Prof. Greg Francis 7/27/081AggressionIIE 366: DevelopmentalPsychologyGreg FrancisLecture 29Understanding Aggression1. Some Basics2. Prevalence and Consequences3. Why Do Children Resort to Aggression?4. Influence of Parents on Children’sAggression5. Impact of Violent Video Games1. Some Basics Defining aggression Why is it important?Defining Aggression Overt (or physical) aggression --designed to harm another’s physical orpsychological well being (e.g., pushing,shoving, kicking) Relational (or social) aggression --designed to harm another throughdamage to social relationships (e.g.,keeps child out of group, talks behindback)Why Is It Important? When children are aggressive, they are disliked,rejected, and isolated from peers. Children who are disliked, rejected, and isolatedare prone to psychopathology and to deviant andcriminal behavior.April 20, 1999: Columbine HighSchool Killed 12 students and 1 teacherProf. Greg Francis 7/27/082Virginia Tech April 16, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people Moved to the US from South Korea when he was 8years old Long history of mental health problems2. Prevalence and Consequences Study by Crick et al.(1997) of overt andrelational aggressionin preschool children. Studied 65 3.5 to 5.5year olds in apreschool. Teacher and peerassessments ofbehavior.Correlations betweenaggression and rejection bypeersResults are very typical inshowing.... Overt aggression more common inboys than in girls. Relational aggression morecommon in girls than in boys. Both forms of aggression arenegatively related to children’sadjustment.3. Why Do Children Resort ToAggression? Social information processing approaches emphasizechildren’s interpretation of social information and a biasto respond to situations with hostility and anger. Studies of this biased processing usually involveshowing videotapes in which one child hurts anotherchild or breaks the other child’s possessions.Waldman (1996) study 8- to 12-year-old (grades 3-6) boys watchedvideotapes in which one child ruins another child’s toy different versions: the act is hostile Non-hostile:» accidental» Prosocial» Ambiguous» Or, the first child didn’t break the toy but was present andblamed by the second child asked “What did the first child do? Why? If you werethe second child, what would you do?” Separately identify aggressive and non-aggressivechildrenProf. Greg Francis 7/27/083Frequency of reportsIdentificationsDiscriminationsStudent typeProportion of aggressive responses following hostile perceptionsStudent typeSocial interpretation Aggressive boys more likely to misinterpret anotherchild’s intentions. But not just in general, discrimination among non-aggressiveacts is normal When they do misinterpret, the typical error is to assume,incorrectly, that the other’s behavior was hostile. Following hostile and nonhostile acts, aggressive boysare more likely to say that aggressive behavior is theappropriate response.4. Influence of Parents onChildren’s Aggression Direct effect: How parents treatchildren Indirect effect: How parents treateach otherHart et al. (1998) study of Russianpreschoolers and their parents Studied 207 3- to 6-year-olds attending nurseryschool and their parents. Lived in Voronezh, Russia, located about 250 milessouth of Moscow. Measured parenting practices, marital conflict,aggressive behavior.Measurements Parenting: Maternal coercion: self-reported slapping, grabbing, yelling, use ofphysical punishment and shouting as discipline Parental responsiveness: self-reported patience, being easy-goingand relaxed, joking and playing, being responsive to childfeelings/needs, giving comfort and understanding when child is upset. Martial conflict: mother’s and father’s reports of overt conflictobserved by the child Child aggression: teacher ratings Relational aggression” causing harm through damage torelationships, such as social exclusion Overt aggression” causing harm through damage to physical orpsychological well-being, such as bullying, threatening, and use ofphysical forceProf. Greg Francis 7/27/084Correlation with aggression measurementConclusions• Children more often develop overt and relationalaggressive behavior when:• mothers are coercive toward them• mothers are unresponsive• there is more parental conflict at home• For sons, but not daughters• Thus, Russian parents (like US parents) contributeto children’s aggressive behavior both directly andindirectly.5. Impact of violentvideo games Basics of videogame use General modelof impact of long-term exposure tovideo-gameviolence Results of meta-analysisBasics of video game use 8- to 13-year-old boys average more than 8hours of video game play weekly 15% of college men play at least 6 hoursweekly; 3% play more than 20 hr 90% of adolescents reportno parental oversight(e.g., don’t check ratings) $17.9 billion sales inthe US in 2007 43% increaseBasics of video game use For most, the favorite game is violent Most popular games on www.gamerankings.com Civilization Revolution: …features fast-paced, pick-up-and-play actioninvolving strategic global domination… Soulcalibbur IV: Swords will be honed and weapons optimized as… SIREN: Blood Curse: Blood-splattered episodes of this Japanese SurvivalHorror… Baldur’s Gate II: …whether to ally with the law-disregarding ShadowThieves…or the more secretive and disturbing vampires Final Fantasy IV: …the first RPG to incorporate the innovative ActiveTime Battle system… 1942: Joint Strike: …vehicles and weapons have the look and feel ofWWII… Metal Gear Solid 4: …in the middle of a futuristic battlefield. Order Up!: a cooking game that will test your cooking and restaurantmanagement skills.Aggressive personalityAgg beliefs expectationsAgg behavior (person + situation)Video violenceGeneral model of impact of long-term exposure to video-gameviolenceProf. Greg Francis 7/27/085Results of meta-analysis by Andersonand Bushman (2001) 35 studies of violentcomputer, video, orarcade games Total of 4262 participants Measured correlationbetween exposure tovideo violence and (a)aggression and (b) helpingTo summarize.... Overt and relational aggression are common inmany children, usually with harmful consequences. Part of the immediate cause of aggressivebehavior is