aggression

definition

focus on harm not pain

• can cause pain cause pain in order to help

• intent is crucial

• So….

• Intentional, with aim to cause harm or pain with no benefit to target

Physical aggression

• Different from most behaviors

• most can express

• explain arousal, explain behavior

• sex and aggression restricted

sex

• Cannot always express impulse

• rules about expression

• when, where, with whom

• penalties for breaking rules

• but

• healthy, normal, acceptable

Aggression

• Also restricted

• but not normally acceptable

• not healthy

• not generally allowed

Two questions

• What causes aggressive feelings?

• what causes them to be expressed?

Why the impulse?

• Evolution

• yes, helpful but

• for women as well as men

• for almost all animals

innate

• Seems to be part of human nature

• boys more than girls?

• Physical vs. verbal

Problems of studying

• Real-world studies

• laboratory problems– cannot allow real aggression– cannot use strong stimuli– physical aggression rare– hard to generalize

Frustration-aggression

• Frustration - anger, aggressive feelings

• less or none when justified

• does not always produce actual aggression

cues

• Leonard Berkowitz

• guns serve as cues - maybe

• Situation elicits or discourages - yes

Guns and murder

• Yes, a correlation

• not necessarily due to cue

• mostly ease of killing

Learning aggression

• Yes, affected by rewards/punishments

• also by imitation, social pressure, etc.

• But….

abusive parent produces aggressive child?

• most not also abusive

• many abusive parents were not abused

• so connection is not clear

• link is pretty weak and best

Father-absent families

• More juveniles in trouble with the law

• yet fathers are the violent ones (usually)

• so might expect more aggression

• main factor is poverty and lack of attention

Conclusion - what matters

• Being physically abused minor factor

• quality of family life

• attachment, attention

• parenting in general

Corporal punishment??? - con

• Why hit kids and no one else?

• Not effective - has reverse effect

• makes angry

• kids model and become aggressive

Corporal punishment?? - pro

• Parents in unique position

• no evidence of bad outcomes

• is effective in preventing behavior

• parents are people also

also

• Cultures differ in acceptance

• how child perceives is crucial

• may matter more when not accepted

Sub-culture

• Extremely important

• criminal, gangs, macho, etc.

• Vs. education, cooperation, moral

• by society or parts of society

But remember

• Even in “bad” neighborhood

• some are aggressive - some are not

• even in “good”neighborhood

• some are aggressive - some are not

Catharsis

• Acting reduces feelings? Yes

• mainly when against cause of anger

• and this reduces aggression - probably

vicarious

• Watching reduces feelings - rarely

• maybe when cause is the one being harmed

• then it may reduce aggression

Pornographyand

aggression

More porn but less violence

• More explicit pornography

• Violent sexual crimes declined

• if porn causes violence,

– why has it declined?

Experimental research

• Very difficult - weird situation

• demand

• equating the programs

• one or two programs???

Real-world research

• Magazines and rape - wrong!

• Macho culture

• most explicit not related

Use by offenders

• Marshall - yes they use more

• all others - no, either same or less

• and may use to reduce urge

–and prevent crime

• Erotica almost always reduces aggression

• no evidence of actual aggression

• desensitization?? To porn yes...

Ethics?

• Informed consent

• what is the rationale

• maybe just permission

• debriefing removes it

TV violence and aggression

• Aggressive kids watch more TV violence

• small correlation - .1 to .3

• only 1% to 10% of variation

• so a relatively minor factor

Method - not so easy

• Measuring tv viewing

• measuring aggressiveness

They are correlated

Must ask why?

experiments

• Hard to measure aggression in lab

• why is this program being shown?

– Gives permission to be aggressive?

– Endorses the program?

Field studies

• Measure TV violence and aggression at time one

• measure again later

• look for effect

If TV causes aggression

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

age 6 age 10 age 16 age 25

low

moderate

high

If no causal effect

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

age 6 age 10 age 16 age 25

low

moderate

high

Video games

yes – correlation

Is it causal?

Hard to study

Experiments unrealistic

Explain the correlation

• Personality - some are aggressive

• they act aggressively and like violent media

• same as with boys and girls

Social explanation

• Single parents, poor family

• lack attention and other activities

• they are less happy - more aggressive

• they have less to do - watch more tv etc.

• they are monitored less - more violent tv