Violence and Aggression

Violence and Aggression“Violence is the antithesis of creativity and wholeness. It destroys community and makes humanity impossible.” ---Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental degradation, and as long as the weak and small continue to be downtrodden by the mighty and powerful.”

---Dalai Lama

A Funny Little Introduction!

Solutions to Violence and Aggression

Reduce exposure to media violence and aggressive role models, especially for children and adolescents.A large body of literature now shows that violent media can have many effects:

Perception of world as a violent placeReduction of inhibitions toward

aggressionImitation of specific aggressive actsDesensitization to the severity of

violenceDecreased empathy for victims of

violenceEndorsement of violence to solve

problems

Source: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~psyb10/lecture21/lecture21

Reduce Exposure to Media Violence

Source: http://www2.sfu.ca/media-lab/research/safeschool.pdf

The effect of TV/Video Violence on Aggression

“The strength of the correlation between media violence and aggressive behaviour found on meta-analysis is greater than that of calcium intake and bone mass, lead ingestion and lower IQ, condom non-use and sexually acquired human immunodeficiency virus infection, or environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer, which clinicians accept and on which preventive medicine is based without question.”

American Academy of Paediatrics, 2001

Comparisons of the effect of TV/Video violence on aggression with other effects (Bushman and Anderson, 2001)

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Effect Size

Smoking andlung cancer

TV andaggression

Video gamesand

aggression

Calciumintake andbone mass

Source: info.wlu.ca/~wwwpsych/rbuehler/Teaching/week%2010.post.f08


Replace the use of corporal punishment with more positive child control techniques.

In the US 74% of parents say the spank their children (aged 17 and under)Of those parents with 3-4 yr olds, 94% say they use corporal punishmentStudies on corporal punishment suggest spanking tends to lead to immediate compliance of the child, but

•associated with decreased internalization of morals, poorer parent-child relationships, poorer mental health of child and adult, more delinquency and antisocial behaviour• at risk for abuse or abusing one’s child or spouse•more angry, aggressive and stressed

Source: www.ualberta.ca/~carmen/325a1/Family%26Parenting.ppt

Positive Child Control Techniques

Positive Child Control TechniquesMost researchers contend that the relationship between spanking and antisocial behavior is bidirectional and causal.This means that antisocial behavior already present in children, such as aggression, typically leads to more spanking by the caregiver.Then, frequent and long term spanking is associated with more antisocial behavior such as delinquency, noncompliance and aggression.Consequently, antisocial behavior is related to more spanking, which in turn is related to more antisocial behavior.Source: http://adoptionthroughpropitiation.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/to-spank-or-not-to-spank.pdf.


Reduce social rewards for aggressive activities, including those previously thought to be cathartic.Indulging in aggression generally serves to make future aggression more likely. Why?Acting aggressively may be rewarding (i.e., it makes

us feel better or lets us get our way)It may create an aggressive habit (cycle of priming

violence and behaving violently)We may start to blame the victim for being the target

of our aggression


Reduce Social Rewards for Aggressive Activities


Increase social rewards and social support for nonaggressive pro-social activities.Seeking out apologies (and giving them)

instead of rumination on transgressionsPracticing empathy for othersRewarding non-aggressive behavior instead

of punishing aggressive behaviorSocial modeling of non-aggressive behaviorMonitoring and discussing media portrayals

of violence (i.e., realism, consequences, etc.)


Increase Rewards for Nonaggressive Pro-social Activities


Annual estimates US $ billions:Additional amount of money needed each

year to provide reproductive health care for all women in developing countries: 12

Amount of money spent annually on perfumes in Europe and the United States: 12

Additional amount of money needed each year to provide water and sanitation for all people in developing nationspet food costs in USA & Europe: 9

Amount of money spent annually on cosmetics in the United States: 8

Additional amount of money needed each year to provide basic health an nutrition needs universally in the developing world: 13

Amount of money spent each year on pet food in Europe and the United States: 17

Additional amount of money needed each year to provide basic education for all people in developing nations: 6

Amount of money spent each year on militaries worldwide: 780

Source: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/764

Change Spending Priorities – Increase the quality of social programs designed to decrease difficulties that interfere with normal learning and socialization processes (e.g. adequate health care, education, social supports).

Learning and Socialization Processes

Source: Source: www.ualberta.ca/~carmen/325a1/Family%26Parenting.ppt

Solutions to Violence and AggressionIncrease the quality of parenting by providing instruction, social support and economic support.Parenting Factors and Risk for Aggression & ViolenceProblem relationships with parents in elementary school -- 2 to 4

times increased risk for bullying across adolescence to age 17Low parental trust, low parental monitoring and high parent-youth

conflict related to high risk for bullying across adolescence to age 17Parenting that is sensitive and respects children’s autonomy

provides an ideal context for moral development, empathy and respect for others

Parenting that focuses on managing or controlling child behaviour, in the absence of an appreciation of the child’s autonomy and experience, restricts opportunities to promote moral and pro-social reasoning

Source: www.cyhrnet.ca/documents/MorrettiConnectSupportingCaregiversofAggressiveandAntisocialTeens.ppt.

Sourceshttp://www.haverford.edu/library/reference/mschaus/ICPR281/anderson_violence_acs.pdf

Support anti-violence education and anti-bullying along with peace efforts & personal responses

Acknowledge the male gender of violence: keyRedefine theories by including social contextTake profit/pleasure out of pain: cruelty numbs Destroy weapons and use of force: end fighting

culture and refuse it as a solution to all conflict Admit negative role of media: inform investorsSeek partnerships & promote health through

absolute insistence on all essential human rights

What to Do?

Violence and Aggression

Documents

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