06 Aggression

• Response that delivers noxious stimuli to another organism

• Behaviour that is carried out with the intention to harm someone

  => External behaviour

  => Aggression is not an emotion or thought inside someone ́s brain (Bushman, 2010)

1. Ethology/steam-boilermodel

• Assuming that aggressive energy is produced continuously within the organism and will burst out spontaneously unless released by an external stimulus

2. Sociobiology

• Behaviours are adaptive to the extent that they increase the chances of survival of the species as a whole in the environment in which it lives

3. Behaviorgenetics

• Field of study devoted to the genetic basis of social behaviour

=> Recording the natural occurrence of aggressive behaviour in everyday situations Graham & Wells (2001)

• Observational study in 12 bars in Canada

• Recorded frequency of aggressive incidents

• Results

  • 78 % only men

  • 3,4 % women only

  • 1/3 of all incidents à severe physical aggression (e.g. kicking, punching...)

=> Manipulating conditions in everyday situations to observe effects of manipulation Rehm, Steinleitner, Lilli (1987)

• Group 1: identical T-shirts for sport lessons

• Group 2: wore their own clothes

• Measures: # of aggressive acts during class

• Result: Group 1 showed more aggressive behaviour

  => supporting the prediction that anonymity increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour

Anderson & Bushman: External validity of “trivial” experiments

• Strategie: Vergleich der Ergebnisse von Feldstudien und Laboruntersuchungen, hinsichtlich der Wirkung best. Persönlichkeitseigenschaften und situationaler Kontext- Bedingungen

=> Fast durchgehend parallele Effekte in den Laborstudien und Feldexperimenten

Weitere Gedanken

• Experimental vs. mundane realism (experimental realism: VPN

  findet Szenario glaubwürdig)

• Aggressies VH sozial unerwünscht, wird evtl. nicht gezeigt in Untersuchungssituation (Reaktivität)

=> Measure of aggressive behaviour in the lab, whereby participants in the role of teacher assign aversive stimuli to an alleged learner

1. Learning phase: participant presents pairs of words to the learner

2. Testing phase: first word is presented, learner has to remember the second word of the pair

3. Punishment: punishment of errors through aversive stimuli (e.g. electro shock)

   *intensity of punishment = intensity of aggression

=> Measure of aggressive behaviour in the lab, whereby participants assign negative feedback on an alleged co- participant ́s essay

1) Evaluation phase: feedback through electric shocks (many shocks = provoked condition)

2) Change of roles: participant evaluates former “evaluator”

• => intensity of punishment = intensity of aggression)

  
  

  => Investigate aggressive behaviour in response to preceding frustrations / provocations

=> Measure of aggressive behaviour in the lab where participants assign aversive stimuli to an alleged opponent if they are faster in responding to a signal detection task (=Taylor Aggression Paradigm; TAP)

1. Competition in reaction-time task; winner sends aversive stimulus to “other participant” => participant defines intensity of aversive stimulus before each trial

2. Participant wins first trial: intensity of aversive stimulus = unprovoked aggression

3. After lost trial (=received a shock from “opponent”) = reactive aggression

Measure of aggressive behaviour in the lab whereby participants assign a certain quantity of aversively hot sauce to an alleged co-participant who does not like spicy food

1) Participant tastes the sauce himself

2) Participant asked to allocate a portion to the target whothey believe strongly dislikes spicy food

Quantity of sauce = intensity of aggressive behaviour

Measure of aggressive behaviour in the lab whereby participant assign easy (help) or difficult (hurt) Tangram puzzles to a co-participant. Tangram puzzle consists of a set of polygonal pieces that need to be put together without overlap

1) Participants select Tangram puzzles differing in the level of difficulty for another participant

Number of hard Tangrams = intensity of aggression

• Aggression Questionnaire (AQ): self-report instrument

• Parent or teacher report of aggressive behaviour

• Peer nominations

• State-Trait-Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI)

• Implicit association test (IAT)

• Official records (e.g. crime statistics)

• Projective technique (=> measures of aggressive dispositions in

  which participant project their aggressive thoughts onto ambiguous stimulus materialàhighly problematic!)

• Individual behaviour is driven by two basic forces that are part and parcel of human nature

• Life instinct (Eros): driven the person towards pleasure seeking and wish fulfilment

• Death instinct (Thanatos): directed at self-destruction

• Antagonistic nature of instincts => source of sustained intrapsychic conflict

• Catharsis: resolving conflict by diverting the destructive forceaway from individual on to others (e.g. sarcastic jokes) => acting aggressively towards another person => outdated explanation

Ursprüngliche Hypothese - Occurrence of aggressive behaviour always presupposes the existence of frustration and – contrawise – the existence of frustration always leads to some form of aggression

Erste Reformulierung (Miller, 1941) - Frustration can have non-aggressive as well as aggressive consequences

=> aggression is not the only response to frustration

Reformulierung nach Berkowitz (1993)

• Jeder aversive Reiz kann Aggressionstendenzen auslösen (also

  nicht nur frustrierende Erlebnisse)

• Negativer Affekt ist ein wichtiger Mediator zwischen aversiven Erlebnissen und aggressiven VHtendenzen

• Aggression nur mögliche Reaktion auf aversive Stimuli —> andere wichtige Möglichkeit: Flucht-/Vermeidungstendenzen

• Aufgrund assoziativer Verknüpfunen kann es zur automatischen Auslösung aggressiver Verhaltenstendenzen durch neg. Affekt kommen (cognitive neo-associationism)

Berkowitz & LePage (1967)

• Frustration durch negative Beurteilung (in Form von Elektroshock)

• Kontrollgruppen

=> Keine Gegenstände im Labor

=> Badmintonschläger und Federbälle liegen im Labor (statt Pistole und Schlagstock)

Tendency to react to frustration with an aggressive response directed not at the original source of frustration, but an unrelated, more easily accessible target

=> theory about social-cognitive processes that pave the way to aggressive behaviour

Goldstein & Arms (1971): Effects of observing athletic contests on hositility

• Widersprüchliche Hypothesen bzgl. Wirkung des Betrachtens aggressiver Sportarten

• Katharsis-These: Betrachten aggressiver Sportarten vermindert aggressive Tendenzen

• Priming-These: Betrachten aggressiver Sportarten erhöht aggressive Tendenzen

  => Studie: eher Priming, aber mögliche Selbstselektion durch fehlende Randomisierung

= reduced reactivity in response to a stimulus

• Cognitive desensitization: increased tolerance regarding the stimulus

• Emotional desensitization: reduced physiological arousal in response to the stimulus