Chapter 19: Forms and Functions of Aggression

Aggression

• behaviour aimed at another person, done with the intent to cause harm, where the perpetrator believes the target wants to avoid it

  • subset of antisocial behaviour

  • violence is a subset of aggression

• can be reactive and proactive

Indirect Aggression

• perpetrator’s identity is hidden

  • exluding people

Direct Aggression

• aggressor is identifiable

  • physical and verbal

Reactive Aggression

• hot-blooded

• impulsive — emotionally driven

• retaliatory

Proactive Aggression (Instrumental Aggression)

• cold-blooded

• goal-directed — purposeful

Historical Trends

• long-term decline in violence over 2 millennia

  • criticized for underrepresenting violence against women

  • statistical flaws

  • western bia

Gender Differences in Aggression

• men: engage in more direct/physical aggression

• women: engage in more indirect aggression

Lifetime Trajectories of Aggression

• physical aggression

• indirect aggression

Physical Aggression

• low/absent from toddlerhood onward

• moderate in toddlerhood, desisting by childhood/adolescence

  • most common

• stable high aggression from toddlerhood on

  • boys are overrepresented in this trajectory

Indirect Aggresion

• low and stable: consistently low levels of indirect aggression throughout childhood and adolescence

  • most children follow this path

• high and increasing: indirect aggression starts higher and keeps increasing as the child ages

Differential Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Aggression

• regulation of behaviour, emotion, and the self

• psychopathology

• cognitive biases

• social adjustment

Differential Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Aggression — Regulation of Behaviour, Emotion, and the Self

• RA associated with…

  • poor self-regulation

  • poor emotional regulation

  • impulsivity

• evidence is weaker for PA’s link to regulation deficits

Differential Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Aggression — Psychopathology

• RA associated with…

  • internalizing problems (co-occurring problems)

    • negative emotionality

    • neuroticism

    • social anxiety

• PA associated with externalizing problems (aggression as a tool, more risk taking)

  • oppositional/defiant conduct disorder

  • substance use/binge-drinking

Differential Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Aggression — Cognitive Biases

• RA linked to…

  • hostile attribution bias → assuming ambiguous actions are intentionally hostile

• PA linked to…

  • positive outcome expectancies → expecting aggression to pay off

Differential Correlates of Reactive and Proactive Aggression — Social Adjustment

• RA more strongly linked to…

  • low prosocial behaviour

  • peer rejection

  • poor social skills

RA-Focused Treatment

• target hostile attribution bias and social skills

PA-Focused Treatment

• address both RA and PA components

• reward-based techniques (because of links to positive outcome expectancies)

Assessment of Aggression

• reactive-proactive aggression questionnaire (RPQ)

• impulsive/premeditated aggression scale (IPAS)

• behavioural paradigms

  • competitive reaction time task (CRTT)

    • compete with fictional opponent in online reaction time test

      • fastest reaction wins — get to punish loser with duration and volume of sound for loser

      • avoid self-report bias but have low ecological validity