AP Images/Pat Roque
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What Is Aggression?
 Aggression
 Physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm
 Hostile Aggression
 Aggression that springs from anger; its goal is to injure
 Instrumental Aggression
 Aggression that is a means to some other end
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon
 Instinct theory and evolutionary psychology

Innate, unlearned behavior pattern exhibited by all members
of a species
 Neural influences

Abnormal brains can contribute to abnormally aggressive
behavior
 Genetic Influences

Heredity influences the neural system’s sensitivity to
aggressive cues
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon
 Biochemical influences



Testosterone
Poor diet
Biology and behavior interact
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Aggression as a Response to Frustration
 Frustration

Blocking of goal-directed behavior
 Frustration-aggression theory

Theory that frustration triggers a readiness to aggress
 Displacement
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Frustration-Aggression Theory Revised
 Original theory overstated the frustration-aggression
connection
 Frustration produces anger, an emotional readiness to
aggress

Theory is designed to explain hostile aggression, not
instrumental aggression
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Aggression as a Response to Frustration
 Relative Deprivation

Perception that one is less well off than others with whom one
compares oneself
 Explains why happiness tends to be lower and crime rates
higher in communities and nations with large income
inequality
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Aggression as Learned Social Behavior
 Rewards of Aggression

Through experience and by observing others, we learn that
aggression often pays
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What Are Some Theories of
Aggression?
 Observational Learning
 Social learning theory

We learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by
being rewarded and punished
 Family
 Culture
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Aversive Incidents
 Pain
 Heat
 Attacks

Includes insults
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Arousal
 A given state of bodily arousal feeds one emotion or
another, depending on how the person interprets and
labels the arousal
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Aggression Cues
 Violence is more likely when aggressive cues release
pent-up anger
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Media Influences: Pornography and Sexual Violence
 Distorted Perceptions of Sexual Reality

Studies confirm that exposure to pornography increases
acceptance of the rape myth
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Media Influences: Pornography and Sexual Violence
 Distorted Perceptions of Sexual Reality

Aggression Against Women
 Studies suggest that the exposure to violent pornography
increase punitive behavior toward women
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Media Influences: Television and the Internet
 Media’s Effects on Behavior

Correlating Media Viewing and Behavior
 Frequent result of correlating children’s TV viewing with
aggressiveness is the more violent the content the more
aggressive the child
 Extends to indirect aggression
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Media Influences: Television and the Internet
 Media’s Effects on Behavior

Violence Viewing Experiments
 Anderson (2003) and Coyne (2008)
 Showed college students and girls exposed to more violence
led to an increase in viewer aggression
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Media Influences: Television and the Internet
 Media’s Effects on Behavior

Why Does Media Viewing Affect Behavior?
 The arousal that it produces
 Viewing violence disinhibits
 Media portrayals evoke imitation
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Media Influences: Television and the Internet
 Media’s Effects on Thinking




Desensitization
Social Scripts
 Culturally provided mental instructions for how to act in
various situations
Altered Perceptions
 Media portrayals shape perceptions of reality
Cognitive Priming
 Media portrayals prime thinking
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Another Media Influence: Video Games
 Effects of Video Games


Games are becoming more violent and sometimes include
 Carjacking
 Shooting
 Sex
 Murder
Games that are rated “M” for mature are often marketed to
those younger
Copyright 2016 © McGraw-Hill Education. Permission required for reproduction or display.
What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Another Media Influence: Video Games
 Effects of the games kids play







Increases aggressive behaviors
Increases aggressive thoughts
Increases aggressive feelings
Habituation in the brain
Greater likelihood of carrying a weapon
Decreases in self-control and increases in antisocial behavior
Decreases in helping others and in empathy for others
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What Are Some Influences on
Aggression?
 Group Influences
 Can amplify aggressive reactions partly by diffusing
responsibility

Increases with distance and number
 Social contagion
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How Can Aggression Be Reduced?
 Catharsis?
 Contrary to the catharsis hypothesis, expressing
aggression by catharsis tends to breed further
aggression, not reduce it
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How Can Aggression Be Reduced?
 A Social Learning Approach
 Controlling aggression by counteracting the factors that
provoke it




Reducing aversive stimulation
Rewarding nonaggression
Modeling nonaggression
Eliciting reactions incompatible with aggression
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How Can Aggression Be
Reduced?
 Culture Change and World Violence
 Cultures can change
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