PSY220H5 – Social Psychology
Lecture 9 – November 21, 2013
Aggression and Altruism
Oskar Schindler
- Helped saved thousands of lives of Jews during the Holocaust through bribing the Nazi
Irena Sendler
- She also committed of acts of courageous altruism
- With the help of her friends, issued to false documents, and was able to sneak them out
and give them temporary identities
Today’s Plan
- Part 1: Aggression
- Part 2: Violence and the media
- Part 3: Prosocial behavior
Aggression
- An intentional action aimed at doing harm or causing pain to another living being who is
motivated to avoid such treatment
- Hostile vs. instrumental
o Hostile (hot component) = behavior that is intended to harm a person (physically
or psychologically) and motivated by feelings of anger and hostility
o Instrumental (cold component) = refers behavior that is intended to harm a
person, but in the service of motive other pure hostility (attract attention)
Situational Causes (6 Aspects that can increase aggression)
- Provocation
- Frustration
- Heat
- Alcohol
- Social exclusion
- Aggressive cues (media)
Provocation
- How do we respond when provoked?
o Turn the other cheek?
o An eye for an eye?
Eye for an Eye, Typically
- We tend to respond to direct provocations with aggression
- We tend not to reciprocate with aggression if we do not attribute malicious intent (it was
only an accident)
Quotes from Gangs
- People respond in more acts of violence when they are provoked
- Example: “If you slap me, I’m gonna hit you with my closed fist”
Frustration
- We all have the desire to pursue certain goals, and when we feel someone/something is
blocking are goals, we can feel frustrated and increase levels of aggression
- It can lead us to feeling helpless in some situations PSY220H5 – Social Psychology
Lecture 9 – November 21, 2013
Waiting in Line Study (Experiment)
- Confederate cut in front of participants waiting in line to see a movie
- Person was either 12 in line or 2 in line
- Target who was 2 in line was more aggressive in response to confederate
o They were extremely close to purchasing their ticket (ie. really close to their
goal)
Heat
- Can make us feel aggressive for different reasons
- Arousal: heat can make us physiologically aroused
o When we are in hot settings, we can misattribute stemming from the heat to
another person leading to aggression
- Can trigger can basic unpleasant feelings of behavior which can increase aggression
behavior of response
- Example:
o People are more likely to honk their horns aggressively in hot conditions (when
they do not have air conditioning)
o People are more Aggressive in the Summer: violent crimes such as murder or
rape are more likely occur in the summer season
o Batters more likely to get Hit by Balls when it’s hot outside
Alcohol
- Influences our blood chemistry, and influences how are brains work that can induce
inhibition
- Can interfere with out thinking, by reducing our abilities to consider the future
consequences of our actions (for both present and future)
Consider these data…
- The rate of violence in marriage is six times higher when a spouse drinks heavily than
when he/she drinks moderately or not at all
- Marital violence is between four to six times more likely if the husband is an alcoholic
than if he is not
- Both boys and girls who bully others are almost five times more likely to report alcohol
use than those who do not bully.
- Dating aggression is up to five times more likely among adolescents who use alcohol
compared with those who do not.
Experimental Study
- Male undergraduates in heterosexual relationships were asked to describe a current
conflict in their relationships
- “Drunk” group: drank vodka to Ontario’s legal limit (0.8)
- Control group: consumed drink that smelled like alcohol but contained basically no
alcohol
- After they drank alcohol (or thought they did) Asked to evaluate conflict they just
described
- Results:
o Intoxicated – reported more negative emotions when thinking about the conflicts
and thought their partners thought more negatively as well than compared to the
sober people PSY220H5 – Social Psychology
Lecture 9 – November 21, 2013
o After consuming alcohol, they saw the same conflict more negatively than those
who have stayed sober
Social Exclusion
- “If you can’t join them, beat them”
- Can lead kids to become more aggressive
- Being more aggressive, to where aggressive kids will be more likely to be ostracized and
be bullied by other kids
Getting to Know You (Can Social aggression cause aggressive behavior)
- Arrive to lab with 4-5 other students
- Spend 15 minutes chatting
- Asked to write down names of two people with whom you want to work on a group task
- Experimenter collects the names
Accepted vs. Rejected
- Accepted: “I have good news for you – everyone chose you as someone they’d like to
work with.”
- Rejected: “I hate to tell you this, but no one chose you as someone they wanted to work
with”
Results:
- Later, played a computer game with someone new
- Participants who were rejected earlier were more aggressive toward a confederate in the
game than the students who felt accepted
- They gave longer and louder bursts of aversive noise
Aggressive Cues
- Social psychologists have shown that the presence of an aggressive stimulus or cues can
increase the presence of aggression
Consider these data…
- The homicide rate in countries all over the world is highly correlated with the availability
of handguns
- Britain, for example, where handguns are banned, has one-quarter the population of the
United States, but just one-seixteenth as many homicides
Gun Study
- University students were made angry and were then allowed to administer shocks in
return
o Were told that their partner would shock them between 1-10 time depending on
where they need to improve on something
o The partner would deliver 10 shots (regardless if they performed well or poorly)
which made them angry
o Then they were suppose to evaluate the confederates performance and evaluate
how many shocks to administer
- Three conditions:
o Gun condition: revolver and shotgun were near shock machine
o Neutral object: badminton rackets near shock
o No object: no objects near shock machine PSY220H5 – Social Psychology
Lecture 9 – November 21, 2013
- Results: when people were made angry (the max shocks), they administered more shocks
in the gun condition relative to the neutral objet and no object condition
o Ques can indicate aggression
Violence and the Media
Three Myths about the Media and Violence
Myth 1
- The level of violence in the mass media simply mirrors the level of violence in the real
world
A Few Facts
- Television characters are now 1,000 times more likely to be murdered than are real
people
- 87% of the crimes committed in the U.S. are non-violent crimes, but only 13% of crimes
committed on reality based on TV programs (example Cops) are non-violent
- Largest discrepancy between TV and real life is for murder
o Daily life: 0.2% of all crimes
o Television: 50% of all crimes
Crimes
- Murder: 50% of these kind of crimes on television, whereas in the real world it is such a
low percentage
The Truth
- The mass media is a mirror that provides a distorted violent image of reality
o Based in somewhat in reality (where violence does occur in real life) but it is a
distorted reality
Myth 2
- Violent media are cathartic and therefore decrease aggression
Catharsis
- Dates back to Aristotle, comes from the Greek catharsis, which means to cleanse or to
purge
- Acting aggressively or even viewing aggression purges anger
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