Aggression
Topics
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What is aggression?
Is aggression inborn? Is it part of our nature as
human beings?
Is aggression useful?
What are the social and situational factors that
increase or decrease aggression?
What is Aggression?
Aggression is part of our everyday language, but it can be surprisingly
hard to actually define!
Consider the following actions. Which ones do you think
are aggressive?
1. Accidentally injuring someone
2. Working tenaciously to try to sell a product to a customer
3. Biting someone
4. Swinging a stick at someone but missing
5. Hurling insults at someone
6. Deliberately failing to prevent harm
7. Hiring someone to break a competitor’s kneecaps
What is Aggression?
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Aggressive action is intentional behavior aimed at causing
either physical or psychological pain
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It is considered aggression whether or not it succeeds in
its goal; what is important is the intention
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The action may be physical or verbal
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Not to be confused with assertiveness
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People who are assertive have ambition and are out to get
what they want; they could potentially act aggressively, but
being assertive is not necessarily being aggressive
What is Aggression?
Now, let’s examine these actions again. Which ones are aggressive?
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Accidentally injuring someone…NO (aggressive acts are intentional)
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Working tenaciously to try to sell a product to a customer…NO (this
is assertive, not aggressive because the intent is not to injure)
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Biting someone…YES (unless the person wanted to be bitten!)
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Swinging a stick at someone but missing…YES (this was intended to
cause harm, even if it was ineffective)
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Hurling insults at someone…YES (words as well as actions can be
aggressive)
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Deliberately failing to prevent harm…YES (inaction can be aggression
– like someone who watches as a bully taunts another)
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Hiring someone to break a competitor’s kneecaps…YES (this is an
example of instrumental aggression, in which harm is inflicted as a
means to a desired end)
Types of Aggression
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Hostile aggression is an act of aggression stemming from a
feeling of anger and aimed at inflicting pain or injury
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e.g., A hockey player becomes angry because he believes his
opponent has been playing dirty. He decides to go out of his
way to hurt his opponent.
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The goal in this example is to hurt another person
Instrumental aggression is aggression as a means to some
goal other than causing pain
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e.g., In a football game, a defensive lineman intentionally
inflicts pain on his opponent to get the blocker out of the
way so that he can get to the ball carrier.
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The goal in this example is to win the football game, not hurt the
other player
Is Aggression Innate?
Scientists have been arguing for centuries about the roots of aggression
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Hobbes (1651): Human beings have a natural instinct toward aggression that is curbed
only by enforcing the law and order of society
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Rousseau (1762): Concept of the “noble savage”; human beings are gentle creatures, and
it is a restrictive society that forces us to become hostile and aggressive
 This is the opposite of Hobbes
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Freud (1948): Human beings are born with two equally powerful instinctual drives:
 Eros = instinct toward life
 Thanatos = death instinct, leads to aggressive actions
 Hydraulic theory = unexpressed emotions build up pressure and must be expressed
to relieve that pressure
 Society regulates the death instinct and helps people turn the destructive energy
into useful and acceptable behavior
Is Aggression Innate?
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Scientists look at animal behavior in order to figure out
whether aggression is instinctive or learned
An instinctual component of aggression is almost certainly
present in humans and other primates
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Among primates (who are close to us genetically), aggression is nearly
universal
However, aggression is not caused entirely by instinct
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Cultural and social or situational influences shape our responses to
different events and determine whether we will respond aggressively
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In certain “primitive” tribes that still exist today, acts of aggression are
extremely rare
Regional differences in aggressive behavior in our own society show that even
when our genes are the same, different cultures have different amounts of
aggressive behavior
The Iroquois became ferocious warriors because a social change produced
increases in competition – so the amount of aggression in a society can change
based on the environment in which they live
Is Aggression Useful?
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Some investigators have suggested that aggression might be useful or even
necessary for survival (survival of the fittest)
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The individual who successfully aggresses against others gains access to
valuable resources such as food, territory, and mates (Lorenz, 1966)
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Aggression within a group of Old World
monkeys plays an important role in feeding,
reproduction, and dominance patterns
(Washburn & Hamburg, 1965)
Male elephant seals display aggression to
establish dominance and mating roles during the
pre-mating season (LeBoeuf, 1974)
Is the same thing true with humans, or is Darwin’s theory misused to justify
conflict?
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Even if it were once true that competitive and aggressive behavior was useful for
early humans, it may not be as adaptive anymore
Is Aggression Useful?
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Some argue that aggressive behavior is useful and necessary
because it provides us with an opportunity for catharsis (release
of energy)
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However, some research does not support the theory of
catharsis:
Bushman (2002): Participants were insulted and then allowed to
a) hit a punching bag while thinking about the student who
angered them, b) hit a punching bag for “exercise,” or c) sit still
 Those who sat still were the least angry and aggressive at the
end of the study
Patterson (1974): Assessed hostility levels among high school
football players before, during, and after the football season and
found that levels of hostility increased over the season – thus,
they were not discharging their aggression; instead, it was
building up
Is Aggression Useful?
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And another study:
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Geen et al. (1981): Compared the tendency to shock a
confederate (who had previously angered the
participant) among participants who had and had not
already shocked the confederate
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Those who had already shocked the confederate were
more likely to shock him again
Thus, research suggests that venting anger
physically or verbally and directly or indirectly
does not seem to dissipate anger or reduce
subsequent aggression….It increases it.
Causes of Aggression
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Violence
Neurological and chemical causes
Pain and discomfort
Frustration
Rejection, exclusion, taunting
Social learning
Causes of Aggression: Violence
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Once we express negative feelings toward another person, it
becomes easier to follow such behavior with consistent
statements and actions
Committing acts of violence increases our negative feelings
about the victims
Also, when we retaliate in anger, this retaliation is often in excess
of the original offense
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One reason is that the pain we receive always feels more intense
than the pain we inflict on others
Thus, violence on the part of ourselves or others increases the
likelihood of further aggressive behaviors
Causes of Aggression: Neurological
and Chemical
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The amygdala (part of brain’s limbic system)
is associated with aggressive behavior in
humans and animals
Higher testosterone (male sex hormone)
levels are associated with more aggressive
behavior in humans and animals
 Boys engage in more physical
aggression; girls engage in more
relational (social) aggression
 Those convicted of violent crimes have
higher testosterone levels than those
convicted of nonviolent crimes (Dabbs
et al., 1996)
Causes of Aggression:
Neurological and Chemical
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Alcohol lowers inhibitions against acts of
aggression and disrupts normal information
processing
75% of individuals arrested for violent crimes were
legally drunk when arrested
 Intoxicated people tend to respond to the most
obvious aspects of social situations and miss
subtleties
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So, if someone accidentally steps on your foot when you
are drunk, you are more likely to perceive it as intentional
and respond aggressively
Causes of Aggression: Pain and
Discomfort
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Pain and discomfort are major precursors of aggression
 If a person or animal experiences pain and cannot
flee, it will almost always attack
Students who immersed their hands in painfully cold
water showed a sharp increase in committing aggressive
acts (Berkowitz, 1988)
Students who took a test in a very hot room reported
feeling more aggressive and expressed more hostility
(Griffitt & Veitch, 1971)
Causes of Aggression: Pain and
Discomfort
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Data strongly support the notion that people behave
more aggressively in hot temperatures (Anderson et al.,
2000)
 More violent crimes occur in the summer than
winter, during hot than cool years, and in hot cities
than in cooler cities
 The number of political uprisings, riots, homicides,
assaults, rapes, and reports of violence peaks in
summer months
Causes of Aggression: Frustration
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Frustration is the perception that you are being
prevented from obtaining a goal
Frustration-aggression relationship: Frustration increases the
probability of an aggressive response
 Children who were forced to wait to play with toys
were extremely destructive once permitted to use the
toys
 In contrast, children who were allowed to play with
the toys right away did not exhibit such behavior
(Barker et al., 1941)
Causes of Aggression: Frustration
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Frustration is increased when:
 A goal is near and progress towards the goal is
interrupted: it is more annoying when someone butts
in line when you are 2nd or 3rd than when you are
12th
 Expectations are high, and the goal is blocked
unjustifiably or unexpectedly:
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When students were asked to make phone calls to solicit
donations to a charity, and they were told that previous
calls had high rates of success (thus raising their
expectations), they were more aggressive when potential
donors refused. They were even more aggressive when
the excuses were arbitrary or illegitimate.
Causes of Aggression: Rejection,
Exclusion, and Taunting
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Being rejected has many negative effects, including a
dramatic increase in aggressiveness
 The textbook illustrates the social atmosphere in
high school as very hierarchical with students at the
top rejecting, taunting, and ridiculing those at the
bottom
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College students in a study who were made to feel that
no one wanted to work with them expressed more
intense hostility than those who had not been excluded
(Twenge, 2002)
Causes of Aggression: Rejection,
Exclusion, and Taunting
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The effect of feeling rejected, excluded, and made fun
of can have serious consequences. Rejection and
humiliation were the dominant issues underlying every
school shooting.
 For example, the students who committed the
Columbine massacre made a video before the
rampage in which they railed against the in-group,
who had rejected and humiliated them
Causes of Aggression: Social
Learning
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Social learning can inhibit an aggressive response
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Stimulating a male monkey’s amygdala (which is the brain
area that increases aggression) while he is in the presence of
more dominant monkeys → he will flee rather than attack
Frustrated children directed less aggression against a
thwarting child when they were given an explanation for that
child’s behavior (Mallick & McCandless, 1966)
The frustration-aggression relationship can be
strengthened if frustration is combined with exposure
to a provocative stimulus
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The mere presence of an object associated with aggression
can serve as a cue for an aggressive response
 Priming: Students who had been angered in the presence
of a gun (as opposed to a badminton racket) administered
more shocks (Berkowitz & LePage, 1967)
Causes of Aggression: Social
Learning
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Anonymity leads to de-individuation (a state of
lessened self-awareness, reduced concern over
social evaluation, and weakened restraints
against prohibited forms of behavior)
In these more anonymous situations, there is an
increased likelihood of aggression (Zimbardo, 1969)
 This can be a factor in riots – when one is a part of a
large crowd, they are more anonymous and thus
more likely to behave in ways that they would not
normally
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Social Learning and Aggression
Bobo doll studies:
 Bandura designed these studies to test his social
learning theory = we learn social behavior (e.g.,
aggression) by observing others and imitating them
 Children were first shown a video of a model
behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll (a blowup doll with a weight in the bottom so it bounces up
when you knock it down), then they had a chance to
play with the doll
 Children not only imitated the aggressive models but
also engaged in other forms of aggression (Bandura,
1961, 1963)
 Seeing a person behave aggressively served as an
impetus for the children to engage in innovative
aggressive behavior
Media and Aggression
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Watching TV violence increases the frequency of
aggressive behavior in children
 Children who watched a violent police drama
showed far more aggression against playmates than
those who watched a sporting event (Liebert &
Baron, 1972)
 In a similar study, children who were previously
rated as highly aggressive behaved most aggressively
after watching a violent movie (Josephson, 1987)
The more TV violence children watched, the more
violence they exhibit years later as teens and young
adults (Eron, 1982)
Media and Aggression
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The occurrence of “copycat” incidents in which people
commit aggressive acts that mirror those shown on TV
or in movies also demonstrates the effect that the
media have on aggression
Although it is impossible to prove that any specific
media depiction caused a specific violent action, there
have been some very close connections
The table on the next slide lists just a few of the many
violent incidents that may have been inspired by
exposure to violence depicted in the popular media
Media and Aggression
Violent Fiction
Subsequent Violent Fact
Money Train (movie w/ Wesley Snipes &
Woody Harrelson)
In several incidents in NYC, people doused subway
token collectors with inflammable liquids and burned
them, as had been depicted in the movie
Natural Born Killers (movie w/ Woody
Harrelson & Juliette Lewis)
Utah police claimed a teen obsessed with the movie
murdered his stepmother and half-sister
Scream (movie w/ Neve Campbell, Courtney three gunmen, wearing ghost masks and using scare
Cox, & Drew Barrymore)
tactics reminiscent of the movie, held up two Omaha
restaurants
American Psycho (novel by Bret Ellis about
serial killer who rapes and tortures young
women; also a movie w/ Christian Bale)
A copy of the book was found by the bedside of a man
who was convicted for the torture killings of two
school girls from Ontario, Canada
Professional Wrestling
Mimicking a dangerous wrestling move he had seen on
TV, a 7-year-old boy accidentally killed his 3-year-old
brother in Dallas
From Brehm, S.S., Kassin, S.M., & Fein, S. (2002). Social psychology (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Media and Aggression
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Media violence increases aggressive behavior by:
 Weakening previously learned inhibition against violence –
when people watch violent TV characters, they think, “If
they can do it, so can I.”
 Watching TV violence may trigger imitation and provides
ideas of how to commit violent acts (e.g., copycat incidents)
 Making the feeling of anger more easily available and
making an aggressive response more likely (priming) –
people may be more likely to construe their own feelings of
mild irritation as anger and thus act more aggressively
Media and Aggression
Media violence also increases aggressive behavior by:
 Creating a numbing effect - watching TV violence
reduces our sense of horror about violence and thus
makes it easier to live with violence and act
aggressively
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Those who watch a lot of TV have lower physiological
arousal when watching violence on TV than those who
watch less TV (Cline et al., 1973)
Providing us with internal “scripts” (or ways we
learn to behave from the culture) of how
relationships work
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This is particularly problematic in pornography that links
sex with violence – it may lead to increases in sexual
violence towards women (though nonviolent pornography
does not)
Reducing Violence: Punishment
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So how can we reduce violence?
 Presenting people with a logical, reasonable argument
about the dangers of aggression does not work. Often,
aggression is driven by emotion, not reason.
 People commonly attempt to control aggression through
the use of punishment
Severe punishment is effective temporarily but can have the
opposite effect in the long run
 Naturalistic studies: Severe parental punishment leads to
more aggressive children, who grow up to be adults who
favor violence
 However, many factors could be contributing to this
finding – it could be that these parents are more
aggressive in general, and the children are simply
copying their parents’ aggressive behavior
Reducing Violence: Punishment
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Punishment (cont.):
Physical punishment in the context of a warm,
nurturing relationship can lead to compliance even
when the adult is absent; however, it can also lead to
more aggressive child behavior
 Severe and restrictive punishments can induce
frustration, which can perpetuate aggression
 Severe punishments also rarely lead children to
internalize values associated with nonviolence
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Reducing Violence: Punishment
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Internalization of nonaggressive values during
childhood leads to long-term nonaggressive behavior
Mild punishments seem to be more effective for
developing internalization of nonviolent values
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Bullying was reduced by 50% in the Norwegian school
system when swift but moderate action was taken (Olweus,
1991, 1996, 1997)
This suggests that children who have not yet developed
their values are more apt to develop a distaste for
aggression if the punishment for aggressive actions is
timely and not too severe
Mild punishments are most effective because they cause
cognitive dissonance – a child needs to develop their
own reasons for behaving kindly, not just to avoid
punishments
Reducing Violence: Punishment
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What about when a child sees someone else punished
for aggressive behaviors?
 Seeing an aggressor rewarded increases aggressive
behavior
 Seeing an aggressor punished does not increase
aggressive behavior (but does not decrease it either)
 It seems best not to expose children to aggressive
behavior at all
Reducing Violence: Reward
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It may be useful to ignore aggressive
behavior and reward constructive,
nonaggressive behavior
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This is based on the idea that kids often
behave aggressively to attract attention so that
punishment may actually be preferable to
being ignored
Research has demonstrated a decline in
aggressive behavior in nursery school children
after teachers ignored aggressive behavior and
provided attention for nonaggressive behavior
(Brown & Elliot, 1965)
However, ignoring aggressive behavior is
potentially dangerous, so putting a child in
time-out where they do not get attention for a
short period of time may be more optimal
Reducing Violence: Modeling
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Our society encourages violence – think of
superheroes, Rambo, etc.
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Providing training and encouragement in nonviolent
strategies may make children less likely to resort to
aggressive behavior
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The best way to reduce violence may be to show
children that nonviolent responses are an option
Often, when children act aggressively, the reason is that
they are having difficulties thinking of an alternative
behavior
Positive role models are important so children can see
other people using constructive strategies to deal with
situations similar to the ones they are in
Reducing Violence: Empathy
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Most people find it difficult to inflict pain purposely on
another person
 So, people dehumanize their victims to commit an extreme
act of aggression
 Dehumanization = thinking of another person as less than
human, for example, by comparing them to dogs or
another animal:
Reducing Violence: Empathy
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Building empathy among people decreases
dehumanization and makes aggressive acts more
difficult to commit
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Teaching empathy and perspective-taking to school children
led to a decrease in aggressive behavior (Feshbach, 1978)
College students who had been taught to be
empathic delivered less severe shocks to a fellow student
(Hammock & Richardson, 1992)
Japanese students who first heard another student’s personal
self-disclosure administered milder shocks to the student
because they experienced them as more fully human (Obuchi
et al., 1993)
Thus, building empathy and taking the perspectives of others
can reduce violence and aggression
 Empathy and perspective-taking are skills that can be
taught
The End