SLK 220 - Chapter 11 PDF

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These notes summarise CH 11 including all important information given by lecturer...

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Chapter 11 Aggression What is Aggression?         

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Aggression is a behaviour that is intended to harm another individual Aggressive behaviours come in many forms Words as well as deeds can be aggressive Even failure to act can be aggressive, if it’s intended to hurt someone, such as by not helping someone avoid a humiliating outcome To distinguish them from less harmful behaviours, extreme acts of aggression are called violence Some other terms in lang of aggression refer to emotions and attitudes Anger – consists of strong feelings of displeasure in response to a perceived injury, the exact nature of these feelings depends on specific situation Hostility = a negative, antagonistic attitude toward another person or group Proactive aggression – Aggressive behaviour whereby harm is inflicted as a means to a desired end (also called instrumental aggression) o Aggression aimed at harming someone for personal gain, attention etc o If aggressor believes that there is an easier way to obtain the goal, aggression will not occur Reactive aggression - Aggressive behaviour where the means and the end coincide; harm is inflicted for its own sake (also called emotional aggression) o Often impulsive, carried out in the heat of the moment o Can also be calm, cool, and calculation Can be hard to distinguish between proactive and reactive aggression

Culture, Gender, and Individual Differences 

Culture and aggression - Cultures vary dramatically in how their members aggress against each other - Bullying Around the World o Bullying = form of aggression that is prevalent across all cultures o Children around the world are physically, sexually, or emotionally bullied by peers o Bullying involves intentional harm o Cyberbullying= bullying through electronic devices and social media o Some cultural differences have been reported in how and where bullying through electronic devices and social media o Bullying in the classroom and involving a large group, bullying a single target may be more characteristic of East Asian cultures whereas bullying in the playground and involving students who don’t know each other may be more typical in Western Cultures

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o These seemingly ordinary rites of childhood can lead to extraordinary suffering Gender and aggression - Men are more violent than women (found in virtually all cultures) - Form of aggression that is typical in males = physical aggression - Boys tend to be overtly aggressive - Boys do not tend to be more aggressive than girls when it comes to indirect or irrational relational aggression - Indirect aggression includes telling lies, starting rumors etc. - Relational aggression = one kind of indirect aggression that particularly targets a person’s relationships and social status, such as by threatening to end a friendship, engaging in gossip and trying to get others to dislike target etc. Individual differences - Aggression can vary across cultures and gender - Question = Whether aggressiveness varies reliably between individuals - Big 5 Factors = 5 dimensions that account for variability in people’s personalities across gender and culture 1. Agreeableness (good natured, trustful, cooperative) 2. Conscientiousness (responsible, orderly, dependable) 3. Openness to experience (intellectual, independent-minded, prefer novelty) 4. Extraversion (outgoing, energetic, assertive) 5. Neuroticism (easily upset, emotionally unstable) - Of these 5 factors, being low in agreeableness = particularly strong predictor of aggression - Being low on openness and high on neuroticism also associated with aggression - Some traits associated with aggression tend to predict aggression reliably only under conditions of provocation (situations where inds feel threatened, insulted, or stressed) o Among these traits are emotional susceptibility(tendency to feel distressed, inadequate etc) , type A personality (tendency to be driven by feelings of inadequacy to try prove oneself) and impulsivity - Relationship between self-esteem and aggression may also be quite different across cultures - Self-esteem = not great predictor of aggression - Narcissism = good predictor of aggression - Narcissism involves having an inflated sense of self-worth and self-love, having low empathy for others, tending to focus on self rather than others, and being especially sensitive to perceived insults - Narcissism is consistently and positively correlated with aggression in response to provocation, particularly if the provocation is public - Narcissism = part of 3 traits called ‘Dark Triad’

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o Machiavellianism (characterized by manipulatives) o Psychopathy (characterized by impulsivity, poor self-control, and lack of empathy) o Narcissism 1 Factor that has clear and consistent relationship with aggression is selfcontrol Poor self-control = part of trait psychopathy in Dark triad ‘ Ind’s with strong self-control can resist impulses and are able to act in ways that are consistent with their personal and societal standards for appropriate behaviour Children low in self-control tend to be more aggressive as young adults

Origins of Aggression  

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Aggression = prevalent part of human interaction “Nature-Nurture” debate - Nature = holding that aggression = an innate characteristic of human beings - Nurture = Aggression is learned through experience Both nature & nurture play their role Origins of aggression represent a profound interaction of evolved mechanisms and environmental and social factors Evolutionary Psychology - Evolutionary Psychological accounts of aggression use principles of evolution to understand both the roots and the contemporary patterns of human aggression - Evolution should have favoured the inhibition of aggression against those who are genetically related to us - Daly and Wilson report that birth parents are less likely to abuse/murder their own offspring than step parents or foster parents - Gender differences: o Males are competitive with each other because females select highstatus men for mating, and aggression is away for males to achieve and maintain status o For many men, manhood is a status that is precarious (must be earned & maintained through action) o Situations that threaten this status increase likelihood of aggression o Male-male violence is most likely when 1 male is perceived as challenging the other’s status/social power o Male-female violence = predominantly triggered by sexual jealousy o Ainsworth and Maner hypothesized that when men’s motivations about mating are activated, they should become more aggressive toward other men whom they see as a threat o Women also aggress, but generally focused on maternal aggression, where females aggress to defend their offspring against threats

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o Females tend to place a higher value on protecting their own lives (in order to protect offspring o This may explain why men engage more often in risky, potentially selfdestructive behaviours but also why when females aggress they use less obvious/dangerous means o Females use indirect/relational aggression rather than overt physical aggression Genes, hormones, and the brain - Genes o Aggressiveness is a relatively stable personality characteristic o Genes may be related to aggressiveness o Variations in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene, for instance, have been linked to aggressive behaviour in a growing number of studies - The role of testosterone o Men usually have higher level of testosterone than women o Research has shown a positive relationship between testosterone and aggression / aggression related behaviours o Association between testosterone and aggression is weaker and less reliable than expected o Other factors seem to play critical roles o The combination of high testosterone and low cortisol is what predicts aggression - The role of serotonin o Biological factor linked to human aggression is the neurotransmitter serotonin o Serotonin appears to work like a breaking mechanism to restrain impulsive, reactive acts of aggression o Low levels of serotonin in the nervous systems of humans and many animals are associated with high levels of aggression - Brain and Executive Functioning o The frontal lobe of the brain is another hot topic in research o Researchers using a variety of techniques have found evidence linking abnormalities in frontal lobe structures with tendencies toward aggressive and violent behaviour o The prefrontal cortex in particular has been implicated o Impaired prefrontal processing can disrupt executive functioning o Exec functioning – The cog abilities & processes allow humans to plan/inhibit actions o Exec functioning enables people to respond to situations in a reasoned, flexible manner

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o Finding – Very aggressive teenagers showed different patterns of brain activity in response to witnessing someone else in pain than did less aggressive youth How is aggression learned? - Rewards obtained by aggression today will increase its use tomorrow - Positive reinforcement: When aggression produces desired outcomes - Negative reinforcement: When aggression prevents or stops undesirable outcomes - Children who see aggression producing more good outcomes, and fewer bad outcomes, are more aggressive than other children - Punishment is often promoted as way to reduce aggressive behaviour - Punishment most likely to decrease aggression when it: o Immediately follows the aggressive behaviour o Is strong enough to deter the aggressor o Is consistently applied & perceived as fair & legitimate - Social Learning Theory o SLT emphasizes that we learn from eg of others as well as from direct experience with rewards and punishments o Models influence the prosocial, helpful behaviour o They also affect antisocial, aggressive behaviour o People learn more than specific aggressive behaviours t=from aggressive models o Also dev more positive attitudes and beliefs about aggression in general, and they construct aggressive ‘scripts’ that serve as guides for how to behave and solve social problems o These scripts can be activated automatically in various situations, leading to quick, often unthinking aggressive responses o Learning these scripts from their parents behaving aggressively/violently w/ each other during conflicts and inds subsequent aggressiveness as adolescents and adults o When parents use physical force to discipline their children, they may also be teaching the children a script of how to deal with conflict o Aggression or violence scripts play NB roles in lives of many young people who have committed violent crimes o Children who witness parental violence or are abused are more likely as adults to inflict abuse [Cycle of Violence] o SLT emphasises that female and males are taught different lessons about aggression o Boys may be more likely to be taught that physical aggression is an appropriate way to handle conflict or manipulate others whereas relational aggression may be rewarded for girls as much/more than it is for boys

Situational Influences on Aggression 

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The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis - Frustration (which is produced by interrupting a persons’ progress toward an expected goal) will always elicit the motive to aggress - All aggression is caused by frustration - Frustration elicits an aggressive drive - The aggressive drive prompts the attempt to inflict injury - Displacement =Inclination to aggress is deflected from the real target to a substitute The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Does Evidence Support it? - Obvious connection between frustration and aggression - Connection is however overstated - Provoked inds are especially likely to displace aggression Arousal - Excitation transfer – arousal created by one stimulus can intensify an inds emotional response to another stimulus can intensify an inds emotional response to another stimulus - Physical exercise is highly arousing but emotionally neutral experience and can increase aggression - Excitation transfer not limited to exercise - Noise, violent movies, arousing music all have shown to increase aggression - Heat increases arousal Thought: Automatic and Deliberate - Aggressive Cues o Berkowitz hypothesized – The presence of a weapon can act as a situational cue that automatically triggers aggressive thoughts and feelings o The presence of weapons (although not used) may make people more aggressive o Klinesmithe – Weapons had an effect on men’s testosterone levels as well as on their aggression - High-order Cognition o Higher-order processing of info also plays NB role in determining whether & how people will aggress o People who believe that aggression is inappropriate in a particular situation or whose moral values & principles mandate nonviolent behaviour may realize that better alternatives to aggression exist o People’s thoughts about intentions of others can determine whether they are likely to respond aggressively o Hostile attribution bias (HAB) – Perceive hostile intent in others o HAB is associated with both physical and relational aggression o Eg. Children who are chronically aggressive & have been rejected by peers that see them as hostile intent where others don’t

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o Such perceptions then increase their aggression and their peers respond by rejecting them further, locking these children in an everescalating vicious circle The Struggle for Self-control: Rumination, alcohol, and other factors - More often than not we control our aggressive impulses - Self-control is vital to the inhibition of aggression - Various situational factors can impair our self-control o Rumination = involves repeatedly thinking about and reliving an anger-inducing event o Rumination contributes to direct and displaced aggressions o Rumination reduces people’s self-control - High arousal impairs the cog control of aggression - Alcohol is a notorious obstacle to self-control - Alcohol can lower people’s inhibitions - Alcohol Myopia = alcohol narrows people’s focus of attention Situational Influences: Putting it all together - Basics of this model: o Various aversive experiences, situational cues and ind differences can create neg affect, high arousal, and/or aggressive thoughts o Whether aggressive behaviour is then likely to result depends in part on the outcome of higher-order thinking - Iᵌ theory o Emphasizes the role of self-control in aggression o The 3 I’s stand for:  Instigation – Social factors that often trigger aggressive impulses  Impellance – Personality and situational factors that promote urge to aggress when encountering instigation factors  Inhibition – Various factors of self-control

Media Effects  

Violence depicted in the media has been a target of attack & counterattack for decades Violence in Popular Media: Does life imitate art? - The research findings o There is evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behaviour in both immediate and long-term contexts o Exposure to violence in media represents significant risk to health of children and adolescents o Physical violence = not only kind of aggression portrayed in the media o Indirect/rational aggression - Indirect aggressors in shows are more rewarded for their aggression

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o NB to note that media violence is neither a necessary nor sufficient cause of real-world aggression and violence o Not everyone exposed to media violence will become more aggressive & not all acts of aggression are fuelled by media violence o Frequent exposure to media violence should be seen as NB risk factor for real-world aggression - How does media violence cause these effects? o Exposure to media violence can trigger aggressive and hostile thoughts, which in turn can lead inds to interpret other’s actions in hostile ways o Media violence influences aggression also by desensitizing inds to violence o Desensitization to violence refers to a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity o Desensitization is 1 form of habituation (A novel stimulus gets our attention, and if it is exciting etc, it elicits physiological arousal) o Media violence can also produce long-term effects by influencing people’s values and attitudes toward aggression, making it seem more legitimate and even necessary for social interaction o Children may learn that aggression and violence are common ways to deal with problems o Cultivation = The capacity of the mass media to construct a social reality that people perceive as true even if it is not - Can media cause positive, prosocial effects? o Playing prosocial video games is associated with increases in prosocial behaviour and decreases in aggressive behaviour Objectification and Dehumanization - The media in general all too often portray various groups of people in relatively objectified or dehumanizing ways - The consequences are significant - People often perceive and think about outgroup members more like objects and lower-order animals than like fellow humans - Dehumanization is an extremely common by-product of conflict and war between groups - Not only does fighting between groups foster a biased perspective of the other group, but dehumanization in turn makes engaging in violence more tolerable and seemingly necessary - May be necessary in war but also lowers restraints against stepping over ethical line into abuse and torture - It makes finding peace more difficult

Reducing Aggression and Violence 

Some steps to reduce aggression and violence - Reward nonaggressive behaviour - Provide attractive models of peaceful behaviour - Reduce all forms of aggression in our society, including physical punishment of children, fighting in sports, violence in media and war - Reduce frustration by improving the quality of life in housing, health care, employment, and child care - Provide fans and air-conditioned shelters when it is hot - Reduce access to and display of weapons - Apologize when you’ve angered someone, and regard apologies as sign of strength – not weakness. Encourage others to do likewise - Stop and think when you feel your temper rising. Control it instead of letting it control you - Discourage excessive drinking of alcohol and support efforts to provide treatment for alcohol abuse - Develop good communication skills in families and relationships, thereby helping avoid misperceptions, jealousy and distrust - Pay attention and respond to warning signs of trouble in adolescents, including social isolation, talk of violence, and consumption of violence-filled literature and other media - Increase education to promote development of skills involving empathy, selfcontrol, and how to solve interpersonal problems with reason rather than emotion...