1. Aggression

2. What is Aggression? Behavior intended to injure another
It is behavior (not angry feelings)
It is intended (not accidental harm)
It is aimed at hurting (not assertiveness or playfulness)

3. Aggression
In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause pain or harm.
Aggression takes a variety of forms among humans and can be physical, mental, or verbal.

4. Two Types of Aggression
There are two broad categories of aggression:
Hostile: affective, or retaliatory aggression
Instrumental: predatory, or goal-oriented aggression.

5. Evolutionary Psychology
The frequency of physical aggression in humans peaks at around 2-3 years of age.
It then declines gradually on average. These observations suggest that physical aggression is mostly not a learned behavior and that development provides opportunities for the learning of self-regulation

6. Is Aggression an Instinct?
Hundreds of years of debate
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: No. We are naturally gentle - restrictive society makes us hostile
Thomas Hobbes: We are brutes and only law and government can help us.
Freud: Argued that we had a powerful death instinct known as Thanatos – leads to aggressive actions.

7. Freud and Aggression
Believed that aggressive energy must be released – otherwise it builds up and causes illness.
A hydraulic theory
Sublimation – society regulates this instinct. Helps people to turn destructive energy into useful behavior
E.g., danger seeking, competitive person becomes a race car driver

8. “Thanatos”: Instinct for Destruction
Destruction, mayhem is fun!
Movies, novels, plays, video games, violent movies—justify our blood lust.

9. SOCIO-CULTURAL ASPECTS
Homicide rates for White southern males are substantially higher than for White northern males (especially in rural areas)
However, they do not endorse violence in general, only as a tool for protection of property and in response to insults: “Culture of honor” based upon history as herding society
Nisbett research on southerners reaction to being bumped and cursed at
More upset, primed for aggression (testosterone increase), more likely to engage in aggression after the incident.

10. Delgado
The most famous example of the stimoceiver in action occurred at a Cordoba bull breeding ranch. Delgado stepped into the ring with a bull which had had a stimoceiver implanted.
The bull charged Delgado, who pressed a remote control button which caused the bull to stop its charge. Delgado claimed that the stimulus caused the bull to lose its aggressive instinct.

11. Delgado's research interests centered on the use of electrical signals to evoke responses in the brain. His earliest work was with cats, but later did experiments with monkeys and humans, including mental patients.
Delgado used a radio which joined a stimulator of brain waves with a receiver which monitored E.E.G. waves and sent them back on separate radio channels.
This allowed the subject of the experiment full freedom of movement while allowing the experimenter to control the experiment

12. Genetic Influences
Twin studies suggest that genes influence human aggression.
Animals have been bred for aggressiveness.
Researchers are looking into specific gene traits or genetic markers with people who commit violent crimes.

13. Neural Influences
Experiments using stimulation of the brain have shown that the brain can facilitate or inhibit aggression.
--15 Death Row Inmates/All suffered from a brain injury.
- Phineas Gage showed a change in behavior after his accident.

14. Biochemical Influences
Studies of the effect of hormones such as testosterone, alcohol, and other substances can contribute to aggression.
Drugs that lower testosterone subdue aggressive behavior.
High testosterone correlates with irritability, low tolerance for frustration, assertiveness, and impulsiveness.

15. Biochemical Influences- Alcohol
Alcohol unleashes aggressive responses to frustration.
Police data and prison surveys re-enforce conclusions drawn from experiments on alcohol and aggression.
Aggression-prone people are more likely to drink and become violent when intoxicated.

16. Causes of Aggression- Alcohol
75% of individuals arrested for crimes of violence were legally drunk at the time of their arrests.
Experimental evidence implies that alcohol ingestion increases aggression
Interpretation, alcohol is a disinhibitor. It seems that under the influence of alcohol a person’s primary tendencies are revealed

17. The Role of Testosterone
Are there specific biological factors that influence aggression?
Strong positive correlation between testosterone levels and aggression.

19. The Role of Testosterone
Hormone linked to masculine body development and behavior in a wide range of species
Hens given testosterone act like roosters, and rise in dominance hierarchy

20. Sex and Testosterone
Social psychologist Jim Dabbs & colleagues found high testosterone levels in:
Aggressive boys
Violent criminals
Men and women with criminal records
Military veterans who went AWOL or got into trouble after their service

21. Sex and Testosterone
Dutch psychologist Stephanie VanGoozen & colleagues (1995, 1997) studied people undergoing sex change operations:
Women changing to men got testosterone injections – became more aggressive and sexual
Men changing to women got testosterone suppressants – became less aggressive and sexual

22. Why gender differences?
Males aggress to achieve and maintain status
Females aggress to protect offspring

23. Male Aggression vs. Female Aggression.
Men tend to be more aggressive than women.
If a woman wanted to kill a man, she would either convince her relatives to kill him or hire an assassin.
These are both forms of indirect aggression since the aggressor (female) is trying to hurt someone without putting herself in direct danger.

24. Highly publicized examples…

25. Why does media violence affect us?
When we summarize the ideas in the research four themes arise:
Seeing others being aggressive weakens our learned inhibitions against violence.
Learn techniques, imitate.
Primes anger. Makes us more aware of anger.
Desensitization to violence.

26. Long-Term Effects of Media Violence
Exposure to TV violence at ages 6-9 positively correlated with aggression as adults
No gender difference
Cross-cultural study found relationship between early viewing of TV violence and later aggression

27. Black & Bevan (1992) DV: aggression IV: type of movie
Movie-goers filled out an aggression questionnaire as they entered, or left: a violent movie, or a nonviolent movie…
DV: aggression
IV: type of movie

28. Black and Bevan (1992) studied film violence by venturing out into local theaters and submitting a questionnaire with the Buss-Durkee aggression inventory before or after participants had viewed the film.
The audience that watched the violent movie had higher aggression scores than that which watched the non-violent film, before and after viewing. People who watched the violent film displayed a large increase in aggression scores.

29. Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory
Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory is a 66-item or 75-item personality inventory with true/false questions.
My friends say that I argue a lot.
Other people always get the breaks.
I flare up easily but get over it quickly.
When people are nice to me I wonder what they want.
Sometimes I have become so mad I break things.
I sometimes feel like people are laughing at me behind my back.

30. Results and Implication
Those watching the violent movie were more aggressive to begin with
They became even more aggressive after watching the violent movie
Implication:
Watching Violence Magnifies Violent Inclinations

31. Frustration-Aggression Principle
The principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger, which can generate aggression.
This theory helps to explain why people scapegoat. When the source of the frustration cannot be challenged, the aggression gets displaced onto an innocent target.
Causes:
Fear and Anger
Physical Pain
Hot Temperatures
Ostracism

32. Example of Fear and Anger
After September 11th, Americans responded with a readiness to fight Terrorism.
Terrorism itself may spring from a friend or family member who has been killed.

33. Hot Temperatures and Anger
The link between violence and hot weather is so intuitive that it’s embedded in our language: Hotheads lose tempers that flare, anger simmers and comes to a boil, and eventually we cool down.
Perhaps the most detailed studies, led by psychologists Ellen Cohn and James Rotton of Florida State University, involved violent crime over a two-year period in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cohn and Rotton classified assaults according to time of day, day of week, and month and temperature. They ultimately concluded that violence rose with temperature, but only to a point.

34. Unpleasant Situations: Sweltering heat
Increases in temperature are associated with:
More aggressive horn-honking
Increases in assaults
Increases in murders
Increases in urban riots
Major league pitchers throwing more balls at batters
Reifman, Larrick, & Fein, 1991(see next slide –>)

35. Ostracism
When people are isolated or rejected from a group they become socially excluded.
Rejection-induced aggression has been deemed to be the cause of several school shootings in both North America and Europe.
Rejection also intensifies with aggression.
Asa Coon had apparently been the target of bullying by students at the school for his Gothic-styled appearance and eccentric behavior.

36. Aggression in Children
The frequency of physical aggression in humans peaks at around 2-3 years of age. It then declines gradually on average.
-hair pulling
-biting
-pinching
-hitting
These observations suggest that physical aggression is mostly not a learned behavior and that development provides opportunities for the learning of self-regulation

37. Aggression in Children
However, a small subset of children fails to acquire the necessary self-regulatory abilities and tends to show atypical levels of physical aggression across development.
These may be at risk for later violent behavior.
Who is this?

38. Kayla Rowland, murdered by another 6 year old
Dan Petric killed his mother and attempted to kill his father. Father of murderer said his son spent his time “watching violent movies and TV”
Kayla Rowland, murdered by another 6 year old

39. Social Learning Theory of Aggression
Albert Bandura proposed the idea that people learn aggressive behavior through observation and modeling.
Theory that aggressive behavior is learned through:
Direct Reward
Example: father buys son an ice cream after he wins a fight
Observing Others Being Rewarded for Aggressiveness
Example: a television character wins the girl of his dreams as a result of killing several people.

40. The Bobo Doll Experiment
The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961.
In this work, Bandura found that children exposed to aggressive adult model acted more aggressively than those who were exposed to a nonaggressive adult model.

41. Design of the Bobo Doll Experiment
Sample / Subjects / Participants
36 boys and 36 girls, from Stanford Nursery, mean age 4 years 4 months
Independent Variable
Exposure to aggressive model or non-aggressive model
Dependent variable
Imitation / behaviour after the exposure
Imitation of physical aggression: […] striking the Bobo doll with the mallet, sitting on the doll and punching it in the nose, kicking the doll, and tossing it in the air.
Imitative verbal aggression: Subject repeats the phrases, "Sock him," "Hit him down," "Kick him," "Throw him in the air," or "Pow"
Imitative nonaggressive verbal responses: Subject repeats, "He keeps coming back for more," or "He sure is a tough fella."
Mallet aggression: Subject strikes objects other than the Bobo doll aggressively with the mallet.
Sits on Bobo doll: Subject lays the Bobo doll on its side and sits on it, but does not aggress toward it.

42. Method
The control group was composed of 24 children. The first experimental group comprised 24 children exposed to aggressive model behavior.
The second experimental group comprised 24 children exposed to nonaggressive model behavior.

43. Method
To avoid skewed results due to the fact that some children were already predisposed to being more aggressive, the experimenter and the teacher (both knew the children well) rated each child based on physical aggression, verbal aggression, and object aggression prior to the experiment.
This allowed Bandura to group the children based on average aggression level.

44. Results
Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model.
This experiment is important to psychology because it was a precedent that sparked many more studies about the effects of viewing violence on children.

45. Conclusions
Aggression is a learned behaviour, not an in-built instinct
Learning can take place in absence of any reinforcement, only via observation and modelling
Modelling is a powerful and fast way of learning

46. Bandura’s further research
Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963): children watched films with either an aggressive or non-aggressive model
Filmed model produced even more aggression than live model
Model rewarded or punished for aggression
Children imitated the rewarded aggresive model the most
Bandura’s research as the ‘first generation’ of scientific research on the effects of media violence on children

47. Glamorizing Violence Plagens, et al. (1991)
Typical American child sees 200,000 acts of violence on TV by age 18
Children who watch a lot of violent TV are more violent towards peers
Experimental studies, in which violence is controlled, also find effects of watching violence

48. Other studies have found…
By the end of elementary school, a typical American child will have seen:
8,000 murders
More than 100,000 other acts of violence
2003 study (Parents Television Council) found 534 separate episodes of prime-time violence during a 2 week period
The most violent TV shows are targeted to children (e.g., cartoons)

49. Do Video Games Teach or Release Violence?
Homework:
Find an article/study that either supports the idea that video games cause violence or refutes the notion.
Video games have been studied for links to addiction and violent behavior. Some studies have found that video games do not contribute to these problems, while others claim to have established a link.

50. Violent Video Games
Several studies have shown significant results indicating that playing violent video games is associated with a history of property destruction and hitting other students…
Anderson & Dill (2000)
College students randomly assigned to play a violent video game (Wulfenstein) later had more aggressive thoughts and feelings than those who played a nonviolent game (Tetrix)

51. Similar to other forms of media, video games have been the subject of debate and censorship.
Space Blaster

52. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and violent behavior. Some studies have found that video games do not contribute to these problems, while others claim to have established a link.
Recently, several groups have argued that there are few if any scientifically proven studies to back up such claims, and that the video game industry has become a scapegoat for the media to blame for various social ills.
Furthermore, numerous researchers have proposed potential positive effects of video games on aspects of social and cognitive development and psychological well-being.

53. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
An example of video game controversy Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came under similar criticism, also for implying allegedly racist hate crimes: The game, taking place in "Vice City" (a fictional Miami) in 1986, involves a gang war between Haitians and Cuban refugees, and the player often serves both gangs to plot against one another.
Haitian and Cuban anti-defamation groups highly criticized the game for these actions, including using inflammatory phrases.
After the threat of being sued by the Haitian-American Coalition, Rockstar removed the word "Haitians" from this phrase in the game's subtitles.

54. The Challenge of Video
Dilemma for parents about letting children watch television and play video games
parents find videos a good babysitter
parents believe videos can sometimes be educational tool
Experts suggest parents turn off the TV to avoid exposing children to video violence

55. In a recent research study, adolescents played two different types of video games for 30 minutes. Teens that played the violent game (right) showed increased activity in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal.

56. In this video game, it appears you win by beheading the guy???

57. The Evidence on Content
Children, especially males, who watched educational television became teens who earned higher grades and read more.
Children, especially females, who watched violent television had lower grades.

58. The Evidence on Content
Content of video games crucial reason behind great concern of developmental researchers
research shows that violent TV and video games push children to be more violent than they normally would be
computer games probably worse, as children are doing the virtual killing

59. Role of Learning and Culture in Aggression
Aggressive behavior is more common in individualist than in collectivist cultures
Many learn aggressive responses by watching others
e.g., Bandura’s “Bobo doll” experiments
People become aggressive when rewarded for aggressiveness and less aggressive when punished for aggression

60. Culture of Honor
A set of societal norms whose central idea is that people (particularly men) should be ready to defend their honor with violent retaliation if necessary…
Southern U.S. has more honor-related homicides (Nisbett et al., 1995)
Southern students respond more aggressively to an insult in a lab setting (Cohen, et al., 1996)

61. The Violent Crime Clock
Based on Federal Bureau of Investigations statistics

62. 100 75
Percentage of Total FBI homicides 50 25
Men
Women
Throughout history, men have committed the vast majority of homicides. This graph depicts data from the United States over the last 3 decades

63. Aggression and Adaptive Goals
A drive towards aggressiveness could only evolve if it increased the chances of survival or reproduction
A drive toward “blind aggression” would be maladaptive
Aggression is thus unlikely to be a goal in itself, but should instead be linked to particular goals in particular situations

64. Violent Video Games
Several studies have shown significant results indicating that playing violent video games is associated with a history of property destruction and hitting other students…
Anderson & Dill (2000)
College students randomly assigned to play a violent video game (Wulfenstein) later had more aggressive thoughts and feelings than those who played a nonviolent game (Tetrix)

65. Immediate Effects of Media Violence
Aggressive models increase aggressive behavior among children and adults
Models can be live or on film
Violent imagery in the music industry associated feelings of hostility and aggressive thoughts
Playing violent video games can increase aggressive thoughts and behaviors

66. Results and Implication
Those watching the violent movie were more aggressive to begin with
They became even more aggressive after watching the violent movie
Implication:
Watching Violence Magnifies Violent Inclinations

67. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
Original
The theory that aggression is an automatic response to any blocking of goal-directed behavior
Revised
The theory that any unpleasant stimulation will lead to emotional aggression to the extent that it generates unpleasant feelings

68. Lets take a closer look at what makes us angry/aggressive?
Anderson and Anderson (1984, 1998)
Found that uncomfortably hot weather heightened aggressive reactions
Source: Anderson, C. A. & Anderson, K. P. (1998)

69. Anderson (1987) (Anderson, Bushman, & Groom (1996)
Time period studies show that violent crimes are more likely to occur during warm-weather months than on cold weather months, and also that violent crimes tend to be more common in hot years than in cooler years and that the usual summer increase in violent crime is magnified during hotter years

70. Feelings of Arousal and Irritability
Excitation Transfer Theory
Theory that anger is physiologically similar to other emotional states
And any form of emotional arousal can enhance aggressive responses
Example: Students were more aggressive after watching nonviolent erotic films or riding an exercise bike (Cantor et al., 1978)

71. Cognitive Neoassociation Analysis
Theory that feelings and thoughts interact
Unpleasant experiences create negative affect
Negative affect stimulates associations connected with anger and fear
How one responds to these automatic thoughts and emotions is influenced by higher level cognitive processing

72. Unpleasant Experiences (pain, heat, etc.) Negative FeelingsOR
Angry thoughts and associations
Angry thoughts and associations
Fearful thoughts and associations
Fight
Fight
Flight

73. Unpleasant Experiences (pain, heat, etc.) Negative FeelingsOR
Objects or Events Priming Aggression
Angry thoughts and associations
Angry thoughts and associations
Fearful thoughts and associations
Fight
Fight
Flight

74. Frustrations, Perception, and Personal Choices
Weapons effect
The tendency for weapons, such as guns, to enhance aggressive thoughts, feelings, and actions

75. Berkowitz & LePage (1967) Procedures:
Subjects made angry by an insulting confederate gave more electric shock
DV:
Aggression
Determined by # of shocks administered
IV1:
Type of visible object
IV2:
Actions of confederate

76. Physical Aggression Between Partners
Partner abuse is a worldwide phenomenon.
Higher levels of wife-to-husband violence reported than husband-to-wife abuse
Consequences of aggression between partners tend to be much more damaging to women
Violence between partners caused by multiple factors

77. Child Abuse
Estimated over a million children are physically abused and over 150,000 are sexually abused
Most severe abuse is often inflicted by parents and caretakers
Boys suffer more physical abuse than girls do
Mothers are more likely to physically abuse their children
Girls suffer more sexual abuse than do boys
Fathers are more likely to sexually abuse their children

78. Reducing Aggression: Situational and Sociocultural Factors
Reduce stressors such as frustration, discomfort, and provocation
Teach and model nonviolent responses to frustrations and social problems
Emphasize cooperation over competitiveness
Change cost-reward payoffs associated with aggression

79. Reducing Aggression: Media Effects
Censorship?
Education may be most effective approach
Increase critical viewing skills

80. Reducing Aggression: Intimate Violence
Sex education programs that:
Emphasize desirability of being respectful and considerate towards one’s partner
Debunk rape myths
Increase sensitivity
Provide family members with educational and employment opportunities to reduce family violence
Note: Several slides in this presentation prepared by:

81. Prisoners’ Dilemma Cooperation Game
Player Player 2
Cooperate
Defect
Both gain
small reward
Player #1 gains big reward, #2 looses
Player #2 gains big reward, #1 looses
Both player
loose

82. Social Learning Theory of Aggression
Theory that aggressive behavior is learned through:
Direct Reward
Example: father buys son an ice cream after he wins a fight
Observing Others Being Rewarded for Aggressiveness
Example: a television character wins the girl of his dreams as a result of killing several people