5 ~ Human Aggression and Violence

Aggression - Introduction

• Human nature? (Shared with animals) - instinctive, biological, "residue" of evolutionary past?

  • Inevitable

  • Aka aggression as result of evolution

• Learned from social environment? Differ from other animals? (thus, not inevitable)

  • Aka aggression as result of social learning/environment

• Animal aggression - biological

• Humans - cognitive component?

  • If evolutionary drives are still with us, are they impacted by learning, etc.?

Defining Aggression and Violence

• Something that is:

  • Hostile (reactive/expressive) v. instrumental

  • Active/Passive

  • Direct/Indirect

  • Physical/Nonphysical

• Aggression v. Violence

Defining Aggression

• Intent/attempt to harm

  • Can be direct or indirect (avoids face-to-face confrontation)

  • Active or Passive

  • Physical or nonphysical

    • Verbal aggression or physical aggression

  • Passive-aggressive = aggressive intent, but behavior itself is passive/indirect/nonphysical

• Males - more direct forms of aggression, especially toward other males

• Females - indirect aggression, regardless of the target's gender

Aggression - Hostile v. Instrumental

• Hostile Aggression

  • Response to a frustration, threat or provocation (e.g., insults, attacks, and failures)

    • Goal = hurt or destroy

  • Characterized by anger (emotional)

    • E.g., most criminal violence (e.g., homicide, assault)

  • Reactive-impulsive and Expressive Aggression

    • "unplanned, reactionary, impulsive, and fueled by intense emotions"

• Instrumental Aggression

  • Purposeful, goal-directed, planned

  • Less emotional (more cognitive)

  • Hurt to gain something (e.g., money, power)

    • E.g.,. Robbery, bully, assassins

  • Interference/resistance can lead to physical harm

    • e.g., liquor store robbery --> homicide = instrumental aggression

Aggression - Textbook Definition

• Behavior perpetrated or attempted with the intention of harming another individual physically or psychologically or to destroy an object

  • Psychological harm includes intimidation, threats, stalking or cyberbullying

  • Not always criminal (e.g., reasonable force, hunting)

  • Requires us to establish intent

Aggression v. Violence

• Violence - destructive physical aggression intentionally directed at harming other persons or things

  • Always harms or is intended to

  • Violence is a subset of aggression

    • All violence is aggression, but not all aggression is violent

  • Aggression that has extreme physical harm, such as injury or death, as its goal

Aggression - Ethological Perspectives

• Ethology - study of animal behavior

• Inherited instinct (i.e., behavioral tendencies grounded in biology)

• Functional (or was)

  • E.g., Defense of territory

• Territoriality

  • Violation of space - (genetically programmed; evolutionary) attack/aggressive response to intruder

  • Intraspecific aggression (same species) - survival/"fitness" advantages

• Ritualized Aggression

  • Most intraspecies aggression is ritualized

  • Displays superiority, short of combat

  • Preserves species

    • Makes no sense to kill other members of our own species

  • Humans have failed to develop this aspect?

    • Rather than inhibition of aggression and species preservation, we have developed the capacity to annihilate with weapons

Aggression And Evolutionary Psychology

• Evolutionary Psychology - human behavior in evolutionary context (natural selection; sexual selection)

  • E.g., gender differences (hunter/gatherer) in serial killers -- males travel wide geographical areas in search of victims, female serial killers choose victims who are closer to home

• Aggression = normal response; has been "selected for" over course of evolution

• Examples of adaptive problems for which aggression might have evolved as a solution:

  • Co-opting the resources of others, defending against attack, inflicting costs on same-sex rivals, negotiating status and power hierarchies, deterring rivals from future aggression

Theoretical Perspectives - Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

• Frustration as a "situational" instigator

• "Evolutionary inheritance and biological systems give each of us a capacity for hostile feelings and aggression, a capacity that we are most likely to engage when something or someone thwarts out needs and desires"

Aggression - Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

• "Frustrated, thwarted, annoyed or threatened" = aggression (automatic? Inevitable?)

• Research (revised hypothesis)

  • Frustration increases probability; facilitates aggression, but does not always produce aggression

  • People experience and respond differently (e.g., withdraw; do nothing; change situation)

• Cognitive component - anticipation and expectations

  • Deprivation alone is not enough - aggression more likely when people expect to attain goal

    • Cf. Relative deprivation: "the perception by an individual that the amount of a desired resource they have is less than some comparison standard. This standard can be the amount that was expected or the amount possess by others with whom the person compares themselves."

Aggression - Revised Frustration-Aggression Model

1. Blocked from attaining an expected goal

2. Frustration/anger as result

3. Anger predisposes ("readies") aggression

Aggression - Weapons Effect

• When weapons are present, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, hostile appraisals and aggression increase

  • If weapons are visibly present, hostility and aggression are increased

• Weapons effect - the presence of aggression-eliciting stimuli in environment increases the probability of overt aggression

  • "The mere sight of the weapon might elicit ideas, images, and expressive reactions that have been linked with aggression in the past"

    • Weapons "prime" aggression related thoughts

    • Weapons induce physiological state that predisposes people toward hostile actions

• Visible weapons might facilitate rather than inhibit violent responses

  • Law enforcement, private security, open carry, protests, etc. having a gun on their person primes aggressive thoughts?

    • Studies: "Aggression-related cues present in experimental settings act to increase aggressive responding. This cue effect occurs more strongly when subjects have been negatively aroused before their exposure to aggression-facilitating cues"

Aggression - Excitation Transfer Theory

• Arousal from one event is "transferred" to a later or unrelated event or person

  • Preexisting arousal + new irritation (can be minor) = increased likelihood of aggression

    • Physiological arousal "readies" us to respond aggressively

    • Dissipates slowly - can "transfer" to future situations

      • E.g., "taking it out" on spouse and/or kids

        • Think like a "ticking bomb" - the arousal dissipates slowly, and one inconvenience and cause the bomb to "explode"

  • Cognitive component: Arousal is "misinterpreted" 

Aggression - Displaced Aggression Theory

• "Aggression is displaced when the target is innocent of any wrongdoing bit is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time"

• Target is often innocent (not source of hostility)

  • Cannot aggress true source (e.g., boss)

    • "kicking the dog" effect

      • The dog did nothing wrong, but what just in the wrong place at the wrong time

• Triggered displacement - minor provocation (triggering event) prompts displacement aggression

  • Disproportionate to minor provocation, but may be proportionate to initial provocation

    • Ex. Road-rage

• Displaced aggression

  • Initial anger can be maintained over long periods

  • Rumination - self-focused attention toward thoughts or feeling

    • Keep thinking about something after it's over - promotes subsequent (displaced) aggression

Aggression - Social Learning and Biology

• "It is important to distinguish between the proximate hormonal and neuronal regulations of aggressive behavior and the cognitive and social influences that preside over these biological mechanisms."

• Biologically-rooted (?) but social and cognitive influences determine expression

Aggression - Social Learning Theory

• Aggression more likely when children:

  • (1) have many opportunities to observe aggression (acquisition)

  • (2) models are reinforced for aggression (maintenance)

  • (3) are often the object of aggression

• Highest rates of aggression --> communities with many aggressive models & aggression/violence is valued

Cognitive Models - Cognitive Scripts

• 'Schemas' or 'scripts' = templates that provide mental rules to guide behavior in particular situations

  • Aggressive scripts = acquired in early childhood through exposure to aggression (learning)

• Encoded, retained in memory and retrieved at a later stage to guide behavior

  • Requires observation and perception that aggression is advantageous (cf. reinforcement)

• Maintained via mental rehearsal (e.g., accessing memory; fantasy)

  • More rehearsal (use) = more accessible and more likely to be retrieved

Aggression - Hostile Attribution

• Hostile attribution model: prone to violence = more likely to interpret ambiguous actions as hostile and threatening

  • Bias towards perceiving behavior of others as provocative, harmful, hostile, or wrongful

• Link between community violence exposure, hostile attributions, and aggression

Aggression - Cognitive Models: Hostile Attribution

• Environment can create vigilance, tendency toward hostile attributions (and impact brain development)

• Maltreatment/exposure to violence creates:

  • "hypervigilance toward hostile social cues, perceptual readiness to perceive hostility in others' intentions, and quickness to generate aggressive retaliatory responses to even mild provocations"

Cognitive Factors - Arousal and its Control

• Arousal "is an energizer, but not a guide, an engine but not a steering gear"

  • "it is a person's ability to control the outward expression of anger, rather than their ability to control their inner angry feelings, that predicts aggression and violent behavior

• Cognition provides the "steering"(i.e., management of emotions)

• Control varies with level of arousal

  • High arousal interferes with mediating cognitive processes

    • Impulsive aggression more likely

  • e.g., anger management (to control aggression)

General Aggression Model (GAM)

• Incorporates biology, personality, social learning, cognitive factors

• Proximal processes = immediately related to aggressive behavior

  • Factors Include:

    • Person

      • Aggression scripts

      • Attitudes towards violence

    • Situation

      • Alcohol and other drugs

      • weapons

• Distal processes = long-term tendencies that influence short term behavior

  • Factors include:

    • Environmental Modifiers

      • Antisocial peers

      • Cultural norms and values

      • Deprivation

    • Biological Modifiers

      • ADD/ ADHD

      • Impulsivity deficits

Human Aggression - Reactive and Proactive Aggression

• Reactive aggression - expressions of anger, vengeance ("hot-blooded)

  • Frustration; lack of control (high arousal); perceived threat/provocation

  • Cf. frustration-aggression hypothesis

• Proactive aggression - calculated, a "tool" ("cold-blooded")

  • Expectations/rewards - financial, social (e.g., dominance), or psychological (e.g., feeling superior)

  • "…unprovoked, deliberate, goal-directed"

  • Cf. social learning theory (acquired; maintained by reinforcement)

• Reactive aggressive --> greater problems in social and psychological adjustment

  • Lack of emotional control

  • Hostile attribution bias

• Reactive - genetics/temperament?  v. proactive (beliefs/expectations/rewards)

Aggression - Gendered Differences?

• Boys/Males - more overt, direct, and physical aggression higher than females

• Social learning theory: girls are "socialized" differently than boys

  • Not born less aggressive, but taught not to be overly aggressive, while overt aggression is encouraged in boys

• Girls/women - more covert, indirect, verbal (v. physical)

  • E.g., character defamation, ostracizing friends, rumors, ridicule

• Overall, gender differences = not simply biology

  • More strongly linked to cultural and socialization processes that promote different kinds of aggression

Human Aggression - Effects of Media Violence

• Overall: Media violence appears to encourage, stimulate and reinforce aggressive behavior in some individuals

  • Influence children more strongly than adults

    • Scenes in which the perpetrator gets rewards for the violence or children can identify with the perpetrator have the greatest negative impact on children

• Adolescents more likely to condone aggression & display hostile attribution bias if frequently exposed to violent electronic games

  • High exposure = lower levels of empathy

Copycat Crime and the Contagion Effect

• Contagion effect - action depicted in media assessed as good idea and imitated

• Impact of news reports

  • May provide aggressive models/produce copycat or contagion effect

  • Similar to imitative behavior

• e.g., school shoot copycats