What is aggresion?
” any behaviour directed toward another individual that is carried out with the proximate (immediate) intent to cause harm.“ (Anderson & Bushman, 2002)
Where does aggresion occur?
- Aggression is a part of everyday life (though rarely a pleasant one).
- It is found in homes, the sporting field, seats of power and corporate boardrooms …. The list is long.
- And whether or not someone gets physically hurt, aggressive behaviour comes with its own language that gets the message across: I want to hurt you.
- To rule out consensual harm (e.g., dentistry, sado-masochistic sex) another proviso is usually added: “The target must be motivated to avoid the behaviour.“
What is violence?
- Violence is aggression that has extreme harm as its goal (e.g. severe injury or death).
- All violence is aggression (but not all aggression is violence)
What subdisciplines are explored with aggresion?
- Animal behaviour
- Clinical psychology
- Cognition
- Developmental psychology
- Emotion
- Evolutionary psychology
- Health psychology
- Learning and behaviour
- Neuro/biopsychology
- Organisational psychology
- Perception
- Personality psychology
- Psychology of relationships
- Social psychology
How does animal behaviour inform aggression?
Gender differences (Archer, 1988)
* Male animals more aggressive, more likely to attack, more likely to fight
Lorenz, 1966; Elbesfeldt, 1979
* The Hydraulic Hypothesis
* The energy model
Describe the work of Lorenz in animal behaviour?
Hydraulic/Energy Model
* Aggression instinctual
* Not caused by the environment – rather it is ‘released’ or ‘unlocked’ in certain circumstances
* Instinctual aggression then ‘pushes out’
* Needs to be ‘released’ regularly or aggression becomes pent up
- e.g., male doves prevented from courting and mating have an excess of ‘pent up’ energy
- Basis for catharsis hypothesis (now disproven for aggression)
- Lack of empirical support both in humans and animals
- Many exceptions in animal research
How does aggression appear in the DSM-V?
DSM-V
* Anti-social, Narcissistic, Borderline, Paranoid personality disorders
* Conduct Disorder in children
* Addiction, esp: alcohol, amphetamines, ice
* Paranoia, delusions, psychosis
* Sadism, masochism
* Intermittent explosive disorder
* Adjustment disorder with conduct disturbance
* Problems related to abuse or neglect
Within clinical psychology what are treatment options for aggresion?
- Conflict management, anger management, counselling for aggression
- Therapeutic interventions for DV, anger, aggression, violence
- Integration of therapeutic approaches where issues are complex (e.g., DV)
How does cognitive psychology relate to aggression?
- Neural networks and information processing
- Leonard Berkowitz
- Rowell Huesmann
- Ken Dodge
Describe the way neural networks work (Leonard Berkowitz)
- When we experience something, a cluster of neurons (a node) is set aside to recognise it again.
- When we experience that thing again the node becomes activated
- Nodes that are activated together become wired together
- The more often nodes are activated together, the stronger the links become
- Because of these links, activating one node will begin to activate linked nodes
Describe neural networks related to aggresion
For example, the more aggression and violence we experience, the greater the number of nodes and the strength of the connections
If the same sequence of events plays out often enough, either in real life, or vicariously through:
- seeing it in real life
- seeing it in the media
- playing it on a video game
- etc.
Then it becomes like a script that plays out the same way whenever it is triggered
What is the cognitive neo-association theory?
Assumes that memories, emotions, thoughts and plans for action are linked together in the brain in just this way (neural networks)
- When one part of this network is activated (e.g., the part of the brain that registers frustration), the linked parts (such as the parts that register anger, contain the concepts of various swear words, or store memories of other frustrations), also become activated.
- The parts that are most strongly activated are the parts that will have the greatest influence on that person’s eventual actions.
What are the steps to the cognitive neo-association theory?
- Unpleasant or threatening situations (e.g., frustration, provocation, perceived threats, loud noises etc.), arouse negative feelings
- These in turn stimulate various thoughts, memories and physiological responses associated with both fight tendencies and flight tendencies
* Fight tendencies = anger
* Flight tendencies = fear
*Depending on the nature of the situation and the prior experiences and personality of the person, one tendency will come to dominate the other
* If anger/fight tendencies dominate, the types of thoughts, feelings and plans for action that are most strongly activated will usually increase the likelihood of an aggressive response.
What is script theory?
(Rowell Huesmann)
When a situation is very familiar we tend to play things out in a similar way most times until the response becomes automatic whenever that situation arises (domestic violence can occur in this way)
How does developmental psychology inform aggresion?
- Development of aggression over the lifespan
- Leonard Eron, Rowell Huesmann, Eric Dubow, Paul Boxer, Ken Dodge, Richard Tremblay. Farrington, Olweus, Kaj Bjorkvist
- Large longitudinal studies
- Constancy of trait aggression across lifespan
- Influence of parents, media, environment
- Gene-environment interactions
- Hostile attributional bias
How is emotion related to aggression?
- Anger and aggression
(Ray Novaco, Eddie Harmon-Jones (UNSW), Brad Bushman, Sandra Paivio, Leslie Greenberg) - Shame and aggression (Helen Block Lewis; June Tangney, Wayne Warburton)
- Humiliation and aggression
- Jealousy and aggression (see evolution)
- Frustration-Aggression hypothesis
What is the frustration-aggresion hypothesis? (Created during WW2)
Dollard et al (1938):
* Built on Freud’s ideas about frustration in the pursuit of pleasure
* When blocked from attaining a goal frustration ensues.
* All frustration leads to aggression
* All instances of aggression can be traced back to frustration
* Clearly not always true (but often is)
(Reworked by Berkowitz 1989)
Describe aggression and evolutionary psychology
Aggression is ‘hard wired’
* Strong links with animal work (Lorenz, Higley’s primate work)
Reproductive success, survival of the fittest
* Coopting resources of others
* Defending against attack
* Inflicting costs on same sex rivals
* Status and power hierarchies
* Deterring rivals
* Deterring infidelity
(Buss & Shackleford, 1997)
Describe aggresion and health psychology
- Particularly concerned with links between physical health and psychological phenomena
- Aggressive individuals are at increased risk of poor health, early mortality, mental health problems, and decreased life satisfaction. (e.g., Denson et al 2008).
- Injury, recovery, trauma related to being a victim of aggression/violence
How do learning theories influence aggression?
- Hugely influential
- Explain both the acquisition and the maintenance of aggressive behaviour
Aggression is often learned:
* Classical conditioning
* Instrumental learning
—Reward aggression, punish non-aggression (subtle or obvious)
—Can be vicarious (seen at home or on TV)
* Social learning
- Underpin other approaches
- Neural networks include learned concepts and are developed through experience
- Information processing is about learned patterns of responding
- Scripts for behaviour are learned
- What we learn shapes development
- Genes affect us depending on environment
What does Albert Banduras social learning theory say about aggresion development?
Albert Bandura’s (1973, 1983) social learning theory suggests that people acquire aggressive tendencies through direct experience (aggressive behaviour has brought them rewards in the past) or through observing and copying the behaviour of aggressive role models.
*E.g., Bobo doll experiments
Describe the bobo doll experiment?
- Children in Bandura’s studies were exposed to social models who demonstrated either novel violent or non-violent behaviours toward the Bobo dolls.
- Children who viewed violent models subsequently displayed the novel forms of aggression toward the Bobo doll whereas control children rarely, if ever, did so.
- These results revealed the occurrence of observational learning in the absence of reinforcement to the observers
What aggresive models are most likely to be copied?
- Who are respected or liked or high status
- Who are familiar or similar
- Who are rewarded for their behaviours
- If we have self-efficacy for aggression
Imitation seems to be hard-wired from birth and to continue through the life span
How do neurological/biological approaches inform aggression?
Genetics
* Epi-genetics: Gene-environment interactions
* Stephen Maxson: 16, perhaps 17 genes are linked with aggressive behaviour
* Never direct – usually in conjunction with a particular type of environment or predisposition (e.g., impulsivity) that enhances the likelihood of aggression
- Polymorphism in the promoter of the MAOA gene (interacting with child maltreatment)
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