Aggression: Why We Hurt Other People? Can We Prevent it?

Chapter 12

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

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Fred W. Whitford Montana State University

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Chapter Outline

I. What Is Aggression?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

What Is Aggression?

An aggressive action is intentional behavior aimed at causing either physical or psychological pain.

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

What Is Aggression?

Hostile aggression is an act of aggression stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting pain.

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

What Is Aggression?

Instrumental aggression is aggression that serves as a means to some goal other than causing pain.

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

What Is Aggression?

Is Aggression Inborn, or Learned?

Scientists do not agree on whether aggression is innate or learned. The debate has been raging for centuries.

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

What Is Aggression?

Is Aggression Inborn, or Learned?

Freud postulated that humans have innate instincts toward life, Eros, and towards death and aggression, Thanatos.

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What Is Aggression?

Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
Even in the most aggression-prone species, aggression is an optional strategy and is determined by the organisms previous social experiences and by the specific social context in which the organism finds itself.
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What Is Aggression?

Aggressiveness and Culture

Berkowitz (1993) suggests that humans seem to have an inborn tendency to respond to certain provocative stimuli by striking out against the perpetrator.

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What Is Aggression?

Aggressiveness and Culture

Whether or not this aggressive action is expressed depends on the interaction of these innate propensities with learned inhibitory responses and the nature of the social situation.
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What Is Aggression?

Aggressiveness and Culture

In humans, innate patterns of behavior are infinitely malleable; thus, cultures vary widely in the degree of aggressiveness.

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

What Is Aggression?

Aggressiveness and Culture

The evidence is inconclusive on whether or not aggression has an instinctual component, but it is clear that aggression can be modified by situational factors. Two examples of this are aggression among the Iroquois and the regional differences in aggressive behavior in the United States. Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
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Chapter Outline

II. Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression

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Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression

The amygdala is an area in the core of the brain associated with aggressive behavior. But even if the amygdala is directly stimulated, whether or not the organism will aggress depends on situational factors.

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Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression Serotonin and Testosterone

Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that may inhibit aggressive impulses. Testosterone is a male sex hormone associated with aggression. A wide variety of studies have shown that men are more aggressive than women are. However, the research on gender differences is complex and results depend on situational and cultural Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e factors.
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Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression

Alcohol and Aggression

Alcohol serves as a disinhibitor and leads people to be more likely to commit actions frowned upon by society; thus alcohol can foster aggression when people are provoked.
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Neural and Chemical Influences on Aggression

Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression

Both animal and human studies show that pain will increase the probability that an organism will aggress. Other forms of bodily discomfort (heat, humidity, air pollution, offensive odors) may also act to lower the threshold for aggressive behaviors.
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Chapter Outline

III. Social Situations and Aggression

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Social Situations and Aggression

Frustration and Aggression

Frustration-aggression theory says that frustration, the perception that you are being prevented from obtaining a goal, will increase the probability of an aggressive response.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Frustration and Aggression

The closer someone is to a goal, the greater the frustration when one is thwarted and the higher the probability that the person will act aggressively.

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Social Situations and Aggression

Frustration and Aggression

Aggression also increases when frustration is unexpected. The perception of relative deprivation, feeling that one has less than one deserves or has been led to expect or has less than similar people, can increase aggressive behavior.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Being Provoked and Reciprocating

People usually feel the need to reciprocate after they are provoked by aggressive behavior from another person.

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Social Situations and Aggression

Being Provoked and Reciprocating

If we think the provocation was unintentional, we are unlikely to reciprocate. And if there are mitigating circumstances, we may not aggress, so long as the circumstances are known at the time of the aggression.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Aggressive Objects as Cues

An aggressive stimulus is an object that is associated with aggressive responses (for example, a gun), and whose mere presence can increase the probability of aggression.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Aggressive Objects as Cues

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Social Situations and Aggression

Imitation and Aggression

A major cause of aggression is social learning. Bandura and associates (1961) demonstrated social learning theory, the theory that we learn social behavior (for example, aggression) by observing others and imitating them.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies,

and Video Games
A number of long-term studies indicate that the more violence individuals watch on TV as children, the more violence they exhibit years later as teens and adults.

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Social Situations and Aggression

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies,

and Video Games

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Social Situations and Aggression

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies,

and Video Games
Adults as well as children are influenced by violent television.

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Social Situations and Aggression

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies,

and Video Games
Repeated exposure to horrifying events has a numbing effect on our sensitivity to those events.

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Social Situations and Aggression

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies,

and Video Games
Adolescents and adults who watch more than four hours of television per day are more likely than people who watch less television to have an exaggerated view of the level of violence that occurs outside their home and they have a greater fear of being personally assaulted.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Violence in the Media: TV, Movies,

and Video Games
At least five reactions to media violence help explain why exposure to violence in the media might increase aggression: If they can do it, so can I., Oh, so thats how you do it!, I think it must be aggressive feelings that Im experiencing., Ho-hum, another brutal beating; whats on the other channel?, and I had better get him before he gets me!
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Social Situations and Aggression

Does Violence Sell?

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Social Situations and Aggression

Violent Pornography and Violence

Against Women
During the past three decades, almost half of all rapes or attempted rapes are attributed to date rape. Scripts are ways of behaving socially that we learn implicitly from our culture. The sexual scripts adolescents are exposed to suggest that females should resist males sexual advances and that males should be persistent.
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Social Situations and Aggression

Violent Pornography and Violence

Against Women
There has been an increase in the availability of magazines, films, and videos depicting vivid, explicit sexual behavior.

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Social Situations and Aggression

Violent Pornography and Violence

Against Women
However, experimental evidence regarding the effects of pornography on violence against women is very complex. One conclusion that can be made is that violent sexual pornography presents a clear problem for our society and it increases aggression against women.
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Chapter Outline

IV. How to Reduce Aggression

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How To Reduce Aggression

Does Punishing Aggression Reduce

Aggressive Behavior?
For children, harsh punishment provides a model of aggression and does not prevent a child from engaging in the forbidden behavior when the child is unsupervised.
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How To Reduce Aggression

Does Punishing Aggression Reduce

Aggressive Behavior?
The threat of mild punishment, swiftly administered, does, however, seem to reduce aggression. The combination of education and mild punishment has been successful in efforts to reduce the occurrence of bullying behavior.
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How To Reduce Aggression

Does Punishing Aggression Reduce

Aggressive Behavior?
For adults, the research evidence is mixed. Laboratory experiments suggest that under ideal circumstances punishment can reduce aggression. But in real life, punishment occurs under anything but ideal conditions.
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How To Reduce Aggression

Does Punishing Aggression Reduce

Aggressive Behavior?
Berkowitz (1993) suggests that it is the swiftness and certainty of punishment rather than its severity that is important in leading to reductions in aggression.
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How To Reduce Aggression

Does Punishing Aggression Reduce

Aggressive Behavior?

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How To Reduce Aggression

Catharsis and Aggression

The common belief that one can blow off steam and get it out of your system is an oversimplification of Freuds psychoanalytic notion of catharsis.

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How To Reduce Aggression

Catharsis and Aggression

According to this idea, performing an aggressive act relieves built-up aggressive energies and hence reduces the likelihood of further aggressive behavior.

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How To Reduce Aggression

Catharsis and Aggression

However, controlled studies suggest that attempting to reduce ones anger by acting violently increases, rather than decreases, subsequent aggression and hostility.

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How To Reduce Aggression

Catharsis and Aggression

Research has found that when people are allowed to express their aggression, they later feel greater dislike and hostility toward their victims.

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How To Reduce Aggression

Catharsis and Aggression

This effect is magnified when a nation is at war. Being at war weakens the populations inhibitions against aggression, leads to imitation of aggression, makes aggressive responses more acceptable, and numbs people and makes them unsympathetic toward the victims. Also, war legitimizes the use of violent solutions to address difficult Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e problems. Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

How To Reduce Aggression

The Effects of War on General Aggression

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How To Reduce Aggression

What Are We Supposed to Do with

Our Anger?
There is an important difference between being angry and expressing that anger in a violent and destructive manner. Expressing anger nonviolently is an assertive response that avoids the dangers of either violent expression or of repression of the feelings.
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How To Reduce Aggression

What Are We Supposed to Do with

Our Anger?
One way to reduce aggression in another person is for the person who caused the frustration to take responsibility, apologize, and indicate it wont happen again.
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How To Reduce Aggression

What Are We Supposed to Do with

Our Anger?
Children exposed to models who behave nonaggressively when provoked show a much lower frequency of aggression than children who were not exposed to these models.
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How To Reduce Aggression

What Are We Supposed to Do with

Our Anger?
In most societies it is the people who lack proper social skills who are most prone to violent solutions to interpersonal problems.
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How To Reduce Aggression

What Are We Supposed to Do with

Our Anger?
Thus one way to reduce violence is to teach people how to communicate anger and criticism constructively and how to negotiate and compromise.
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How To Reduce Aggression

What Are We Supposed to Do with

Our Anger?
Building empathy, for example by teaching empathy in school, not only reduces aggressiveness but also can increase selfesteem, generosity, and positive attitudes.
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Chapter Outline

V. Could the Columbine Massacre Have Been Prevented?

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Could the Columbine Massacre Have Been Prevented? Aronson (2000) suggests that although the violent acts of the Columbine massacre were pathological, it would be a mistake to dismiss them as just the result of individual pathology.

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Could the Columbine Massacre Have Been Prevented? What is necessary to acknowledge is the social situation that children and adolescents face in schools. Thus, making our schools safer by changing the negative, exclusionary social atmosphere may help reduce the frequency of violence in schools.
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Study Questions

What is an aggressive action? Why is aggression difficult to define?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What is the difference between hostile and instrumental aggression?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
How do Freuds Eros, Thanatos, explain human aggression?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What factors other than instinct determine if an animal will behave aggressively?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
What are cultural and regional differences in human aggressive behavior that have been documented throughout history? What do these findings tell us about the importance of instinct in driving human aggression?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
What roles do the amygdala and testosterone play in aggressive behavior? What effect does serotonin have on aggressive behavior? What research findings support the influence of testosterone on aggressive behavior?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
What is the relationship between gender, culture, and aggressive behavior?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

Under what conditions is the consumption of alcohol related to aggressive behavior?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

How are pain and heat related to aggressive behavior?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

How does the frustrationaggression theory explain aggressive behavior? What situations produce frustration?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
How do aggressive stimuli increase the probability of aggressive behavior? What are data that support the relationship between aggressive stimuli and aggressive behavior?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

How does social learning theory explain aggressive behavior? What is evidence that supports the explanations provided by this theory?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
What are the effects of watching media violence on children and adults? What are the effects of constant exposure to media violence? Why might media violence increase aggressive behavior?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What are the consequences of viewing violent pornography on aggressive behavior in general and toward women in particular?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What type of punishment is most likely to deter aggressiveness? Why is the threat of punishment not always an effective deterrent?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What are the assumptions of the catharsis hypothesis? Does engaging in aggressive or physical behavior reduce future aggressive behavior?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What effects does wartime have on a nations aggressive behavior?

Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions
What are other possible strategies to reduce aggressive tendencies besides venting them? Why does opening up reduce aggression? How can individuals who cause frustration reduce aggression in those they have frustrated?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

How effective are modeling and communication training at reducing aggression? What can empathy do to aggressive tendencies and the ill treatment of victims?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Study Questions

What are the advantages of teaching empathy in school? What effects could empathy training have on the prevention of school violence?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e Copyright 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.