Aggression

COURSE INSTRUCTOR
HALIMA S. QURESHI
LECTURER, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGISTS, NDP, NUMS
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 Aggression
Aggression - Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone

Social Aggression - Hurting someone else’s feelings or threatening their relationships.

Sometimes called relational aggression, it includes cyberbullying and some forms
of in-person bullying.

Hostile aggression - behavior intended to harm another, either physically or

psychologically, and motivated by feelings of anger and hostility

Instrumental aggression - behavior intended to harm another in the service of motives

other than pure hostility (for example, to attract attention, acquire wealth, and to
advance political and ideological causes)

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THEORIES
OF AGGRESSION

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Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon

• Instinct theory - innate (unlearned) behavior

pattern
• Freud- redirecting the “death instinct” (thanatos) to
others
• Lorenz- inherited “fighting instinct” developed
through the course of evolution (strongest survive)
• Neural Influences
• brain neural systems in both animals and humans that
facilitate aggression.
• Adrian Raine and his colleagues used brain scans
• Another study found that more aggressive and violent
men had smaller amygdalas
• abnormal brains can contribute to abnormally
aggressive behavior
• Situational factors can also play a role: Sleep
deprivation reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex,
an area of the brain responsible for self-control.
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Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon

• Genetic Influences
• Experiment on mice and changes in 26th generation
• Our temperaments—how intense and reactive we are—are partly brought with us
into the world, influenced by our sympathetic nervous system’s reactivity
• A child who is nonaggressive at age 8 will very likely still be a nonaggressive
person at age 48.
• In a study examining 12.5 million residents of Sweden, those with a genetic
sibling convicted of a violent crime were 4 times as likely to be convicted
themselves.

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Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon

Genetic Influences
• Recent research has identified a specific gene (MAOA-L)
linked to aggression; some even call it the “warrior
gene” or the “violence gene.”

• In several studies, people with the gene showed more

activation in the self-control center of their brains after
being rejected or insulted, suggesting they were
struggling to control their anger

• Neither “bad” genes nor a “bad” environment alone

predispose later aggressiveness and antisocial behavior;
rather, genes predispose some children to be more
sensitive and responsive to maltreatment. Nature and
nurture interact.

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Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon
BIOCHEMICAL INFLUENCES
ALCOHOL. Both laboratory experiments and police data
indicate that alcohol unleashes aggression when people are provoked.

Hormones
• TESTOSTERONE. Hormonal influences appear to be much
stronger in other animals than in humans. But human
aggressiveness does correlate with the male sex hormone
testosterone.
• Drugs that diminish testosterone levels in violent human males will
subdue their aggressive tendencies.
• After men reach age 25, their testosterone levels and rates of violent
crime decrease together
• low levels of serotonin inhibit ability to hold back aggressive urges

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Aggression as a Biological Phenomenon

• BIOCHEMICAL INFLUENCES
• POOR DIET
• Prisoners who got the extra
nutrition were involved in 35
percent fewer violent incidents
• Those who drank more than five
cans of nondiet soda a week
were more likely to have been
violent toward peers, siblings,
or dating partners and more
likely to have carried a weapon,
such as a gun or knife.

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Social Determinants

• Frustration
• elicits aggression esp. when cause is unjustified
• direct provocation (physical or verbal)
• exposure to media violence
• primes aggressive thoughts; desensitizes viewers
• heightened arousal (provocation)
• arousal in one situation can persist and intensify reactions in another, unrelated
situation

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Frustration-Aggression Theory

Direc
t

Outward
aggression

Instigatio
n
to aggress Indirec
t
Frustration
(Goal) Inward aggression
(e.g., suicide)

Other additional
responses
(e.g., withdrawal)
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Frustration-Aggression Theory

• Frustration creates a motive to aggress.

• Fear of punishment or disapproval for aggressing against the source of
frustration may cause the aggressive drive to be displaced against
some other target or even redirected against oneself.

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Frustration-Aggression Theory

• We learn to inhibit direct retaliation, especially when others

might disapprove or punish; instead, we displace our
hostilities to safer targets.
• Displacement occurs in an old story about a man who,
humiliated by his boss, berates his wife, who yells at their
son, who kicks the dog, which bites the mail carrier (who
goes home and berates his wife . . .).

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Frustration-Aggression Theory

• In experiments and in real life, displaced

aggression is most likely when the target
shares some similarity to the instigator and
does some minor irritating act that unleashes
the displaced aggression (Marcus-Newhall &
others, 2000; Miller & others, 2003; Pedersen
& others, 2000).

• When a person is harboring anger from a prior

provocation, even a trivial offense—one that
would normally produce no response—may
elicit an explosive overreaction (as you may
realize if you have ever yelled at your
roommate after losing money in a
malfunctioning vending machine). 13
Frustration Aggression Theory Revised

• Laboratory tests of the frustration-aggression theory have

produced mixed results:

• Sometimes frustration increased aggressiveness, sometimes

not. For example, if the frustration was understandable—if, as
in one experiment, a confederate disrupted a group’s problem
solving because his hearing aid malfunctioned (rather than
just because he wasn’t paying attention)—then frustration led
to irritation, not aggression (Burnstein & Worchel, 1962).

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• Leonard Berkowitz (1978, 1989) realized that the original theory
overstated the frustration-aggression connection, so he revised it.
• Berkowitz theorized that frustration produces anger, an emotional
readiness to aggress.
• Anger arises when someone who frustrates us could have chosen to act
otherwise (Averill, 1983; Weiner, 1981).
• A frustrated person is especially likely to lash out when aggressive cues
pull the plug, releasing bottled-up anger.
• Sometimes the plug will blow without such cues. But, as we will see, cues
associated with aggression increase aggression (Carlson & others, 1990).

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Write Your Triggers/ Cues of Anger

Halima S. Qureshi | Lecturer | Clinical Psychologist 16

Social learning theory

• Albert Bandura (1997) proposed a

social learning theory of aggression.
• He believes that we learn aggression
not only by experiencing its payoffs
but also by observing others.
• As with most social behaviors, we
acquire aggression by watching
others act and noting the
consequences.
• The theory that we learn social
behavior by observing and imitating
and by being rewarded and
punished.

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Causes of Human Aggression

• Social Causes of Aggression

• Frustration
• Does not always lead to some form of aggression
• It may lead to sadness, depression.
• Aggression does not always result from frustration.
• People may aggress for other reasons (boxers, soldiers).
• However, it can elicit aggression when the cause of the frustration is viewed
as illegitimate or unjustified.

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Causes of Human
Aggression
Social Causes of Aggression

• Provocation
• Physical or verbal
provocation is one of the
main causes of aggression.
• People tend to reciprocate
with the same or slightly
higher level of aggression
that they receive from others.

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Causes of Human Aggression

• Exposure to Media Violence

• May be a factor that contributes to high levels of
violence in countries where it is viewed by many
people
• This is supported by short-term laboratory
experiments and longitudinal studies.

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 Bandura, Ross, & Ross

• Subjects were exposed to either aggressive

or nonaggressive models
• Nonaggressive model assembled tinker
toys
• Aggressive model hit Bobo doll
• Subject then spent 20 mins alone in room
with various toys including Bobo.

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 Prevention and
Control of Aggression

Some Useful Techniques

• Punishment
• Delivery of aversive consequences
• Two beliefs regarding its implementation
• Aggressive behavior deserves to be punished.
• Punishment of aggressive behavior discourages
future aggression.
• However, to be effective it must be prompt,
certain, strong, and justified or deserved.

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Prevention and
Control of Aggression
Some Useful Techniques
• Catharsis Hypothesis—opportunity to express
aggressive impulses in “safe” ways will reduce
tendencies to engage in more harmful forms of
aggression
• Activities to vent anger are more likely to
increase aggression and offer only temporary
relief.
• aggression may be increased when people think
about wrongs they have suffered and imagine
revengeful acts.

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 Prevention and Control of
Aggression
• Some Useful Techniques
• Cognitive Interventions
• Apologies and good excuses can reduce aggression.
• Perform acts that overcome cognitive deficits associated with anger
• Engage in activities that distract attention away from causes of anger and allow
anger to lessen
• Forgiveness—giving up desire to punish someone who has
caused harm, and seeking, instead, to act in kind, helpful
ways toward them

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