Chapter Eleven: Aggression 

What Is Aggression?

• Aggression: Behavior that is intended to harm another individual
  • Proactive Aggression: Aggression in which harm is inflicted as a means to a desired end
  • Harming someone for personal gain
  • Harming someone for attention
  • Harming someone for self-defense
  • Also called instrumental aggression
  • Reactive Aggression: Harm that is inflicted for its own sake
  • Also called emotional aggression
  • Often impulsive and carried out in the heat of the moment
  • Can also be calm and calculating
• ex: words, deeds, rumors, failure to act
• Violence: Extreme acts of aggression
• Anger: Strong feelings of displeasure in response to a perceived injury
• Hostility: A negative, antagonistic attitude toward another person or group

Culture, Gender, and Individual Differences

Culture and Aggression

Comparisons Across Societies

• The US has one of the highest murder rates among politically stable, industrialized nations
• Murder rates tend to be much higher in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Southern and Middle Africa
• Countries with wide disparities in income have murder rates almost 4x greater than societies with more equal income distribution
• Individualistic cultures are most likely to have a relatively high rate of aggression
• School shootings are high in the US
• The US has a tremendous amount of gun-related violence
• Compared to the UK and Canada
  • The rate of violent crime is lower in the US
  • The murder rate is higher in the US
• Cultural differences in what is considered a crime
  • Domestic violence seen as acceptable in India and Nepal
  • Groping underage girls acceptable in Japan
  • GenItal mutilation acceptable in parts of Africa and Asia

Bullying Around the World

• Intentional harm, physically or psychologically
• Repetition: The victim is targeted a number of times
• Power Imbalance: The bully abuses their power over the victim
• Cyberbullying: Bullying through electronic devices and social media
• Victim’s suffering
  • Feelings of panic, nervousness, and distraction in school
  • Recurring memories of abuse
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Suicide

Nonviolent Cultures

• The Chewong don’t have a words in their language for acts of aggression
• Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites
• These cultures cherish peacefulness, and some even have religious or mythological reasons for remaining peaceful

Subcultures Within a Country

• Teens and young adults have a much greater rate of involvement in violent crime
• The large majority of murders happen within the murderer’s race
• Having an ethnic minority background can be tied to higher instances of aggression in other parts of the world
• Murder rate is consistently highest in the South of the US
  • Culture of honor is prevalent among white males in this region
  • Could also be due to the hot weather

Gender and Aggression

• Men are more violent than women
• Men commit the large majority of homicides
• Men constitute the large majority of murder victims
• school shooters are male
• The vast majority of people killed by an intimate partner are women
• Males are consistently more aggressive than females
• Females are as likely to feel anger as males, but they’re less likely to act on their anger in aggressive ways
• Boys tend to be more overtly aggressive than girls
• Girls tend to be equally as / more aggressive than boys when it comes to indirect and relational aggression
  • Indirect Aggression: Acts like telling lies to get someone in trouble or shutting a person out of desired activities
  • Relational Aggression: A kind of indirect aggression that targets a person’s relationships and social status
  • Threatening to end a friendship
  • Gossipping
  • Trying to get others to dislike the target
  • Why?
  • Females typically care more about relationships and intimacy
    • May see injuring someone socially as particularly effective
  • Strong norms encourage boys to aggress physically and discourage girls from doing so
• Gay men reported significantly lower levels of physical aggression than straight men
• No difference with indirect aggression
• There is no reliable gender difference in the percentage of women and men who physically assault their intimate partners
  • Women are at least as likely to aggress against their intimate partners as men are
  • Men are far less likely to report that their partners physically assaulted them
  • Consequences of aggression and violence are far from equal
  • Women are often killed, seriously injured, or sexually assaulted during domestic disputes
• Sexual Assault
  • Men are more likely to be perpetrators
  • Females are more likely to be targets

Individual Differences

• Aggression in childhood predicts aggression in adolescence and adulthood
• Big Five factors: Five dimensions that account for a great deal of variability in people’s personalities across gender and culture
  • Being low in agreeableness is a particularly strong predictor of aggression
  • Being low in openness and high in neuroticism are also associated with aggression
• Some traits associated with aggression only predict aggression reliably under conditions of provocation
  • Conditions of Provocation: Situations in which the individual feels threatened, insulted, or stressed
  • Emotional Susceptibility: The tendency to feel distressed, inadequate, and vulnerable to perceived threats
  • Type A Personality: The tendency to be driven by feelings of inadequacy to try to prove oneself through personal accomplishments
  • Impulsivity: Being relatively unable to control one’s thoughts and behaviors
• Relationship between self-esteem and aggression
  • Evidence is mixed
  • Can be different across cultures
• Narcissism: Having an inflated sense of self-worth and self-love, having low empathy for others, tending to focus on the self rather than others, and being especially sensitive to perceived insults
  • Consistently and positively correlated with aggression in response to provocation, especially public provocation
• Dark Triad: A set of three traits that are associated with higher levels of aggressiveness: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism
  • Machiavellianism: Characterized by manipulativeness
  • Psychopathy: Characterized by impulsivity, poor self-control, and a lack of empathy
• Self-control
  • Children low in self-control tend to be more aggressive as young adults
  • Poor self-control is one of the strongest predictors of crime, cyberbullying, and aggression toward strangers and romantic partners

Origins of Aggression

• Both nature and nurture play their respective roles

Evolutionary Psychology

• Our ancestors increased their chances of attracting mates and achieving status in a group when they engaged in fighting and warfare
• Evolution favored the inhibition in aggression against those who’re genetically related to us
• Males are competitive with each other because females select high-status males for mating and aggression is a way males were able to achieve and maintain status
• Male-to-male violence is most likely to occur when one male is perceived as challenging the other’s status or social power
• Male-to-female violence is predominantly triggered by sexual jealousy
• Evolution favored women who could protect their children
• Relational aggression can harm the reputations of rival females, which can make men less interested in them

Genes, Hormones, and the Brain

Genes

• Heritability explains between a third and a half of the variation in aggression in children
• MAOA gene has been linked to aggressive behavior

The Role of Testosterone

• Strong link between testosterone levels and aggression
• Association between testosterone and human aggression is weaker and less reliable than expected
• Combination of high testosterone and low cortisol is what predicts aggression
• When cortisol levels are high, the effects of testosterone on aggression are more likely to be blocked or inhibited

The Role of Serotonin

• Low levels of serotonin in the nervous systems of humans and many animals are associated with high levels of aggression
• Drugs that boost serotonin’s activity can dampen aggressiveness

Brain and Executive Functioning

• Evidence linking abnormalities in frontal lobe structures with tendencies toward aggressive and violent behavior
• Impaired prefrontal processing can disrupt executive functioning
  • Executive Functioning: The cognitive abilities and processes that allow humans to plan or inhibit their actions
• Link between poor executive functioning and high aggression
• Aggression and brain activity
  • Very aggressive teens don’t show empathy in response to witnessing pain
  • Exhibit a pattern of brain activity associated with experiencing rewards
  • Less activation in areas associated with self-regulation and moral reasoning
• Concussions
  • Damage to the uncinate fasciculus was associated with more aggression and impulsivity and compromised executive functioning
  • Uncinate Fasciculus: The part of the brain that connects the orbitofrontal cortex with the anterior temporal lobe

How Is Aggression Learned?

• Positive Reinforcement: When aggression produces desired outcomes
• Negative Reinforcement: When aggression prevents or stops undesirable outcomes
• Children who see aggression producing more good outcomes and fewer bad outcomes are more aggressive than other children
• Punishment is most likely to decrease aggression when it
  • Immediately follows the aggressive behavior
  • Is strong enough to deter the aggressor
  • Is consistently applies and perceived as fair and legitimate by the aggressor
  • (When these conditions aren’t met, punishment can backfire)
• The certainty of punishment is more important than its severity

Corporal Punishment

• Physical force intended to cause a child pain, but not injury, for the purpose of controlling or correcting the child’s behavior
• Less prevalent than it used to be
• Majority of children in the US today experience spanking and other forms of corporal punishment
• Remains common around the world
• Spanking may result in immediate obedience but doesn’t work in the long run
• More corporal punishment now is associated with more aggression later
• Teaches the child that physical force is an effective and appropriate way to deal with problems
• Less likely to increase aggressiveness when it’s administered in the context of an overall warm and supportive parent-child relationship
• Association between corporal punishment and later aggressiveness was weaker in African American families

Social Learning Theory

• The theory that behavior is learned through the observation of others as well as through the direct experience of rewards and punishments
• Models affect antisocial, aggressive behavior
• Bandura’s Bobo Dolls
• A wide range of aggressive models can elicit a wide range of aggressive imitations
• Models don’t have to be present (ex: TV)
• Children can learn aggression by seeing it modeled by cartoon characters
• People can also learn aggressive scripts that serve as guides for how to behave and solve social problems
  • Can be activated automatically in various situations
  • Can learn from their parents
  • Watching their parents fight
  • Parents using physical force to discipline their children
• Cycle of Violence: Children who witness parental violence or who are themselves abused are more likely as adults to inflict abuse on intimate partners or their children or be victims of intimate violence
• Nonaggressive models can decrease aggressive behavior
• Males and females are taught different lessons about aggression
  • Boys are more likely than girls to be taught that physical aggression is an appropriate and rewarding way to handle conflict or manipulate other people
  • Relational aggression may be rewarded for girls
  • Overt aggression was associated with more popularity for boys and less popularity for girls
  • Relational aggression was more strongly associated with popularity for girls than boys

Culture and Honor

• Socialization of aggression varies from culture to culture
• Adolescent boys in traditional villages in Italy are encouraged to aggress as an indication of their sexual prowess and in preparation for their dominant role in the household
• Machismo: Challenges, abuse, and even differences of opinion must be met with fists or other weapons
• Culture of Honor: A culture that emphasizes honor and social status, particularly for males, and the role of aggression in protecting that honor
• Cultures of honor are associated with school violence
• Suicide rates are higher in culture-of-honor states

Situational Influences on Aggression

The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

• Frustration, which is produced by interrupting a person’s progress toward an expected goal, will always elicit the motive to aggress
• All aggression is caused by frustration
• Displacement: Aggressing against a substitute target because aggressive acts against the source of the frustration are inhibited by fear or lack of access
• Catharsis: Displacing aggression in these ways can be effective at reducing the drive to aggress further

The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: Does the Evidence Support It?

• Frustration doesn’t always produce aggressive inclinations
• Not all aggression is caused by frustration
• Catharsis is a two-step sequence
  • Aggression reduces the level of physiological arousal
  • Because arousal is reduced, people are less angry and less likely to aggress further
• The catharsis idea is a myth
• Frustration can simply dissipate over time
• In the long run, successful aggression sets the stage for more aggression later

Negative Affect

• Negative feelings can trigger aggression

Heat and Aggression: Losing Your Cool

• People lose their cool in hot temperatures and behave more aggressively
• More violent crimes occur in the summer, in hot years, and in hot cities
• Reports of violence peak in the summer months
• Global warming will make this a huge issue
• Culture of honor also an important factor
  • May interact with the heat
  • The relatively high temps of the region may support aggressive norms

Provocation and Social Rejection

• Provocation causes negative affect, which plays an important role in triggering aggression
• Insults and rejections increases the likelihood of aggressive responses
• Social rejection is the most significant risk factor for adolescent violence

Culture and Negative Affect

• American participants are relatively more likely to experience anger than japanese participants
• Japanese participants are relatively more likely to experience shame than american participants
• For people in collectivist cultures, anger in reaction to frustration might violate cultural values of social harmony
• Japanese individuals of relatively low status expressed anger less often than those of higher status

Arousal

• Noise, violent movies, and arousing music have been shown to increase aggression
• Heat increases arousal
• Excitation Transfer: The arousal created by one stimulus can intensify an individual’s emotional response to another stimulus
  • People are likely to misattribute arousal caused by heat to something else
  • Leads to aggression

Thought: Automatic and Deliberate

Aggressive Cues

• The presence of a weapon can act as a situational cue that automatically triggers aggressive thoughts and feelings
  • Increases the likelihood of aggression
  • Berkowitz and LePage
  • Weapons Effect: The tendency for the presence of guns to increase aggression
• Individuals may differ in what associations they have with various weapons
  • Hunters were less likely to associate hunting guns with aggression bc they linked them with sport and fun
  • Hunters had more negative, aggressive associations with assault guns than nonhunters
• Weapons increase men’s testosterone levels
• Any object or external characteristic that’s associated with successful aggression, pain, or unpleasantness, can serve as an aggression-enhancing situational cue

Higher-Order Cognition

• An angry person might refrain from acting aggressively if they realize that the potential costs of fighting seems too high
• Hostile Attribution Bias: People tend to perceive hostile intent in others
  • Associated with both physical and relational aggression
• Violent prisoners were much more likely to interpret the ambiguous faces as angry
• Violent men perceive more hostility in others, which is likely to trigger more aggressive responses in turn

The Struggle for Self-Control: Rumination, Alcohol, and Other Factors

• Ability to practice self-control is vital to the inhibition of aggression
• Behind a majority of aggressive and violent acts lies the failure of self-control
• Rumination: Repeatedly thinking about and reliving an anger-inducing event, focusing on angry thoughts and feelings, and even planning or imagining revenge
• Rumination contributes to direct and displaced aggression
• Rumination impairs people’s ability to inhibit aggression
• High arousal impairs the cognitive control of aggression
  • When you’re very emotional and angry, it’s hard to focus on anything else
• Alcohol as an obstacle to self-control
  • Alcohol consumption often increases aggressive behavior
  • Reduces inhibitions ➝ facilitates aggressive behaviors
  • Impairs people’s executive functioning
  • Alcohol Myopia: Alcohol narrows people’s focus of intention
  • May focus on a perceived provocation
  • Fail to think about info that’d explain away this provocation
  • Makes aggression much more likely to occur unless the drunk person’s focus can be distracted
• Non-alcoholic sugar-rich drinks can boost people’s executive functioning and self-control
• Being hangry leads to heightened arousal bc the low glucose leaves our brain with less of the energy required for self-control
• Caffeine significantly increases arousal, which can increases aggression

Situational Influences: Putting It All Together

General Aggression Model

• Various aversive experiences, situational cues, and individual differences can create negative affect, high arousal, and aggressive thoughts, which can lead to aggressive behavior
• Depends on the outcome of higher-order thinking
  • Can inhibit aggression
  • Can facilitate aggression

L-cubed theory

• Emphasizes the role of self-control in aggression
• Instigation: Social factors that often trigger aggressive impulses, such as provocation or social rejection
• Impellance: Personality and situational factors that promote the urge to aggress when encountering instigating factors
  • Angry rumination
  • Trait aggressiveness
• Inhibition: The various factors of self-control

Media Effects

Violence in Popular Media: Does Life Imitate Art?

The Research Findings

• Media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts
• Significant link between violent media and actual aggressive thoughts and behaviors
• Playing violent video games was associated with
  • Increased aggressive behavior, cognition, and affect
  • Decreased prosocial behavior and affect
  • Playing prosocial games has the opposite effect
• Indirect or relational aggression in children’s TV
  • Indirect aggressors tended to be rewarded for their aggression
  • More likely to be female and attractive
  • Exposure had immediate effects on adolescents’ behavior
• Not everyone exposed to media violence will become more aggressive
• Not all acts of aggression are fueled by media violence
• Frequent exposure to media violence should be seen as an important risk factor for real-world aggression

How Does Media Violence Cause These Effects?

• Desensitization: Reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence
  • Form of habituation
  • Reduces physiological arousal and corresponding brain activity to new incidents of violence
  • Makes us become more accepting of violence
• Influences people’s values and attitudes toward aggression, making it seem more legitimate
  • Fuels the aggressive scripts that we develop, which we then use to guide our behavior
• Cultivation: The process by which the mass media constructs a version of social reality for the public
  • People perceive it as true even when it isn’t
  • The media tends to depict the world as much more violent than it actually is
  • Makes people more fearful, distrustful, and likely to arm themselves
  • More likely to behave aggressively in what they perceive as a threatening situation

Pornography: explicit sexual material

Nonviolent and Violent Pornography

• Little support for a direct causal link between the use of nonviolent porn and sexual aggression
• Evidence for an association between porn use and attitudes supporting violence against women
• Violent porn brings together high arousal, negative emotional reactions, and aggressive thoughts
• Porn sites focus specifically on images of sexual violence against women and use depictions of women’s pain as a selling point
• Effects of violent porn are gender-specific
  • Male-to-male aggression is no greater after exposure to violent porn
  • Male-to-female aggression is markedly increased after exposure to violent porn

Individual Differences

• Not everyone is affected by pornography in the same way
• Risk Factors:
  • Men who have relatively high levels of sexual arousal in response to violent porn
  • Men who express attitudes and opinions indicating acceptance of violence toward women
  • Men who regularly use pornography and whose parents frequently used harsh corporal punishment
• Confluence Model of Sexual Aggression: For the subset of individuals who already score high on multiple known risk factors of sexual aggression, consuming pornography increases the risk of sexually aggressive attitudes and behaviors
  • The presence of multiple risk factors at once is especially dangerous
  • Porn becomes a greater risk factor for aggression

Objectification and Dehumanization

• Men who automatically associated women with animals or objects showed stronger inclination to sexually harass or rape women
• Prejudice and aggression toward outgroups are more likely to result when people perceive outgroup members like objects
• Dehumanization is a common by-product of conflict and war between groups
  • Fighting between groups fosters a biased perspective of the other group
  • Makes engaging in violence more tolerable and seemingly necessary
  • Makes finding peace more difficult
  • Lowers the restraints against stepping over the ethical line into abuse and torture
• Cure for dehumanization is to restore the human connection

Reducing Aggression and Violence

• Norms have changed dramatically to discourage aggression

Thoughts, Feelings, and Self-Control

• Enhanced education, intelligence, reasoning, and empathy
• Aggression Replacement Training:
  • Social competence training
  • Improved moral reasoning
  • Aggression control
• Most promising interventions for reducing reactive aggression
  • Improve self-control
  • Two-week self-control training task
  • Emphasize cognitive reappraisal
  • Train individuals to interpret provocations in more neutral, less emotional terms
  • Think about the events from an objective, non-personal perspective
  • Cognitive control
  • Training the regulation of emotion in response to emotionally relevant stimuli
  • Related to self-control
  • Mindfulness
  • Getting people to be in a nonjudgmental, nonreactive state in which they more easily just accept their physical and mental experiences
• Behavioral Modification: Treatments that try to alter an individual’s behavior through learning principles that reinforce nonaggressive actions

Sociocultural Approaches

• Improved economy, healthier living conditions, and social support would reduce the factors that fuel aggression
• Reducing the prevalence of guns in society would have a number of calming effects
• Teach and model nonviolent responses to frustrations and social problems
• Fostering cooperation and shared goals across groups
• Select shows and games for children that provide compelling, vivid prosocial models

Multiple-Level Approaches: Programs to Prevent Violence and Bullying

Multisystemic Therapy

• Addresses individuals’ problems at several different levels
• Individualized treatment
• Works with patient’s family and environment
• Takes a lot of time and resources
• Significantly reduces the rates of violent crimes

Bullying Prevention

• Comprehensive programs that operate on multiple levels
• Most successful bullying prevention programs are the more intensive and long-lasting ones
• Empathy-training programs
• Specifically target bystanders

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