PSY 345 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Homeschooling, Anger Management, Cognitive Dissonance
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Aggression and Social Coercion continued.
- Not all-aggressive behavior is bad behavior – sometimes it is necessary to engage in
physical or verbal aggression for the sake of protecting yourself or others. Throughout
human history, there have been countless dangers, which required our ancestors to
behave aggressively simply to survive. However, in modern society aggressions seems to
be maladaptive.
- Our society functions in a complex way – cooperative social relationships to do more to
stabilize the world around us than uncooperative social relationships. There are more
people living in cities that rural regions, and almost no predators that threaten out
survival on a daily basis
- Additionally, the social consequences associated with aggression are worse for us in the
run compared to the immediate gains one might get from acting aggressively
- So why do we still behave aggressively if it is indeed not functional in modern society?
- Social psychologists argue that over millions of years our ancestors were better able to
survive dangerous situations by being aggressive
- Frustration-Aggression Theory
o 1939
o Social psychologists at Yale University
o Argued that aggression comes from frustration, which they describe as the
unpleasant internal state a person experiences when they are continuously blocked
from obtaining a goal
o Using the emotion of frustration to explain aggression
o Seemed to answer questions about how aggressive behavior arises, but not all
- Fight or Flight Response
o The term given to the behavioral responses people tend to take when they
experience unpleasant situations
o Miller (1941) proposed that, over time, some people learn to use aggression (a
“fight” response) when encountering distress, danger, or blocked goals. This
works for them to not only relieve the unpleasant feelings of frustration but also to
reach their goal in some cases
o It is important to note though, that some people can learn to use the “flight”
response to alleviate frustration in an equally successful way
o Leonard Berkowitz (1989) revised this theory and suggested that ALL unpleasant
internal cognitions that occur as the result of an unpleasant event (not just
frustration) should be recognized as important causes of aggression
- Learning Theory Models
o Classical Conditioning is focused on how repeated exposure to two related
stimuli can alter behavior
o Other approaches (on behavior is learned) comes from a similar approach to
classical conditioning – operant conditioning theory – whereby organisms are
more likely to repeat behaviors when they are rewarded for them and less likely to
repeat behaviors when they are punished for them
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o Albert Bandura (1963; 1967) developed observational learning theory – humans
learn to behave aggressively not from simple exposure to a stimuli, but by
observing and imitating the behaviors of others over time
- Observational Learning Theory
o Several experiments showed that young children were very likely and very able to
imitate specific aggressive acts (designed in the lab) when this behavior was
modeled for them. Children were also more likely to demonstrate learned models
of expressing aggression when they were rewarded for this behavior or when the
person modeling the behavior was rewarded
o Bandura argued that the reasons children imitated behavior and how confident the
child is in imitating behavior are keys to how social learning occurs
o Evidence from animals and humans, it appears that most young organisms display
some type of imitation behavior based on what they observe
o Children exposed at a young age to violence in the home or on media are likely to
model this behavior, unless they are explicitly told that this behavior is not good
o Infants are able to mimic some behaviors and facial features so immediately, that
researchers investigated and found the existence of mirror neurons in both
children and adults
o Mirror neurons activate impulses when an action is observed
▪ For example: you see a stranger laughing and you start laughing…
because they are laughing. A baby looks at a person, who opens their
mouth or furrows their eyebrows, and much of the time, the infant can
immediately model the same facial feature
- Physiological Arousal Theory
o Social and non-social occurrences (loud noises, heat, media violence, hugs, etc.)
do increase arousal levels in humans, suggesting that this might play some part in
stimulating aggression
o Why?
▪ Too much arousal may be overwhelming neurologically, and which may
trigger internal states of aggression. You ever try to tickle someone too
much? Their response is usually life or death
▪ High levels of arousal limit what we are able to pay attention to. If a
situation has cues that are overly aggressive, people’s arousal levels will
focus most of their attention on the most arousing presence in the
environment… aggression. This in turn influences behavior to be
aggressive in nature
▪ People who have developed aggressive personalities or dominate traits
towards aggression will behave even more aggressively when they are
aroused than when they are not. This is consistent with their theory of
how people use either “fight” responses to achieve their goals
▪ When a person experiences extreme cognitive arousal from people, things,
environment, etc. they may confuse this “overwhelming arousal” with
anger
• In situations involving some arousal that is threatening, negative,
or emotionally unpleasant, the level of arousal and social quality of
the aggressive cues will likely motivate aggressive behavior
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Not all-aggressive behavior is bad behavior sometimes it is necessary to engage in physical or verbal aggression for the sake of protecting yourself or others. Throughout human history, there have been countless dangers, which required our ancestors to behave aggressively simply to survive. However, in modern society aggressions seems to be maladaptive. Our society functions in a complex way cooperative social relationships to do more to stabilize the world around us than uncooperative social relationships. There are more people living in cities that rural regions, and almost no predators that threaten out survival on a daily basis. Additionally, the social consequences associated with aggression are worse for us in the run compared to the immediate gains one might get from acting aggressively. Social psychologists argue that over millions of years our ancestors were better able to survive dangerous situations by being aggressive.
