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Human Aggression

PSY 321
Sanchez

In all of nature, there is nothing so

threatening to humanity as humanity itself.


Lewis Thomas, 1981

Todays Agenda:
DEFINITIONS
CAUSES

AND DETERMINANTS OF
AGGRESSION

SPECIAL

CASE: MEDIA VIOLENCE

REDUCING

AGGRESSION

Aggression
Aggression

-- Intentional action aimed at doing


harm or causing harm

Aggression
Aggression

-- Intentional action aimed at doing


harm or causing harm

Aggression?

Injuring someone accidentally?


Swinging a stick at someone but missing?
Insulting someone?
Deliberately failing to prevent harm?

Types of Aggression: Instrumental


Instrumental

aggression

Harm inflicted as a means to some goal other than


causing pain
Goals include:
Personal

gain

Attention
Self-defense

Types of Aggression:
Instrumental Aggression
Immediate

Opportunity for gain with high reward and low perceived


risk

Long

conditions

term conditions

Poverty or other challenging economic factors


Perceive crime as primary means to resources/respect
Norms foster aggression as way to achieve resources

Opportunity

Rewards/
Costs

Aggression
as means

Types of Aggression: Emotional


Emotional

aggression

Harm inflicted for its own sake, to cause pain


Often impulsive
But can be calm, calculating

Types of Aggression:
Emotional Aggression
Immediate

Threat to self-esteem, status, or respect, particularly


in public situations
Aggression to save face

Long

conditions

term conditions

Repeated threats to self-worth or status

Threat to
self

Anger

Aggression
as an end

Emotional Aggression:
A Case Study
(Katherine Newman, 2004)

School

shootings

Commonalities:
Perpetrators had low social
status, respect, and self-esteem
Communities were small, tightknit, and isolated
Associated masculinity = violence
The small-town social structure
prevented people from heeding
the warning signs

Distinguishing Emotional from


Instrumental Aggression
Example:

Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfields

ear

Instrumental?
Emotional?
Maybe both mechanisms are operating in most
cases

Can

think of any purely emotional aggression


example?

The United States:


How aggressive are we?
The

Violent Nature of American Society


1963-1973
46,121 Americans killed in the Vietnam War
84,644 Americans shot to death in America

Homicide-by-gun

rate in America

35 times higher than Germany, Denmark, or


England, 7 times higher than Canada or
France

Table 11.1: The Violent Crime Clock

Gender Differences
Universal

finding that men are more violent


than women.

Differences stable over time and place.

However.type

of aggression matters

Gender & Aggression


Intent

to Harm

What ways can we inflict harm on others other than


physical violence?

Direct

aggression: Verbal or physical


aggression
Indirect aggression: Inflicting harm in covert
(nonphysical) ways

Relational aggression

Gender and Indirect/Direct


Aggression

Why Are People So Aggressive?

Instinct theories

Freud

Darwin

Psychoanalytic theory
Death instinct vs. life instinct
Aggression death instinct is
turned outward at others

Evolutionary theories

Darwin

Genetic survival
Genetic selection for aggression

Freud

Social Learning
Theory (Bandura)
Modeling

Learn

how to behave
prosocially

Learn

how to behave
aggressively

Social Learning
Theory (Bandura)
Bobo

doll study

kids watched
adult beat up doll

kids not
exposed to the
behavior
Kids

allowed to play
with doll
Results??

Social

learning clip 19 (Bobo doll)

Why Are People So Aggressive?


Evolutionary

theories
Social learning theory
a better question may be
When

do people aggress?

Under what conditions are people likely to aggress?


What situational factors cause people to aggress?

When Are People Aggressive?

Situational Factors

Frustration-Aggression theory -- frustration


always leads to aggression

Study

Young children in room with toys


cant play with toys, then allowed to play
can play with toys

Results: frustrated kids destroyed the toys

When Are People Aggressive?

Situational Factors

Frustration-aggression theory

Closeness of goal as a factor of frustration-aggression link

Study

Confederate cut in line in front of people


time cut in front of 2nd person in line
time cut in front of 12th person in line
Results: people standing behind intruder more
aggressive when confederate cut 2nd person in line
(closer to their goal)

When Are People Aggressive?

Situational Factors

Frustration-Aggression theory

Aggression increases when frustration is unexpected

Study

Students hired to call strangers for donations


Students worked on a commission
students expected a high rate of contributions
students expected far less success
Experiment rigged so donors did not donate
Results: callers with high expectations were more
verbally aggressive toward the non-donors

When Are People Aggressive?

Situational Factors

Displaced aggression

Aggression not directed at source of the


frustration, but at a different, lower status target
Remember Dollard et al. (1939): as cotton prices
went down (i.e., less income), lynchings increased

When Are People Aggressive?


Berkowitzs modification of frustrationaggression theory

frustration leads to anger


anger with an aggressive cue leads to aggression
aggressive cue: object associated with
aggressive responses (e.g., a gun)

When Are People Aggressive?


Berkowitzs modification of frustrationaggression

Induced Ps to feel angry


Left in a room with gun (violent) or racket (neutral)
Ps allowed to administer shocks to other P
Ps gave more shocks to other when gun present

When Are People Aggressive?

Alcohol myopia (Steele & Josephs, 1990)

Intoxication facilitates aggression by impairing


cognitive processing, narrows attention
Results is more extreme, less moderated behavior
Aggressive response: often powerful and simple
Inhibiting response: often weaker and more complex

Heat

More violent crimes (rape, murder, riots, assaults)

In summer months
In hot years
In hot cities

Heat increases

Hit by pitch incidents


Horn-honking
Interpret ambiguous event in hostile terms

Summary: People are more


aggressive when they are
Frustrated
Angry
Exposed
Drunk
Hot

to aggressive cues

Special Case: Media Violence


Does

violence in the media make people more


aggressive?

Statistics

TV is on 28 hrs/wk for preteens and 23 hrs/wk for teens

Prime shows average 5 or 6 acts of violence per hour

Sat morning kids programs average 20-25 per hour

Most violent TV appears before school and after school

Special Case: Media Violence


Does

violence in the media make people more


aggressive?
Conflicting opinions:

Catharsis Hypothesis

vs. Social learning

Watching violence purges aggressive tendencies


Watching violence increases aggressive tendencies

Correlational and Experimental Evidence

Special Case: Media Violence


Procedure

(Liebert & Baron, 1972)

children exposed to an extremely violent show


children exposed to nonviolent sporting event
Each child allowed to play in another room with a
group of children
Observed aggression/violence in childrens playing

DV: Average duration of aggressive responses

Television show

Effects of Other Violent Media

Video Games

8 to 13-year-old boys in U.S. average 7.5


hours of video games per week

15% of male entering college students play


at least 6 hours/week

Americas Army

Its awesome, says James Parker, 27, a


Washington computer network administrator.
You can carjack any car, go to the seedy part of
town, beep the horn and pick up a prostitute.
Then you take her to a dark street and the car
starts shaking. When the prostitute jumps out,
your money is down but your energy is full
Note: People can recover their money by killing
the woman.
Source: The Washington Post 8/24/02, p. A1

What does the research say?

Anderson & Dill, 2000 Study 1

examined correlation between amount of


time playing violent video games and
aggressive delinquent behavior

r = .46!! (quite high)

Anderson & Dill Study 2: Experiment

College students randomly assigned to play a


video game 3 times over a week

Wolfenstein 3D: violent game


Myst: nonviolent game
DV: Level/duration of noise blast given to opponent
after losing a game in the lab

Duration of Noise After


Losing

Results of Study 2
6.85
6.8
6.75
6.7
6.65
6.6
6.55
Nonviolent
Video Game Played

Violent

Recent Meta-Analysis

(Anderson & Bushman, 2001)


Dr. Bushman

Reviewed 54 studies with 4,200 participants

Playing violent video games resulted in

Increased aggression
Decreased helping
Increased aggressive thoughts
Increased anger
Increased arousal

Same effects for males and females,


children and adults

How does violent media cause aggression?

Short-term effects

Primes aggressive cognitions


Increases arousal
Increases anger

Long-term effects

Teaches people how to aggress


People develop aggressive schemas
They become desensitized to violence

How Can Aggression Be Reduced?

Catharsis: Doesnt work

Punishment: Not a simple solution

Deterrence Theory: Punishment has to be severe, certain,


and swift
Corporal punishment increases aggression (Eron et al., 1991;
Straus et al., 1997; Gershoff, 2002)

Remove Cues to Aggression (Berkowitz)

Provide Better Role Models (Bandura)

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