AGGRESSION: ITS NATURE, CAUSES, AND CONTROL

Banaticla, Krisna M.MP-IP

Advance Social Psychology

Learning Objectives

•To describe several theoretical perspectives on aggression.

•To examine several important determinants of human aggression.

•To be able to discuss the two forms of aggression.

•To examine various techniques for the prevention and control of aggression.

AGGRESSION

What is Aggression?

•Aggression is the intentional infliction of harm to others.

•Behavior directed toward the goal of harming another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment.

•Aggression, in its broadest sense, is behavior, or a disposition, that is forceful, hostile or attacking

Theoretical Perspective on Aggression:

The Role of Biological Factors:

Sigmund Freud• Human violence stems from built-in (inherited) tendencies to

aggress to others.

• Aggression stems mainly from a powerful death wish (Thanatos) possessed by all persons.

• This instinct is initially aimed at self-destruction but is soon redirected outward, toward others.

Konrad Lorenz

- Aggression springs mainly from an inherited fighting instinct that human beings share with many other species.

Drive Theories– The Motive to Harm Others.

– Drive to harm or injure othersExternal conditions (e.g frustration, unpleasant environmental condition) Overt Aggression

Theoretical Perspective on Aggression:

Drive to harm or injure others

External conditions (e.g frustration,

unpleasant environmental

condition)Overt

Aggression

Modern Theories of Aggression:

General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM) – a modern theory of aggression suggesting that aggression is triggered by a wide range of input variables; these influence arousal, affective states and cognitions and other factors determine whether, and in what form, aggression occurs.

Theoretical Perspective on Aggression:

Aggression Machine– Apparatus used under safe laboratory

conditions. – This apparatus was widely used to

study physical aggression. Participants are told that they can deliver shocks of varying strength to another person by

pushing buttons on the machine.

Point Subtract and Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) participants play a game with another person in which each can decide to push buttons that

(1) give the opponent money,

(2) subtract money from the opponent’s, or

(3) protect against the possibility that the opponent will remove the player’s money.

Techniques for Studying Human Aggression

Social Determinants of Aggression:

Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis – the suggestion that frustration is a very powerful determinant of aggression

This hypothesis made two sweeping assertions:

(1) Frustration always leads to some form of aggression,

(2) Aggression always stems from frustration.

Provocation – Action by others that tend to trigger aggression in the recipient, often because they are perceived as stemming from malicious intent.

Displaced Aggression - Aggression against someone other than the source of strong provocation; displaced aggression occurs because the person who perform it are unwilling or unable to aggress the initial source of provocation.

Determinants of Human Aggression:

(cont’d.)

Media Violence – Depictions of violent actions in the mass media.

Heightened Arousal – can increase aggression if it persists beyond the situation in which it was induced and is falsely interpreted as anger.

Excitation Transfer Theory – A theory suggesting that arousal produced in one situation can persist and intensify emotional reactions occurring in later situations.

Sexual Arousal – Mild sexual arousal reduce aggression, while higher levels increase such behavior. Even exposure to sex-related words can increase aggression through the priming of schemas and other knowledge structures related to aggression.

Determinants of Human Aggression:

Personal Causes of Aggression

Type A behavior pattern: a pattern consisting primarily of high levels of competitiveness, time urgency, and hostility.

Type B behavior pattern: a pattern consisting of the absence of characteristics associated with the Type A Behavior Pattern.

Hostile Aggression: Aggression in which the prime objective is inflicting some kind of harm on the victim.

Instrumental Aggression: Aggression in which the primary goal is not harm to the victim but attainment of some other goal, such as access to valued resources.

Hostile Attributional Bias: The tendency to perceive hostile intentions or motives in others’ actions when these actions are ambiguous.

Sexual Coercion: (One form of Aggression related to Gender). Large gender differences exist with respect to one form of aggression: sexual coercion. Males are much more likely to engage in such behavior than are females.

Determinants of Human Aggression:

Situational Determinants of Aggression

Heat and Aggression – in two large U.S cities, the incidence of violent assaults rose with increasing temperatures, but only up to a point; beyond this level, as temperatures continued to rise, the incidence of assaults actually dropped. These findings suggest that the relationship between heat and aggression may be curvilinear in nature.

Effects of Alcohol on aggression - Individuals with relatively weak tendencies to aggress (low aggressors) became more aggressive when intoxicated. In contrast, individuals with strong aggressive tendencies became slightly less aggressive when intoxicated

Determinants of Human Aggression:

Aggression in Long- Term Relationships

Bullying: -Involves repeated aggression against individuals who, for various reasons, are unable to defend themselves against such treatment. Bullying occurs in many context, including schools, workplace, and prisons. Few children are solely bullies or victims; more play both roles. Bullies and bully/victims appear to have lower self-esteem than children who are not involve in bullying.

Workplace Violence: Aggression on the job

-any form of behavior through which individuals seek to harm others in their workplace.

-takes many different forms, but is usually covert in nature. It stems from a wide range of factors, including perceptions of having been treated unfairly and the many disturbing changes that have occurred in workplaces in recent years.

Aggression in Long- Term Relationships

The Prevention and Control of Aggression

Punishment: An effective deterrent to violence – Procedures in which aversive consequences are delivered to individuals when they engage in specific actions.

Catharsis Hypothesis - The view that providing angry persons with an opportunity to express their aggressive impulses in relatively safe ways will reduce their tendencies to engage in more harmful forms of aggression.

Incompatible response technique – a technique for reducing aggression in which individuals are exposed to events or stimuli that cause them to experience affective states incompatible with anger or aggression.

Aggression can be reduced by apologies – admissions of wrongdoing that include a request for forgiveness – and by engaging in activities that distract attention away from causes of anger.

Aggression can also be reduced by exposure to non-aggressive models, training in social skills, and the induction of affective states incompatible with aggression.