Aggression

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Lecture 8

• Aggression

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Altruism Aggression

• 1. Critical Issue
• Whey people dont help.
• 2. Philisophical Issue
• Are we good or evil?
• 3. Research Causes of helping behavior
• 4. Control How to increase helping.

• 1. Critical Issue
• Intraspecies Aggression
• 2. Philisophical Issue
• Are we good or evil?
• 3. Research Causes of aggression
• 4. Control How to decrease aggression.

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I. Defining Aggression

• According to text, it is a behavior whose goal is
  the injury of the person toward whom it is
  directed.
• Ok, but not so easy (as discussed in class)

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II. Instinct Theories of Aggression

• A. Lorenz and other functional ethologists.
• 1. Aggression is a series of pre-programmed
  responses similar to imprinting (i.e.,
  instinctual bonding of newborns with mothers)
• a. imprinting is a series of fixed action
  patterns, the closer the object is to a hen, the
  greater the bonding between chick and object.

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(No Transcript)
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Konrad Lorenz and His Goslings
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• b. there are many other fixed action patterns,
  e.g., geico-geico bird, ground wasps, those darn
  starlings in my fireplace.
• c. Aggression then, is seen as the release of a
  fixed action pattern towards a specific target.

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ASE (attack) FAP
IRM (stimuli)

IM

Action Specific Energy (ASE) or in this case
attack energy builds up Until an appropriate
Innate Releasing Mechanism (IRM) or stimuli
(e.g., Robins red breast, Black-birds red
wings) Comes along and blocks the Inhibitory
Mechanism (IM), releasing the Fixed Action
Pattern FAP) for Attack
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• 2. Build-up of ASE can override IM.
• E.g., Lorenz (1963) Male tropical fish
• Male tropical fish other male fish
  of same species
• If no males other fish of
  different species
• If only females of same species
  the male will attack them eventually
  

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• 3. Monkeys and Humans facial expressions?
• 4. Releasing ASE in humans?
• Lorenz says sports is the answer.
• 5. Human aggression
• a. Lorenz thought humans only mammal to
  systematically kill other members of own species.
  
• b. Not true, but we are very aggressive, other
  animals often have stronger inhibitions .
• c. This is due to
• 1). Weak inhibitions
• 2). Weapons
• d. Descriptive evidence distance,
  psuedospeciation
• e. Lab evidence Milgram experiment on obedience
  and distance
• And Zimbardo experiment on anonymity and electric
  shocks.

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B. Freud

• 1. Eros vs. Thanatos
• 2. Eros (life force)-love, sex, procreation
• Topology
• Id sexual energy or libido, the Id wants
• Ego the reality principle, it gets
• E.g. Self, Other, Others, Chicken, Cow
• Superego preconscious, it often inhibits
• E.g. Self No!, Other Maybe, Others No!, Chicken
  No!, Cow Hmm.

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• 3. Thanatos (death force) hate, death wish,
  aggression turned outward
• Id, Ego and Superego work same way but for
  aggression.
• Note similarity between id, ego, and superego and
  ASE, IRM, and IM
• Both Freud and Lorenz were catharsis theorists
  aggressive energy will build until released
  either through sports or displaced aggression.

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III. Learning Theories (from some instinct to
none)

• A. Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (Dollard
  Miller) Frustration always leads to aggression
  and aggression always presupposes frustration.
• 1. Problem?
• 2. Modified hypothesis Frustration may lead to
  aggression, but aggression always presupposes
  frustration.
• 3. Research Hovland Sears (1943) lynchings
  and the price of cotton Miller Bulgelski
  (1938)prejudice and frustration.
• 4. Other Problems
• a. etiology biological or learned?
• b. lab studies show that aggression not only
  response to frustration (e.g., Myers and
  experimental neurosis rats, cows, and sheep
  freeze, attempt to escape, cry, and show overall
  disintegration of behavior.

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• B. Berkowitzs Cue Theory
• 1. Brings back biological component. Frustration
  leads to anger, anger leads to a readiness for
  aggression.
• 2. Aggression will occur if there are cues for
  aggression in the situation or from past
  situations.
• 3. Research

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a) Berkowitz LePage mean of shocks given as
a function of anger and cue value
Cue Not angered Angered
Toy Gun 2.40 5.87
Raquet ------ 4.60
None 3.07 4.67
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b) Berkowitzs Kirk study of shocks given
after being angered or not and watching Kirk
Douglas get beaten up on the film, The Champion
or not

• Aggressive Film Neutral Film
• Angered Not Angered Angered Not Angered
• Kirk Bob Kirk Bob Kirk Bob Kirk
  Bob
• 6.09 4.53 1.73 1.45 4.18 4.00 1.54 1.64

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• c) What is the problem with these studies?
• d) What is the solution?
• Geen-arcades, Boyanowski- RCMP, Car Gun study.
• e. Road rage? have peaceful signs or cues.

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• C. Zillmans Excitation Transfer Theory
• 1. Stolen from Schachters Two-factor theory of
  emotion Arousal Leads to Cue seeking in order to
  label emotion. Cues lead to specific emotion
  (e.g., Schachter Singer study When aroused we
  take on the emotion of the confederate, crying or
  laughing).
• 2. When we are aroused either through
  frustration, sex, or whatever, and there is a cue
  in the environment, we will aggress.
• 3. What Zillman doesnt stress and the book
  doesnt mention, is that frustration can also
  lead to helping behavior (e.g., Davitz and
  frustrated children watching film).
• 4. Theory accounts for both aggression and
  helping
• 5. Application Arousal and the Canadian
  Kidnapping Crisis. (Sorrentino, Vidmar,
  Goodstadt, 1972). Also Remember Pearl Harbor,
  Remember the Maine, Tonkin Gulf and the Viet Nam
  War.

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D. Social Learning Theory (Bandura and Walters)

• A. Most Popular Theory (especially if you are
  opposed to violence on TV or in the Movies).
• B. Basic Tenet Learning can occur without
  reinforcement, simple modeling will result in
  imitation.
• C. Classic Study by Bandura (1965) on learning
  verus performance

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Bandura (1965). Mean number of hits after
observing model hit Bobo doll and being rewarded,
punished, or no consequences
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Mean Number of hits After children are told they
will receive a reward for doing what the model did
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• Bandura study shows that learning takes place
  without direct reinforcement, but note that
  watching the aggressor punished reduced imitation
  as reward increases it.
• Note also that the measure of aggression here is
  beating up on a Bobo doll.