1. Social Psychology PSY450 Instructor: Briana Harvey
Welcome!
Social Psychology
PSY450
Instructor: Briana Harvey

2. Aggression and Antisocial Behavior
Defining Aggression and Antisocial Behavior
Is Aggression Innate or Learned?
Inner Causes of Aggression

3. Is This Aggression?
Armin Meiwes
Bernd Brandes

4. Defining Aggression and Antisocial Behavior
An intentional behavior
Intent is to harm
Not accidental harm
Not assertiveness or playfulness
The victim wants to avoid harm
Example of aggression:
Shooting someone who is running away from you
Not aggression:
A doctor gives a painful shot

5. Intense Aggression Violence
Aggression, with the goal of extreme physical harm, such as injury or death
All violent acts are aggressive acts, but not all aggressive acts are violent
A child pushes another child out of the way
Aggression, but not violence
A child beats another child severely with a baseball bat
Aggression that is also violence

6. Aggression
Can be direct (person is physically present) or indirect (person physically absent)
Men = direct aggression
hit someone, yell in their face
Women = indirect aggression
set house on fire, spread rumors

7. Types of Aggression Passive aggression Active aggression
Harming others by withholding a behavior (purposely failing to convey an important message)
Active aggression
Harming others by performing a behavior (spreading vicious rumors)

8. Types of Aggression Reactive/Hostile Aggression
Hot, impulsive
Desire to hurt someone
Proactive/Instrumental Aggression
Cold, premeditated
Motivated by some other goal (money, revenge)

9. Aggression in Human History
Aggression is universal
Cultural rules restrain aggression
Hand signals, body language…
Significant decrease in aggressive acts throughout history
Murder rate in England
14th century: 24 per 100,000 people
1960s: 0.6 per 100,000 people

10. Aggression Rules of conduct for war Geneva Convention
Four treaties that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war
Negotiated in the aftermath of the Second World War

11. Instinct Theories of Aggression
Freud proposed human motivational forces are based on instinct
Instinct: an innate tendency to seek a particular goal
Water, food, sex
According to Freud:
Sex/Food – life giving instinct (Eros)
Aggression – death instinct (Thanatos)

12. Social Learning Theory
Social learning theory (Observational Learning)
People learn from observing the behavior of others, and observing the outcomes of that behavior
We acquire attitudes, emotional responses, and behavior patterns

13. Bandura Bobo Doll Experiments
Albert Bandura and his colleagues at Stanford University conducted an experiment in 1965
Observational learning of aggression in children
They show preschoolers a short film of a person beating up a bobo doll.
Three different endings watched by three different groups of children.

14. Bandura Bobo Doll Experiment
Consequence 1: model-rewarded condition
After the person beating up the bobo doll, the person is rewarded with candy.
Result: The preschoolers acted violently towards the bobo doll
Consequence 2: model-punished condition
After the person beating up the bobo doll, the person is scolded and spanked.
Result: The preschoolers act non-violently towards the bobo doll

15. Bandura Bobo Doll Experiment
Consequence 3: no-consequences condition
Preschoolers didn’t watch any consequence after beating up the bobo doll.
Result: The preschoolers acted violently towards the bobo doll.
This suggested that a mere exposure to TV violence ,whether or not the violence was visibly rewarded on screen, could spur aggressive responses in young children.

16. Bandura Bobo Doll Experiment

17. Social Learning Theory.
Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment
Modeling of aggressive behavior 2 4 6 8 10 12
model
rewarded
punished
boys
girls

18. Bandura

19. Nature AND Nurture
Cultural socialization and learning can increase or decrease innate aggressive impulses and aggressive behaviors
Both learning and instinct are relevant

20. Question….
Can you remember the last incident of aggression you witnessed in which you knew the aggressor.
Was frustration a factor?
What happened right before the aggression?

21. Inner Causes of Aggression
Frustration-aggression hypothesis (1939)
The occurrence of aggressive behavior always comes before the existence of frustration
Frustration always leads to some form of aggression

22. Not True! Frustration: Blockage or interference of goal
You can have aggression without frustration, frustration without aggression
But aggression is increased by frustration

23. Inner Causes of Aggression
Unpleasant moods increase aggression
Bad mood is not necessary for aggression
Excitation transfer may increase aggression

24. Figure Arousal from physical exercise can transfer to a provocation and increase aggression (Zillmann, Katcher, & Milavsky, 1972).

25. Hostile Cognitive Biases
Hostile attribution bias
Perceive ambiguous actions by others as aggressive

26. Hostile Cognitive Biases
Hostile expectation bias
Assume people will react to potential conflicts with aggression

27. Hostile Cognitive Biases
Aggressive people have inner biases that make them:
Expect others to react aggressively
View ambiguous acts as aggressive
Assume others act purposefully when they hurt or offend them

28. Age and Aggression
25% of toddler interactions in day-care settings involve physical aggression
Even violent teenagers don’t involve 25% of aggressive interactions!
BUT it is aggression…NOT violence!
Most violent aggression occurs between
15 and 30 years.
Average age of murders: 27 years

30. Aggression Interpersonal Causes of Aggression
External Causes of Aggression
Self and Culture
Other Antisocial Behavior

31. Selfishness and Influence
Aggression
Can be a means to resolve social disputes
Can be a form of social influence
Factors that encourage use of aggression
More you want the reward
Someone you love in threatened
Believe you will be successful
Sports game

32. Domestic and Relationship Violence
Domestic violence
Occurs within the home between people who have a close relationship
Aggression is highest between siblings!
In 1984, Surgeon General declared domestic violence the number one health risk in U.S.
#1 cause of injuries to women ages 15-44

33. Domestic and Relationship Violence
Children and elderly are at highest risk for abuse
Abusive partners also tend to be abusive parents (Ross, 1996)
Parents abused as children are more likely to abuse their own children (Cappell & Heiner, 1990)
But doesn’t mean they necessarily will
Culture is slowly intervening, making it unacceptable and punishable
Illegal to spank in 24 countries

34. External Causes of Aggression
Weapons effect
Mere presence of weapon increases aggressive behavior
Weapons (guns, knifes, swords, etc.) are associated with aggression, and therefore they increase the accessibility of associated aggressive thoughts which in turn facilitate aggressive behavior

35. Turner et al. (1975)

36. External Causes of Aggression
Mass media
Violent media exposure increases aggression
Huesmann, et al. (2003)
15 year long study of 329 people who watch violent TV and those who don’t
Those who watched violent TV as a kid were 3x more likely to be convicted of criminal behavior
They were also more likely to abuse their spouses

38. Violence in the Media
2001 estimate: by time US child 10 years’ old will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000+ other acts of violence on TV
58% of all TV programs contain violence
40% of violent acts by heroes
Controlled experiments find effect of viewing a violent program/playing violent video games on aggressive behavior but only in children who already have aggressive tendencies

39. Violence in the Media
Three reasons to believe that violent video games are worse than TV
Video games are active and people learn better when they are actively involved
Players of violent video games are more likely to identify with a violent character
Ex. First person shooter games
Video games reward violent behavior
Ex. “Nice shot” and bonus points

40. External Causes of Aggression
Unpleasant Environments
Hot temperatures are associated with aggression and violence
Loud noises, foul odors, air pollution, and crowding can increase aggression

41. External Causes of Aggression
Studies have found that regions with hotter temperatures have higher violent crime rates
Time period studies have found higher violence rates in hot years, hot months and hot days
In a study that looked at temperature and crime rates over 45 years
Murder and assault higher in hotter years
Higher during hotter months
Nonviolent crimes were not affected by temperature
WHAT ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING. Estimated to increase tempes by 2-8 degrees F

42. Effects of environmental stressors on aggressive behaviour.
Number of players hit during major league baseball games
0.7
0.6
0.5
Players hit per game
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
Below 70
70-79
80-89
90 and above
temperature
A2 PSYCHOLOGY
LANA CROSBIE

43. Effects of environmental stressors on aggressive behaviour
Freedman (1977) suggested that physiological arousal of a crowd heighten the mood you are in. In some situations a crowd may be enjoyable e.g. concert, or undesirable in other situations e.g. riot therefore you might feel stressed and behave anti-socially.
A2 PSYCHOLOGY
LANA CROSBIE

44. Chemical Influences
Chemical Influences
Testosterone
Male sex hormone
Although females have it also
A meta-analysis of 54 studies found that testosterone increases aggression
Violent male prisoners have higher levels of testosterone

45. Chemical Influences Serotonin “Feel good” neurotransmitter
Low levels linked to aggression
Prisoners convicted of impulsive crimes (seeing red!) have lower levels of serotonin than those who commit a premeditated crime

46. Chemical Influences Alcohol Linked to increased aggression
Meta-analysis of 130 studies found a positive correlation between alcohol and criminal and domestic violence
Then a meta-analysis of experimental studies came to the same conclusion. That alcohol increases aggression

47. Alcohol and Aggression
How alcohol influences aggression
Reduces inhibitions
Narrowing effect on attention
Decreases self-awareness
Disrupts executive function

48. Class Exercise
The text reports that 50% of people that commit a violent crime do so when intoxicated. What are the implications of this?
If people commit violent acts while intoxicated should we hold them more responsible because they chose to consume a substance that would allow them to be more aggressive or less responsible since it was the substance that allowed them to do be more aggressive?
If we want to reduce aggression should we regulate alcohol to a greater degree or make alcohol more costly so it is more expensive to get intoxicated?
Write your answer on a sheet of paper

49. Food for Thought - Is There a Link Between Diet and Violence?
Dr. Bernard Gesch
A physiologist of the University of Oxford
Nutrition is linked to aggression and violence
Junk food can increase violence
Vitamin supplements reduces antisocial behavior

50. Self-Control Poor self-control Is an important cause of crime
Is a predictor of violent crimes
Most criminals have impulsive personalities
2006 World Cup Final

51. Wounded Pride Violent individuals
Think they are better than other people
Have grandiose or inflated opinions of their worth
Narcissists
Respond with high levels of aggression when they receive a blow to their ego

52. Culture of Honor Southern U.S. has culture of honor
Violent response to threats to one’s honor
Higher levels of violence
Humiliation
Primary cause of violence and aggression in cultures of honor
May be an important cause of terrorism

53. Other Antisocial Behavior
Lying
Not telling the truth
Detecting liars is not that easy
Cheating
Self-control is important predictor of cheating
Stealing
People in anonymous state more likely to steal
Diener et al. (1976) study of Halloween candy

54. Figure Children were most likely to steal candy when they were not identifiable and when they were in a group
Person would ask their name and what street they lived on identified groups versus annymous where he didn’t ask names

55. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/criminal- minds.html