1. Human Relationships
Violence
Ms. Binns

2. Definition of Violence
Violence is understood as an aggressive (intent to dominate or harm) act in which the perpetrator abuses individuals directly or indirectly
Verbal, physical and psychological
Individual, groups, institutions or nations
Random (school shootings) or ongoing and routine (bullying, domestic violence)
Systematic
war, genocide

3. BLOA: not LO for this paper but
Chimp studies show rare cases of violence murders and infanticide
Testosterone implicated as “aggressive hormone”
Serotonin- low levels increase irritability
Frontal lobe abnormalities (impulse control) Grafman et al (1996)
Dysfunctions in prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus Raine el al (1997)

4. SCLOA: origins of violence
Social cognition Fiske and Taylor (1991)- how we make sense and respond to social world
Aggression linked to deficits in cognitive functioning (attention, planning, organization, reasoning, flexibility and self-regulation
Social factors (growing up in violent home) can affect the way the brain processes information

5. SCLOA: origins of Violence
General knowledge structures (schema’s) Bowlby 1973
Self schema, social schema and inner working models- what we expect from others and the emotions attached- how we store experiences in memory and use later
Information processing- how we interpret social situations and make judgements (attribution)

6. SCLOA: origins of Violence
Cognitive processes Dodge et al (1990) Bradshaw (2004)
Links negative view of self and aggressive behaviour
Exposure to violence as child related to social information processing (supports Bandura)
Research based on self-reports (unreliable)

7. SCLOA: origins of Violence
Cultivation theory Gerbner et a (1994), Merrill (1996)
Media violence and learned violence
Direct instruction, modelling, rewards for threatening, controlling or abusive behaviour
Theory of Threatened Egotism
Narcissist will respond violently to someone that threatens, questions or undermines their self-concept (distorted self-schema affects social information processing)
Violence is result of power differences Vygotsky
Gender, social class, ethnicity
Societal norms accept some forms of violence (spanking, act of passage rituals)

8. SCLOA: origins of Violence
Deindividuation theory and group identity
Initiates when individuals join large crowds- shake off usual social controls (riots)
Diener et al (1976) children and Halloween candy
Zimbardo (1969) experiments with college students and electric shocks
Social identity theory Reicher (1987)
Norms of groups guide behaviour
People look to the group with whom they can identify and follow there actions

9. Research on violence (bullying)
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) Demark and Gemeinhardt (2002) (anger management)
Research in bullying (stats)
Nansel et al (2001)- US
Kim (2006)- Japan
Kwak and Kim (1997)- Korea
Olweus (1993)- Norway and Sweden

10. Research on violence (bullying)
Bullying Circle (Olweus)
Dichotomy of bully and victim includes bystanders in different roles p.295
Prevention of bullying
Environment plays a strong role (Eley et al, 1999)
Malnutrition (Lieu and Raine, 2004)
Parental influence, home environment and problems with anger management (Olweus)
Attribution of intent and errors in processing (Dodge, 1980)
Bullying might be a symptom of antisocial behaviour and not the cause

11. Effects of violence
Depression and low self-esteem, chart on page 298 (Olweus, 1992)
Issues with studies due to self-report and retrospective data
Raised cortisol levels in hamsters Delville (2002)
Did not cross over to human studies---we have low cortisol levels
Link to chronic fatigue, chronic pain, PTSD
Connected to decreased health
Joseph (2003) PTSD developed regardless of type of bullying
Synder (2003) Depression

12. Reducing violence Reducing effects of stress and bullying
Downward comparison (Greenberg and Ruback, 1992)
perception of control (real or imaginary)
support of family and peers

13. Reducing violence Reducing bullying Counselling in schools
Anger management (Dodge, 1981)- count to 10
Empathy training- Feshbach and Feshbach 1982
Virtual reality Figueiredo 2007
Social skills training
Jigsaw classroom Aronson 1979
Whole-school approach (Vreeman, 2006) (Olweus 1972)

14. Tasks
Monday: lecture PP flash cards of major research (aim, method, results, strengths, weaknesses)
Tuesday: Research and create presentation on bullying with applications to RAKA
Wednesday: research
Thursday:
presentations (5-10 minutes each)
flash cards for short and long term effects of bullying/violence