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Chapter 12
Aggression:
Why We Hurt Other People
Chapter Outline
I. What is Aggression?
What is Aggression?
• An aggressive action is intentional
behavior aimed at causing either
physical or psychological pain.
What is Aggression?
• Hostile aggression is an act of
aggression stemming from feelings
of anger and aimed at inflicting pain.
What is Aggression?
• Instrumental aggression is
aggression that serves as a means to
some goal other than causing pain.
What is Aggression?
• Is Aggression Inborn, or Is it
Learned?
Scientists do not agree on whether aggression
is innate or learned. The debate has been
raging for centuries.
What is Aggression?
• Is Aggression Inborn, or Is it
Learned?
Freud postulated that humans have innate
instincts toward life, Eros, and towards death
and aggression, Thanatos.
What is Aggression?
• Is Aggression Inborn, or Is it
Learned?
Freud’s theory was a hydraulic theory, a
theory that unexpressed emotions build up
pressure and must be expressed to relieve
that pressure. Society performs the role of
helping people express this instinct
constructively.
What is Aggression?
• Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
Even in the most aggression-prone species,
aggression is an optional strategy and is
determined by the organism’s previous social
experiences and by the specific social context
in which the organism finds itself.
What is Aggression?
• Aggressiveness Across Cultures
Berkowitz (1993) suggests that humans seem
to have an inborn tendency to respond to
certain provocative stimuli by striking out
against the perpetrator.
What is Aggression?
• Aggressiveness Across Cultures
Whether or not this aggressive action is
expressed depends on the interaction of these
innate propensities with learned inhibitory
responses and the nature of the social
situation.
What is Aggression?
• Aggressiveness Across Cultures
In humans, innate patterns of behavior are
infinitely malleable; thus, cultures vary widely
in the degree of aggressiveness.
What is Aggression?
• Aggressiveness Across Cultures
The evidence is inconclusive on whether or
not aggression has an instinctual component,
but it is clear that aggression can be modified
by situational factors. Two examples of this
are aggression among the Iroquois and the
regional differences in aggressive behavior in
the United States.
Chapter Outline
II. Neural and Chemical Influences
on Aggression
Neural and Chemical Influences on
Aggression
The amygdala is an area in the core of
the brain associated with aggressive
behavior. But even if the amygdala is
directly stimulated, whether or not the
organism will aggress depends on
situational factors.
Neural and Chemical Influences on
Aggression
• Serotonin and Testosterone
Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that
may inhibit aggressive impulses.
Testosterone is a male sex hormone
associated with aggression. A wide
variety of studies have shown that men
are more aggressive than women are.
However, the research on gender
differences is complex and results depend
on situational and cultural factors.
Neural and Chemical Influences on
Aggression
• Alcohol and Aggression
Alcohol serves as a disinhibitor and leads
people to be more likely to commit actions
frowned upon by society; thus alcohol can
foster aggression when people are
provoked.
Chapter Outline
III. Situational Causes of
Aggression
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Pain and Discomfort as Causes of
Aggression
Both animal and human studies show that
pain will increase the probability that an
organism will aggress.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Pain and Discomfort as Causes of
Aggression
Other forms of bodily discomfort (heat,
humidity, air pollution, offensive odors) may
also act to lower the threshold for
aggressive behaviors.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Social Situations Leading to
Aggression
Frustration-aggression theory says that
frustration, the perception that you are
being prevented from obtaining a goal, will
increase the probability of an aggressive
response.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Social Situations Leading to
Aggression
The closer someone is to a goal, the greater
the frustration when one is thwarted and the
higher the probability that the person will
act aggressively.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Social Situations Leading to
Aggression
Aggression also increases when frustration
is unexpected. The perception of relative
deprivation, feeling that one has less than
one deserves or has been led to expect or
has less than similar people, can increase
aggressive behavior.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Social Situations Leading to
Aggression
People usually feel the need to reciprocate
after they are provoked by aggressive
behavior from another person.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Social Situations Leading to
Aggression
If we think the provocation was
unintentional, we are unlikely to reciprocate.
And if there are mitigating circumstances,
we may not aggress, so long as the
circumstances are known at the time of the
aggression.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Aggressive Objects as Cues
An aggressive stimulus is an object that is
associated with aggressive responses (for
example, a gun), and whose mere presence
can increase the probability of aggression.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Aggressive Objects as Cues
A major cause of aggression is social
learning. Bandura and associates (1961)
demonstrated social learning theory, the
theory that we learn social behavior (for
example, aggression) by observing others
and imitating them.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Exposure to Violence in the Media
A number of long-term studies indicate that
the more violence individuals watch on TV
as children, the more violence they exhibit
years later as teens and adults.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Exposure to Violence in the Media
Adults as well as children are influenced by
violent television.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Exposure to Violence in the Media
Repeated exposure to horrifying events has
a numbing effect on our sensitivity to those
events.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Exposure to Violence in the Media
Adolescents and adults who watch more than four
hours of television per day are more likely than
people who watch less television to have an
exaggerated view of the level of violence that
occurs outside their home and they have a greater
fear of being personally assaulted.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Exposure to Violence in the Media
At least five reactions to media violence help
explain why exposure to violence in the media
might increase aggression: “If they can do it, so
can I.”, “Oh, so that’s how you do it!”, “I think it
must be aggressive feelings that I’m experiencing.”,
“Ho-hum, another brutal beating; what’s on the
other channel?”, and “I had better get him before he
gets me!”
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Violent Pornography and Violence
against Women
During the past three decades, almost half of all
rapes or attempted rapes are attributed to date rape.
Scripts are ways of behaving socially that we learn
implicitly from our culture. The sexual scripts
adolescents are exposed to suggest that females
should resist males’ sexual advances and that
males should be persistent.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Violent Pornography and Violence
against Women
There has been an increase in the
availability of magazines, films, and videos
depicting vivid, explicit sexual behavior.
Situational Causes of Aggression
• Violent Pornography and Violence
against Women
However, experimental evidence regarding
the effects of pornography on violence
against women is very complex. One
conclusion that can be made is that violent
sexual pornography presents a clear
problem for our society and it increases
aggression against women.
Chapter Outline
IV. How to Reduce Aggression
How To Reduce Aggression
• Does Punishing Aggression Reduce
Aggressive Behavior?
For children, harsh punishment provides a
model of aggression and does not prevent a
child from engaging in the forbidden
behavior when the child is unsupervised.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Does Punishing Aggression Reduce
Aggressive Behavior?
The threat of mild punishment, swiftly
administered, does, however, seem to reduce
aggression. The combination of education
and mild punishment has been successful in
efforts to reduce the occurrence of bullying
behavior.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Does Punishing Aggression Reduce
Aggressive Behavior?
For adults, the research evidence is mixed.
Laboratory experiments suggest that under
ideal circumstances punishment can reduce
aggression. But in real life, punishment
occurs under anything but ideal conditions.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Does Punishing Aggression Reduce
Aggressive Behavior?
Berkowitz (1993) suggests that it is the
swiftness and certainty of punishment rather
than its severity that is important in leading
to reductions in aggression.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Catharsis and Aggression
The common belief that one can “blow off
steam” and “get it out of your system” is an
oversimplification of Freud’s psychoanalytic
notion of catharsis.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Catharsis and Aggression
According to this idea, performing an
aggressive act relieves built-up aggressive
energies and hence reduces the likelihood of
further aggressive behavior.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Catharsis and Aggression
However, controlled studies suggest that
attempting to reduce one’s anger by acting
violently increases, rather than decreases,
subsequent aggression and hostility.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Catharsis and Aggression
Research has found that when people are
allowed to express their aggression, they
later feel greater dislike and hostility toward
their victims.
How To Reduce Aggression
• Catharsis and Aggression
This effect is magnified when a nation is at
war. Being at war weakens the population’s
inhibitions against aggression, leads to
imitation of aggression, makes aggressive
responses more acceptable, and numbs
people and makes them unsympathetic
toward the victims. Also, war legitimizes the
use of violent solutions to address difficult
problems.
How To Reduce Aggression
• What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
There is an important difference between
being angry and expressing that anger in a
violent and destructive manner. Expressing
anger nonviolently is an assertive response
that avoids the dangers of either violent
expression or of repression of the feelings.
How To Reduce Aggression
• What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
One way to reduce aggression in another
person is for the person who caused the
frustration to take responsibility, apologize,
and indicate it won’t happen again.
How To Reduce Aggression
• What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
Children exposed to models who behave
nonaggressively when provoked show a
much lower frequency of aggression than
children who were not exposed to these
models.
How To Reduce Aggression
• What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
In most societies it is the people who lack
proper social skills who are most prone to
violent solutions to interpersonal problems.
How To Reduce Aggression
• What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
Thus one way to reduce violence is to teach
people how to communicate anger and
criticism constructively and how to negotiate
and compromise.
How To Reduce Aggression
• What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
Building empathy, for example by teaching
empathy in school, not only reduces
aggressiveness but also can increase selfesteem, generosity, and positive attitudes.
Chapter Outline
V. Could the Columbine Massacre
Have Been Prevented?
Could the Columbine Massacre Have
Been Prevented?
• Aronson (2000) suggests that
although the violent acts of the
Columbine massacre were
pathological, it would be a mistake to
dismiss them as just the result of
individual pathology.
Could the Columbine Massacre Have
Been Prevented?
• What is necessary to acknowledge is
the social situation that children and
adolescents face in schools. Thus,
making our schools safer by
changing the negative, exclusionary
social atmosphere may help reduce
the frequency of violence in schools.
Study Questions
What is an aggressive action?
Why is aggression difficult to
define?
Study Questions
What is the difference between
hostile and instrumental
aggression?
Study Questions
How do Freud’s Eros,Thanatos,
and hydraulic theory explain
human aggression?
Study Questions
What factors other than instinct
determine if an animal will
behave aggressively?
Study Questions
What are cultural and regional
differences in human aggressive
behavior that have been
documented throughout history?
What do these findings tell us
about the importance of instinct
in driving human aggression?
Study Questions
What roles do the amygdala and
testosterone play in aggressive
behavior? What effect does
serotonin have on aggressive
behavior? What research
findings support the influence of
testosterone on aggressive
behavior?
Study Questions
What is the relationship between
gender, culture, and aggressive
behavior?
Study Questions
Under what conditions is the
consumption of alcohol related
to aggressive behavior?
Study Questions
How are pain and heat related to
aggressive behavior?
Study Questions
How does the frustrationaggression theory explain
aggressive behavior? What
situations produce frustration?
Study Questions
How do aggressive stimuli
increase the probability of
aggressive behavior? What are
data that support the
relationship between aggressive
stimuli and aggressive behavior?
Study Questions
How does social learning theory
explain aggressive behavior?
What is evidence that supports
the explanations provided by
this theory?
Study Questions
What are the effects of watching
media violence on children and
adults? What are the effects of
constant exposure to media
violence? Why might media
violence increase aggressive
behavior?
Study Questions
What are the consequences of
viewing violent pornography on
aggressive behavior in general
and toward women in particular?
Study Questions
What type of punishment is most
likely to deter aggressiveness?
Why is the threat of punishment
not always an effective
deterrent?
Study Questions
What are the assumptions of the
catharsis hypothesis? Does
engaging in aggressive or
physical behavior reduce future
aggressive behavior?
Study Questions
What effects does wartime have
on a nation’s aggressive
behavior?
Study Questions
What are other possible strategies
to reduce aggressive tendencies
besides venting them? Why does
“opening up” reduce
aggression? How can individuals
who cause frustration reduce
aggression in those they have
frustrated?
Study Questions
How effective are modeling and
communication training at
reducing aggression? What can
empathy do to aggressive
tendencies and the ill treatment
of victims?
Study Questions
What are the advantages of
teaching empathy in school?
What effects could empathy
training have on the prevention
of school violence?