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7 Aggression

Aggression is any behavior intended to hurt someone and comes in physical and social forms. There are two types: hostile aggression stemming from anger and instrumental aggression aiming to injure as a means to an end. Aggression has biological roots in genetics and neural/hormonal factors like testosterone as well as social and environmental influences such as learning aggression from models, experiencing frustration or aversive stimuli, and exposure to violent media. Reducing aggression involves limiting exposure to provocative influences, promoting prosocial behavior through parenting, and finding nonviolent outlets for emotions.

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JînTogi Kirishma
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90 views21 pages

7 Aggression

Aggression is any behavior intended to hurt someone and comes in physical and social forms. There are two types: hostile aggression stemming from anger and instrumental aggression aiming to injure as a means to an end. Aggression has biological roots in genetics and neural/hormonal factors like testosterone as well as social and environmental influences such as learning aggression from models, experiencing frustration or aversive stimuli, and exposure to violent media. Reducing aggression involves limiting exposure to provocative influences, promoting prosocial behavior through parenting, and finding nonviolent outlets for emotions.

Uploaded by

JînTogi Kirishma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AGGRESSION

WHAT COMES TO YOUR


MIND WHEN YOU HEAR
THE WORD 'AGGRESSION'?
WHAT IS AGGRESSION?
Aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended
to hurt someone
Aggression includes both physical aggression (hurting
someone's body) and social aggression (such as
bullying and cyberbullying, insults, gossips, or social
exclusion)
There are two types of aggression:
HOSTILE AGGRESSION: it springs from anger where
the goal is to injure someone
INSTRUMENTAL AGGRESSION: it aims to injure an
individual, but only as a means to some other end
THEORIES OF AGGRESSION
AGGRESSION AS A BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON
Lorenz and Freud agreed that aggressive energy is
instinctive behavior (innate, unlearned, and universal)
Our aggressive energy will accumulate from within

NEURAL INFLUENCES
Researchers found that the brain neural systems
facilitate aggression in both animals and humans

GENETIC INFLUENCES
Heredity influences the neural system's sensitivity to
aggressive cues. It has long been known that animals
can be bred for aggressiveness (e.g. fighting cocks)
THEORIES OF AGGRESSION
BIOCHEMICAL INFLUENCES
ALCOHOL
both laboratory experiments and police data shows
that alcohol unleashes aggression when people are
provoked
alcohol enhances aggressiveness by reducing
people's self-awareness, by focusing their attention
on a provocation and by people's mentally
associating alcohol with aggression
TESTOSTERONE
human aggressiveness does correlate with the male
sex hormone testosterone (e.g. among normal range
of boys and men, those with high testoreone levels
are more prone to deliquency)
THEORIES OF AGGRESSION
BIOCHEMICAL INFLUENCES
POOR DIET
A research of Bernard Gesch tackled male prisoners' diet
where prisoners who got extra nutrition were involved in
fewer violent incidents
A study on Boston public high school showed that
students who drank more than five cans of nondiet soda
a week were more likely to have been violent towards
peers, siblings, partners and more likely to have carried a
weapon
BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR
traffic between biology and behavior flows both ways
for example, higher levels of testosterone may cause
dominant and aggressive behavior, but dominant and
aggressive behavior can also lead to higher testosterone
level
AGGRESSION AS A RESPONSE TO
FRUSTRATION
FRUSTRATION AGGRESSION THEORY: frustration triggers a
readiness to aggress
there are other studies where frustration leads to
irritation not aggression
FRUSTRATION: the blocking of goal-directed behavior
DISPLACEMENT: redirection of aggression to a target
other than the source of the frustration
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION: the perception that one is less
well off than others with whom one compares oneself;
gap between expectations and attainments
AGGRESSION AS LEARNED
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY: the theory that we learn social
behavior by observing and imitating and by being
rewarded and punished
Bandura believes that everyday life exposes us to
aggressive models in the family, in one's subculture, and
mass media
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

AVERSIVE INCIDENTS
PAIN: pain heightens aggressiveness in humans
HEAT: temporary climate variations can affect behavior
Offensive odors, cigarette smoke, and air pollution have
all been linked with aggressive behavior
ATTACKS: being attacked or insulted is especially
conducive to aggression. Several experiments confirm
that intentional attacks breed retaliatory attacks
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

AROUSAL
A state of arousal can be interpreted in different ways
depending on the context
Arousal fuels emotions
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

AGGRESSION CUES
Considering the frustration-aggression hypothesis,
violence is more likely when aggressive cues release
pent-up anger
In one experiment, children who had just played with toy
guns became more willing to knock down another
child's blocks
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

MEDIA INFLUENCES
Social psychological research on pornography has
focused mostly on depictions of sexual violence, which
is commonplace in popular recent adult videos. This
leads to men's perceptual distortion
Research shows that exposure to pornography
increases acceptance of the rape myth
Evidence also suggests that pornography contributes to
men's actual aggression toward women
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

MEDIA INFLUENCES
Studies of television viewing and aggression aim to
identify effects more subtle and pervasive than the
occasional "copycat" murders that capture public
attention
Researcher Belson surmised that the heavy violent
viewers were indeed more violent because of their TV
exposure
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

WHY DOES MEDIA VIEWING AFFECT BEHAVIOR?


one is the arousal it produces
next is that viewing violence disinhibits
media portrayals also evoke imitation

PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR: positive, constructive, helpful social


behavior; the opposite of antisocial behavior
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

MEDIA EFFECTS ON THINKING


Desensitization
Social scripts
Altered Perceptions
Cognitive Priming
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

Playing violent video games has an array of effects,


including the following:
increases in aggressive behaviors
increases in aggressive thoughts
increases in aggressive feelings
habituation in the brain
greater likelihood of carrying a weapon
decreases in self-control and increases in antisocial
behavior
decreases in helping and in empathy for others
INFLUENCES ON AGGRESSION

CATHARSIS HYPOTHESIS: emotional release. The


catharsis view of aggression is that the aggressive drive
is reduced when one "releases" aggressive energy,
either by acting aggressively or by fantasizing
aggression
GROUP INFLUENCES ON
AGGRESSION
much aggression is committed by groups
circumstances that provoke individuals may also
provoke groups
deindividuation and polarization at play
GROUP INFLUENCES ON
AGGRESSION
Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman note that social
psychologists have studied aggression in both
laboratory and day-to-day experiences and noted that
increased aggression is predicted by the following:
being male
aggressive or anger-prone personality
alcohol use
violence viewing
anonymity
provocation
presence of weapons
group interaction
HOW CAN AGGRESSION BE
REDUCED?
CATHARSIS
concept of catharsis is credited to Aristotle where he
argued that we can purge emotions by experiencing
them and that viewing the classic tragedies
therefore enabled a catharsis of pity and fear. To
have an emotion excited, he believed, is to have that
emotion released
HYDRAULIC MODEL: accumulated aggressive energy,
like dammed-up water, needs a release
HOW CAN AGGRESSION BE
REDUCED?
SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH
if aggressive behavior is learned, then there is hope
for its control
there are experiments where caregivers ignore
children's aggressive behavior and reinforce
nonaggressive behaviors

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