Aggression

- To a social psychologist, aggression is physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm.

Types of Aggression
a. Physical Aggression
– involves using physical force to harm someone or something, such as hitting, pushing,
or kicking.

b. Social Aggression
– Hurting someone else’s feelings or threatening their relationships. Sometimes called
relational aggression, it includes cyberbullying and some forms of in-person bullying.

c. Hostile Aggression
– aggression driven by anger and performed as an end in itself, such as insults, murder,
intimidation, spreading rumors, and cyberbullying.

d. Instrumental Aggression – aggression that is a means to some other end, such as armed
robbery and terrorism.

✓ Dan Oleus and Kyrre Breivik (2013) – described the consequences of bullying as “the
opposite of well-being”

Hostile vs Instrumental Aggression

- The goal or intention behind the aggressive behavior

• Hostile aggression
– An impulsive or emotional reaction to a perceived threat, insult, or frustration.

• Instrumental aggression
- A calculated or strategic behavior aimed at achieving a specific goal or outcome.
Theories of Aggression

• Instinct theory and Evolutionary Psychology

– instinctive behavior an innate, unlearned behavior pattern exhibited by all members
of a species.

Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon

➢ Neural Influences
– researchers have found neural systems in both animals and humans that facilitate
aggression.

➢ Genetic Influences
– heredity influences the neural system’s sensitivity to aggressive cues.
o MAOA-L – “known as the warrior genes or the violence genes”

➢ Biochemical Influences – alcohol, testosterone, poor diet

Aggression as a Response to Frustration

• Frustration – Aggression Theory

– the theory that frustration triggers a readiness to aggress.

• Frustration
– the blocking of goal-directed behavior

• Displacement
– the redirection of aggression to a target other than the source of the frustration.
Generally, the new target is a safer or more socially acceptable target.

✓ Relative Deprivation – the perception that one is less well off than others to whom one
compares oneself.

✓ Unjustified frustration - to anger and aggression cues = aggression

Aggression as Learned Social Behavior

• The Rewards of Aggression

– aggression as revenge can feel satisfying

• Observational Learning
- "Albert Bandura (1997) proposed a social learning theory of aggression. As with
most social behaviors, we acquire aggression by watching others act and noting the
consequences."

• Social Learning Theory

– the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being
rewarded and punished.

• The Family
– physically aggressive children tend to have physically punitive parents, who
disciplined them by modelling aggression with screaming, slapping, and beating.

• The Culture – the social environment outside the home also provides models.

What are some influences on aggression?

1. Aversive incidents
✓ Pain – heightens aggressiveness in humans
✓ Heat – temporary climate variations can affect behavior
✓ Attack – being attacked or insulted by someone is especially conducive to
aggression. Extracting “an eye for an eye” is the more likely response

2. Arousal
✓ Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer found that we can experience an aroused
bodily state in different ways.
✓ A state of arousal can be interpreted in different ways depending on the context
✓ Arousal fuels emotion

3. Aggression cues
✓ Violence is more likely when aggressive cues release pent-up anger
✓ Weapons effect – mere presence of weapons increases aggressive thoughts and
behaviors
✓ What’s in sight is in mind
4. Media
✓ Pornography and Sexual Violence
– referred to visual or written matter designed or intended to cause sexual
arousal.

✓ Distorted perceptions of sexual reality

– Pornography that portrays sexual aggression as pleasurable for the victim
increases the acceptance of the use of coercion in sexual relations.

✓ Aggression against women

✓ Television, Movies, and Internet

– extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater
aggressiveness. Children and teens who spent more time watching TV are more
likely to become young adults convicted of crimes, diagnosed with antisocial
personality disorder, and high in aggressive personality traits.

✓ Video games – playing violent video games has an array of effects

❖ Media’s Effect on Thinking

a. Desensitization
– the ways in which people become less anxious and shocked by media violence,
as a result of exposure.

b. Social Scripts
– a set of behaviors, actions, and consequences that are expected in a specific
environment.

c. Altered Perceptions
– a change in the pattern of sensory stimuli followed by an abnormal response to
such stimuli.

d. Cognitive Priming
– an explanation that proposes that the influence of aggression in the media and
in computer games provides individuals with ‘scripts’ for their responses and
behavior when they perceive an environmental stimulus as aggressive.

✓ Prosocial behavior – opposite of antisocial behavior

 5. Group influences
- The phenomenon that the majority of people in a group can alter the behavior of people
within that group.

✓ If frustrations, insults, and aggressive models heighten the aggressive tendencies

of isolated people, then such factors are likely to prompt the same reaction in
groups.

✓ As a riot begins, aggressive acts often spread rapidly after the “trigger” example of
one antagonistic person

Group influences:
a. Diffusing responsibility
b. Social Contagion
c. Polarizing Action
d. Collective Mentality

Increased aggression is predicted by the following:

✓ Being male
✓ Aggressive or anger-prone personalities
✓ Alcohol use
✓ Violence viewing
✓ Anonymity
✓ Provocation
✓ The Presence of weapons
✓ Group interaction

How can aggression be reduced

1. Catharsis
– From ancient Greek word κάθαρσις, katharsis, meaning “purification” or “cleansing”.
- refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions, and to a resulting
emotional state that results in renewal and restoration

- when individuals feel angry or frustrated, they may engage in aggressive behavior as a
means of releasing or venting their pent-up emotions, which should then reduce the
likelihood of future aggressive behavior.
 Catharsis Hypothesis
- extended to include the emotional release supposedly obtained not only by
observing drama but also through our recalling and reliving past events, through our
expressing emotions, and through our actions

Verdict on the theory of catharsis

- Engaging in aggressive behavior can reinforce and even amplify feelings of anger and
aggression, rather than reducing them.

- the act of expressing anger in a confrontational way can also provoke further anger and
aggression in others, leading to a cycle of escalating hostility.

- more constructive strategies such as mindfulness, cognitive restructuring, and

communication skills training are more effective in reducing anger and aggressive
behavior

Aristotle’s POV – “to have an emotion excited, he believed, is to have that emotion
released”

2. Social Learning Theory

- aggressive behavior is learned through observation, imitation, and reinforcement
- individuals acquire aggressive behavior patterns by observing others, particularly those
who are seen as role models or authority figures, and then imitating their behavior.

✓ Parenting – children whose parents were more permissive ( rarely sets limits on
behavior and did not enforce rules) grew into more aggressive adolescents.
Bullying is also reduced when parents/teachers monitor children closely.

3. Culture Change and World Violence

- Educating individuals about the causes and consequences of violence, as well as
teaching them skills such as conflict resolution and emotional regulation, can help to
promote more peaceful and cooperative behaviors.