggy Reeves Sanday (1981, 1997)In rape-prone cultures, levels of violence tend to be high in general, and rape is used as a weapon in battle. Rape is used as a ritual act and as a threat to keep women subservient to men. Relatively rape-free cultures tend to grant women equal status