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PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS IN AGGRESSION. The nature and nurture of aggression. Aggression Defined. Intentional behavior aimed at causing either physical or psychological harm Contrast aggression and assertiveness Hostile vs. Instrumental Aggression
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PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS IN AGGRESSION The nature and nurture of aggression
Aggression Defined Intentional behavior aimed at causing either physical or psychological harm Contrast aggression and assertiveness Hostile vs. Instrumental Aggression Hostile: stems from a feeling of anger. Goal is to inflict pain or injury. Instrumental: aggression takes place as a means to some other goal (e.g., professional assassin)
Is Aggression an Instinct? Jean-Jacques Rousseau • French Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) blames society, not human nature, for social evils.
Is Aggression an Instinct? Thomas Hobbes • English Philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) sees society’s laws as necessary to restrain and control the human brute.
Is Aggression an Instinct? Inborn Instinctual • In the last century, “brutish” view—that aggressive drive is inborn and thus inevitable—was argued by Sigmund Freud and Konrad Lorenz. • Both agreed that that aggressive energy is instinctual (unlearned and universal) • If not discharged, it builds up until it explodes
Is Aggression an Instinct? Sigmund Freud • Freud speculated that human aggression springs from a self-destructive impulse • It redirects toward others the energy of a primitive death urge (death instinct)
Is Aggression an Instinct? Konrad Lorenz • An animal behavior expert, he saw aggression as adaptive rather than self-destructive
Neural Influences • Researchers have found neural systems in both animals and humans that facilitate aggression • When scientists activate these areas in the brain, hostility increases; when they deactivated them, hostility decreases. • The prefrontal cortex acts like an emergency brake on deeper brain areas involved in aggressive behavior.
Neural Influences • In one experiment, researchers placed an electrode in an aggression-inhibiting area of a domineering monkey’s brain. One small monkey, given the button that activated the electrode, learned to push it everytime the tyrant monkey became intimidating. • In human, after a woman receives electrical stimulation in her amygdala (a part of the brain core), the woman became enraged and smashed her guitar against the wall.
Genetic Influences • Heredity influence the neural system’s sensitivity to aggressive cues. • Animals can be bred for aggressive purposes, as in cock fighting or dog fighting (Mike Vick/Pit bulls) • Our temperaments are partly brought with us in the world, influenced by our sympathetic nervous system.
Utility of Aggression • Method One: Socially aggressive physical activities (e.g., football) • Neither participating or watching these sports decreases aggressive behavior (in fact, watching temporarily increases aggression).
Utility of Aggression • Method Two: Fantasy • Utility is limited – it reduces some, but not a lot of aggression • Method Three: Direct Aggression. Does lashing out help to reduce future aggression • Apparently not. Actually seems to increase future aggression • Cognitive Dissonance. Blaming the victim. • Only reduces future aggression if equity has been restored.
Blood Chemistry • Levels of various substances in the blood can provide clues to a patient's condition and aggression • When people are provoked, alcohol unleashes aggression • Violent people are more likely to drink and to become aggressive when intoxicated • Aggressiveness also correlates with the male sex hormone, testosterone • Testosterone levels are high among prisoners convicted of unprovoked violent crimes than of non-violent crimes
Psychological Influences Frustration always leads to some form of aggression. The classic frustration-aggression theory (Dollard & others. 1989; Miller, 1941) • Frustration is anything (such as the malfunctioning vending machine) that blocks our attaining goal. • It grows when our motivation to achieve a goal is very strong, when we expected gratification, and when the blocking is complete.
Psychological Influences • If after performing an aggressive act an animal or human receives a positive reinforcement (such as food or a toy), they are likely to repeat the behavior in order to gain more rewards. • In this way, the aggressive act becomes positively associated with the reward, which encourages the further display of aggression. Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
Psychological Influences • Aggression is initially learned from social behavior and it is maintained by other conditions • Aggressive responses can also be acquired through social modeling or social reference. • Everyday life exposes us to aggressive models in the family. • Social environment outside the home provides models. • Bandura contended that aggressive acts are motivated by a variety of aversive experiences—frustration, pain, insults. Social Learning Theory/Observational Learning (Albert Bandura)
Painful Accidents • Pain heightens aggressiveness in individuals. • Leonard Berkowitz and his associates demonstrated aggressiveness by having students hold one hand in lukewarm water or painfully cold water. • Those whose hands were submerged in the cold water reported feeling more irritable and more annoyed, and they were more willing to blast another person with unpleasant noise • Berkowitz concluded that aversive stimulation rather than frustration is the basic trigger of hostile aggression.
Painful Accidents • But any aversive event, whether dashed expectation, a personal insult, or physical pain, can incite an emotional outburst • Even the torment of a depressed state increases the likelihood of hostile aggressive behavior
Heat • An uncomfortable environment heightens aggressive tendencies. • Offensive odors, cigarette smoke, and air pollution have all been linked with aggressive behavior (But heat is the most-studied environmental irritant. • William Griffit (1970) found that compared to students who answered questionnaires in a room with a normal temperature, those who did so in an uncomfortable hot room reported feeling more tired and aggressive, and experienced more hostility. • Follow-up experiments revealed that heat also triggers retaliative actions
Attacks • Being attacked or insulted by another is especially conducive to aggression. • Experiments confirm that intentional attacks breed retaliatory attacks.
Crowding • The subjective feeling of not having enough space—is stressful • Crammed in the back of the bus, trapped in a slow moving freeway traffic, or living three to a small room in a college dorm diminishes one’s sense of control • The stress experienced by animals allowed to overpopulate a confirmed environment that heighten aggressiveness
Effects of Overcrowding Example #1—Swimming Pool in China
Effects of Overcrowding Example #2—California Department of Corrections
Effects of Overcrowding Example #3—American Freeways
Color • Research demonstrates that room color does not have much of an impact • However, uniform color has been demonstrated to be related to an increase in penalties received (in both football and hockey) • Does wearing a color make you more aggressive or are referees more likely to interpret ambiguous situations as aggressive?
Social Learning and Media • Idea of learning from aggressive models • TV is full of violent models • High correlation between the amount of TV watched and viewer’s subsequent aggression – this data is deemed to be correlational • Psychological research has demonstrated that viewing TV violence can numb people’s reactions when they are faced with real-life aggression
Why Does Media Violence Affect Us? Ideas in psych research has four themes: • Seeing others being aggressive weakens our learned inhibitions against violence. • Learn techniques & imitate. • Primes our anger, more aware of our anger • Desensitization to violence.
Can We Reduce Violence? • Inconclusive as many remedies ineffective. • More Punishment for violent offenders? • More effective when applied in the context of a warm relationship • Overly restrictive punishments are frustrating, which can lead to even more aggression/violence • What does that say about prison? Think about the Stanford Prison Study (Zimbardo). • Moderate vs. severe punishment combined with cognitive dissonance.
Can We Reduce Violence? • Punishment of aggressive models? (public floggings, death penalty, etc.) • Death penalty does not decrease homicide rate in a country. • In lab research seeing an aggressive model punished does not reduce future aggression (seeing them rewarded does increase aggression however.) • Presence of non-aggressive models? • Remember, we often conform to others when we seek out information on how to act
Causes of Aggression • Alcohol • 75% of individuals arrested for crimes of violence were legally drunk at the time of their arrests. • Experimental evidence implies that alcohol ingestion increases aggression • Alcohol is a disinhibitor. Under the influence of alcohol a person’s primary tendencies are revealed
Causes of Aggression • Pain and Discomfort • An animal experiences pain and can’t flee, violence follows • Research has been done on heat/temperature and the links to violent behavior. • Violent crime and aggression increases as temperature increases (e.g., temperatures above 90° and fighting) • Conflict is increased during interaction as it gets warmer • Lab research suggests that temperature is the key component
Causes of Aggression • Frustration • Thwarting an individuals’ attainment of a goal increases the probability of an aggressive response • Frustration becomes greater the closer one gets to a goal, and if interruption is unexpected or illegitimate • Key seems to be relative deprivation not just deprivation “Revolutions are not begun by people with their faces in the mud, but people who have recently lifted their faces out of the mud and have had time to look around”
Controlling/Eliminating Aggression • Introduce incompatible responses—for example certain emotional response such as empathy and humor are incompatible with aggression. • Purposely making a joke or showing some sympathy for the other person’s point of view can greatly reduce anger and frustration.
Causes of Aggression • Neurological and Chemical Causes • Amygdala (located in the forebrain). • Testosterone – leads to an increase in aggression, but also increases during aggression • If testosterone is linked to aggression, does this mean that men are more aggressive than women? • Across cultures, women demonstrate less violence • During era of women's liberation, non-violent crime rate relative to male rate has increased, but not violent crime rate.
