PSY 2110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Relational Aggression, Cognitive Dissonance, Sigmund Freud
Document Summary
Lecture 9: aggression and why we hurt others. Anger: an intense emotional response to perception of having one"s basic boundaries violated: an emotional experience. Aggression: a behaviour aimed at expressing threat and/or causing either physical or psychological pain and possibly harm. Violence: stemming from feelings of anger and aimed at inflicting harm: a form of physical assault with intent to injure or destroy another person or his/her property. Not always a bad thing (i. e. self defense) Less violence now, but not less aggression. What does history tell us: wwi and wwii, modern (instrumental) aggression. Instrumental aggression: means to some goal other than causing harm, e. g. , a boxing match, e. g. , modern warfare. Legitimizing ideology: religious, political, social, cultural, economical, racial, etc, creating a dissonance in the person (i. e. you"re living in comfort here but your people are dying, etc. , cognitive dissonance internal + external justification. Identity formation: diverging socio-cultural and religious identities.