Transcript 6th edition Social Psychology Elliot Aronson University of California, Santa Cruz Timothy D. Wilson University of Virginia Robin M.

6th edition
Social Psychology
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa Cruz
Timothy D. Wilson
University of Virginia
Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College
slides by Travis Langley
Henderson State University
Chapter 12
Aggression:
Why Do We Hurt
Other People?
Can We Prevent It?
“Nothing is more costly,
nothing is more sterile,
than revenge.”
-- Winston Churchill
What Is Aggression?
Aggression
Intentional behavior aimed at doing harm
or causing pain to another person.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
What Is Aggression?
Instrumental Aggression
Aggression as a means to some goal
other than causing pain.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
What Is Aggression?
Hostile Aggression
Aggression stemming from feelings of
anger and aimed at inflicting pain.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Inborn or Learned?
For centuries, scientists, philosophers, and
other serious thinkers have been arguing
about the human capacity for aggression.
• Some are convinced that aggression is
an inborn, instinctive human trait.
• Others are just as certain that aggressive
behavior must be learned.
Is Aggression Inborn or Learned?
Freud elaborated on the more pessimistic
view that brutish traits are part of human
nature.
He theorized that humans are born with an
instinct toward life, which he called Eros,
and an equally powerful instinct toward
death, which he called Thanatos.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
The Evolutionary Argument
Males are theorized to aggress for two reasons:
1. Males behave aggressively to establish dominance
over other males. The idea here is that the female will
choose the male who is most likely to provide the best
genes and the greatest protection and resources for
their offspring.
2. Males aggress "jealously" in order to ensure that their
mate(s) are not copulating with others. This ensures
their paternity.
Research supporting the evolutionary perspective is
provocative but inconclusive because it is impossible
to conduct a definitive experiment.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
Aggression among the lower animals:
Most people assume that cats will instinctively stalk and kill
rats. Kuo (1961) attempted to demonstrate that this
was a myth. He performed a simple little experiment:
He raised a kitten in the same cage with a rat. Not only did
the cat refrain from attacking the rat, but the two
became close companions. Moreover, when given the
opportunity, the cat refused either to chase or to kill
other rats; thus the benign behavior was not confined
to this one buddy but generalized to rats the cat had
never met.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Is Aggression Instinctual?
Situational? Optional?
Aggression among the lower animals:
Chimpanzees are the only nonhuman species in which
groups of male members hunt and kill other members
of their own kind.
Bonobos, on the other hand, are known as the “make love,
not war” ape. Prior to engaging in activities that could
otherwise lead to conflict, bonobos engage in sex, This
sexual activity functions to diffuse potential conflict.
The bonobo are a rare exception, however. The near
universality of aggression strongly suggests that
aggressiveness has evolved and has been maintained
because it has survival value.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Aggression and Culture
Whether or not aggressive action is actually
expressed depends on a complex
interplay between:
– Innate tendencies,
– Various learned inhibitory responses, and
– The precise nature of the social situation.
Aggression and Culture
Cross-cultural studies have found that
human cultures vary widely in their
degree of aggressiveness.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
CHANGES IN AGGRESSION
ACROSS TIME
IN A GIVEN CULTURE, CHANGING
SOCIAL CONDITIONS FREQUENTLY
LEAD TO STRIKING CHANGES IN
AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR.
FOR EXAMPLE, AGGRESSIVENESS
FROM PREVIOUSLY PEACEFUL
PEOPLE CAN COME ABOUT WHEN A
SOCIAL CHANGE PRODUCES
INCREASES IN COMPETITION.
REGIONALISM AND AGGRESSION
ARGUMENT-RELATED HOMICIDE RATES FOR
WHITE SOUTHERN MALES ARE
SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER THAN THOSE
FOR WHITE NORTHERN MALES,
ESPECIALLY IN RURAL AREAS.
SOUTHERNERS ARE
MORE INCLINED TO
ENDORSE VIOLENCE
FOR PROTECTION
AND IN RESPONSE
TO INSULTS.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Neural and Chemical
Influences on Aggression
Aggressive behaviors in human beings, as
well as in the lower animals, are
associated with an area in the core of the
brain called the amygdale.
• When the amygdale is stimulated, docile
organisms become violent.
• Similarly, when neural activity in that area
is blocked, violent organisms become
docile.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Neural and Chemical
Influences on Aggression
Certain chemicals have been shown to influence
aggression.
Serotonin, a chemical substance that occurs
naturally in the midbrain, seems to inhibit
impulsive aggression.
In animals, when the flow of serotonin is
disrupted, increases in aggressive behavior
frequently follow.
Violent criminals have particularly low levels of
naturally produced serotonin.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Neural and Chemical
Influences on Aggression
Too little serotonin can lead to increases in
aggression, but so can too much
testosterone, a male sex hormone.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Laboratory animals injected with testosterone
became more aggressive.
Naturally occurring testosterone levels are
significantly higher among violent criminals than
nonviolent criminals.
Juvenile delinquents have higher levels.
More aggressive fraternities’ members have more.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Gender and Aggression
Eleanor Maccoby and Carol Jacklin (1974)
demonstrated that boys appear to be
more aggressive than girls.
Among boys, there
was far more
“nonplayful”
pushing, shoving,
and hitting than
among girls.
Gender and Aggression
But research on gender differences is more
complicated than it might seem on the surface.
Although young boys tend to be more overtly
aggressive than young girls (in the sense that
they lash out directly at the target person), girls
tend to express their aggressive feelings more
covertly:
– Gossiping,
– Engaging in more backbiting, and
– Spreading false rumors about the target person.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
DOES CULTURE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
SEX DIFFERENCES IN AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS
TEND TO HOLD UP ACROSS CULTURES.
IN ONE STUDY, TEENAGERS FROM ELEVEN
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, MOSTLY IN EUROPE AND
ASIA, READ STORIES INVOLVING CONFLICT
AMONG PEOPLE AND WERE ASKED TO WRITE
THEIR OWN ENDINGS.
IN EVERY ONE OF THE COUNTRIES, YOUNG MEN
SHOWED A GREATER TENDENCY TOWARD
VIOLENT SOLUTIONS TO CONFLICT THAN YOUNG
WOMEN DID.
DOES CULTURE MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Although within a given culture, men
showed consistently higher levels of
aggression than women, culture also
played a major role.
For example, women from Australia and
New Zealand showed greater evidence of
aggressiveness than men from Sweden
and Korea did.
VIOLENCE AMONG INTIMATE PARTNERS
• SOME 22% OF ALL VIOLENT CRIMES
AGAINST WOMEN IN A TYPICAL YEAR
WERE COMMITTED BY THEIR INTIMATE
MALE PARTNERS.
• FOR MEN, THE FIGURE IS 3%.
• HUSBANDS ARE FAR MORE LIKELY TO
MURDER THEIR WIVES THAN VICE VERSA.
Alcohol and Aggression
“Oh that wasn’t me talking, it was the alcohol talking.”
Image copyright The New Yorker.
Alcohol and Aggression
Why can alcohol increase aggressive behavior?
1.
2.
3.
Alcohol often serves as a disinhibitor—it reduces our
social inhibitions, making us less cautious than we
usually are.
It appears to disrupt the way we usually process
information. This means that intoxicated people often
respond to the earliest and most obvious aspects of
a social situation and tend to miss the subtleties.
When individuals ingest enough alcohol to make
them legally drunk, they tend to respond more
violently to provocations than those who have
ingested little or no alcohol.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression
If an animal is in pain and cannot flee the scene,
it will almost invariably attack; this is true of
rats, mice, hamsters, foxes, monkeys, crayfish,
snakes, raccoons, alligators, and a host of
other creatures.
In those circumstances, animals will
attack members of their own
species, members of different
species, or anything else in sight,
including stuffed dolls and tennis
balls.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Pain, Discomfort, and Aggression
Humans can act more aggressively when
experiencing:
–
–
–
–
–
Pain
Heat
Humidity
Air pollution
Offensive odors
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Social Situations and Aggression
Aggression can also be caused by
unpleasant social situations.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Social Situations and Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
Frustration-Aggression Theory
The idea that frustration—the perception
that you are being prevented from
attaining a goal—increases the
probability of an aggressive response.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Social Situations and Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
Barker, Dembo, & Lewin (1941):
• Children who played with toys
immediately played joyfully.
• Children frustrated by waiting were
extremely destructive: Many smashed
the toys, threw them against the wall,
stepped on them, and so forth.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Social Situations and Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
Several things can increase frustration and,
accordingly, will increase the probability that
some form of aggression will occur:
– Delay
– Goal proximity
– Unexpectedness of the frustration
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Social Situations and Aggression
Frustration and Aggression
What circumstances can turn frustration to
aggression?
– The size and strength of the person responsible
for your frustration.
– That person’s ability to retaliate.
– Proximity of the person.
If the frustration is understandable, legitimate,
and unintentional, the tendency to aggress
will be reduced.
Being Provoked and Reciprocating
Aggression frequently stems from the need to reciprocate
after being provoked by aggressive behavior from
another person.
But even when provoked, people do not always
reciprocate.
When convinced the provocation was unintentional, most
of us will not reciprocate.
If there are mitigating circumstances, counter-aggression
will not occur.
But to curtail an aggressive response, these mitigating
circumstances must be known at the time of the
provocation.
Aggressive Objects as Cues
Aggressive Stimulus
An object that is associated with aggressive
responses and whose mere presence can
increase the probability of aggression.
Imitation and Aggression
Children frequently learn to solve conflicts
aggressively by imitating adults and their
peers, especially when they see that the
aggression is rewarded.
Source of images: www.clipart.com
Imitation and Aggression
The people children imitate the most, of
course, are their parents.
And if the parents were abused as children,
this can set a chain of abuse in motion.
Indeed, a large percentage of physically
abusive parents were themselves abused
by their own parents when they were
kids.
Imitation and Aggression
Social Learning Theory
The idea that we learn social behavior
(e.g., aggression) by observing others
and imitating them.
In a classic series of experiments, Albert Bandura
and his associates demonstrated the power of
social learning.
Imitation and Aggression
• Bandura’s basic procedure was to have an adult
knock around a plastic, air-filled “Bobo” doll (the
kind that bounces back after it’s been knocked
down).
• The kids were then allowed to play with the doll.
• In these experiments, the children imitated the
aggressive models and treated the doll in an
abusive way.
• Children in a control condition, who did not see
the aggressive adult in action, almost never
unleashed any aggression against the hapless
doll.
Violence in the Media:
TV, Movies, and Video Games
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
1. BY THE TIME THE AVERAGE AMERICAN CHILD
FINISHES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HE OR SHE
WOULD HAVE SEEN 8,000 MURDERS AND MORE
THAN 100,000 OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE.
2. 58% OF ALL TV PROGRAMS CONTAIN
VIOLENCE—AND OF THOSE, 78% CONTAIN NOT
A SHRED OF REMORSE, CRITICISM, OR PENALTY
FOR THAT VIOLENCE.
3. OME 40% OF THE VIOLENT INCIDENTS SEEN ON
TV DURING A PARTICULAR YEAR WERE
INITIATED BY CHARACTERS PORTRAYED AS
HEROES OR OTHER ATTRACTIVE ROLE MODELS
FOR CHILDREN.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
The more TV violence individuals watch as
children, the more violence they exhibit later
as teens and young adults.
Watching a violent film has the effect of
increasing the number of aggressive acts
committed during a game—primarily by the
youngsters who already rated as highly
aggressive by their teachers.
Even children who are not inclined toward
aggression will become more aggressive if
exposed to a steady diet of violent films over a
long period.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
Priming by TV has a tendency to increase
the probability of an aggressive response
when children subsequently are frustrated
or hurt, exposing children to an endless
stream of violence in films and on TV
might have a similar tendency to prime an
aggressive response.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
Playing violent video games seems to have the same kind
of impact on children that watching TV violence does.
Violent video game playing positively correlates with
aggressive behavior and delinquency in children.
The relationship was found to be stronger for children who
had been more prone to violence beforehand.
The relationship is more than correlational. Exposing a
random sample of children to a graphically violent video
game had a direct and immediate impact on their
aggressive thoughts and behavior.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
What About Adults?
• The amount of time spent watching
television during adolescence and early
adulthood correlates positively with
likelihood of subsequent violent acts
against others.
• This association was significant
regardless of parental education, family
income, and neighborhood violence.
What About Adults?
• Daily homicide rates in the United States
have almost always increased during the
week following a heavyweight boxing
match.
• Moreover, the more publicity surrounding
the fight, the greater the subsequent
increase in homicides.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
What About Adults?
• Still more striking, the race of prizefight
• Daily homicide rates in the United States
losers was related to the race of victims
have almost always increased during the
of murders after the fights: After white
week following a heavyweight boxing
boxers lost fights, there was a
match.
corresponding increase in murders of
• white
Moreover,
the not
more
surrounding
men but
of publicity
black men.
the fight, the greater the subsequent
• After black boxers lost fights, there was a
increase in homicides.
corresponding increase in murders of
black men but not of white men.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
THE NUMBING EFFECT
OF TV VIOLENCE
REPEATED EXPOSURE TO DIFFICULT
OR UNPLEASANT EVENTS TENDS TO
HAVE A NUMBING EFFECT ON OUR
SENSITIVITY TO THOSE EVENTS, AS
INDICATED BY REDUCTIONS IN:
• EMOTIONAL RESPONSE,
• PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE, AND
• PERCEPTION OF BRUTALITY.
HOW DOES MEDIA VIOLENCE AFFECT
OUR VIEW OF THE WORLD?
• ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS WHO WATCH
MORE THAN 4 HOURS PER DAY ARE MORE
LIKELY TO HAVE AN EXAGGERATED VIEW
OF THE DEGREE OF VIOLENCE TAKING
PLACE OUTSIDE THEIR OWN HOME.
• HEAVY TV VIEWERS HAVE A MUCH
GREATER FEAR OF BEING PERSONALLY
ASSAULTED.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
WHY DOES MEDIA VIOLENCE
AFFECT VIEWERS’ AGGRESSION?
1. “If they can do it, so can I.”
2. “Oh, so that’s how you do it!”
3. “Those feelings I am having must be
real anger rather than simply a stressful
day.”
4. “Ho-hum, another brutal beating; what’s
on the other channel?”
5. “I had better get him before he gets me!”
Does Violence Sell?
• People who saw a nonviolent, non-sexual show
were able to recall brands advertised during
commercials better than the people who saw a
violent show or a sexually explicit show.
• This was true both immediately after viewing
and twenty-four hours after viewing and was
true for both men and women of all ages.
• Violence and sex seem to impair viewers’
memory.
Violent Pornography and
Violence against Women
Scripts
Ways of behaving socially that we
learn implicitly from our culture.
1.
2.
Sexual scripts adolescents are exposed to suggest to
them the traditional female role is to resist the male’s
sexual advances and male’s role is to be persistent.
Although 95% of the males and 97% of the female
high schoolers surveyed agreed that a man should
stop sexual advances as soon as a woman says no,
nearly 1/2 of those same students also believed that
when a woman says no, she doesn’t always mean it.
Violent Pornography and
Violence against Women
• During the 1990s, this confusion prompted several
colleges to suggest that dating couples negotiate an
explicit contract about their sexual conduct and
limitations at the very beginning of the date.
• But social critics lambasted these
measures on the grounds that they
encouraged fear and paranoia,
destroyed the spontaneity of
romance, and reduced the
excitement of dating to something
resembling a field trip to a lawyer’s
office. They were eventually
dropped.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Violent Pornography and
Violence against Women
• Coincidental with an increase in date rape
has been an increase in the availability of
magazines, films, and videocassettes
depicting vivid, explicit sexual behavior.
• Careful scientific research suggests an
important distinction between simple
pornography and violent pornography.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
Violent Pornography and
Violence against Women
• Exposure to violent pornography promotes
greater acceptance of sexual violence toward
women and is almost certainly a factor
associated with actual aggressive behavior
toward women.
• After watching violent pornography, men
express more negative attitudes toward women
and have more aggressive sexual fantasies.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
How to Reduce Aggression
“Stop hitting your brother!”
“Turn off the TV and go to your room!”
• Trying to curb the aggressive behavior of their
children, most parents use some form of
punishment.
• Some deny privileges; others use force.
• How well does punishment work?
Does Punishing Aggression
Reduce Aggressive Behavior?
• If punishment takes the form of an aggressive act, the
punishers are actually modeling aggressive behavior for
the person whose aggressive behavior they are trying
to stamp out and might induce that person to imitate
their action.
• Several experiments demonstrated that threat of
relatively severe punishment does not make committing
a transgression less appealing to a preschooler.
• On the other hand, the threat of mild punishment—of a
degree just powerful enough to get the child to stop the
undesired activity temporarily—leads the child to try to
justify his or her restraint and, as a result, can make the
behavior less appealing.
USING PUNISHMENT ON VIOLENT ADULTS
• DOES THE THREAT OF
HARSH PUNISHMENTS
FOR VIOLENT CRIMES
MAKE SUCH CRIMES
LESS LIKELY?
• DO PEOPLE WHO ARE ABOUT TO COMMIT
VIOLENT CRIMES SAY TO THEMSELVES,
“I’D BETTER NOT DO THIS BECAUSE IF I
GET CAUGHT, I’M GOING TO JAIL FOR A
LONG TIME; I MIGHT EVEN BE EXECUTED.”
• THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE IS MIXED.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
USING PUNISHMENT ON VIOLENT ADULTS
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS INDICATE THAT
PUNISHMENT CAN INDEED ACT AS A DETERRENT
IF TWO “IDEAL CONDITIONS” ARE MET:
• IT MUST BE PROMPT.
• IT MUST BE UNAVOIDABLE.
IN THE REAL WORLD, THESE IDEAL CONDITIONS
ARE ALMOST NEVER MET, ESPECIALLY IN A
COMPLEX SOCIETY WITH A HIGH CRIME RATE
AND A SLOW CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM LIKE
OUR OWN.
During the past thirty years, the homicide rate in the
United States has fluctuated between 6 and 10 murders
per year for every 100,000 people in the population.
This statistic is striking when one compares it to other
industrialized countries like Germany, England, and
France, where the homicide rate has remained stable at
less than 1 per 100,000.
Catharsis and Aggression
• Conventional wisdom suggests that one
way to reduce feelings of aggression is to
do something aggressive.
• “Get it out of your system” has been a
common piece of advice.
• This common belief is based on an
oversimplification of the psychoanalytic
notion of catharsis.
Catharsis and Aggression
Catharsis
The notion that “blowing off steam”—by
performing an aggressive act, watching
others engage in aggressive behaviors,
or engaging in a fantasy of aggression—
relieves built-up aggressive energies and
hence reduces the likelihood of further
aggressive behavior.
THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE ACTS
ON SUBSEQUENT AGGRESSION
• WHEN FRUSTRATED OR ANGRY, MANY OF US DO
FEEL LESS TENSE AFTER BLOWING OFF STEAM
BY YELLING, CURSING, OR PERHAPS EVEN
HITTING SOMEONE.
• BUT DOES AGGRESSION REDUCE THE NEED FOR
FURTHER AGGRESSION? DOES PLAYING
COMPETITIVE GAMES, FOR EXAMPLE, SERVE AS
A HARMLESS OUTLET FOR AGGRESSIVE
ENERGIES?
• GENERALLY, THE ANSWER IS NO. IN FACT, THE
REVERSE IS TRUE: COMPETITIVE GAMES OFTEN
MAKE PARTICIPANTS AND OBSERVERS MORE
AGGRESSIVE.
THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE ACTS
ON SUBSEQUENT AGGRESSION
What about watching aggressive games?
Will that reduce aggressive behavior?
• As with participating
in an aggressive
sport, watching one
also increases
aggressive behavior.
THE EFFECTS OF AGGRESSIVE ACTS
ON SUBSEQUENT AGGRESSION
Finally, does direct aggression against the
source of your anger reduce further
aggression? Again, the answer is no.
• When people commit acts of aggression,
such acts increase the tendency toward
future aggression.
• Outside the lab, in the real world, we see the
same phenomenon: Verbal acts of
aggression are followed by further attacks.
BLAMING THE VICTIM OF OUR AGGRESSION
• WHEN SOMEBODY ANGERS US, VENTING OUR
HOSTILITY AGAINST THAT PERSON DOES SEEM
TO RELIEVE TENSION AND MAKE US FEEL
BETTER, AT LEAST TEMPORARILY—ASSUMING
THE PERSON WE VENT ON DOESN’T DECIDE TO
VENT BACK ON US.
• BUT “FEELING BETTER” SHOULD NOT BE
CONFUSED WITH A REDUCTION IN HOSTILITY.
• WITH HUMAN BEINGS, AGGRESSION IS
DEPENDENT NOT MERELY ON TENSIONS—WHAT A
PERSON FEELS—BUT ALSO ON WHAT A PERSON
THINKS.
BLAMING THE VICTIM OF OUR AGGRESSION
• Research participants who inflicted either
psychological or physical harm on an innocent
person who had done them no prior harm then
derogated their victims, convincing themselves
they were not nice people and therefore
deserved what they got.
• This reduces dissonance, all right—and it also
sets the stage for further aggression, for once a
person has succeeded in derogating someone,
it makes it easier to do further harm to the
victim in the future.
The Effect of War on
General Aggression
• When a nation is at war, its people are
more likely to commit aggressive acts
against one another.
• Being at war serves to legitimize violence
as a way to address difficult problems.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
• Crime rates for 110 countries from 1900 on
show that compared with similar nations that
remained at peace, after a country had fought a
war, its homicide rates rose substantially.
The Effect of War on
General Aggression
The fact that a nation is at war:
(1) Weakens the population’s inhibitions
against aggression,
(2) Leads to imitation of aggression,
(3) Makes aggressive responses more
acceptable, and
(4) Numbs our senses to the horror of
cruelty and destruction, making us less
sympathetic toward the victims.
What Are We Supposed to Do with
Our Anger?
It is possible to control our
anger by actively enabling
it to dissipate.
“Actively enabling” means using
such simple devices as
counting to ten before shooting
your mouth off.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
VENTING VERSUS SELF-AWARENESS
• IF YOUR CLOSE FRIEND OR SPOUSE DOES
SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU ANGRY,
YOU MAY WANT TO EXPRESS THAT ANGER
IN A WAY THAT HELPS YOU GAIN INSIGHT
INTO YOURSELF AND THE DYNAMICS OF
THE RELATIONSHIP.
• BUT FOR THAT TO HAPPEN, THE ANGER
MUST BE EXPRESSED IN A NONVIOLENT
AND NON-DEMEANING WAY.
VENTING VERSUS SELF-AWARENESS
• Although it is probably best to reveal your anger
to the friend who provoked it, at least if you are
hoping to resolve the problem between you,
sometimes it is helpful to write down your
feelings in a journal.
• Benefits of “opening up” are due not simply to
venting of feeling but primarily to the insights
and self-awareness that usually accompany
such self-disclosure (Pennebaker, 1990).
DEFUSING ANGER THROUGH APOLOGY
• ONE WAY TO REDUCE AGGRESSION IS
FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WHO CAUSED THE
FRUSTRATION TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
FOR THE ACTION, APOLOGIZE FOR IT, AND
INDICATE THAT IT IS UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN
AGAIN.
“Oops! My bad!”
THE MODELING OF
NONAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR
• Modeling works with nonaggressive
behavior too.
• When children see adults, when
provoked, express themselves in calm,
respectful manner, children subsequently
handle their own frustrations with less
aggression.
Source of image: Microsoft Office Online.
6th edition
Social Psychology
Elliot Aronson
University of California, Santa Cruz
Timothy D. Wilson
University of Virginia
Robin M. Akert
Wellesley College
slides by Travis Langley
Henderson State University