• Defining Aggression
  • physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm
  • Types of Aggression
  • hostile aggression
  • driven by anger and performed as an end in itself* instrumental aggression
  • aggression that is a means to some other end

Theories of Aggression

  • Three general categories
  • Biological
  • Behavioral
  • Cognitive

Theories of Aggression: Biological

Instinct theory and evolutionary psychology

  • innate, unlearned behavior pattern exhibited by all members of a species
  • buss, 2004 argues that aggression is genetically programmed into men to enable them to perpetuate their genes
  • Neural influences
  • abnormal brains can contribute to abnormally aggressive behavior
  • Amygdala- brain structure associated with aggressive behaviors
  • Biochemical influences
  • Alcohol
  • depresses social inhibitions
  • testosterone
  • low serotonin

Theories of Aggression: Behavioral

  • Frustration-aggression theory
  • aggression as a response to frustration, frustration triggers a readiness to aggress
  • frustration

* blocking of goal-directed behavior

  • example Barker, Dembo, and Lewin (1941)
  • kept a group of children waiting in a room filled with toys that were not within their reach
  • when they finally got to play with them, they played much more destructively than did the control group
  • problem with this theory: explains the hostile aggression, not instrumental aggression
  • Relative deprivation
  • perception that one is less well off than others with whom one compares oneself explains why happiness tends to be lower and crime rates higher in communities and nations with large income inequality

Theories of Aggression: Cognitive

  • Aggression as Learned Social Behavior
  • rewards of aggression
  • through experience and by observing others being rewarded we learn that aggression often pays
  • e. operant conditioning
  • Observational Learning
  • social learning theory
  • we learn social behavior by observing and imitating
  • Family* Culture

Influences on Aggression

  • Two general categories
  • Biological
  • Social

Influences on Aggression: Biological

  • Physical pain
  • Berkowitz(1983, 1988) showed that students who had their arms immersed in ice water until they felt pain showed a sharp increase in their likelihood of aggressing
  • Other bodily discomforts
  • heat, humidity, air pollution, offensive odors* Griffitt and Veitch (1971) study manipulated the temperature of a room while students were taking a test
  • results
  • self-ratings showed an increase in aggression and hostility towards a stranger they were asked to rate when in the hot room

Arousal

  • a given state of bodily arousal feeds one emotion or another depending on how the person interprets and labels the arousal
  • Schacter and Singers two factor theory of emotion study

Influences on Aggression: Social

  • Pornography and Sexual Violence
  • studies confirm that exposure to pornography increase acceptance of the rape myth * repeated exposure to erotic films featuring quick, uncommitted sex also tends to
  • decrease attraction for one’s partner
  • increase acceptance of extramarital sec and of women’s sexual submission to man
  • Increase men perceiving women in sexual terms
  • Television
  • frequent result of correlating children’s TV viewing with aggressiveness is the more violent the content the more aggressive the child
  • why
  • arousal levels
  • desensitization to violence
  • imitation
  • caveat
  • correlational research it may be that violent individuals
  • Video Games
  • there has been a steady increase in the violence portrayed in video games
  • similar to television, video games may
  • increase arousal
  • increases aggressive thinking increases aggressive feelings
  • increases aggressive behaviors
  • decreases pro social behaviors
  • similar caveat to television

Reducing Aggression

  • Catharsis Theory: Freud Psychoanalytic theory
  • more than just “blowing off steam” or “getting it out of your system”
  • aggression can be reduced by
  • performing an aggressive act
  • watching others engage in aggressive behavior
  • engaging in fantasy aggression
  • many studies suggest that this actually increases aggression rather than decreasing it
  • A Social Learning Approach
  • controlling aggression by counteracting the factors that provoke it
  • reducing aversive stimulation
  • rewarding no aggression
  • modeling nonaggression
  • afflicting reactions incompatible with aggression