Chapter 10 -Aggression and Anti-social Behavior.
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Aggression and violence decrease as culture progresses.
What is Aggression?
Aggression - is any behaviour intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid
the harm
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Aggression:
o is a behaviour (it can be seen)
o It is not an emotion (Such as Anger)
o It is not a thought (such as mentally rehearsing a murder)
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Again, Aggression is deliberate and intentional (not accidental), the intent is to
cause harm.
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For example, a dentist might intentionally give a patient a shot of anaesthetic
(which hurts!), but the goal is to help rather than hurt the patient
However, the victim wants to avoid the harm.
People who commit Suicide, those who engage in sadomasochistic sex play, and dental
patients are also not included because they actively seeks to be harmed.
Behaviours that are intended to harm others are still acts of aggression even if they don’t
actually harm them.
o For example, If a person shoots a gun at you but misses, it is still an act of
aggression.
Aggression has various forms and functions, these are expressed in two ways:
 Verbally (yelling, screaming, swearing, name calling)
o Can be direct or indirect.
 Physically (hitting, kicking, stabbing, shooting).
o More direct
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displaced aggression any behaviour that intentionally harms a substitute target rather
than the provocateur.
For example, a man is shouted at by his boss at work but does not retaliate. When he gets
home, he kicks his dog or yells at a family member instead
Direct and Indirect forms of Aggression
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Direct aggression any behaviour that intentionally harms another person who is
physically present.
o Hitting a person in the face.
Indirect aggression any behaviour that intentionally harms another person who is
physically absent.
o Burning their house down while they are away
Males are more likely to use direct aggression than females, whereas females are likely to
use indirect aggression.
Functions and Motives for aggression.
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Reactive aggression (also called hostile, affective, angry, impulsive or retaliatory
aggression)
o It is hot, impulsive, angry behaviour that is motivated by the desire to harm
someone.
o For example, shooting a person you find in bed having sex with your significant
other.
Proactive aggression (also called instrumental aggression)
o Is ‘cold’, premeditated, calculated behaviour that is motivated by some other goal
(obtaining money, restoring one’s image, restoring justice)
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Bullying refers to persistent aggression by a perpetrator against a victim for the purpose
of establishing a power relationship over the victim
o it is persistent in nature
o the bully repeatedly picks on the victim.
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Cyberbullying – the use of internet to bully others.
o (e.g., email, social network sites, blogs, instant messages, tweets, sending personal
photos or videos)
o Perpetrator can be anonymous
o They can harm others regardless of how big and strong they are.
Violence
 is aggression that has as its goal extreme physical harm, such as injury or death.
o (e.g. One person intentionally hitting, kicking, shooting or stabbing another
person is an act of violence.)
o All violent acts are aggressive acts, but not all aggressive acts are violent.
o Only the ones designed to cause extreme physical harm are violent
Antisocial behaviour
 behaviour that either damages interpersonal relationships or is culturally undesirable
o often equated with aggression
o because aggression is often a social and antisocial strategy.
o It is a way people seek to manage their social lives
o Through influencing the behaviour of other to get what they want
o These include Littering, lying, cheating and stealing.
o Behaviours that qualify as antisocial behaviour but may or may not be aggressive.
NB: The world is less violent now than in the past. (Daniel Webster)
The fact that aggression and violence are decreasing over time is consistent with one of this
book’s key themes: nature says yes and culture says no.
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One of Culture’s main goal is to reduce aggression
It offers a better way to settle conflicts
o Negotiations, property rights, money, courts of laws, compromise, religious and
moral rules.
Is aggression innate or learned?
 Aggression is innate because,
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If people are naturally, innately aggressive,
No amount of social engineering will be able to get rid of it.
No matter how well designed a society is, people will still be aggressive.
Perfect social harmony will not be possible.
If people are inherently aggressive,
Aggression will always be with us
Society or culture needs to find ways of living with it.
Such as by passing laws to punish wrongful aggression.
Aggression is learned because,
o It comes from frustration, exploitation and injustice
o If there would be an Eutopia, there would be no aggression
o If people were only aggressive because of injustice
o Elimination of injustice would eliminate aggression
o In theory, frustration might be eliminated as well
o But we cannot count on that.
Instinct theories.
 Promoted by Charles Darwin
 Sees aggressive behaviour as an evolutionary adaptation.
 That enables creatures to survive better
 This instinct promotes survival of individuals.
 Behaviour like fighting which is closely linked to mating,
 Helps to ensure the strongest individuals would pass on their genes to future generations
Sigmund Freud argues that;
 Human motivational forces like sex, and aggression, are based on instincts.
 An Instinct is an innate (inborn, biologically programmed) tendency to seek a particular
goal, such as food, water or sex.
 The drive for sensory and sexual gratification are the primary human instinct.
 Eros, a constructive, life-giving instinct.
 Thanatos is a destructive, death instinct.
Learning theories.
 Social learning theory by Albert Bandura proposes that;
o Aggression is not an innate drive
o People learn aggressive behaviours like any other social behaviour
o Through direct experience and by observing others
o People observe and copy the behaviour of others (Modelling).
o Modelling can strengthen or weaken aggressive responding
o Rewarding for modelling of the aggressive behaviour increases the aggressive
behaviour.
o Punishment for the modelled behaviour decreases further aggression.
Nature and Nurture.
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Starting with Nurture;
o People can learn how to behave aggressively
o They can also learn how to restrain aggression
o They learn and obey complicated rules about aggression
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On to Nature;
o Humans do not have to learn to be aggressive
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It seems comes naturally
They learn to control their aggressive impulses
It is natural to feel aggressive impulses in response to certain provocations
Cultural being learn to bring such impulses under control in order to follow the
rules
This fits the theme that nature says go, whereas culture says stop
All known human societies have rules against aggression,
human beings who live in culture, aggression is subject to rules and limits
gradual progress of human culture has led to a gradual but large reduction in rates of
aggression and violence.
Culture’s ‘stop’ message is slowly succeeding.
Inner Causes of Aggression
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Frustration
o blockage or interference with a personal goal.
o For example, I become frustrated when I am writing a test, and I cannot focus
because of loud music that’s playing outside that disrupts my concentration, this
then causes me a lot of frustration.
o Frustration-aggression hypothesis – the occurrence of aggressive behaviour
always presupposes the existence of frustration and the existence of frustration
always leads to some form of aggression.
o Aggression can exist without frustration, and frustration without aggression.
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Being in a bad mood
o It includes being angry, frustrated, distraught and upset
o Such people are likely to commit aggressive behaviour.
o After performing poorly on a test, I yell and take out my anger onto other people.
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Hostile cognitive bias;
o Hostile attribution bias – the tendency to perceive ambiguous actions by others
as aggressive.
 For example, if a person bumps into you, a hostile attribution would be
that person did on purpose to harm or annoy you.
o Hostile perception bias – the tendency to perceive social interactions in general
as being aggressive
 For example, assuming that when two people are arguing in public means
they are getting ready to fight.
o Hostile expectation bias – the tendency to assume that people will react to
potential conflicts with aggression.
 For example, if you bump into another person, a hostile expectation would
be that the person will assume that you did it on purpose and will attack
you in return.
o Ambiguous behaviour - when a viewer or someone affected by the behaviour is
not sure of what the behaviour means, or the intention behind the behaviour.
o Aggressive people have inner biases that make them
o (a) expect others to react aggressively;
o (b)view ambiguous acts as aggressive;
o and (c) assume that when someone does something to hurt or offend them, it was
deliberately and intentionally designed to have that hurtful effect even if it was
accidental or positive.
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Age and aggression;
o Young children are the most aggressive human being on earth.
o 25% of interactions involve some kind of physical aggression
o (e.g., a child pushes another child out of the way and takes her toy)
o The high level of aggression among toddlers again fits the theme that nature says
go and culture says stop
o Human children naturally rely on physical aggression to resolve their disputes.
o They even influence other toddlers to get what they want.
o The most dangerous years for this small subset of individuals (and for society) are
late adolescence and early adulthood.
o This is because aggressive acts become more extreme (e.g., weapons are used
more frequently)
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Gender differences in aggression and violence
o Males and females differ in response to stressful situations
o A response to stress by either fighting or running away is called the fight or flight
syndrome.
o In contrast, a response to stress by nurturing others and making friends, called
the tend-and-befriend syndrome.
o Indirect aggression becomes much greater for girls than boys.
o physical aggression becomes much greater for boys than girls,
o Verbal aggression is about the same for girls and boys.
o These gender differences build up to dramatic differences in physically violent
behaviour in young adulthood
o Females are much more likely than males to engage in relational aggression
o Which is intentionally harming another person’s social relationships,
o feelings of acceptance or inclusion within a group
Interpersonal causes of aggression;
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Selfishness and Influence
o Argues that aggression should be understood as a form of social influence.
o Instead of a learned response, or a reaction to frustration, or a burst of innate
drives.
o Aggression is mainly viewed as a means for people to get what they want,
o It shows aggression as a way in which people relate to others.
o Evolution has made most animals (including humans) selfish.
o Humans can rise above their selfishness,
o The selfish core is still there.
o Social life inevitably creates some degree of conflict between selfish beings,
o Like when two people want the same food or the same mate,
o When they both want to occupy a nice spot
o Or even when both want to watch different programmes on the same television
set!
o Aggression is one means that social animals use to resolve some of these
disputes.
Influence
o people resort to aggression when there is something they want to get.
o The more they want the reward, is the more people are willing to use violence to
get it. (Think of saving the life of someone you love)
o They more likely to resort to aggression when they believe it will bring success.
o Blaming someone for unfair actions can lead to aggressive retaliation.
o most commonly mention certain things as being unfair:
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disloyalty, disregarding the feelings of others, hostility, breaking promises and
other agreements, selfishness, rudeness, lateness and vicious gossip.
People use many means to strike back or punish someone who has wronged
them.
These range from directly hitting the person, to spreading nasty rumours, to
committing property crimes such as burglary or vandalism.
Domestic violence: hurting those we love
o Also called family violence or intimate-partner violence.
o Occurs within the home, between people who have a close relationship with each
other.
o Examples of domestic violence include: a husband beating his wife, a mother
hurting her child, a parent sexually molesting a child, brothers and sisters hitting
each other, a child witnessing parents fighting, and an adult striking an elderly
parent.
o Aggression is highest between siblings.
o risk of being the victim of domestic violence for women who are separated,
divorced, cohabiting with a partner or never married is substantially higher than
the risk for married women.
o It can occur in heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual relationships.
o Men are also victims of domestic violence, although it is often underreported.
o Domestic violence also occurs in relationships involving homosexual men and
women
o Physically weaker family members, such as children or elderly parents,
o are especially at risk of becoming domestic violence victims because they cannot
fight back.
o Domestic violence not only immediately harms victims,
o it can also produce long-term harmful consequences
o (e.g., depression, anxiety, insomnia, loneliness, social dysfunction, somatic
symptoms)
o Similar factors that influence aggression against strangers also appear to
influence loved ones.
External causes of aggression
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Weapons effect
o use of weapons increase aggression and violence
o the increase in aggression that occurs as a result of the mere presence of a
weapon.
o For example, if I have a gun lying around the house I tend to be more violent.
Mass media
o Exposure to violent media increases aggression
o violent video games, movies and television programmes increase levels of
aggression.
o violent games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal
o (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure)
o aggressive behaviours, and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviours.
o people are especially aggressive after playing a violent video game as a character
who is stereotypically violent.
o violent media that contain sex, such as rape depictions
o there are long-term effects of viewing violent sexual media,
o desensitisation to the pain and suffering experienced by women who were victims
of sexual assault.
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For example, when I was young, I used to watch wrestling shows a lot on Sunday
afternoons and after the show ended I would practice the wrestling moves on my
younger sister.
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Unpleasant environments
o hot temperatures increase aggression and violence
o hotter regions have higher violent crime rates.
o Violence rates increase more in hot years, seasons, months and days than cold
ones
o loud noises can increase aggression, including traffic noise
o Foul odours second-hand smoke and air pollution can also increase aggression.
o For example, one woman was arrested for throwing a knife at her boyfriend after
he deliberately passed wind in her face while they were watching TV
o Density (the number of people in a given area)
o and crowding (the subjective and unpleasant feeling that there are too many
people in a given area)
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Chemical influences
o Hormone and neurotransmitter such as,
o testosterone (male sex hormone that is linked to aggression),
o and serotonin (a neurotransmitter that makes people feel good but not enough of
it makes people feel bad and therefore increases aggression.)
o Alcohol (associated with violent and aggressive behaviour) and is sometimes
used to deliberately promote aggression.
o Alcohol reduces inhibitions against behaving aggressively.
o It also has a myopic effect on attention.
o It increases aggression by decreasing self-awareness.
o It disrupts executive functions
o It increases aggression because people expect it to.
o Drug abuse.
Factors that increase aggression;
o provocation, frustration, aggressive cues, violent media)
o have a stronger effect on intoxicated people than on sober people.
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The Self and Culture
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Norms and values
o Some cultures or subcultures place positive value on fighting and aggression.
o Respect a man who fights well.
Self-control
o Criminals show low self-control
o Violence starts when self-control stops
Wounded pride
o Violent individuals typically think they are better than others
o Narcissistic traits
o There is usually a provocation,
Culture of honour
o A society that places high value on individual respect, strength and virtue,
o And accepts and justifies violent action in response to threats to ones’s honour.
o Violent response to threats to one’s honour
Others Antisocial behaviours
 Lying
o Not telling the truth
o Sometimes the stake for lying are low, such as being embarrassed if you are
caught.
o Most people tell a lie at least once a day.
o Lying takes more cognitive resources than telling the truth.
 Stealing
o The desire to acquire material and immaterial possessions through illegal means
o Employees steal from employers
o Costumers shoplift
o Identity theft (Stealing someone else’s personal information)
o (eg., identity number, bank account, credit card number
 Littering
o When everyone else seems to be littering, individuals are more likely to litter too.
o Littering is not only unattractive,
o It can cause health problems to both animals and humans
 Cheating
o an antisocial behaviour that is undesirable.
o It is wide spread
o Plagiarism.
Chapter 13 Prejudice and intergroup relations
Affective component is Prejudice (having negative views against other people)
Behavioural component is Discrimination (treating people unequally based on the groups to
which they belong)
Cognitive component is Stereotyping (associating people with certain beliefs)
What is prejudice?
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Prejudice
o Derived from Latin(prejudging)
o refers to evaluating a person or multiple persons based on membership in a
group or category of people.
o It involves attitude toward categories of people.
o Its best-known form is Racism;
o Which is defined as having negative views toward people,
o based on race (which is often, though not always, considered a biological
category).
o it can take the form of overt, blanket statements of disliking and disapproving of
certain groups.
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Aversive racists simultaneously hold egalitarian values and negative (aversive or
unpleasant) feelings toward people of other races.
o They believe in racial equality and equal opportunity,
o they also feel uncomfortable around minorities and try to avoid them.
o Prejudiced feeling sometimes lead people to discriminate against each other.
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Discrimination refers to unequal treatment of different people based on the groups or
categories to which they belong.
o Can sometimes occur without prejudiced feelings
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For example, An employee that is earning less than their colleague for
doing the same or equivalent work
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Stereotypes
o are beliefs that associate groups of people with certain traits.
o For example, stereotyping older people as wise (good) or as slow (bad)
o For example, Asian students are smarter than other students.
o Stereotypes are difficult to change.
o subtypes categories that people use for individuals who do not fit a general
stereotype
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Categorisation
o the natural tendency of humans to sort objects into groups.
o It is easy and efficient to categorise people
Social categorisation
o Process of sorting people into groups on the basis of characteristics they have in
common (e.g. race gender, age, religion, sexual orientation)
o Differences between sorting people and sorting things is the level of emotional
involvement.
Outgroup members (them)
o are people who belong to a different group or category than we do.
o For example, someone who sorts fruits into apples and oranges is probably not
emotionally attached to these categories
In-group members (us)
o are people who belong to the same group or category as we do.
o For example, when sorting people into heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual
categories, the sorter belongs to one of the categories and feels emotionally
attached to it
Outgroup homogeneity bias
o the assumption that outgroup members are more similar to one another than ingroup members are to one another
o for example, when women believe that all men are cheaters.
Common prejudices and targets
o Muslims
 Because of their religious beliefs.
 Are often labelled as terrorists, extremists, militant and fundamentalist.
 Example, The 9/11 attack in September 2001
o Xenophobia
 Hatred or fear of foreigners
 Characterised by indiscriminate mob violence.
o Homosexuals
 Being targeted for a persons’ own sexual preference and orientation
 They get stigmatized
o Albinism
 People with albinism experience many physical, mental, emotional and
social challenges.
 They also experience violent discrimination
 They are targeted and killed for ritual and spiritual purposes of gaining
wealth and power.
o People who are overweight
 Obese people
 They become targets of body shaming.
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Why prejudice exists?
o Ingroup favouritism
 preferential treatment of, or more favourable attitudes toward,
people in one’s own group, as compared to people in other groups
 going to the same Psychology class with white, Indian and coloured
students yet still choosing to hang out with black students over other
races.
o Minimal group effect
 the finding that people show favouritism toward ingroup members
even when group membership is randomly determined
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o it exists because of competition,
 according to realistic conflict theory, competition over scarce
resources leads to intergroup hostility and conflict
 example, competition over good housing, schools and jobs can lead to
hostility toward outgroup members
o ignorance,
 People who have very little contact with other groups have no
information about them, and so they attempt to fill the gap by
forming stereotypes
 People who have little contact with Muslims may assume that they all
support the jihad against the West
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rationalisation for oppression,
 to retain their status, powerful groups justify and rationalise
prejudice against less powerful groups.
 Assumptions made by feminists that men invented stereotypes of
women simply to rationalise continued oppression of women.
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stereotypes as heuristics
 To simplify their world, people often rely on stereotypes as mental
shortcuts or heuristics.
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Rather than collecting information about each African American
individually, it requires less mental effort to stereotype them all as
good at music and sports.
and prejudice boost self esteem
 People can feel better about themselves if they consider their own
group superior and all other groups inferior.
 People might feel better about themselves if they think their own
religion is the only true one and all others are false
Examples of prejudice and stereotyping
o Racism
o Sexism
o Classism
o Ageism
o Stereotypes: zulu men are ignorant, women should be humble and nurtures
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The duplex mind and how it relates to prejudice and stereotype
The duplex mind
The concept of the duplex mind refer to the idea that the human brain operates under
two systems. These being the automatic system (unconscious) and the deliberate system
(conscious), this concept can be used to explain prejudice and stereotypic behaviour.
The automatic systems
At an automatic system, individuals may hold the implicit biases or stereotypes that are
instilled through socialization, cultural influences, and personal experiences. These
biases can lead to prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviour without conscious
awareness.
The deliberate system
In the deliberated or controlled system, individuals have the ability to override
automatic responses and engage in critical thinking, empathy, and perspective-taking.
This level allows individuals to change their prejudiced beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
through education, exposure to diverse perspectives and self-reflection.
Relation to Prejudice
The duplex mind concept helps to explain how prejudice can manifest both consciously
and unconsciously. Prejudice often operates at the automatic level, leading to implicit
biases and discriminatory actions. However, through the conscious effort and
awareness, individuals can work to mitigate and unlearn their prejudiced attitudes and
behaviours.
Persuasion
It is an attempt to change a persons attitude
Elements of persuasion
Pathos – emotional appeal
Logos – intellectual appeal
Ethos – charisma
Components of persuasion:
The source: By whom*
- credibility and likeability
- credibility – trustworthiness and expertise
- likeability – similarity and physical attractiveness.
*Says what: The message*
- reason vs emotion
- good mood – easily persuaded
- humor puts us in a good mood
- fear, not paralyzing, does not instil danger, offers solution
- one-sided vs two-sided
- repetition
*To whom: the audience*
- intelligence
- need for cognition
- concern about public image
- cultural differences
- distraction
- overheard messages