Aggression, Coercive Action, and Anger

Coercive action aims to achieve compliance through threats and punishments.
It occurs when a target's behavior doesn't align with the actor's desires.
The goal is to realign the target's behavior with the actor's wishes.
Four types of costs associated with coercive action:
- Opportunity costs
- Potential retaliation costs
- Noncoercion costs
- Third-party costs
People may take irrational coercive actions due to:
- Incomplete information processing.
- Mindless repetitive behaviors or copying others.
- Limited ability to process information.

Alcohol consumption is strongly correlated with criminal behavior due to disinhibition.
Alcohol impairs information processing, leading to a failure to consider consequences.
Individuals under the influence of alcohol may fail to consider the costs of coercive acts.

Justice is a value acquired early in life, based on the belief that actions lead to predictable outcomes.
Belief in a just world reduces anxiety about the future.
Rules of conduct, understood as norms, are essential for a just world.
Violating norms can lead to suspicion and deprivation of privileges.
Justice involves obeying norms and taking responsibility for actions.

Retributive justice is the belief that blameworthy behavior should be punished to enforce norms.
Norms and terminal goals both represent desired outcomes.

Distributive justice: Fair allocation of resources and duties.
Procedural justice: Fair means to resolve conflicts.
Interactional justice: Conformity to norms about demeanor, respect, and politeness.
Violations of justice are perceived as attacks on self-worth.

Blame attribution involves a series of inferences when observing unwanted behavior.
Steps:
- Actor caused the negative outcome.
- Outcome was intended or unintended.
- Intention was justified or unjustified.
Blame is assigned if the action was unjustified or foreseeable.

Anger often accompanies blame attribution.
Unjust treatment is perceived as a threat to self-worth.
Angry people display energized behavior and impaired information processing.
This can lead to escalating conflicts, as both parties try to protect self-worth.

Violence can be understood through the link between power and control.
Attempts to control others through violence are related to the belief in the right to control, even violently.
Psychological control theory suggests violence is triggered by the threat of loss of power.
Violence against marginalized groups reflects a struggle for power and resources.

Aggression is a strategy to gain control, with physical aggression being the last resort.
Lack of other control methods, anger, and alcohol can lead to aggression.

Tedeschi and Felson's theory: Individuals use threats and punishment to achieve goals.
Coercive action occurs when the target fails to comply with the actor's wishes.
People make rational decisions about coercive action but often fail to process all information.

Youth violence has increased, with poverty being a predictor, but not the sole cause.
Abuse in childhood can create a disposition towards violence, but is not universal.
Two paths to understanding youth violence:
- Antisocial and criminal behavior
- Conventional participant behavior
Model includes biological, learned, and cognitive factors.

Frustration and negative affects lead to aggression.
Frustration of basic needs combined with difficult life conditions can lead to aggression.
Frustration leads to hostile feelings, triggering the fight-or-flight response.

Animals and humans use different methods for dealing with threats and pain like physically attacking or creating distance.
Hostile feelings can lead to instrumental behaviors or attacking the threat.
Good guidance and role models can help children escape their plight.
Those with gangs often get reinforced that the only way to get what they want is to act violently.

Those with nurturing parents are likely to develop self-control.
Sense of control allows people to deal with their unfulfilled needs.
Children participating in a strong community understand that the route to control is learning the rules.
People who have no sense of control see themselves as victims.

Youth violence can be understood in 2 paths, one that is conventional and the other that is antisocial/criminal.
It begins with hostile feelings which is due to frustrated needs.
How the parents treat their child will lead into instrumental, adaptive, hostile, or aggressive.

Type A personality has a competitive striving for achievement, sense of urgency, and tendency toward aggressiveness.
Hostility and suppressed anger have been clearly linked to coronary heart disease.
People who score high in TABP and hostility tend to have high plasma lipids.
Anger-out subjects show increased diastolic blood pressure, while anger-in subjects show increased systolic blood pressure and heart rate.

A person who is cynically hostile often carry around a great deal of anger but is lacking in adaptive skills.
Cynical people must learn to reduce their cynical mistrust of others.

When hostility and TABP are high, levels of plasma lipids are also elevated.
Constant vigilance produces a chronic stress reaction which will trigger the release of high levels of catecholomines.

Type A personality is characterized by a competitive striving for achievement, an exaggerated sense of urgency, and a tendency toward aggressiveness and hostility.
Anger-out subjects show diastolic blood pressure while anger-in are systolic.