Aggression and Biology

Aggression: one person tries to harm another person deliberately, either physically or psychologically ● Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis: aggression as a reaction to frustration when a person is prevented from reaching some desired goal ○ Ex. Pain produces negative sensations that are intense and uncontrollable ○ Ex. Loud noises, excessive heat, cigarette smoke, awful smells ● Sigmund Freud: aggression is a basic human instinct, part of our death instinct ● Konrad Lorenz: aggression as an instinct for fighting to promote the survival of our species. Evolutionary terms: those who were most successful in protection, resources, and offspring were more aggressive to survive and pass their genetic material ● Instinctual Behavior in animals is not modifiable by environmental influences Aggression and Biology: Aggression is a genetic basis ● Studies of twins reared together or apart showed that if one twin has a violent temper, the other will most likely have one too. More often in identical twins than fraternal twins. A gene or complex combination of gene influences a susceptibility to aggressive responses under right environmental conditions ● Frontal love, amygdala, limbic system controls aggressive behavior in both humans and animals ○ Charles Whitman killed many people and was found to have a tumor pressing against his amygdala ● Chemical influences: high levels of Testosterone and low levels of serotonin (violent criminals tend to be young muscular men) ● Low Dopamine, low Glutamate (stress), low GABA (reduces neuron excitement/stress), low serotonin, and neurotransmitters in the brain all play a part ● Alcohol releases inhabitation which makes people less likely to control their behavior. Affects neurotransmitter function and decreases serotonin ○ Study Bushman: Volunteers who did and didn't drink alcohol were asked to shock an unseen opponent. Alcohol caused them to ignore future consequences and be more aggressive in doing stronger shocks Aggression and Social Learning: aggressive behavior is learned (observational learning) by watching aggressive models get reinforced for their aggressive behavior Social Role: pattern of behavior that is expected of a person who's in a particular social position ● Ex. Aggressive solider, doctor with white coat on ● Study Philip Zimbardo, Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE): students who acted as 10 prisoners and 11 guards. Prisoners staged a revolt which made the guards aggressive and punished them for it ○ Showed influence of social role changed their behavior ○ Maybe not "random" selection so it could be participant selection bias that could've skewed the results. Dispositional aggression and lower in dispositional empathy and altruism ○ Ecological Validity: degree results can be applied to the real world. Zimbardo had a dual role to tell what each role had to do. Prisoners and guards acted as if they are expected to be consistent with their surroundings while responding to the demand characteristics of the experiment ○ Partial Replicates: Australia - Individualized (inmates retaining self-respect and guards to let prisoners' decision-make with only few hostility) ● Study Reicher and Haslam, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Prison Study (BPS): interactions between groups with unequal power and privilege. Avoided demand characteristics by not assuming roles in the prison but looked at it through Social Identity Theory (SIT) - people only take on roles associated with group membership after they come to identify with that particular group. The guards had difficulty running the prison because they had role confusion. Prisoners didn't lessen themselves. They started working together. Behaviors chosen by individuals themselves not by the role assigned to them. Violence in the Media and Aggression: ● Study Bandura: small children viewed aggressive model video and saw they recreated the same behaviors. Thus, children exposed to high violent media are more aggressive who aren't. So more aggressive children prefer to watch more aggressive media. The younger the child, the larger the impact. Could also be from parenting issues. Violent video games which influences school shootings to intimidate. ● Study Burnay: uni students M and F who watched sexualized female characters were more likely to harass a woman who played the same game. ● Craig Anderson: short=-term violent media exposure increased likelihood of childrne engaging in aggressie thoughts, physical, and verbal