Social Relations: Aggression Chapter 16, Lecture 4 “Asking what causes violence is…like asking what causes cancer.” - David Myers

Aggression First, look at Handout 16-11 in groups of 2 to 3… 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 Biology of Aggression Three biological influences on aggressive behavior are: Genetic Influences Neural Influences Biochemical Influences Preview Question 10: What biological factors make us more prone to hurt one another?

Influences Genetic Influences: Animals have been bred for aggressiveness for sport and at times for research. Twin studies show aggression may be genetic. In men, aggression is possibly linked to the Y chromosome. Neural Influences: Some centers in the brain, especially the limbic system (amygdala) and the frontal lobe, are intimately involved with aggression.

Influences Biochemical Influences: Animals with diminished amounts of testosterone (castration) become docile, and if injected with testosterone aggression increases. Prenatal exposure to testosterone also increases aggression in female hyenas.

The Psychology of Aggression Four psychological factors that influence aggressive behavior are: dealing with aversive events; learning aggression is rewarding; observing models of aggression; and acquiring social scripts. Preview Question 11: What psychological factors may trigger aggressive behavior?

Aversive Events Studies in which animals and humans experience unpleasant events reveal that those made miserable often make others miserable. Jeff Kowalsky/ EPA/ Landov Ron Artest (Pacers) attack on Detroit Pistons fans.

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

Frustration-Aggression Principle A principle in which frustration (caused by the blocking of an attempt to achieve a desired goal) creates anger, which can generate aggression.

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 US.

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 The media portrays social scripts and generates mental tapes in the minds of the viewers. When confronted with new situations individuals may rely on such social scripts. If social scripts are violent in nature, people may act them out.

Do Video Games Teach or Release Violence? The general consensus on violent video games is that, to some extent, they breed violence. Adolescents view the world as hostile when they get into arguments and receive bad grades after playing such games.

Recently, Sarah Coyne and her colleagues examined the impact of observing relational violence on viewers. Relational violence can take different forms ranging from spreading rumors about another to threatening social exclusion. Do filmed portrayals of relational violence make viewers relationally and even physically aggressive? In their study, the researchers asked 53 college women to watch one of three video clips, featuring either physical aggression (a knife fight from Kill Bill), relational aggression (a montage from Mean Girls), or no aggression (a séance from the horror movie What Lies Beneath). After the participants completed a brief survey, they were allowed to leave.

Immediately outside the laboratory room was another researcher who asked if they would like to participate in a second study involving reaction times. When they agreed, the researcher acted rudely by telling them to hurry, and then, when the participants hesitated, she said, “Great! This is really going to screw things up!” After the researcher left the room, the participants took two tests that are often used to assess aggression. One enabled them to deliver a sharp noise to the researcher by pushing a button (physical aggression); the other asked them to complete an evaluation that supposedly was going to be used to decide whether the researcher should be hired (relational aggression).

The results indicated that those who viewed clips from Kill Bill and Mean Girls reacted in similarly aggressive ways. They turned up the sharp noise delivered to the researcher louder than the control group. They also gave the researcher lower scores on the evaluation form than the control group did. Coyne and her colleagues concluded that their findings provide evidence for a generalization or cross-over effect of viewing media violence. Viewing one form of violence can influence the manifestation of other forms.

Coyne suggests that parents pay greater attention to relational violence and perhaps even push to make it part of movie and TV ratings. She concluded, “Everyone’s concerned about violence in the media, as they should be, but we’re missing out on lots of violence out there. We need to look at these other types of aggression because we know they’re having an effect of aggression.” Coyne is now studying reality TV shows that are filled with instances of relational violence. She worries that young children in particular are vulnerable. It’s “almost always portrayed as justified, almost always portrayed as rewarded,” she says.

Summary

Homework Read p.705-712 “Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?” - National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty