Social Psychology
(Pp 373-384)
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa
Cruz
Timothy D. Wilson
University of Virginia
Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College
6th edition
Chapter 12
Aggression:
Why Do We Hurt
Other People?
Can We Prevent It?
“Nothing is more costly,
nothing is more sterile,
than revenge.”
-- Winston Churchill
What Is Aggression?
Aggression
Intentional behavior aimed at doing harm
or causing pain to another person.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
What Is Aggression?
Instrumental Aggression
Aggression as a means to some goal
other than causing pain.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
What Is Aggression?
Hostile Aggression
Aggression stemming from feelings of
anger and aimed at inflicting pain.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Inborn or Learned?
For centuries, scientists, philosophers, and other
serious thinkers have been arguing about the
human capacity for aggression.
• Some are convinced that aggression is an
inborn, instinctive human trait.
• Others are just as certain that aggressive
behavior must be learned.
Is Aggression Inborn or Learned?
Freud elaborated on the more pessimistic view
that brutish traits are part of human nature.
He theorized that humans are born with an instinct
toward life, which he called Eros, and an equally
powerful instinct toward death, which he called
Thanatos.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
The Evolutionary Argument
Males are theorized to aggress for two reasons:
1. Males behave aggressively to establish dominance
over other males. The idea here is that the female will
choose the male who is most likely to provide the best
genes and the greatest protection and resources for
their offspring.
2. Males aggress "jealously" in order to ensure that their
mate(s) are not copulating with others. This ensures
their paternity.
Research supporting the evolutionary perspective is
provocative but inconclusive because it is impossible
to conduct a definitive experiment.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
Aggression among the Lower Animals:
Most people assume that cats will instinctively stalk and kill
rats. Kuo (1961) attempted to demonstrate that this
was a myth. He performed a simple little experiment:
He raised a kitten in the same cage with a rat. Not only did
the cat refrain from attacking the rat, but the two
became close companions. Moreover, when given the
opportunity, the cat refused either to chase or to kill
other rats; thus the benign behavior was not confined
to this one buddy but generalized to rats the cat had
never met.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
Aggression among the Lower Animals:
Chimpanzees are the only nonhuman species in which
groups of male members hunt and kill other members
of their own kind.
Bonobos, on the other hand, are known as the “make love,
not war” ape. Prior to engaging in activities that could
otherwise lead to conflict, bonobos engage in sex, This
sexual activity functions to diffuse potential conflict.
The bonobo are a rare exception, however. The near
universality of aggression strongly suggests that
aggressiveness has evolved and has been maintained
because it has survival value.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Aggression and Culture
Whether or not aggressive action is actually
expressed depends on a complex interplay
between:
– Innate tendencies,
– Various learned inhibitory responses, and
– The precise nature of the social situation.
Aggression and Culture
Cross-cultural studies have found that
human cultures vary widely in their
degree of aggressiveness.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Changes in Aggression across Time
In a given culture, changing social conditions
frequently lead to striking changes in
aggressive behavior.
For example, aggressiveness from previously
peaceful people can come about when a social
change produces increases in competition.
Regionalism and Aggression
Argument-related homicide rates for white
southern males are substantially higher than
those for white northern males, especially in
rural areas.
Southerners are more
inclined to endorse
violence for protection
and in response to
insults.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Neural and Chemical
Influences on Aggression
Aggressive behaviors in human beings, as well as
in the lower animals, are associated with an
area in the core of the brain called the
amygdale.
• When the amygdale is stimulated, docile
organisms become violent.
• Similarly, when neural activity in that area is
blocked, violent organisms become docile.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Neural and Chemical
Influences on Aggression
Certain chemicals have been shown to influence
aggression.
Serotonin, a chemical substance that occurs
naturally in the midbrain, seems to inhibit
impulsive aggression.
In animals, when the flow of serotonin is
disrupted, increases in aggressive behavior
frequently follow.
Violent criminals have particularly low levels of
naturally produced serotonin.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Neural and Chemical
Influences on Aggression
Too little serotonin can lead to increases in
aggression, but so can too much
testosterone, a male sex hormone.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Laboratory animals injected with testosterone
became more aggressive.
Naturally occurring testosterone levels are
significantly higher among violent criminals than
nonviolent criminals.
Juvenile delinquents have higher levels.
More aggressive fraternities’ members have more.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Gender and Aggression
Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin (1974)
demonstrated that boys appear to be more
aggressive than girls.
Among boys, there was
far more “nonplayful”
pushing, shoving, and
hitting than among
girls.
Gender and Aggression
But research on gender differences is more
complicated than it might seem on the surface.
Although young boys tend to be more overtly
aggressive than young girls (in the sense that
they lash out directly at the target person), girls
tend to express their aggressive feelings more
covertly:
– Gossiping,
– Engaging in more backbiting, and
– Spreading false rumors about the target person.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Does Culture Make a Difference?
Sex differences in aggressive behaviors tend to
hold up across cultures.
In one study, teenagers from eleven different
countries, mostly in Europe and Asia, read
stories involving conflict among people and
were asked to write their own endings.
In every one of the countries, young men showed
a greater tendency toward violent solutions to
conflict than young women did.
Does Culture Make a Difference?
Although within a given culture, men showed
consistently higher levels of aggression than
women, culture also played a major role.
For example, women from Australia and New
Zealand showed greater evidence of
aggressiveness than men from Sweden and
Korea did.
Violence Among Intimate Partners
• Some 22% of all violent crimes against women
in a typical year were committed by their
intimate male partners.
• For men, the figure is 3%.
• Husbands are far more likely to murder their
wives than vice versa.
Alcohol and Aggression
“Oh that wasn’t me talking, it was the alcohol talking.”
Image copyright The New Yorker.
Alcohol and Aggression
Why can alcohol increase aggressive behavior?
1.
2.
3.
Alcohol often serves as a disinhibitor—it reduces our
social inhibitions, making us less cautious than we
usually are.
It appears to disrupt the way we usually process
information. This means that intoxicated people often
respond to the earliest and most obvious aspects of
a social situation and tend to miss the subtleties.
When individuals ingest enough alcohol to make
them legally drunk, they tend to respond more
violently to provocations than those who have
ingested little or no alcohol.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression
If an animal is in pain and cannot flee the scene,
it will almost invariably attack; this is true of
rats, mice, hamsters, foxes, monkeys, crayfish,
snakes, raccoons, alligators, and a host of
other creatures.
In those circumstances, animals
will attack members of their
own species, members of
different species, or anything
else in sight, including stuffed
dolls and tennis balls.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression
Humans can act more aggressively when
experiencing:
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–
–
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–
Pain
Heat
Humidity
Air pollution
Offensive odors
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
The long, hot summer
Warmer temperatures increase the likelihood that violent riots and other
aggressive acts will occur,
The End