General Psych 2 Aggression Attraction

1. General Psych 2 Aggression Attraction Module 55 March 11, 2004 Class #14

2. Aggression • Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone

3. Highly publicized examples…

4. Why Are People Aggressive? • Freud suggested we have a death instinct • Evolutionary psychologists believe aggressive tendencies ensures the survival of the species • Strong evidence for hereditary influences on aggression • Biological influences on aggressive tendencies: • Both the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex influence aggression • Hormones play an important role in aggression • Dabbs (1997) • Reported correlations between testosterone and aggressive behavior

5. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis • Dolard (1939) • Frustration creates anger which can lead to acts of aggression • Just as food deprivation leads to the hunger drive • Berkowitz (1983, 1989) • Those made miserable often make others miserable

6. Role of Learning and Culture in Aggression • Aggressive behavior is more common in individualist than in collectivist cultures • Many learn aggressive responses by watching others • e.g., Bandura’s “Bobo doll” experiments • People become aggressive when rewarded for aggressiveness and less aggressive when punished for aggression

7. How do rewards influence aggressiveness? • Rewards are reinforcers • Social learning theory of aggression Andrew Golden, at age 11 gunned down 4 students & 1 teacher at age 11…his grandfather is a gun collector who owns hundreds of firearms and is also a licensed gun dealer

8. Glamorizing Violence • Plagens, et al. (1991) • Typical American child sees 200,000 acts of violence on TV by age 18 • Children who watch a lot of violent TV are more violent towards peers • Experimental studies, in which violence is controlled, also find effects of watching violence

9. Space Blaster Doomsday Version 2.5

10. In this video game, it appears you win by beheading the guy???

11. Violent Video Games • Several studies have shown significant results indicating that playing violent video games is associated with a history of property destruction and hitting other students… • Anderson & Dill (2000) • College students randomly assigned to play a violent video game (Wulfenstein) later had more aggressive thoughts and feelings than those who played a nonviolent game (Tetrix)

12. Black & Bevan (1992) • Movie-goers filled out an aggression questionnaire as they entered, or left: a violent movie, or a nonviolent movie… • DV: aggression • IV: type of movie

13. Procedures • Subjects were randomly picked as they went to view violent movie or romantic film • In both cases, they were asked to fill out pretest questionnaire on aggression • After viewing the movie, they were again asked to fill out another questionnaire on aggression (posttest)

14. Results and Implication • What do you think they found?

15. Attraction:Factors that influence liking and loving • Similarity • Relationships with similarity are more balanced • Depends on importance - values and interests are more important • Limits to Similarity: • Relationships work best when each partner has their own areas where they excel • Thus, we tend to like similarity in terms of values and interests, but dissimilarity in areas of expertise

16. Attraction:Factors that influence liking and loving • Reciprocity • "I'll like you if you like me" • Self-disclosure • the revelation of personal information about ourselves to other people • Implies trust, desire for intimacy • When other is not ready to become more intimate, might backfire • Praise and favors • Praise and favors get others to like us, but depends on how those behaviors are interpreted • Works if seen as sincere, not manipulative - if the motivations are seen as positive, they tend to increase liking

17. And the #1 reason…at least this is what research suggests… • Physical attractiveness • Most of us underestimate the effects of physical attractiveness, especially for ourselves • Attractiveness has strongest effect in the beginning • But matching levels of attractiveness is also important for long term - even for friends

18. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder? • Synder, Tanke, and Berscheid (1977) • Maybe good looks are important? • Anderson and Bem (1981) • Replicated the study showing the same effect for women's beliefs about men's attractiveness

19. Synder, Tanke, & Berscheid (1977) • Male college students talked privately on the phone with female college students • Unknown to the woman, the men were shown a picture of another woman (either very attractive or very unattractive) • Both the men and woman were not aware of the researcher’s deception

20. Synder, Tanke, & Berscheid (1977) • After the conversation, the men rated the woman’s personality… • DV: Personality (warm…cold) • IV: Attractiveness of person in the picture • Results?

21. Sex Differences in Date and Mate Preferences

22. Gender differences:Women’s Preference for Status • Townsend & Levy (1990) • Women prefer a well-dressed unattractive man to a good-looking man in a Burger King outfit • Buss (1990) • Opposite for men judging women • In most cultures women place more emphasis on a potential mate’s income and status

23. Our obsession with attractiveness: Getting “the right look”… • Why would someone want to undergo over 20 operations to try to obtain the “perfect” figure and face? • What would drive a woman to spend a fortune to look like a “Barbie”? • Cindy Jackson, the small town Ohio woman did just that…

24. Cindy: Before…

25. Cindy: After…

26. A total transformation?

27. 1979 1990 1994 2003

28. Cindy as a child…

29. For Michael Jackson it probably didn’t quite work out as well…

30. Lunch with Michael Jackson: What do you think they talked about?

31. Of course, its not surprising what Howard Stern wants her to do…

32. Making ourselves physically attractive… • Research seems to indicate that attractive people receive many benefits, including: • They are seen as more honest • They are more likely to be hired for managerial positions and elected to public office • They receive shorter sentences for felonies

33. We do all these things…but is it really a waste of time??? • Social Spotlight Effect • Researchers say we may overestimate the extent to which we’re in the public eye • According to research from Cornell University psychologist Thomas Gilovich, most people greatly overestimate the amount of attention that others pay to their appearance, causing themselves needless angst

34. Wear your Manilow T-shirt -- no one's looking • Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky (1996, 2000) • The famous “un-cool T-shirt” experiments • These researchers got students to wear a “Barry Manilow” t-shirt into their classes

35. The Social Spotlight Effect 50% The students who wore the t-shirt predicted that nearly half of the others would know who was on the shirt 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Predicted Actual Control

36. The Social Spotlight Effect 50% In reality, less than a quarter of the other subjects recalled who was on the shirt 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Predicted Actual Control

37. Final Conclusions… • Lets face it, beauty is valued… • Example: Wizard of Oz characters • But at what cost? • Where do we draw the line? • What does Cindy’s and Michael’s behavior tell us?

38. Analyzing Love • Passionate Love • Love that is intense, arousing, and marked by strong physical attraction and deep emotional attachment. • Strong sexual feelings • Thoughts of other intrudes on one’s awareness frequently

39. Analyzing Love • Companionate Love • Love that is less arousing but psychologically more intimate • Marked by mutual concern for welfare of other

40. Analyzing Love • Equity theory • People are most satisfied with a relationship when the ratio between rewards and costs is similar for both partners • Inequitable relationships less likely to endure • Social exchange theory • We maximize rewards and minimize costs • Although both people feel bad about an inequitable relationship, the over-benefited person generally feels more satisfied • Picture from slide #10 taken from following website: www.public.asu.edu/~jmacker/350/350_chap10_day19.ppt • Also, several pictures of Cindy Jackson taken from: http://www.cindyjackson.com/photo_album.html