Aggression
Chapter 12
Exam #3
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Std. Dev = 13.46
Mean = 74.7
N = 79.00
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Aggression
• Intentional behavior aimed at causing either
physical or psychological pain
– Can be verbal or physical, may succeed or not
– Intent is critical
– Hostile Aggression: stems from feelings of anger
and is aimed at inflicting pain
– Instrumental Aggression: a means to a goal other
than causing pain (think contact sports)
• Assertiveness: standing up for one’s own rights,
working hard, being ambitions…NOT THE SAME
AS AGGRESSIVENESS
Back to Nature/Nurture
• Is aggression learned or inborn?
– As with everything else, probably both
• Freud (1930) competitive drives
– Eros: instinct toward life
– Thanatos: instinctual drive toward death, leads to
aggression
• Hydraulic Theory: aggressive (or sexual, per Freud)
energy must be released…or re-channeled…or else it
will explode
– Catharsis: idea that “blowing off steam” by performing an
aggressive act, watching others be aggressive, or fantasizing
about aggression relieves built up aggression, thus reducing
the likelihood of future aggressive behavior
• Little empirical evidence in support: much against
• Patterson (1974)
• Ebbesen, Duncah, & Konecni (1975)
When Good Animals Go Bad…
• Evolutionary input on
aggression
• Rethinking instinct
– Zing Yang Kuo (1961)
– Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1963)
– Lorenz (1966)
• Situational Influences
– Scott (1958)
• Bottom line?
– Apparently aggression has
evolved because it has survival
value
– BUT…nearly all organisms have
also evolved strong inhibitory
mechanisms (not ALWAYS
adaptive to be aggressive!)
Cross-cultural Aggression
• Humans may have an inborn tendency to strike out
against the perpetrator in response to provocative
stimuli
• But for humans, innate patterns of behavior are
INFINATELY modifiable and flexible
– WE CAN CONTROL OUR BEHAVIOR
– European history is one war after the other: many primitive
tribal histories are peaceful across generations
• Situational factors re-appear
– Iroquois Indians (Hunt, 1940)
• Southern “Culture of Honor”
– Nisbett (1993)
– Cohen, Nisbett, Bowdle, & Schwarz (1996)
Neurology of Aggression (insert
your scream here)
• Amygdala: structure in
the limbic system
associated with
aggressive behaviors
– Located in temporal lobe
– Stimulation turns docile
organisms violent:
Inhibition turns violent
organisms docile
– Still under social influence:
may not attack but flee
instead if stimulated in the
presence of more
dangerous stimuli
Dance of the Neurotransmitters
• Serotonin: occurs naturally in the midbrain; low
levels associated with aggression, high levels
inhibit aggression
– Violent criminals shown to have unusually low levels
(Davidson, Putnam, & Larson, 2000)
– Depletion of Violent criminals shown to have
unusually low levels (Davidson, Putnam, & Larson,
2000)
– Depletion of tryptophan (serotonin precursor)
increases aggression in normal humans (Bjork et
al., 1999)
Dance Take 2
• Testosterone: the male sex hormone secreted by
testes: high levels associated with increased
aggression
– Injections of testosterone in animals increases aggression
(Moyer, 1983)
– Naturally occurring levels higher among prisoners convicted
of violent crimes than those convicted of non-violent crimes
(Dabbs et al., 1995: 1988)
• Juvenile delinquents have higher levels than college students
• Males in more rambunctious frats have higher levels than males in
less trouble-associated fraternities
– What about women? Are they less aggressive with less
testosterone?
•
•
•
•
Yes. But women aggress in less overt ways (gossip, etc.)
React as aggressively as men when provoked: less w/o provocation
More men arrested for violent crime: women tend toward property
Women tend to feel more guilty if they do aggress
• Alcohol as the great
“social lubricant”
– Lowers inhibitions
– Increases aggression
– Link remains even without
provocation and if person
is not normally aggressive
even when sober
– 75% of persons arrested
for violent crimes were
legally drunk at time of
arrest (Shupe, 1954)
• Pain discomfort also lead
to aggression
– Animals and humans
– Lash out irrationally
Bottoms up!
The Long, Hot Summer
• Carlsmith & Anderson (1979)
• Investigated the assumed tendency for civil unrests to
increase as temperatures increase (leading to more
summer riots)
• Studied occurrences in 79 cities from 1967-1971
• Riots were FAR more likely to occur on hot days than
cold days
• The hotter the temp, the greater likelihood for violent
crime…works in the lab too
• Reifman, Larrick, & Fein (1988)
• Kenrick & MacFarlane (1986)
When Others Hack Us Off
• Frustration can be a key catalyst to aggression
– The Frustration-Aggression Theory
– Barker, Dembo, & Lewin (1941)
• Children led to a room of toys then prevented from
playing with them for a LONG time. Other kids got to
play right away. The frustrated children, when finally
allowed to touch the toys, were FAR more destructive
than kids allowed to play right away
– How close to your goal you are is a factor: greater the
expectation the more likely the aggression
– Aggression also increases when frustration is
unexpected
• Relative Deprivation: perception that you (or your
group) have less than you deserve, less than you
have been led to expect or less than people similar
to you have
Direct Provocation
• Aggression may stem from the need to
reciprocate following aggressive
behavior from another person
– “Turn the Other Cheek”…not so much in
practice
– Baron (1988)
• Subjects retaliated more if they were criticized
harshly than if they were criticized gently
– If provocation is unintentional, less
likelihood of retaliation
Some Social Psych Thoughts on
Gun Control
• Aggressive Stimulus: object associated with
aggressive responses (e.g. guns) whose mere
presence can increase the probability of aggression
– Le Page (1967): made subjects angry in a room
with a gun or a neutral object; gave them
opportunity to shock another student: those in
presence of a gun gave more intense shocks than
those with the neutral object
• Seattle vs. Vancouver
• Correlation between homicide and gun
availability
• Archer & McDaniel (1995)
Violence Modeled
• Famous “Bobo Doll” study (Bandura, 1961: 1963)
– Social Learning Theory: we learn social behavior from
watching & imitating others
• Violence in the Media
– Average child watches 2-4hrs of TV a day
– Some stats say 58% of all TV contains violence
• Of those, 78% did not contain remorse or penalties
• 40% of violent incidents initiated by the “hero”
• By the time the average American child graduates from elementary
school, would have seen 8,000 TV murders and 100,000 other acts of
violence
– High correlation between amount of violence watched and
subject’s subsequent aggressiveness: strength of correlation
increases with age
– Priming??
– Desensitization??
– Video games…Kentucky School Shooting
5 Reactions to Media Violence
1. If they can do it, so can I.
2. Oh!!! So THAT’S how you do it!
3. I think it must be aggressive feelings that I’m
experiencing.
4. Yeah yeah, another beating. Yeah yeah,
another car chase…what else is on?
5. Looks like I should be sure to get “him”
before “he” gets me!
Pornography & Violence
Toward Women
• Almost ½ of rapes or attempted rapes are “date” or
“acquaintance” rapes
– Partly due to scripts: ways of behaving socially we learn
implicitly from our culture
– Where do we read those scripts?
• Violent Pornography: porn containing an element of
violence against women
• Exposure to violent pornography promotes greater
acceptance of violence toward women
• Donnerstein & Berkowitz (1981)
• Malamuth (1981)
• What about “non-violent” pornography?
Where does punishment get
us?
• Does punishment just serve
as a social model?
– Recall DV cycle of violence
• Does punishment work?
– Remember, must be swift,
certain, and severe
– But recall cognitive
dissonance…maybe threat of
mild punishment is better
– Sherman & Berk (1984)
• Lower recidivism rates of DV
abusers who were arrested than
abusers who were counseled on
scene or told to go ‘cool off’
Still Waters Run Deep
• What should we do with our anger?
– Internalize? Recall the negative health effects
– Too hard to internalize…may explode later
• Active enabling: employing anger management
devices like “counting to 10”, taking deep breaths, etc.
• Venting? Good if non-violent & non-demeaning
• Talk to others…both those involved & 3rd parties
• If the other person apologizes, aggression reduced
• Model non-aggressive problem solving to children
• Build empathy and teach it to children YOUNG
April 20, 1999
• 2 teenage killers, Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold
• Weapons
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–
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1 TEC 9, semi-automatic pistol
1 sawed off shotgun
1 pump-action shotgun
1 9mm semiautomatic rifle
More than 30 bombs & booby-traps
• Included 1 35lb propane bomb that would have leveled the building
• Bombs in each of their cars set to go off after emergency personnel
had arrived to increase casualties: did go off during defusing later
• Bomb set miles away to distract emergency personnel and delay
response time
• 20+ pipe bombs filled with nails, glass, etc. to increase body count
• Killers left manifesto stating their intentions, hoping
for a 250 person death toll
• Took their own lives and 13 others in the end
Cassie
Bernall
Daniel
Rohrbough
Steven
Curnow
Corey
Depooter
Dave
Rachel
Saunders Scott
Kyle
Kelly
Matthew
Flemming Kechter
Isaiah
John
Shoels Tomlin
Velasquez
Daniel
Mauser
Lauren
Townsend
A whole new model
• Prior to Columbine, law enforcement designed to
handle a hostage situation, not an active shooter
– Previously unseen type of aggression: Teenagers with NO
respect for life
– SWAT made initial entry but were repelled by fire
• Since Columbine, FBI and local law enforcement have
re-designed their response to overt acts of aggression
– Rapid Emergency Deployment: actively engage aggressor
and draw aggression away from victims…flies in face of
previous approaches (containment and negotiation);
proactive hunt for aggressor(s)
• New model in more ways than one: copycats