Chapter 12

Aggression:
Why Do We Hurt
Other People?
Can We Prevent
It?
Nothing is more costly,
nothing is more
sterile, than
revenge.
-- Winston Churchill

What Is Aggression?
Aggression
Intentional behavior aimed at doing
harm or causing pain to another
person.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What Is Aggression?

Instrumental Aggression
Aggression as a means to some
goal other than causing pain.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What Is Aggression?
Hostile Aggression
Aggression stemming from feelings
of anger and aimed at inflicting
pain.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Is Aggression Inborn or
Learned?
For centuries, scientists, philosophers,
and other serious thinkers have
been arguing about the human
capacity for aggression.
Some are convinced that aggression
is an inborn, instinctive human trait.
Others are just as certain that
aggressive behavior must be
learned.

Is Aggression Inborn or
Learned?
Freud elaborated on the more
pessimistic view that brutish traits
are part of human nature.
He theorized that humans are born
with an instinct toward life, which he
called Eros, and an equally powerful
instinct toward death, which he
called Thanatos.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
The Evolutionary Argument

Males are theorized to aggress for two reasons:

1. Males behave aggressively to establish
dominance over other males. The idea here is
that the female will choose the male who is
most likely to provide the best genes and the
greatest protection and resources for their
offspring.
2. Males aggress "jealously" in order to ensure
that their mate(s) are not copulating with
others. This ensures their paternity.
Research supporting the evolutionary perspective
is provocative but inconclusive because it is
impossible to conduct a definitive experiment.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Aggression and Culture

Whether or not aggressive action is
actually expressed depends on a
complex interplay between:
Innate tendencies,
Various learned inhibitory responses,
and
The precise nature of the social
situation.

Aggression and Culture

Cross-cultural studies have found that
human cultures vary widely in their
degree of aggressiveness.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

CHANGES IN AGGRESSION ACROSS

TIME
IN A GIVEN CULTURE, CHANGING
SOCIAL CONDITIONS FREQUENTLY
LEAD TO STRIKING CHANGES IN
AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR.
FOR EXAMPLE, AGGRESSIVENESS
FROM PREVIOUSLY PEACEFUL
PEOPLE CAN COME ABOUT WHEN A
SOCIAL CHANGE PRODUCES
INCREASES IN COMPETITION.

REGIONALISM AND
AGGRESSION
ARGUMENT-RELATED HOMICIDE RATES FOR
WHITE SOUTHERN MALES ARE
SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER THAN THOSE FOR
WHITE NORTHERN MALES, ESPECIALLY IN
RURAL AREAS.
SOUTHERNERS ARE
MORE INCLINED TO
ENDORSE VIOLENCE
FOR PROTECTION
AND IN RESPONSE
TO INSULTS.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Neural and Chemical

Influences on Aggression
Aggressive behaviors in human
beings, as well as in the lower
animals, are associated with an area
in the core of the brain called the
amygdale.
When the amygdale is stimulated,
docile organisms become violent.
Similarly, when neural activity in
that area is blocked, violent
organisms become docile.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Neural and Chemical

Influences on Aggression
Certain chemicals have been shown to
influence aggression.
Serotonin, a chemical substance that
occurs naturally in the midbrain, seems to
inhibit impulsive aggression.
In animals, when the flow of serotonin is
disrupted, increases in aggressive
behavior frequently follow.
Violent criminals have particularly low
levels of naturally produced serotonin.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Gender and Aggression

Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin
(1974) demonstrated that boys
appear to be more aggressive than
girls. boys, there
Among
was far more
nonplayful
pushing, shoving,
and hitting than
among girls.

Gender and Aggression

But research on gender differences is more
complicated than it might seem on the
surface.
Although young boys tend to be more
overtly aggressive than young girls (in the
sense that they lash out directly at the
target person), girls tend to express their
aggressive feelings more covertly:
Gossiping,
Engaging in more backbiting, and
Spreading false rumors about the target
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

DOES CULTURE MAKE A

DIFFERENCE?
SEX DIFFERENCES IN AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS
TEND TO HOLD UP ACROSS CULTURES.
IN ONE STUDY, TEENAGERS FROM ELEVEN
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, MOSTLY IN EUROPE AND
ASIA, READ STORIES INVOLVING CONFLICT
AMONG PEOPLE AND WERE ASKED TO WRITE
THEIR OWN ENDINGS.
IN EVERY ONE OF THE COUNTRIES, YOUNG MEN
SHOWED A GREATER TENDENCY TOWARD
VIOLENT SOLUTIONS TO CONFLICT THAN YOUNG
WOMEN DID.

DOES CULTURE MAKE A

DIFFERENCE?
Although within a given culture, men
showed consistently higher levels of
aggression than women, culture also
played a major role.
For example, women from Australia
and New Zealand showed greater
evidence of aggressiveness than
men from Sweden and Korea did.

VIOLENCE AMONG INTIMATE

PARTNERS
SOME 22% OF ALL VIOLENT CRIMES
AGAINST WOMEN IN A TYPICAL YEAR
WERE COMMITTED BY THEIR INTIMATE
MALE PARTNERS.
FOR MEN, THE FIGURE IS 3%.
HUSBANDS ARE FAR MORE LIKELY TO
MURDER THEIR WIVES THAN VICE VERSA.

Alcohol and Aggression

Oh that wasnt me talking, it was the alcohol

talking.
Image copyright The New Yorker.

Alcohol and Aggression

Why can alcohol increase aggressive
behavior?
1.
2.

3.

Alcohol often serves as a disinhibitorit

reduces our social inhibitions, making us less
cautious than we usually are.
It appears to disrupt the way we usually
process information. This means that
intoxicated people often respond to the
earliest and most obvious aspects of a social
situation and tend to miss the subtleties.
When individuals ingest enough alcohol to
make them legally drunk, they tend to
respond more violently to provocations than
those who have ingested little or no alcohol.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Pain, Discomfort, and

Aggression
If an animal is in pain and cannot flee the
scene, it will almost invariably attack; this
is true of rats, mice, hamsters, foxes,
monkeys, crayfish, snakes, raccoons,
alligators, and a host of other creatures.
In those circumstances, animals
will attack members of their
own species, members of
different species, or anything
else in sight, including stuffed
dolls and tennis balls.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Pain, Discomfort, and

Aggression
Humans can act more aggressively
when experiencing:
Pain
Heat
Humidity
Air pollution
Offensive odors

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and

Aggression
Aggression can also be caused by
unpleasant social situations.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and

Aggression
Frustration and Aggression

Frustration-Aggression Theory
The idea that frustrationthe
perception that you are being
prevented from attaining a goal
increases the probability of an
aggressive response.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and

Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
Barker, Dembo, & Lewin (1941):
Children who played with toys
immediately played joyfully.
Children frustrated by waiting
were extremely destructive: Many
smashed the toys, threw them
against the wall, stepped on
them, and so forth.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and

Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
Several things can increase frustration
and, accordingly, will increase the
probability that some form of
aggression will occur:
Delay
Goal proximity
Unexpectedness of the frustration

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social Situations and

Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
What circumstances can turn frustration
to aggression?
The size and strength of the person
responsible for your frustration.
That persons ability to retaliate.
Proximity of the person.

If the frustration is understandable,

legitimate, and unintentional, the
tendency to aggress will be reduced.

Being Provoked and

Reciprocating
Aggression frequently stems from the need to
reciprocate after being provoked by aggressive
behavior from another person.
But even when provoked, people do not always
reciprocate.
When convinced the provocation was unintentional,
most of us will not reciprocate.
If there are mitigating circumstances, counteraggression will not occur.
But to curtail an aggressive response, these
mitigating circumstances must be known at the
time of the provocation.

Aggressive Objects as Cues

Aggressive Stimulus
An object that is associated with
aggressive responses and whose
mere presence can increase the
probability of aggression.

Imitation and Aggression

Children frequently learn to solve
conflicts aggressively by imitating
adults and their peers, especially
when they see that the aggression is
rewarded.

Source of images: www.clipart.com

Imitation and Aggression

The people children imitate the most,
of course, are their parents.
And if the parents were abused as
children, this can set a chain of
abuse in motion.
Indeed, a large percentage of
physically abusive parents were
themselves abused by their own
parents when they were kids.

Imitation and Aggression

Social Learning Theory

The idea that we learn social
behavior (e.g., aggression) by
observing others and imitating
them.

In a classic series of experiments, Albert

Bandura and his associates demonstrated
the power of social learning.

Imitation and Aggression

Banduras basic procedure was to have an
adult knock around a plastic, air-filled
Bobo doll (the kind that bounces back
after its been knocked down).
The kids were then allowed to play with
the doll.
In these experiments, the children
imitated the aggressive models and
treated the doll in an abusive way.
Children in a control condition, who did not
see the aggressive adult in action, almost
never unleashed any aggression against
the hapless doll.

Violence in the Media:

TV, Movies, and Video Games

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
1. BY THE TIME THE AVERAGE AMERICAN CHILD
FINISHES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HE OR SHE
WOULD HAVE SEEN 8,000 MURDERS AND MORE
THAN 100,000 OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
2. 58% OF ALL TV PROGRAMS CONTAIN VIOLENCE
AND OF THOSE, 78% CONTAIN NOT A SHRED
OF REMORSE, CRITICISM, OR PENALTY FOR
THAT VIOLENCE.
3. OME 40% OF THE VIOLENT INCIDENTS SEEN ON
TV DURING A PARTICULAR YEAR WERE
INITIATED BY CHARACTERS PORTRAYED AS
HEROES OR OTHER ATTRACTIVE ROLE MODELS
FOR CHILDREN.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
The more TV violence individuals watch as
children, the more violence they exhibit
later as teens and young adults.
Watching a violent film has the effect of
increasing the number of aggressive acts
committed during a gameprimarily by
the youngsters who already rated as
highly aggressive by their teachers.
Even children who are not inclined toward
aggression will become more aggressive
if exposed to a steady diet of violent
films over a long period.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
Priming by TV has a tendency to
increase the probability of an
aggressive response when children
subsequently are frustrated or hurt,
exposing children to an endless
stream of violence in films and on TV
might have a similar tendency to
prime an aggressive response.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
Playing violent video games seems to have the
same kind of impact on children that watching TV
violence does.
Violent video game playing positively correlates
with aggressive behavior and delinquency in
children.
The relationship was found to be stronger for
children who had been more prone to violence
beforehand.
The relationship is more than correlational.
Exposing a random sample of children to a
graphically violent video game had a direct and
immediate impact on their aggressive thoughts
and behavior.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What About Adults?

The amount of time spent watching
television during adolescence and
early adulthood correlates positively
with likelihood of subsequent violent
acts against others.
This association was significant
regardless of parental education,
family income, and neighborhood
violence.

What About Adults?

Daily homicide rates in the United
States have almost always increased
during the week following a
heavyweight boxing match.
Moreover, the more publicity
surrounding the fight, the greater the
subsequent increase in homicides.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

What About Adults?

Still
more
striking,
the
race
of
Still
more
striking,
the
race
of
Daily homicide rates in the United
prizefight
losers
was
related
to
the
prizefight
losers
was
related
to
the
States have almost always increased
race
of
victims
of
murders
after
the
race
of
victims
of
murders
after
the
during the week following a
fights:
After
white
boxers
lost
fights,
fights:
After
white
boxers
lost
fights,
heavyweight boxing match.
there
there was
was aa corresponding
corresponding increase
increase
Moreover,
the
more
publicity
in
murders
of
white
in murders of white men
men but
but not
not of
of
surrounding
the fight, the greater the
black
men.
black men.
increase in homicides.
subsequent
After
After black
black boxers
boxers lost
lost fights,
fights, there
there
was
was aa corresponding
corresponding increase
increase in
in
murders
murders of
of black
black men
men but
but not
not of
of
white
white men.
men.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

THE NUMBING EFFECT

OF TV VIOLENCE
REPEATED EXPOSURE TO DIFFICULT OR
UNPLEASANT EVENTS TENDS TO
HAVE A NUMBING EFFECT ON OUR
SENSITIVITY TO THOSE EVENTS, AS
INDICATED BY REDUCTIONS IN:
EMOTIONAL RESPONSE,
PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE, AND
PERCEPTION OF BRUTALITY.

HOW DOES MEDIA VIOLENCE

AFFECT OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD?
ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS WHO WATCH
MORE THAN 4 HOURS PER DAY ARE MORE
LIKELY TO HAVE AN EXAGGERATED VIEW
OF THE DEGREE OF VIOLENCE TAKING
PLACE OUTSIDE THEIR OWN HOME.
HEAVY TV VIEWERS HAVE A MUCH
GREATER FEAR OF BEING PERSONALLY
ASSAULTED.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

WHY DOES MEDIA VIOLENCE

AFFECT VIEWERS AGGRESSION?
1. If they can do it, so can I.
2. Oh, so thats how you do it!
3. Those feelings I am having must
be real anger rather than simply a
stressful day.
4. Ho-hum, another brutal beating;
whats on the other channel?
5. I had better get him before he
gets me!

Does Violence Sell?

People who saw a nonviolent, non-sexual
show were able to recall brands
advertised during commercials better
than the people who saw a violent show
or a sexually explicit show.
This was true both immediately after
viewing and twenty-four hours after
viewing and was true for both men and
women of all ages.
Violence and sex seem to impair viewers
memory.

Violent Pornography and

Violence against Women
Scripts
Ways of behaving socially that
we learn implicitly from our
culture.
1.

2.

Sexual scripts adolescents are exposed to

suggest to them the traditional female role is
to resist the males sexual advances and
males role is to be persistent.
Although 95% of the males and 97% of the
female high schoolers surveyed agreed that a
man should stop sexual advances as soon as a
woman says no, nearly 1/2 of those same
students also believed that when a woman

Violent Pornography and

Violence against Women
During the 1990s, this confusion prompted
several colleges to suggest that dating couples
negotiate an explicit contract about their sexual
conduct and limitations at the very beginning of
the date.
But social critics lambasted
these measures on the
grounds that they encouraged
fear and paranoia, destroyed
the spontaneity of romance,
and reduced the excitement of
dating to something
resembling a field trip to a
lawyers office. They were
eventually dropped.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Violent Pornography and

Violence against Women
Coincidental with an increase in date
rape has been an increase in the
availability of magazines, films, and
videocassettes depicting vivid,
explicit sexual behavior.
Careful scientific research suggests
an important distinction between
simple pornography and violent
pornography.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Violent Pornography and

Violence against Women
Exposure to violent pornography
promotes greater acceptance of sexual
violence toward women and is almost
certainly a factor associated with actual
aggressive behavior toward women.
After watching violent pornography, men
express more negative attitudes toward
women and have more aggressive sexual
fantasies.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

How to Reduce Aggression

Stop hitting your brother!
Turn off the TV and go to your room!
Trying to curb the aggressive behavior of
their children, most parents use some
form of punishment.
Some deny privileges; others use force.
How well does punishment work?

Does Punishing Aggression

Reduce Aggressive Behavior?
If punishment takes the form of an aggressive
act, the punishers are actually modeling
aggressive behavior for the person whose
aggressive behavior they are trying to stamp out
and might induce that person to imitate their
action.
Several experiments demonstrated that threat of
relatively severe punishment does not make
committing a transgression less appealing to a
preschooler.
On the other hand, the threat of mild
punishmentof a degree just powerful enough
to get the child to stop the undesired activity
temporarilyleads the child to try to justify his
or her restraint and, as a result, can make the

USING PUNISHMENT ON VIOLENT

ADULTS
DOES THE THREAT OF
HARSH PUNISHMENTS
FOR VIOLENT CRIMES
MAKE SUCH CRIMES
LESS LIKELY?
DO PEOPLE WHO ARE ABOUT TO COMMIT
VIOLENT CRIMES SAY TO THEMSELVES,
ID BETTER NOT DO THIS BECAUSE IF I
GET CAUGHT, IM GOING TO JAIL FOR A
LONG TIME; I MIGHT EVEN BE
EXECUTED.
THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE IS MIXED.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

USING PUNISHMENT ON VIOLENT

ADULTS
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT
PUNISHMENT CAN INDEED ACT AS A DETERRENT
IF TWO IDEAL CONDITIONS ARE MET:
IT MUST BE PROMPT.
IT MUST BE UNAVOIDABLE.
IN THE REAL WORLD, THESE IDEAL CONDITIONS
ARE ALMOST NEVER MET, ESPECIALLY IN A
COMPLEX SOCIETY WITH A HIGH CRIME RATE
AND A SLOW CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM LIKE
OUR OWN.

During the past thirty years, the homicide rate in

the United States has fluctuated between 6 and
10 murders per year for every 100,000 people in
the population.
This statistic is striking when one compares it to
other industrialized countries like Germany,
England, and France, where the homicide rate

Catharsis and Aggression

Conventional wisdom suggests that
one way to reduce feelings of
aggression is to do something
aggressive.
Get it out of your system has been
a common piece of advice.
This common belief is based on an
oversimplification of the
psychoanalytic notion of catharsis.

Catharsis and Aggression

Catharsis
The notion that blowing off steam
by performing an aggressive act,
watching others engage in
aggressive behaviors, or engaging
in a fantasy of aggressionrelieves
built-up aggressive energies and
hence reduces the likelihood of
further aggressive behavior.

THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE

ACTS ON SUBSEQUENT
AGGRESSION

WHEN FRUSTRATED OR ANGRY, MANY OF US DO

FEEL LESS TENSE AFTER BLOWING OFF STEAM
BY YELLING, CURSING, OR PERHAPS EVEN
HITTING SOMEONE.
BUT DOES AGGRESSION REDUCE THE NEED FOR
FURTHER AGGRESSION? DOES PLAYING
COMPETITIVE GAMES, FOR EXAMPLE, SERVE AS
A HARMLESS OUTLET FOR AGGRESSIVE
ENERGIES?
GENERALLY, THE ANSWER IS NO. IN FACT, THE
REVERSE IS TRUE: COMPETITIVE GAMES OFTEN
MAKE PARTICIPANTS AND OBSERVERS MORE
AGGRESSIVE.

THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE

ACTS ON SUBSEQUENT
AGGRESSION

What about watching aggressive

games? Will that reduce aggressive
behavior?
As with
participating in an
aggressive sport,
watching one also
increases
aggressive
behavior.

THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE

ACTS ON SUBSEQUENT
AGGRESSION

Finally, does direct aggression against

the source of your anger reduce
further aggression? Again, the
answer
is
no.

When people commit acts of

aggression, such acts increase the
tendency toward future aggression.
Outside the lab, in the real world, we
see the same phenomenon: Verbal acts
of aggression are followed by further
attacks.

BLAMING THE VICTIM OF OUR

AGGRESSION
WHEN SOMEBODY ANGERS US, VENTING OUR
HOSTILITY AGAINST THAT PERSON DOES SEEM TO
RELIEVE TENSION AND MAKE US FEEL BETTER, AT
LEAST TEMPORARILYASSUMING THE PERSON
WE VENT ON DOESNT DECIDE TO VENT BACK ON
US.
BUT FEELING BETTER SHOULD NOT BE
CONFUSED WITH A REDUCTION IN HOSTILITY.
WITH HUMAN BEINGS, AGGRESSION IS
DEPENDENT NOT MERELY ON TENSIONSWHAT A
PERSON FEELSBUT ALSO ON WHAT A PERSON
THINKS.

BLAMING THE VICTIM OF OUR

AGGRESSION
Research participants who inflicted either
psychological or physical harm on an
innocent person who had done them no
prior harm then derogated their victims,
convincing themselves they were not nice
people and therefore deserved what they
got.
This reduces dissonance, all rightand it
also sets the stage for further aggression,
for once a person has succeeded in
derogating someone, it makes it easier to
do further harm to the victim in the
future.

The Effect of War on

General Aggression
When a nation is at war, its people
are more likely to commit
aggressive acts against one another.
Being at war serves to legitimize
violence as a way to address difficult
problems.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

 Crime rates for 110 countries from 1900

on show that compared with similar
nations that remained at peace, after a
country had fought a war, its homicide

The Effect of War on

General Aggression
The fact that a nation is at war:
(1)Weakens the populations
inhibitions against aggression,
(2) Leads to imitation of aggression,
(3) Makes aggressive responses more
acceptable, and
(4) Numbs our senses to the horror of
cruelty and destruction, making us
less sympathetic toward the
victims.

What Are We Supposed to

Do with Our Anger?
It is possible to control
our anger by actively
enabling it to
dissipate.
Actively enabling
means
using such simple devices
as counting to ten before
shooting your mouth off.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

VENTING VERSUS SELFAWARENESS

IF YOUR CLOSE FRIEND OR SPOUSE DOES
SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU ANGRY,
YOU MAY WANT TO EXPRESS THAT ANGER
IN A WAY THAT HELPS YOU GAIN INSIGHT
INTO YOURSELF AND THE DYNAMICS OF
THE RELATIONSHIP.
BUT FOR THAT TO HAPPEN, THE ANGER
MUST BE EXPRESSED IN A NONVIOLENT
AND NON-DEMEANING WAY.

VENTING VERSUS SELFAWARENESS

Although it is probably best to reveal your
anger to the friend who provoked it, at
least if you are hoping to resolve the
problem between you, sometimes it is
helpful to write down your feelings in a
journal.
Benefits of opening up are due not
simply to venting of feeling but primarily
to the insights and self-awareness that
usually accompany such self-disclosure
(Pennebaker, 1990).

DEFUSING ANGER THROUGH

APOLOGY
ONE WAY TO REDUCE AGGRESSION IS
FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WHO CAUSED THE
FRUSTRATION TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
FOR THE ACTION, APOLOGIZE FOR IT,
AND INDICATE THAT IT IS UNLIKELY TO
HAPPEN AGAIN.

Oops! My bad!

THE MODELING OF
NONAGGRESSIVE
BEHAVIOR

Modeling works with nonaggressive

behavior too.
When children see adults, when
provoked, express themselves in
calm, respectful manner, children
subsequently handle their own
frustrations with less aggression.

Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.

Social
Psychology
Elliot Aronson
University of California,
Santa Cruz

Timothy D.
Wilson
University of Virginia

Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College

slides by Travis Langley

6th edition