PSYC Aggression

Aggession

Internal physical or psychological pain

Hostile: anger

Instrumental: other goal

Causes of Hostility

Biology (Neurochemistry, testostorone), psychology (pain, discomfort, frustration, provocation, retaliation)

Imitation and Anger< Bandura and Ross

kids beat the shit out of a bobo doll if they saw adults doing it

boys more likely overall and kids more likely to imitate same sex

Temperature and faces fun fact

Upset and angry faces bring warm air to brain

Happy ones bring cooling effect to brain

Guns are a ___ for gun violence

Channel factor

• Lefkowtiz et al (1972)— violent tv and games

• • Grade 3 violent TV— Grade 13 agress.: r=.31

  • Mild but statistically significant correlation between the two

  • Can’t tell correlation or directionality though

Parke et al. (1977)— violent nonviolent movies

• Kids watched violent vs nonviolent movies in a natural setting (aka summer camp)

• Movie effect didn’t persists after 5 days— the aggression increased right after but was short term

• Not cumulative— mor violent movies didn’t necessarily mean more aggression

• Differential effects within group violence— kids with previous aggressive tendencies got more aggressive, other third variables also impacted the results

Anderson & Dill (2000)— video games and noise blasts

• Videogame —> longer noiseblasts

• Participants played violent or non violent video game

• They were then told they were going to comtpee against another play (actually a computer) and that the winner could blast a loud noise for the loser

• The violent video game player gave the loser longer and louder noiseblastsCatharsis: bushman et al. (1999)

Catharsis: bushman et al. (1999)— essay critique

• Write essay, which gets slammed

• One group hits punching bag while thinking abt the mf that shat on their paper, control group does not punch

• Then play the noise blast game

• Hitting punching bag: More aggressive/ longer and louder noise blasts

• The catharsis of punching the bag wasn’t actually cathartic, and instead increased aggression

Nisbett and Cohen (southerners: asshole nad chicken test)

• Study 1: “Asshole”

  • Male college students from the North and South

  • While walking down a hallway, a confederate bumps into participant and mutter asshole under breath

  • Southerners appear more angry with their facial expressions

  • Later when asked to complete a story involving conflict, the southerners were more likely to complete story w/ violence

  • The northerners didn't gaf, laughed or shrugged the comment off

• Study 2

  • Same set up but now measured the effect on hormones

  • Southerners: Elevated cortisol, testosterone

  • Northerners: little to no change

  • No effect on outward emotional reaction

    • But were chewing gum, which can control/mitigate facial expressions

• Study 3

  • Chicken game: confederate walked towards the participants and researchers measured how close h would get before the participant stepped aside

  • Southerners took longer, some even didn’t step aside and bumped into the confederate

  • Northerners stepped aside earlier

  • Other effects

Arousal and narrowed attention: Easterbrook, 1959

• Cue utilization theory

Arousal narrows your focus to only central cues. You miss out on outside or peripheral information/cuesAttention is a limited resource based on capacity

• the amount you have depends on your mental state

• The more you try to give attention to, the worse you performance becomes

Arousal and narrowed attention: Kahneman, 1973

• Attention is a limited resource based on capacity

• the amount you have depends on your mental state

• The more you try to give attention to, the worse you performance becomes

Arousal and narrowed attention, Linehan, 1993

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy for borderline personality disorder

• Oftentimes they would have too much arousal, causing impulsive and destructive behavior

• DBT focuses on accepting thoughts and emotions as they are, but learning emotional regulation and how to change behavior for the better

Yerkes-Dodson Law, 1908

Arousal and narrowed attention: Yerkes-Dodson Law, 1908

• Used mice discerning between visual stimuli as the task

• Arousal thought shocks (low, mild, high shock)

• Measured perfomracn as a result

• Bell curve, peak performance at middle aorusal

Arousal and Aggression (Ward et al, 2008)- noise blasts when aroused with inhibiting pressures and encouargment

• Read anger inducing passage (Keltner, Ellsworth, Edwards 1993)

• Get aroused (or not) by exercise

• Deliver noise-blasts against opponents in passage

• Strong inhibiting pressures present (confirmed by raters)

• Hypothesis: with strong inhibiting pressure, highly aroused less aggressive

• The details:

  • Cover story for anger passage: memory test

  • Cover story for exercise: how music affects arousal while exercising

  • Measures of mood and arousal

  • run fast for 2.5 minutes or walk slow

  • Deliver noise blast “but we’re recording”

  • DV: Intensity & duration of noise blast

• Conclusion, even when aroused, inhibition still possible (if pressure is strong enough)

Ward study 2

New Study

• Real opponent insulting confederate

• Inhibiting vs. promoting conditions in same study

• Arousal caused by either going on a stair climber or sitting in a comfy chair x

• Naturalistic cues ( battle music vs flute, fight vs puppies)

• Study Results

  • Significant interaction between arousal and cue salience

  • As predicted

    • Most aggressive: high arousal w/ aggression-promoting cues

    • Least aggressive: high arousal w/ aggression inhibiting cues

      • Indeed, mediated effect