Aggression and Conflict Social Psychology Aggression and Conflict

Aggression and Conflict Bell Ringer Agenda Do you think watching violent movies, playing violent video games, or listening to violent lyrics in music make people violent? How do you deal with frustration or aggression? Aggression and Conflict Farmville Murder Article Aggression Test Dollar Auction Information to know: Reading Quiz next class Quiz on Ch. 1 and 18 will be next week

Aggression Aggression Can be any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy. It may be done reactively out of hostility or proactively as a calculated means to an end. Research shows that aggressive behavior emerges from the interaction of biology and experience.

The Science of Aggression Aggressive personalities may have genetic components Aggression can come from multiple places in the brain – it is not found in one central location Higher levels of testosterone increases aggressive behaviors

Psychology of aggression Frustration-aggression principle frustration creates anger. If you are blocked from a certain goal by something that seems unfair or frustrating you might feel some aggression. Example: Vending machine eats your money or the paper you spent all night working on didn’t save.

Environment Even environmental temperature can lead to aggressive acts. Murders and rapes increased with the temperature in Houston.

Learning that Aggression is Rewarding When aggression leads to desired outcomes, one learns to be aggressive. This is shown in both animals and humans. Cultures that favor violence breed violence. Scotch-Irish settlers in the South had more violent tendencies than their Puritan, Quaker, & Dutch counterparts in the Northeast of the U.S.

Observing Models of Aggression Sexually coercive men are promiscuous and hostile in their relationships with women. This coerciveness has increased due to television viewing of R- and X-rated movies.

Acquiring Social Scripts Why might violent music and games be a problem? The media portrays social scripts and generates mental tapes in the minds of the viewers. When confronted with new situations individuals may rely on social scripts they have seen. If social scripts are violent in nature, people may act them out.

Summary of Aggression

Conflict We all face conflict at times Its caused by an incompatibility of actions, goals or ideas Conflict Can have destructive results such as: Social Traps a situation in which conflicting parties pursue their own goals causing destructive outcomes – no positive results Example: You may not recycle all the time, but because so many people don’t we have a huge pollution problem

Blame the Enemy Many times when in conflict with another person or group, humans tend to demonize the other side. The fundamental attribution error is usually at play What is the fundamental attribution error?