Download Aronson, The Social Animal, 10e

Human Aggression
Chapter Six
Human Aggression
► We
Americans display a chilling acceptance of
violence that, at times, seems utterly absurd and
mindless.
► On a broader scale, we humans have shown
ourselves to be a particularly aggressive species.
► Some questions:
 Is aggression inborn?
 Can it be modified?
 What are the social and situational factors that increase
or decrease aggression?
Aggression Defined
►Aggression
action is defined as
intentional behavior aimed at
causing either physical or
psychological pain.
 It is not to be confused with
assertiveness.
 The most important factor is
INTENTION.
Aggression Defined
► It
is useful to distinguish between hostile
aggression and instrumental aggression:
 Hostile aggression is an act of aggression
stemming from a feeling of anger and
aimed at inflicting pain or injury.
 Instrumental aggression also has an
intention to cause injury, but the hurting
takes place as a means to some goal
other than causing pain.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► Scientists,
philosophers, and other serious
thinkers are not in complete agreement
about whether aggression is an inborn,
instinctive phenomenon or whether such
behavior must be learned.
 It is a controversy that has been raging for
centuries.
Hobbes’s Leviathan
►Example: Rousseau’s concept of the noble savage
►Example:
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►Hobbes’s
more pessimistic view was
elaborated in the 20th century by
Sigmund Freud.
 Freud theorized that human beings
are born with an instinct toward life
(Eros) and an equally powerful
instinct toward death (Thanatos).
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►Freud
believed that aggressive
energy must come out somehow –
a notion best characterized as a
hydraulic theory.
 Unless aggression is allowed to
drain off, it will produce some
sort of explosion.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►According
to Freud, society
performs an essential function
in regulating this instinct and in
helping people sublimate it.
To sublimate is to turn
destructive energy into
acceptable or useful behavior.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► Research
on the instinctiveness of human
aggression is provocative but inconclusive
because it is impossible to conduct a
definitive experiment.
► Accordingly, scientists have turned to
experiments with nonhuman species to gain
additional insight into the extent to which
aggression may be hardwired.
 Example: Cats vs. Rats (Kuo)
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►Kuo’s
research does not
demonstrate that aggressive
behavior is not instinctive.
It merely demonstrates that
the aggressive instinct can be
inhibited by early experience.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► What
if an organism grows up without any
contact with other organisms?
 Example: Rats raised in isolation will
attack a fellow rat when one is
introduced, and will use the same pattern
of threat and attack that experienced rats
use.
► Aggression, apparently, does not need to be
learned.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►It
is also insightful to study
animals with whom we share
the most genetic similarity –
chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees are extremely
aggressive and males will hunt
and kill other chimps.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► We
should also examine the bonobo, an
equally close genetic relative.
 Bonobos have been described as more
intelligent, more compassionate, more
empathic, and more peaceful than
chimps.
 The bonobo is also one of the least
aggressive species of mammal on the
planet.
►They have been called the “make-lovenot-war” ape.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► The
bonobo is a rare exception – among
primates, aggression is nearly universal,
which strongly suggests that it has evolved
and been maintained because it has survival
value.
► However, evolutionary psychologists
underscore the point that nearly all
organisms also have evolved strong
inhibitory mechanisms that enable them to
suppress aggression when it is in their best
interests to do so.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► Aggression
is an optional strategy.
► It is determined by the animal’s previous
social experiences as well as by the specific
social context in which the animal finds
itself.
► The bonobos prove that violence between
animals is far from inevitable.
 It can be virtually eliminated within a
culture.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►Where
humans are concerned,
because of the complexity of
our social interactions, the
social situation takes on even
greater importance than it does
in the animal kingdom.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► Berkowitz
suggested that humans seem to have
an inborn tendency to respond to certain
provocative stimuli by striking out against the
perpetrator.
 Whether or not the aggressive tendency is
actually expressed in overt action is a function
of a complex interplay among these innate
propensities, a variety of learned inhibitory
responses, and the precise nature of the social
situation.
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► There
is much evidence to support
Berkowitz’s contention that, among humans,
innate patterns of behavior are infinitely
modifiable and flexible.
 Example: “primitive” tribes living in peace,
“civilized” societies (like ours) opting for war
► Changing
social conditions can lead to
dramatic changes in aggressive behavior.
 Example: Iroquois tribe vs. Huron tribe
Is Aggression Instinctive?
► In
our own society, there are some striking
regional differences in aggressive behavior
and in the kinds of events that trigger
violence.
 Example: Homicide rates in the North vs. South
(Nisbett)
 Example: “Culture of honor” (Nisbett, et al.)
 Example: Reaction to honor-related murder
(Cohen & Nisbett)
Is Aggression Instinctive?
►Although
an instinctual component of
aggression is almost certainly present
in human beings and other primates,
aggression is not caused entirely by
instinct.
►In human beings, such behavior can be
modified by situation and social factors.
►In short, aggressive behavior can be
reduced.
Is Aggression Useful?
► Should
aggression in humans be reduced?
 Lorenz argued that aggression is “an
essential part of the life-preserving
organization of instincts.”
 Basing his argument on nonhumans, he
sees aggression as being of prime
evolutionary importance; others concur.
►Example: Washburn & Hamburg;
Pinker; LeBoeuf
Is Aggression Useful?
►Using
data from the animal kingdom,
some observers urge caution in
attempting to control aggression in
humans, suggesting that, as in some
lower animals, aggression may be
necessary for survival.
►Aronson argues that such reasoning is
based on an exaggerated definition of
aggression.
Is Aggression Useful?
►Ashley
Montagu feels that an
oversimplification and
misinterpretation of Darwin’s
theory has provided the average
person with the mistaken idea
that conflict is necessarily the
law of life.
Is Aggression Useful?
► The
danger is that his kind of reasoning
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and can
lead us to ignore or downplay the survival
value of nonaggressive and noncompetitive
behavior.
 There is ample evidence to support this
conclusion.
►Example: Kropotkin work on mutual aid
►Example: Altruistic chimpanzees
Is Aggression Useful?
► As
a culture, Americans seem to thrive on
competition.
 Example: Lombardi, “Winning isn’t
everything, it’s the only thing.”
► While it may be true that, in the early
history of human evolution, highly
competitive and aggressive behaviors were
adaptive, Aronson questions the current
survival value of that behavior now.
Is Aggression Useful?
► Does
catharsis work?
 Catharsis is the psychoanalytic concept of
the release of energy, specifically
aggressive energy.
►If not released, pressure from this
energy would build, exploding into acts
of violence or emerging as a mental
illness.
►This belief has become part of our
cultural mythology.
Is Aggression Useful?
►There
is a plethora of evidence
indicating that catharsis simply does
not work.
 Example: Bushman
►Physical activity seems neither to
dissipate anger nor to reduce
subsequent aggression.
 Example: Patterson
Is Aggression Useful?
►What
happens when acts of aggression
are targeted directly against the person
who provoked us? Does this satiate our
need to aggress and reduce our
tendency to hurt that person further?
 Systematic research again
demonstrates that the opposite
occurs.
►Example: Geen, et al.
Is Aggression Useful?
►Taking
all of this together it is
clear that venting anger –
directly or indirectly, verbally or
physically – does not reduce
hostility.
It increases it.
Is Aggression Useful?
► Why
does expressing aggression lead to greater
hostility?
 First, once we express negative feelings it
becomes that much easier to follow such
behavior with consistent statements and
actions.
 Moreover, retaliation is typically more severe
than the initial insult or attack.
►We tend to engage in overkill, which sets the
stage for dissonance reduction.
 Example: Kahn
Is Aggression Useful?
► Overkill
maximizes dissonance.
 The greater the discrepancy between that the
perpetrator did to you and your retaliation, the
greater the dissonance.
 The greater the dissonance, the greater your
need to derogate him.
►Example: Kent State shootings
►Example: Denying African Americans
education
►Example: Anti-American sentiment post-9/11
Is Aggression Useful?
►In
most situations, committing or
condoning violence does not reduce
the tendency toward violence.
 Committing acts of violence increases
our negative feelings about the
victims.
►Ultimately, this is why violence
almost always breeds more
violence.
Is Aggression Useful?
► What
happens if we can somehow arrange
it so that retaliation is not allowed to run
roughshod over the instigator of
aggression?
► What if the degree of retaliation is
reasonably controlled so that it is not
significantly more intense that the action
that precipitated it?
 Aronson predicts that there would be little or no
dissonance.
►Experiments
confirm that when retaliation matches
the provocation, people do not derogate the
Is Aggression Useful?
► The
major point to be emphasized is that most
situations in the real world are messy – retaliation
almost always exceeds the original offense.
 Why? The pain we receive always feels more
intense that the pain we inflict.
►Example: Neurology research on “tit-for-tat”
 The conclusion? Escalation is a “natural
by-product of neural processing.”
Causes of Aggression
► One
major cause of violence is violence
itself.
 Other major causes include:
►Neurological and Chemical Causes
►Pain and Discomfort
►Frustration
►Rejection, Exclusion, & Taunting
►Social Learning
Causes of Aggression
► Neurological
and Chemical Causes
 There is an area in the core of the brain called
the amygdala which is associated with
aggressive behaviors in human beings and
lower animals.
►When electrically stimulated, docile
organisms become violent; when blocked,
violent organisms become docile.
►The impact of these neural mechanisms can
be modified by social factors, however, even
in subhumans.
Causes of Aggression
► Neurological
and Chemical Causes
 Certain chemicals have been shown to increase
aggression.
►Example:
Testosterone, a male sex hormone,
increases aggression in animals.
►Example: Dabbs, et al. report related findings in
humans.
►It is clear that testosterone affects aggressiveness,
but behaving aggressively also increases the release
of testosterone.
Causes of Aggression
► Neurological
and Chemical Causes
 If testosterone level affects aggressiveness,
does that mean that men are more aggressive
than women?
►When it comes to physical aggression, the
answer appears to be yes.
 Example: Maccoby and Jacklin
►When we consider nonphysical forms of
aggression, the picture gets more
complicated.
 Example: Relational aggression (Crick, et
al.)
Causes of Aggression
► Neurological
and Chemical Causes
 Is the gender difference in physical
aggression biological or social in origin?
►We cannot be sure, but some evidence
points to biology.
 Example: Archer & McDaniel crosscultural study
►It also is apparent that these findings
are not due solely to biochemical
differences.
Causes of Aggression
► Neurological
and Chemical Causes
 One chemical that people throughout the
world happily ingest is alcohol.
 Alcohol tends to lower our inhibitions
against committing acts sometimes
frowned upon by society, including acts of
aggression.
►Example: Crime statistics
►Example: Laboratory experiments
Causes of Aggression
►Neurological
and Chemical Causes
 This does not mean that alcohol
automatically increases aggression.
 Research indicates that alcohol
serves as a disinhibitor and also
tends to disrupt the way we usually
process information.
Causes of Aggression
►Pain
and Discomfort
 Pain and discomfort are major
precursors of aggression.
►Example: Easily seen in
animals
►Example: Berkowitz study with
cold water
Causes of Aggression
► Pain
and Discomfort
 Observers have speculated that other forms of
bodily discomfort (e.g., heat, humidity, offensive
odors) might act to lower the threshold for
aggressive behavior.
►Example:
“The long, hot summer”; Carlsmith &
Anderson study of riots
►Example: Anderson, et al. study of heat and violence
►Example: Griffitt and Veitch laboratory study
►Example: MLB games, car horn honking
Causes of Aggression
► Frustration
 Of situational causes of aggression, the major
instigator is frustration.
►If an individual is thwarted on the way to a
goal, the resulting frustration will increase the
probability of an aggressive response.
 This is called the “frustration-aggression
hypothesis.”
Classic experiment: Barker, Dembo, &
Lewin
Causes of Aggression
►Frustration
 Several factors can accentuate
frustration.
►Example: Nearness of goal (Harris)
►Example: Unexpected or
illegitimate interruption
(Kulik & Brown)
Causes of Aggression
► Frustration
 Frustration is most pronounced when the goal is
becoming palpable and drawing within reach,
when expectations are high, and when the goal
is blocked unjustifiably.
►These factors help to point out the important
distinction between frustration and
deprivation.
 Frustration is not the result of simple
deprivation – it is the result of relative
deprivation.
Causes of Aggression
► Rejection,
Exclusion, & Taunting
 Aronson concludes that rampage killings
(e.g., at Columbine High School) are just
the pathological tip of an enormous
iceberg: the poisonous social atmosphere
prevalent at most high schools in this
country.
►This atmosphere is fraught with
exclusion, rejection, taunting, and
humiliation.
Causes of Aggression
► Rejection,
Exclusion, & Taunting
 Recent research by Twenge, et al.
demonstrates that being rejected has a
plethora of negative effects, not the least
of which is a dramatic increase in
aggressiveness.
 Aronson’s research also reveals that
rejection and the accompanying
humiliation were the dominant issues
underlying high school rampage killings.
Causes of Aggression
►Social
Learning
 Social learning plays an important
role in determining whether or not a
person will aggress in a given
situation.
►One qualification is the intention
attributed to an agent of pain or
frustration.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning
 One aspect that seems to distinguish humans
from other animals is our ability to take the
intentions of others into account – we become
less aggressive when given a good explanation
for the frustrating behavior of others.
►Example:
Mallick & McCandless
 The tendency for frustration to provoke
aggression can be strengthened if the
experience is combined with exposure to certain
provocative stimuli.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning
 The tendency for frustration to provoke
aggression can be strengthened, however,
if the experience is combined with
exposure to certain provocative
(aggressive) stimuli (e.g., associated
name or object, violent movie, rifle).
►Example: Berkowitz, et al.
Causes of Aggression
►Social
Learning
 One aspect of social learning that
tends to inhibit aggression is the
tendency most people have to take
responsibility for their actions.
 What happens if this sense of
responsibility is weakened?
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning
 Zimbardo has demonstrated that persons who
are anonymous and unidentifiable tend to act
more aggressively than persons who are not
anonymous.
►He suggests that anonymity induces
deindividuation – a state of lessened selfawareness, reduced concern over social
evaluation, and weakened restraints against
prohibited forms of behavior.
Causes of Aggression
►Social
Learning
 There is reason to believe that
deindividuation also takes place
outside the laboratory.
►Example: Analysis of
newspaper reports (Mullen)
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 One particularly powerful set of agents of
social learning is the mass media –
especially television and especially for
children.
►A number of long-term studies indicate
that the more violence individuals
watch on television as children, the
more violence they exhibit years later
as teenagers and young adults.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Because this is an issue of great importance to
society, it has been well researched.
►The overwhelming thrust of the experimental
evidence demonstrates that watching
violence does increase the frequency of
aggressive behavior in children.
 Example: Liebert & Baron
 Example: Josephson
 Example: Parke, et al.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 At a recent congressional hearing, it was
estimated that the average 12-year-old
has witnessed more than 100,000 acts of
violence on television.
►One of the crucial factors believed to
be involved in the research findings is
priming.
Causes of Aggression
►
Social Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 The effect of media violence on violent behavior is not
limited to children.
►Media violence has a major impact on the aggressive
behavior of adolescents and young adults as well.
 Example: Johnson, et al.
There was a significant association between
the amount of time spent watching television
during adolescence and early adulthood and
the likelihood of subsequent violence.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Additionally, on numerous occasions,
adult violence seems to be a case of life
imitating art.
►Example: Shooting spree in Killeen,
Texas
►Example: Phillips study of homicide
rates and heavyweight boxing
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 It seems to be the case that repeated exposure
to painful or unpleasant events tends to have a
numbing effect on our sensitivity to those
events.
►This seems to be true for exposure to violent
television as well as violent video games.
 Example: Cline, et al.
 Example: Thomas, et al.
 Example: Thomas
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 There are four distinct reasons that exposure to
violence via 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?”
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 An important and troubling aspect of
aggression in the United States involves
violence expressed by some men against
women in the form of rape.
►Almost half of all rapes or attempted
rapes are “date rapes” in which the
victim is acquainted with the assailant.
Causes of Aggression
►
Social Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 It appears that many date rapes take place because the
male refuses to take the word “no” at face value, in part
because of some confusion about the “sexual scripts”
adolescents learn as they gain sexual maturity.
►Scripts are a way of social behavior that we learn
implicitly from the culture.
 The sexual scripts adolescents are exposed to
suggest that the traditional female role is to resist
the male’s sexual advances and the male’s role is
to be persistent.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Coincidental with the increase in rape
during the past few decades is an
increase in the availability of the depiction
of vivid, sexually explicit behavior on the
Internet.
►For better or for worse, in recent years,
our society has become increasingly
freer and more tolerant of pornography.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Does the viewing of pornographic
material increase the incidence of rape?
►After studying the available evidence,
the President’s Commission on
Obscenity and Pornography concluded
that explicit sexual material in itself did
not contribute to sexual crimes,
violence against women, or other
antisocial acts.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Malamuth, Donnerstein, et al. have conducted a
series of careful studies to determine the
effects, if any, of pornography.
►Taken together, these studies indicate that
exposure to pornography is harmless, but
that exposure to violent pornography – which
combines pornographic sex with violence –
promotes greater acceptance of sexual
violence toward women and is one factor
associated with aggressive behavior toward
women.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Exposure to aggressive pornography also tends
to increase the tendency of men to believe the
rape myth.
 Data also suggest that a steady diet of violent
pornography can lead to emotional
desensitization and callused attitudes regarding
violence against women.
►Example: Linz, et al.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 To sum up, the combination of sex and violence
has effects remarkably similar to those
associated with other violence in the media.
►The level of aggression is increased and, in
many instances, attitudes condoning violence
are strengthened.
►Viewing violence does not serve a cathartic
function but seems, rather, to stimulate
aggressive behavior.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Does violence sell?
►TV producers and advertising agencies
believe that it does. but research has
shown that both sex and violence can
be so distracting that they cause
viewers to be less attentive to the
product being advertised.
 Example: Bushman & Bonacci
Causes of Aggression
►Social
Learning, Violence, & The
Mass Media
 In a complex and apathetic
society like America, aggressive
behavior may be the most
dramatic way for an oppressed
minority to attract the attention
of the powerful majority.
Causes of Aggression
► Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass Media
 Social psychology can tell us (again and
again) that violence almost never ends
simply with a reification of the conditions
that brought it about.
►Violence breeds violence; we must
search for alternate solutions.
 Example: Civil disobedience
Causes of Aggression
►Social
Learning, Violence, & The Mass
Media
 Research has shown over and over
again that the only solution is to find
ways of reducing violence as we
continue to try to reduce the injustice
that produces the frustrations that
frequently erupt in violent
aggression.
Toward the Reduction of Violence
►If
we believe that reducing our
propensity toward aggression is a
worthwhile goal, how should we
proceed?
 There are probably no simple,
foolproof solutions.
Toward the Reduction of Violence
►Aronson
speculates about some
complex and less foolproof
possibilities:
 Pure Reason
►Not likely to work
Toward the Reduction of Violence
 Punishment
Severe punishment has been
shown to be effective temporarily,
but unless used with extreme
caution, it can have the opposite
effect in the long run.
Toward the Reduction of Violence
Punishment
(continued)
Punishment can be useful if
applied judiciously in the
context of a warm
relationship.
Toward the Reduction of Violence
 Punishment (continued)
►One factor to consider is the severity or
restrictiveness.
 A severe or restrictive punishment
can be extremely frustrating which
can lead to greater aggression.
Example: Hamblin, et al.
Example: Prison in the US
Toward the Reduction of Violence
 Punishment (continued)
►One factor to consider is the severity or
restrictiveness.
 Threats of mild punishment are far more
effective than threats of severe
punishment.
Example: Aronson & Carlsmith
Example: Freedman
Example: Olweus
Toward the Reduction of Violence
►Aronson
speculates about some
complex and less foolproof
possibilities:
 Punishment of aggressive models
►Punishing someone else
doesn’t work well.
Toward the Reduction of Violence
►Aronson
speculates about some
complex and less foolproof
possibilities:
 Rewarding alternative behavior
patterns
►Example: Brown & Elliot
►Example: Davitz
Toward the Reduction of Violence
►Aronson
speculates about some
complex and less foolproof
possibilities:
 The presence of nonaggressive
models
►Example: Baron & Kepner
Toward the Reduction of Violence
►
Aronson speculates about some complex and less foolproof
possibilities:
 Building empathy toward others
►Feshbach notes that most people find it difficult to
inflict pain purposefully on another human being
unless they can find some way of dehumanizing their
victim.
►If so, building empathy among people will reduce
aggressive acts.
 Example: Feshbach & Feshbach work
 Example: Hammock & Richardson
 Example: Obuchi, et al.
By April 17th
You should have read chapter six by this time. Now
that you have completed these power points,
please go to the Social Animal website.
http://bcs.worthpublishers.com/aronson10e/d
efault.asp
Log in and take the quiz for chapter six,
submit answers to my email.