Chapter 11 Aggression PDF

Chapter 11 *How do biological factors influence aggression? *How do social psychological factors influence aggression? *How does the media influence aggression? *How can we reduce aggression? ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Aggression: Physical or verbal behaviour intende...

Chapter 11 *How do biological factors influence aggression? *How do social psychological factors influence aggression? *How does the media influence aggression? *How can we reduce aggression? ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Aggression: Physical or verbal behaviour intended to harm another who is motivated to avoid such treatment *Emotional/hostile aggression: Inflict harm for its own sake *Instrumental aggression: Inflict harm in order to obtain something of value ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Biological factors that predict aggression: *Instinct *Evolution *Genetics *Hormones ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Aggression is an innate, “built-in”, hardwired part of who we are *2 famous theories *Freud’s death wish *Lorenz’s instinct theory ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Freud believed we have a death wish or drive *To cope with this, we channel energy inwards or outwards (aggression toward others) *Catharsis: Aggression is energy that builds up over time until it is released *Not generally an effective way of dealing with aggressive feelings ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Our innate drive to live leads to our desire to aggress against others *Adaptive: Those who are aggressive are more likely to survive (so are their offspring) ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Approximately one third of Canadians experienced childhood maltreatment *It is estimated that 1 billion children experience abuse each year *Violence against children is most often by the hands of a parent or caregiver *84% of violence is perpetrated by parents to their children, most often towards children under one year of age ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Children who are highly aggressive early in life are more likely to be aggressive in later life *Niv et al. (2013): Up to 41% of the variance in aggression may be caused by genetic factors ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *In virtually all societies, males are more aggressive than females *May be because of the presence of the male sex hormone testosterone *People who are highly aggressive have higher levels of testosterone than those who are less aggressive *Testosterone rates are also correlated with level of violence in women ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Social Learning Theory: We learn behaviour by observing/modelling others’ behaviour as well as by the presence of punishments and rewards *Males and females are taught different things about costs and benefits of aggression *Males have higher rates of physical aggression *Females are more likely to initiate aggression producing psychological or social harm ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *High testosterone: *Leads to increased readiness to react aggressively to provocation *Makes people more impatient and irritable *Bi-directional: Testosterone can increase aggression, aggression and aggressive cues can increase levels of testosterone *Neurotransmitter serotonin is also linked to aggression ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Theories that explain how psychological factors influence aggression: *Frustration-aggression theory *Cognitive-neoassociation theory *Excitation transfer theory *Social learning theory *General aggression model ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Frustration always leads to the desire to aggress; all aggression is caused by some form of frustration ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Frustration-aggression theory: When the target of your frustration is not available, you displace your anger on whatever target is available *Tend to displaced aggression toward certain people: *Immigrants, the unemployed, welfare recipients, etc. ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Relative deprivation: Discontent caused by belief that you fare poorly compared to people in other groups *Leads to perceived injustice and frustration *People displace their economic frustrations onto minorities ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Frustration may not lead to aggression, but instead to other emotions, such as disappointment, sadness, and depression *Not all aggression stems from frustration *Frustration is more likely to lead to emotional/hostile aggression rather than instrumental aggression ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Any event that leads to negative affect (e.g., heat, pain, unpleasant noises, odors, crowding) can lead to aggression *Aggressive behaviour could include observing the following types of aggression: *Aggression in daily life *Aggression in the media *Reading a story containing aggressive acts ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *As the temperature increases, so does the incidence of aggressive acts (murder, sexual assault, domestic violence, assault) *Heat leads to increased physiological arousal and hostile feelings and thoughts ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Aggression is also produced when people experience other bad conditions (pollution, threatened self-esteem, crowding, pain, noise, poverty, etc.) ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *The mere presence of an object associated with aggression can trigger aggressive behaviour ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Arousal-affect/excitation transfer model: Aggression is influenced by intensity of arousal and type of emotion produced by the stimulus *We misattribute our feelings of arousal caused by other sources to the situation *If there are cues to aggression in the situation, we interpret our arousal as aggression ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Behaviour is learned by observing or modelling others’ behaviour as well as by the presence of punishments and rewards, or reinforcements *Both of these factors can lead to aggressive behaviour ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Children can learn to engage in aggressive behaviour through watching such behaviour *In real life or through television and movies *Classic experiment: Children who had watched an adult aggress against a Bobo doll replicated much of that behaviour, using the exact same words and actions (Bandura et al., 1963) ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Both individual differences (genetics, personality, hostility) and situational factors (frustration, aggression cues) lead to aggression-related thoughts, feelings and/or physiological arousal ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Several factors contribute to the link between media violence and aggression: *Modelling aggression *Priming aggressive thoughts and emotions *Creating physiological arousal *Reducing reactions to aggression ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *One way exposure to violence on television can lead to aggression is via modelling *People exposed to media violence learn aggressive ways to act as well as the rewards for this behaviour *Television shows and movies portray the world as full of people who are evil and violent ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Exposure to violence in the media primes aggressive thoughts and feelings, which in turn can lead to aggressive behaviour ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Watching highly violent television leads to physiological arousal *Increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and skin’s conductance of electricity, which in turn can increase aggression *Arousal can energize, or heighten, whatever a person is already feeling *Increases likelihood a person will act on his/her feelings *Arousal can lead to misattribution of the cause of this arousal *May react more strongly if provoked by another person ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Desensitization/dishinhibition: Repeated exposure to violence over time can reduce people’s psychological and physiological reactions to aggressive images *People who are repeatedly exposed to violence in the media show lower levels of arousal in response to aggression images *Desensitization can also reduce people’s inhibitions about engaging in aggressive behaviour ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Ways of reducing aggression: *Punish aggressive behaviour *Model nonaggressive responses *Train in communication and problem-solving skills *Increase empathy ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Punishment: Provision of unpleasant consequences to try to reduce a negative behaviour *May reduce aggression, but also models the use of aggression ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Children can learn and model nonaggressive responses *Parents can also discuss problems of television modelling ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *Show people how to respond constructively (rather than aggressively) to frustrating situations *Apologize *Acknowledges wrong-doing and expresses regret *Let the person know you are angry *Distract yourself ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 *If we feel empathy towards others, we feel guilty if we hurt them, so we find it harder to aggress against them *Learning information indicating that a person should not be held fully responsible for his/her actions can also reduce our desire for aggression ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted by Access Copyright (The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency) is unlawful. Requests for further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. The purchaser may make back-up copies for his or her own use only and not for distribution or resale. The author and the publisher assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, or damages caused by the use of these programs or from the use of the information contained herein. ©John Wiley & Sons, Canada Ltd. 2012