Aggression and Violence I:"

Theories and contexts"

Social Psychology Lecture 1

Dr Fiona White

Lecture 1: Outline

Aggression and Violence I:"
Theories and contexts!

! " I. General Introduction: social vs antisocial!

! " II. Being antisocial: Aggression and violence today

- Cohen & Insko’s (2008) terrorism findings!
! " III. NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
Report - 2009!
! " IV. Definitions and types:Aggression versus violence!
-" Barling, Dupre & Kelloway (2009)!
-" Brengen, Boven, Viataro, Bokowski, Dionne,
Tremblay, & Perusse (2008)!
! " V. Psychological theories of aggression!

Lecture 1: Outline

Aggression and Violence I:"
Theories and contexts!
i)" Biological Factors -instincts (Freud, 1930); brain
structures and substrates (Dabbs, 1998)
ii) An Aggressive Personality: DSM IV and antisocial
personality disorder!
iii) Social Cognitive theory - Bandura & Ross (1963);
Konijin, Bijvank, & Bushman (2007)
iv) Aggression: Genetic and/or environmental factors?
Miles & Carey (1997)

! " VI. Contexts for aggression and violence:!
i) The community: Fowler, Tompsett, Braciszewski,
Jacques-Tiura and Baltes (2009)

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 Lecture 1: Outline

Aggression and Violence I:"
Theories and contexts!

ii) The playground and bullying: Rigby (2002);

Nesdale, Durkin, Maass, Kiesner & Griffiths,
(2008);
-" Consequences of bullying: Egan & Perry(1998);
Ladd, Kochenderfer, & Coleman (1997).
VII. Conclusion

General Introduction

! "What makes social psychology social is that it

focuses on how people are affected by other
people.
! "Social psychology is the scientific
investigation of both social and anti-social
attitudes, feelings and behaviours.
! "Social psychologists are interested in your
attitudes because we believe they influence
your behaviour and your interactions with
other people.

Attitudes and behaviour

! "As a social psychologist my research

interests concern attitude measurement and
change.
! "An attitude is an evaluative belief about a
person, group, object or issue.
! "If I can effectively change a person’s
negative attitudes and/or strengthen their
positive attitudes, then this will have
beneficial consequences for their behaviour
and interactions with others.

2!
 Being antisocial
Aggression and violence today

Source: www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049 ! !
Source: www.abc.net.au/.../transcripts/s1574690.

!
Source: nocyberbully.wordpress.com/.../no-cyberbully/ !
Source: www.abc.net.au/.../2215863.htm?site=brokenhill

Aggression and violence today

! " According to Cohen and Insko (2008, p.87),
“Figure 1 presents a graph of the number of
people throughout the world killed by terrorists
from 1972 to 2006 (National Memorial Institute
for the Prevention of Terrorism, 2007). As shown
in the figure, fewer than 2,500 people were killed
by terrorists between 1992 and 1996 … more than
30,000 people were killed between 2002 and
2006.Clearly, the plague of intergroup violence
requires a cure”.

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and

Research Report - 2009!

3!
 The Australian experience of aggression:
Australian Bureau of Statistics!
! " These rates significantly underestimate the extent of
the problem as a large proportion of crimes
particularly within the home/family go unreported
to police.

! " Males and females are targets of different types of
crimes - the majority of victims of recorded
homicide, assaults and robberies are male.
However, females were at greater risk of being
sexually assaulted - over 80% of sexual assault
victims recorded by police are female.!
! " These statistics reveal that aggression and violence
are an integral part of our society.!

Aggression vs violence

! " It is reasonably well established in the literature

that when aggression becomes more physical in
nature (assault, murder etc) it is referred to as
violence (Barling, Dupre & Kelloway, 2009).!

! " By definition, all violent behaviours are aggressive

whereas not all aggressive behaviours are violent
(Barling, Dupre & Kelloway, 2009, p. 673).!

Defining aggression

! " Behaviour that results in personal injury or destruction

of property (Bandura, 1973).
! " Behaviour intended to harm another of the same species
(Scheret al., 1975)
! " Behaviour directed towards the goal of harming another
living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment
(Baron & Byrne, 2003, p.435)!
! " Behaviour initiated that is intended to physically and/or
psychologically harm another individual and that the
target is motivated to avoid (Barling, Dupre &
Kelloway, 2009, p. 672).!

4!
 Types of aggression

! " i) direct physical aggression (bullying, hitting,

kicking and/or punching) !
! " ii) direct verbal aggression (such as name
calling), and !
! " iii) indirect or relational aggression (such as
gossiping, social exclusion and ostracism). !
! " This later type of aggression is equally harmful as
physical aggression (Brengen, Boven, Viataro,
Bokowski, Dionne, Tremblay, & Perusse, 2008).

Psychological theories of aggression

! " i) Biological Factors

a) Freud (1930) proposed that human aggression stems
from an innate death instinct – Thanatos. An
aggressive urge from Thanatos builds up from
bodily tensions and needs to be expressed/released.

b) Biochemical substrates (such as testosterone &
serotonin) have been found to be related to
aggressive behaviour (Dabbs and colleagues, 1998)!

Competing psychological theories of

aggression!

! " ii) Personality research

-Eysenck & Gudjonsson (1989) found antisocial
behaviour to be highly correlated with high scores
on the three personality dimensions of
extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. !
- Individuals diagnosed with anti-social personality
disorder (see DSM) reveal a pattern of behaviour
also referred to as psychopathy and sociopathy -
an enduring and inflexible pattern of disregard for,
and violation of, the rights of others.!

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 Competing psychological theories of
aggression!

! " Social Cognitive (learning) theory

- Observing an aggressive behaviour produces a
cognitive representation in the observer who then
experiences vicarious reinforcement (from seeing
the model reinforced or punished). If the model is
reinforced then aggression is likely to be learned.

- Does this generalise to observing TV violence?
Paik and Comstock (1994) found that 10 viewers
out 100 would be affected by the violence they see
on TV or film.!

Competing psychological theories of

aggression!
30

Live

Video
15 Cartoon

Control

0
Condition
Figure 1: Data from Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963)

Competing psychological theories of

aggression!

! " Active participation in

violent video games!
- Konijin, Bijvank, &
Bushman (2007) have
shown that wishfully
identifying with violent
characters in the virtual
world can influence
adolescents to behave
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-420218/!
more aggressively against
others in the real world.!

6!
 Competing psychological theories of
aggression!

! " iv) Genetic and/or environmental factors

- The family (imitating or reacting to the same
parents etc) may be very important in the initiation
and maintenance of aggression but may fade over
time (Miles & Carey, 1997).!
- Jaffe et al. (2005) found that 7-year old children
who were at high genetic risk for conduct
problems were most likely to display such
behaviour if they had also experienced physical
maltreatment before the age of 5.!

Competing psychological theories of

aggression!

Contexts of aggression & violence

! " i) The community

According to Fowler, Tompsett, Braciszewski,
Jacques-Tiura and Baltes (2009) there is no
uniform definition or measure of community
violence.!
In general, exposure to community violence
commonly refers to parent or child reports of
violent events personally experienced outside the
home (Lynch, 2003). !

7!
 Contexts of aggression & violence!

! " ii) The playground and bullying

! " Bullying is said to occur when there is an
imbalance of power between the bully and target,
and when this abuse of power is repeated
(Nesdale, Durkin, Maass, Kiesner & Griffiths,
2008). Smith and Sharp (1994) identify bullying
as “the systematic and repetitive abuse of power”.!
! " Both of these definitions emphasise the inappropriate use
of power. !

Types of bullying
! " i) direct physical
aggression (being hit,
kicked or punched), !
! " ii) direct verbal
aggression (such as
name calling), and !
! " iii) indirect aggression
(such as gossiping, social
!
Source: www.nobully.com/bullying.htm
exclusion and ostracism).!

Measuring Bullying

! " Peer Relations Questionnaire (PRQ) developed by

Rigby and Slee (1993);!
! " Peer nomination, direct observation, interviews,
teacher reports and phone-ins (such as the Kids
Help Line in Australia). !
! " Rigby (2002) noted that in 1999 over 6,000
children phoned the Kids Help Line regarding
issues concerning bullying.!

8!
 Consequences of being bullied

! " Longitudinal studies have found that bullying

leads to a loss of self-esteem (Egan & Perry,
1998) and social maladjustment (Ladd,
Kochenderfer & Coleman, 1997). !
! " Rigby (2002) found that among 8 year olds some
51.7% of boys and 50.3% of girls wanted to talk
about bullying; conversely among 15 year olds
only 21.6% of boys and 33.3% of girls wanted to
talk - increasing reluctance, particularly amongst
boys to talk about bullying.!

Focus References!
! " Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S.A. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive
models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 68, 3-11.
! " Barling, J., Dupre, K. E., & Kelloway, E. K. (2009). Predicting workplace aggression
and violence. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 671-692.
! " Chang, L., Schwartz, D., Dodge, K, A., McBride-Chang, C. (2003). Harsh Parenting in
Relation to Child Emotion Regulation and Aggression. Journal of Family Psychology.
17(4), 598-606.
! " Cohen, T. R., & Insko, C. A. (2008). War and Peace: Possible approaches to reducing
intergroup conflict. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 87-93.
! " Douglas, S, C., & Martinko, M, J. (2001). Exploring the role of individual differences in
the prediction of workplace aggression. Journal of Applied Psychology. 86(4), 547-559.
! " Fowler, P. J., Tompsett, C. J., Braciszewski, J. M., Jacques-Tiura, A. J., Baltes, B. B.
(2009). Community Violence: A met-analysis on the effect of exposure and mental
health outcomes of children and adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 21,
227-259.
! " Rigby, K. (2002). Bullying in childhood. In P. K. Smith & C. H. Hart (Eds.), Blackwell
handbook of childhood social development (pp. 549-568).). UK: Blackwell Publishers
Ltd.

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