Lecture Notes on Aggression and Helping Behavior

This set of flashcards covers key terms and concepts related to aggression and helping behavior, as detailed in the lecture notes.

Aggression

Behavior intended to harm another person.

Hostile aggression

Aggression driven by anger with the primary goal of hurting someone.

Cold aggression

Deliberate, unemotional, calculated aggression not mainly driven by anger.

Instrumental aggression

Aggression used as a means to achieve another goal such as money, status, or power.

Reactive aggression

Aggressive response to provocation, threat, frustration, or insult.

Proactive aggression

Planned, goal-directed aggression used to obtain a desired outcome.

Direct aggression

Overt aggression aimed at a target face-to-face through physical or verbal attack.

Indirect aggression

Aggression expressed in less obvious ways that harm the target without direct confrontation.

Relational aggression

Aggression that harms someone through damage to relationships, reputation, or social inclusion.

Social role model

The view that gender differences in aggression come from socially learned gender roles and expectations.

Precarious manhood hypothesis

The idea that manhood is a socially earned status that must be continually proven and is easily threatened.

Status

Social rank or standing that provides access to resources, power, and social advantage.

Aggressive schema

A mental framework that makes aggressive thoughts and responses more accessible.

Hostile attribution bias

The tendency to interpret another person’s ambiguous behavior as hostile or intentional.

Construal process

The process of interpreting a situation in a way that shapes emotional and behavioral responses.

Anger

A high-arousal negative emotional state often triggered by insult, injustice, frustration, or discomfort.

Social Learning Theory

The theory that aggression is learned through observing and imitating aggressive models.

Catharsis Theory

The claim that aggression is reduced by releasing aggressive impulses through venting or observing violence.

Venting

Expressing anger aggressively in an attempt to release emotion, though research does not support it as a long-term reducer of aggression.

Media violence

Exposure to violent content that can contribute to aggressive thoughts or behavior.

Culture of honor

A cultural pattern valuing reputation, toughness, and defense against insult, especially for men.

Heat effect

The tendency for hotter temperatures to be associated with increased aggression.

Social rejection

Exclusion or lack of acceptance from others that can produce emotional pain and increase aggression.

Cyberball

An experimental exclusion task to study ostracism and rejection.

Deindividuation

Reduced self-awareness and concern about evaluation by others, often increasing impulsive or aggressive behavior.

Balanced-placebo design

Experimental design separating the effects of actually consuming alcohol from the effects of believing one consumed alcohol.

Social roles

Expected patterns of behavior associated with particular social positions or identities.

Stanford Prison Study

A controversial study where participants adopted abusive and submissive behaviors based on assigned roles.

Audience inhibition

Reluctance to act due to fear of embarrassment or making a bad impression.

Egoistic motivation

Helping motivation that includes some benefit to oneself such as praise or reduced distress.

Altruistic motivation

Helping motivation focused on improving another person’s welfare without personal gain.

Cooperation

Coordination between individuals or groups toward a goal that benefits everyone involved.

Altruism

Prosocial behavior intended to benefit another person without regard for personal reward or cost.

Kin selection

The evolutionary tendency to help genetic relatives to support shared genes.

Prisoner’s dilemma

A decision-making game used to study cooperation where individuals choose to cooperate or defect.

Reciprocity

Responding to another person’s behavior in kind, promoting cooperation.

Tit-for-tat strategy

A cooperation strategy that begins by cooperating and then mimics the other person's previous move.

Interpersonal value

The degree to which another person is seen as valuable, influencing cooperation or help.

Construal in cooperation

How a social situation is labeled or interpreted affects competitive or cooperative actions.

Empathy-altruism hypothesis

The theory that empathic concern can produce genuinely altruistic helping.

Empathic concern

Other-focused feelings of sympathy and care for someone in need.

Personal distress

Self-focused discomfort that may motivate helping to reduce one's own unease.

Perspective taking

Mentally putting oneself in another’s position to understand their experience.

Diffusion of responsibility

The tendency for individuals to feel less responsible to help when others are present.

Pluralistic ignorance

The mistaken belief that one's private concern differs from others' reactions.

Bystander effect

The tendency for individuals to be less likely to help when others are present.

Latané and Darley’s 5-step model of helping

Model proposing that helping occurs only if a person notices the event, interprets it as a problem, takes responsibility, decides how to help, and provides help.

Good Samaritan Study

Study showing that people in a hurry were less likely to help someone in distress.

Smoke-filled room study

Study showing that people were less likely to report smoke when others appeared unconcerned.

Seizure study

Study showing that people were less likely to help someone having a seizure if they believed more bystanders were present.

Distraction

Diverted attention that reduces likelihood of noticing a person in need.

Ambiguity

Uncertainty about whether a situation is actually an emergency or problem.

Responsibility

Personal sense of obligation to act in a helping situation.

Competence

Having the knowledge or ability needed to provide effective help.

Cost of helping

The time, effort, risk, embarrassment, or resources that may discourage helping.

Need to belong

The basic human motivation to form and maintain meaningful social connections.

Ostracism

Being ignored, excluded, or left out by others.

Prosocial behavior

Any behavior intended to benefit another person or group.