PSYCH-225 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Biofeedback, Kin Selection, Operant Conditioning
25 Sep 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Leo Ellis
Social Psych
Psych-225
Aggression: Reduction Approaches
● Catharsis
○ Let out your aggression
○ Freudian idea
○ Research had been mixed- people have tried studies to prove whether this actually
reduces aggression
○ Some say it just makes you that much more aggressive because of your ANS
arousal
● Learning/ modeling
○ Operant conditioning- reward non aggressive behavior
■ In a classroom if you reward it, it goes down in the classroom but it goes
up on the playground
■ Kids will model non aggressive behavior
■ Older kids modeling conflict resolution behavior and rates of aggression in
the elementary school go down
● Biofeedback
○ People train their bodies to relax during times of stress
○ Using breathing techniques, counting to 10 before you react
● Competing responses
○ Get people into a heightened states of ANS arousal and tell them they can behave
aggressively but right before they are allowed to behave aggressively they are
shown a competing response such as a funny video which makes them laugh
○ Humor is one of the strongest competing emotions
● Norms Against
○ If you can establish that in a situation aggression is not an acceptable response,
people won’t act aggressively
○ Repercussions of social influence- people won’t talk to you
○ No fights in church
Helping Behavior
● Basic differentiation: Prosocial versus Altruistic
○ Prosocial- helping for any reason at all- you could be getting rewarded,
attention, monetary reward, make someone like you, goodness of your soul
○ Altruistic- helping because help is needed disregarding any external reward
○ Is there anything called true altruism?
● Sociobiological
○ Help to insure survival of genes
■ Help people who are similar to us- demographics
■ People will help people of the same race, ethnicity, age
■ People who are similar come from a similar gene pool
○ Kin selection: more help if genetically related
■ More likely to help someone genetically related to us
Document Summary
Research had been mixed- people have tried studies to prove whether this actually reduces aggression. Some say it just makes you that much more aggressive because of your ans arousal. In a classroom if you reward it, it goes down in the classroom but it goes up on the playground. Older kids modeling conflict resolution behavior and rates of aggression in the elementary school go down. People train their bodies to relax during times of stress. Using breathing techniques, counting to 10 before you react. Humor is one of the strongest competing emotions. If you can establish that in a situation aggression is not an acceptable response, people won"t act aggressively. Repercussions of social influence- people won"t talk to you. Prosocial- helping for any reason at all- you could be getting rewarded, attention, monetary reward, make someone like you, goodness of your soul. Altruistic- helping because help is needed disregarding any external reward.
