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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