Individual Determinants of Aggression

Revised – Anderson’s Model

What do we mean by “Person”?  Stable person factors that are relatively consistent across time, across situations or both…  … and thus may influence behavior in a wide range of different contexts  Most people believe aggression is caused by person factors rather than situational factors

Personality Traits, quiz?  General anxiety  Anxiety over social approval  Hostile Attributional Bias  Irritability  Emotional Susceptibility  External Locus of Control  Internal Locus of Control  Type A  Shame-prone

Attributions  Hostile Attributional Bias  Perceiving ambiguous actions as malicious  High self-efficacy beliefs  believe they can successfully carry out aggressive acts  Outcome efficacy beliefs  believe the acts will produce the desired outcomes  Perspective Taking  person’s ability to take the perspective of another  Rumination  remaining cognitively preoccupied with the experience

Self-esteem  People with low self-esteem are aggressive?  What about “High self-esteem” individuals?  Threatened Egotism

Self-Control Given all the causes of aggression, why are people not more aggressive?  Undercontrolled  Overcontrolled  Why does self-control fail?  Extends to non-violence  Is this related to impulsivity?

Gender  Previously we found that  males are more aggressive than women  women receive less severe aggression  But now, why?  Genetic – next chapter  Hormonal – next chapter  Social Role – this chapter  Evolutionary – this chapter