Lecture 12: Aggression and Conflict

Chapter 13

Aggression

behavior intended to harm someone else

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of goals between two or more parties

Instrumental aggression

aggression serving mastery needs, used as a means to an end, to control other people, or to obtain valuable resources

Hostile aggression

aggression that is driven by anger due to insult, disrespect, or other threats to self-esteem or social identity

Frustration-aggression theory

a theory holding that any frustration—defined as the blocking of an important goal— inevitably triggers aggression

General Aggression Model

a theory that person and situation factors influence people’s cognition, emotions, and arousal, which in turn influence interpretations of the situation and decisions about aggression

Realistic conflict theory

the theory that intergroup hostility arises from competition among groups for scarce but valued material resources

Relative deprivation theory

the theory that feelings of discontent arise from the belief that other individuals or other groups are better off

Vicarious retribution

members of a group who were not themselves directly harmed by an attack retaliating against members of the offending group

Coalition formation

occurs when two or more parties pool their resources to obtain a mutual goal they probably could not achieve alone

Reactive devaluation

perceiving a proposed solution to a conflict negatively simply because the out-group offers it

Negotiation

The process by which parties in conflict communicate and influence each other to reach agreement

Superordinate goals

shared goals that can be attained only if groups work together