Aggression, Coercive Action, and Anger - Notes

Kinds of Aggression

• Moyer identified eight types of aggression, applicable to both animals and humans, each involving different brain structures:
  1. Predatory aggression: against natural prey.
  2. Intermale aggression: male response to another male.
  3. Fear-induced aggression: occurs when confined; escape attempts precede aggression.
  4. Territorial aggression: defending home territory.
  5. Maternal aggression: protecting young from intruders.
  6. Irritable aggression: results from frustration, pain, or stress.
  7. Sex-related aggression: triggered by stimuli that also elicit sexual behavior.
  8. Instrumental aggression: learned behavior resulting in reward.

Traditional Definition of Aggression

• Aggression is defined as behavior intended to cause harm to another person.
• It involves both intention and harm, distinguishing it from unintentional harm.

Early Laboratory Research on Aggression

• Early research focused on demonstrating that individuals would inflict physical harm on others, using painful shocks as a measure.
• Participants were willing to deliver shocks, even when they believed the shocks would be extremely painful.
• Provocation, such as negative evaluations or insults, increased the likelihood and intensity of shocks delivered.
• Individuals tend to retaliate in kind when harmed, but may inflict more harm if they believe they will not face retaliation.
• Massive retaliation can stop attacks, while the threat of retaliation reduces the tendency to initiate an attack, except when the person is very angry.

New Concepts Regarding Aggression

• The need to control is seen as the underlying motivation for aggression.
• Aggression is defined as the willingness to engage in physical and psychological harm to control others' actions.

Anger and Aggression

• Aggression is an instrumental behavior linked to the need to control, distinct from anger, which is an emotion that can lower the threshold for aggression.
• Instrumental aggression does not involve anger, while affective aggression is characterized by anger.

Measuring Human Aggression

• Self-report inventories are used to measure aggressive tendencies, such as the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory and the Aggression Questionnaire.
• The Aggression Questionnaire identifies four components: physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility.

Biological Component of Aggression

• Genetic factors may play a role in aggression, as suggested by twin studies.
• Impulsivity, linked to aggression, may be mediated by serotonin levels in the brain.

Hormones and Aggression

• Testosterone is linked to aggression.
• Studies on steroid users and castrated males have shown that testosterone increases aggressive behavior.
• High levels of testosterone and estradiol were linked to aggression in men but negatively linked to aggression in women.
• Female aggression may be related to imbalances of progesterone and estrogen during menstruation.
• Studies suggest that progesterone administration can alleviate irritability and hostility during menstruation.

Androstenedione and Aggression

• Higher levels of androstenedione in adolescents are related to problem behaviors.

Sex Differences in Males and Females

• Males tend to be more physically aggressive than females.
• Females are more cautious about using physical aggression and experience more guilt and anxiety.

Neuromechanisms

Temporal Lobe Pathology

• Brain tumors in the temporal lobe may be related to aggression.

Amygdala

• The amygdala plays a central role in aggression, triggering fight-or-flight responses and initiating actions before the neocortex fully comprehends incoming signals.

Learned Component of Aggression

Frustration

• The frustration hypothesis suggests that aggression increases when goal-directed behavior is blocked.
• Frustration is likely to facilitate aggression when it is intense and unexpected or arbitrary.