Social Psychology Exam 4 Chapter 10 Aggression is behavior intended to injure another o Aggression is behavior o The behavior is intended o The behavior is aimed at hurting another person Assertiveness is behavior intended to express dominance or confidence Indirect VS Direct o Indirect aggression is behavior intended to hurt someone without face to face confrontation o Direct aggression is behavior intended to hurt someone to his or her face Emotional VS Instrumental Reactive VS Proactive o Emotional aggression is hurtful behavior that stems from angry feelings o Instrumental aggression is hurting another to accomplish some other goal Gender differences o Women tend to use more indirect aggression o Men tend to use more direct aggression o High levels of testosterone are related to dominance and aggressiveness Adolescent boys Violent animals Men and women with criminal records Goals of aggression o Lorenz animal instinct elicited it Catharsis is a discharge of aggressive impulses Increases chances of survival and or reproduction A drive toward blind aggression would be maladaptive o Adaptive goals o Functional Aggressive impulses are natural People fail to control them Hostile cognitive bias are inferences and expectation about others Displacement is an indirect expression of an aggressive impulse away from the person or animal that o Hostile attribution bias is the view of ambiguous acts as aggressive o Hostile perception bias is perceived social interactions as being aggressive o Hostile expectation bias is to expect others to react aggressively Frustration aggression hypothesis is the theory that aggression is an automatic response to any blocking of goal directed behavior o When someone is acting aggressive you can assume the person was previously frustrated o When someone is frustrated some act of aggression will follow o Reformed frustrated aggression hypothesis is the theory that any unpleasant stimulation will lead to emotional aggression to the extent that it generates unpleasant feelings Social Psychology Exam 4 Social information processing by children o Non defensive Less likely to notice a bump from another child Interpret as an accident Consider peaceful solution Likely to rule out as an aggressive response More skilled at carrying out peaceful options o Defensive opposite of Non defensive Belief in a dangerous world o People who believe the world is full of dangerous people tend to perceive anger in neutral faces and exhibit more xenophobia Xenophobia is fear and distrust of foreigners o There are many dangerous people in our society who will attack someone out of pure meanness Excitation transfer theory is the theory that anger is physiologically similar to other emotional states and that any form of emotional arousal can enhance aggressive responses o The emotional reaction of anger produces the same symptoms Type A behavior pattern is a group of personality characteristics including time urgency and competitiveness that is associated with higher risk for coronary disease o Type Bs often take a more laid back approach to deadlines and competition Unpleasant situations o When feeling pain you are more aggressive o Sweltering heat o Poverty Relative deprivation is the feeling that one has less than the others to whom one compares oneself o Crowding o Foul odors Cognitive neoassociation theory is that any unpleasant situation triggers a complex chain of internal events including negative emotions and negative thoughts Depending on other cues in the situation these feelings will be expressed as either aggression or flight o Unpleasant experience negative feelings angry thoughts fight or fearful thoughts flight Social Psychology Exam 4 fight o Objects or events with aggressive meaning angry thoughts negative feelings or fearful thoughts flight or Weapons effect is the tendency for weapons to enhance aggressive thoughts feelings or actions o Berkowitz and LePage s experiment Angry participants were seated at desk and either guns or sports equipment was present Participants were told to ignore the items and some had to shock their partners Those sitting in the presence of guns shocked their partner more The cycle of frustration and aggression frustr ati on alien ate s other s ag gresiv e be havior fa ilure re jection Social learning theory is that aggression is learned through direct reward or by watching others being rewarded for aggressiveness Modeling violence o Violence in the media o Meta analysis shows that exposure to violent media leads to Negative feelings High arousal Aggressive thoughts Aggressive behavior o Bobo doll experiment for example when aggression is modeled it causes an increase in aggression A psychopath is an individual characterized by impulsivity irresponsibility low empathy grandiose self worth and lack of sensitivity to punishment o Such individuals are inclined toward acting violently for personal gain Alcohol lowers inhibitions o Reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex o Reduces attentional breadth Alcohol myopia Cultural influence o Culture of honor is a set of societal norms whose central idea is that people should be ready to defend their honor with violent retaliation if necessary o Areas with relatively little government oversight o Property can be easily stolen De individuation is that people are more likely to be violent when in a crowd than when they are not identified Social Psychology Exam 4 Gaining of maintaining social status o Sexual selection is a form of natural selection favoring characteristics that assist animals in attracting mates or in competing with members of their own sex Differential parental investment is the principle that animals making higher investment in their offspring will be more careful in choosing mates o Testosterone In boys aged 9 to 11 higher testosterone levels are associated with more aggressive behaviors Prison inmates with higher testosterone levels have more confrontations with prison authorities Among 4462 veterans those with high levels of testosterone were more likely to have trouble with the law General aggression hypothesis o Provocation gender hormones and modeling all lead to aggressive behaviors Status o Status driven aggression should also be enhanced when females are hard to come by but reduced when a man has succeeded in the goal of attracting a mate o People with generally high self esteem are more likely to act aggressively than those with chronically low self o Status linked
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