Social Psychology
(Pp 397-409)
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa
Cruz
Timothy D.
Wilson
University of Virginia
Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College
6th edition
Last Class
III.
Social Situations and Aggression
A.
Frustration and Aggression
B.
Being Provoked and Reciprocating
C.
Aggressive Objects as Cues
D.
Imitation and Aggression
E.
Violence in the Media
F.
Does Violence Sell?
G.
Violent Pornography and Violence
against Women
How to Reduce Aggression
“Stop hitting your brother!”
“Turn off the TV and go to your room!”
• Trying to curb the aggressive behavior of their
children, most parents use some form of
punishment.
• Some deny privileges; others use force.
• How well does punishment work?
Does Punishing Aggression
Reduce Aggressive Behavior?
• If punishment takes the form of an aggressive act, the
punishers are actually modeling aggressive behavior for
the person whose aggressive behavior they are trying
to stamp out and might induce that person to imitate
their action.
• Several experiments demonstrated that threat of
relatively severe punishment does not make committing
a transgression less appealing to a preschooler.
• On the other hand, the threat of mild punishment—of a
degree just powerful enough to get the child to stop the
undesired activity temporarily—leads the child to try to
justify his or her restraint and, as a result, can make the
behavior less appealing.
Using Punishment on Violent Adults
• Does the threat of harsh
punishments for violent
crimes make such crimes
less likely?
• Do people who are about to commit violent
crimes say to themselves, “I’d better not do this
because if i get caught, I’m going to jail for a
long time; I might even be executed.”
• The scientific evidence is mixed.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Using Punishment on Violent Adults
Laboratory experiments indicate that punishment
can indeed act as a deterrent if two “ideal
conditions” are met:
• It must be prompt.
• It must be unavoidable.
In the real world, these ideal conditions are
almost never met, especially in a complex
society with a high crime rate and a slow
criminal justice system like our own.
During the past thirty years, the homicide rate in the United States has
fluctuated between 6 and 10 murders per year for every 100,000 people in
the population.
This statistic is striking when one compares it to other industrialized countries
like Germany, England, and France, where the homicide rate has
remained stable at less than 1 per 100,000.
Catharsis and Aggression
• Conventional wisdom suggests that one way to
reduce feelings of aggression is to do
something aggressive.
• “Get it out of your system” has been a common
piece of advice.
• This common belief is based on an
oversimplification of the psychoanalytic notion of
catharsis.
Catharsis and Aggression
Catharsis
The notion that “blowing off steam”—by
performing an aggressive act, watching
others engage in aggressive behaviors,
or engaging in a fantasy of aggression—
relieves built-up aggressive energies and
hence reduces the likelihood of further
aggressive behavior.
The Effects of Aggressive Acts on
Subsequent Aggression
• When frustrated or angry, many of us do feel
less tense after blowing off steam by yelling,
cursing, or perhaps even hitting someone.
• But does aggression reduce the need for
further aggression? Does playing competitive
games, for example, serve as a harmless outlet
for aggressive energies?
• Generally, the answer is no. In fact, the
reverse is true: competitive games often make
participants and observers more aggressive.
The Effects of Aggressive Acts on
Subsequent Aggression
What about watching aggressive games? Will that
reduce aggressive behavior?
• As with participating in
an aggressive sport,
watching one also
increases aggressive
behavior.
The Effects of Aggressive Acts on
Subsequent Aggression
Finally, does direct aggression against the
source of your anger reduce further
aggression? Again, the answer is no.
• When people commit acts of aggression,
such acts increase the tendency toward
future aggression.
• Outside the lab, in the real world, we see the
same phenomenon: Verbal acts of
aggression are followed by further attacks.
Blaming the Victim of Our Aggression
• When somebody angers us, venting our hostility
against that person does seem to relieve
tension and make us feel better, at least
temporarily—assuming the person we vent on
doesn’t decide to vent back on us.
• But “feeling better” should not be confused with
a reduction in hostility.
• With human beings, aggression is dependent
not merely on tensions—what a person feels—
but also on what a person thinks.
Blaming the Victim of Our Aggression
• Research participants who inflicted either
psychological or physical harm on an innocent
person who had done them no prior harm then
derogated their victims, convincing themselves
they were not nice people and therefore
deserved what they got.
• This reduces dissonance, all right—and it also
sets the stage for further aggression, for once a
person has succeeded in derogating someone,
it makes it easier to do further harm to the
victim in the future.
What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
It is possible to control our
anger by actively enabling
it to dissipate.
“Actively enabling” means using
such simple devices as
counting to ten before shooting
your mouth off.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Venting versus Self-Awareness
• If your close friend or spouse does something
that makes you angry, you may want to express
that anger in a way that helps you gain insight
into yourself and the dynamics of the
relationship.
• But for that to happen, the anger must be
expressed in a nonviolent and non-demeaning
way.
Venting versus Self-Awareness
• Although it is probably best to reveal your anger
to the friend who provoked it, at least if you are
hoping to resolve the problem between you,
sometimes it is helpful to write down your
feelings in a journal.
• Benefits of “opening up” are due not simply to
venting of feeling but primarily to the insights
and self-awareness that usually accompany
such self-disclosure (Pennebaker, 1990).
Defusing Anger through Apology
• One way to reduce aggression is for the
individual who caused the frustration to take
responsibility for the action, apologize for it, and
indicate that it is unlikely to happen again.
“Oops! My bad!”
The Modeling of
Nonaggressive Behavior
• Modeling works with nonaggressive behavior
too.
• When children see adults, when provoked,
express themselves in calm, respectful manner,
children subsequently handle their own
frustrations with less aggression.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Training in Communication and
Problem-Solving Skills
• Feeling angry is part of being human
• The problem is the expression of anger in
violent or cruel ways
• Formal training programs can be an effective
means for reducing aggression
Training in Communication and
Problem-Solving Skills
Formal Training Techniques:
 Communicating anger or criticism in
constructive ways
 Negotiating and compromising when conflicts
occur
 Being more sensitive to the needs and desires
of others
Building Empathy
• It is difficult to inflict pain on a stranger without
dehumanizing the victim
• Building empathy among people (putting
oneself in the shoes of another person and
vicariously experiencing some of the same
feelings that person is feeling) makes
aggressive acts more difficult to commit
The Southern Poverty
Law Center:
How to Reduce Bullying
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit civil
rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and
bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable
members of society.
Step One
Know about the issue and
believe it is a problem
(Bully DVD)
What is Bullying?
In your own words, how would you define
bullying?
Indiana Law (HEA 1423)
Overt (intentional), unwanted, repeated acts or
gestures including:
 Verbal or written communication or images
transmitted in any manner (including digitally or
electronically)
 Physical acts committed by a student or group of
students against another student with the intent to


Harass, ridicule, humiliate, intimidate or harm the
targeted student and
Create for the targeted student an objectively hostile
school environment
Types of Bullying

Physical

Verbal

Social/Relational

Electronic or Written Communication
Physical Bullying

Hitting/kicking/pinching

Spitting

Tripping/pushing

Taking or breaking someone’s things

Making mean or rude hand gestures
Verbal Bullying

Teasing

Name-calling

Inappropriate sexual comments

Taunting

Threatening to cause harm
Social/Relational Bullying

Leaving someone out on purpose

Telling others not to be friends with someone

Spreading rumors about someone

Embarrassing someone in public
Electronic (Cyber) Bullying



Mean text messages or emails
Rumors and/or embarrassing pictures/videos
sent by email or posted on social networking
sites
Creating fake profiles
Bullying By The Numbers



160,000… Estimated number of U.S. students
who skip school daily to avoid being bullied
32%... Students who report being bullied at
school during the school year
86%... Gay or lesbian students who report being
bullied
Bullying By The Numbers



70%... Teachers surveyed who say that
educators “almost always” intervene when
bullying occurs
35%... 9th graders who believe their teachers
are interested in trying to stop bullying
66%... Bullying victims who believe school
professionals responded poorly to the bullying
they observed
Facts and Myths About Bullies
TRUE OR FALSE?
 Nearly one-third of American teens are involved in
bullying.
 Fewer than 10% of American teens admit to bullying
others.
 Most students who bully are insecure.
 Male bullies are not usually bigger or physically stronger
than their peers.
 Bullies have trouble making friends.
 Bullies do poorly in school compared to students who do
not bully.
 Most bullies discontinue aggressive behavior in
adulthood.
Step Two
Identify the needs of your
school or community
Step Three
Develop an Action Plan
Norway Study
(P. 398)
Psychologist Dan Olweus (1991) curbed
bullying in Norway by:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Surveying all 90,000 schoolchildren
Using the data (that bullying was serious and
widespread), communitywide meetings were
held to explain the problem
Classes discussed ways to prevent bullying
Counselors intervened using a combination of
mild punishments and intensive therapy with
the bully and counseling with his/her parents
Resources



Find Youth Info
bullyinginfo .org
Safe Schools Coalition
safeschoolscoalition.org
Committees for Children
cfchildren.org
Resources


Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
glsen.org
The Bully Project
thebullyproject.com
The End