8 - PSSO - Chapter 10 - Unit 8 - 2023

Unit 8
Aggression and antisocial behaviour

Chapter 10
By Mpilo MT
Learning objectives
• Define the different types of aggression
• Debate the role of nature versus nurture in human
aggression, and look at the effects of culture on
aggressive impulses
• Identify the inner causes of aggression
• Describe the interpersonal causes of aggression
• Discuss the role of culture and self-views in producing
violence and aggression
• Identify other, nonaggressive forms of antisocial
behaviour
Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction
• Rwanda genocide: illustrates important points about

aggression and violence
• Mass media can promote aggression
• Frustrated people can violently lash out at the source
• Aggressors often dehumanize their victims
• Forgiveness is possible, even for the most extreme actions
Defining aggression and
antisocial behaviour
• Aggression: any behaviour intended to harm another person
who does not want to be harmed
• Displaced, direct, indirect
• Bullying – power relationship over the victim
• cyberbullying
• Antisocial behaviour: behaviour that damages interpersonal
relationships or is culturally undesirable
Is the world more or less violent
now than in the past?

• The world is less violent now than in the past
• Death rates per battle were much higher in the past
• England murders – 24 per 100 000 in 14th century to 0.6
per 100 000 by 1960s
• Better ways of settling conflict
• Negotiation, property rights, courts of law, compromise,
religious, and moral rules
Is aggression innate or learned?
• Instinct theories
• Darwin: aggressive behaviour are evolutionary adaptation used for
survival
• Freud: human motivational forces are based on instinct
• Eros: life giving instinct
• Thanatos: death instinct
• Build-up of aggressive urges, not released, lead to
aggression
Is aggression innate or
learned? (cont’d.)
• Learning theories: people learn aggressive behaviours
through direct experience and observation
• Modelling: observing and copying or imitating the
behaviour of others
• Bandura Bobo doll study: children who watched the
aggressive model had the highest levels of aggression
Is aggression innate or learned?
(cont’d.)
• Nature and nurture
• Both learning and instinct are relevant to aggression
• Aggression is found all over the world; some patterns are
universal
• Humans don’t have to learn to behave aggressively; it
seems to come naturally
• People learn how to control aggressive impulses
Inner causes of aggression
• What are some causes of increased aggression?

• Frustration: blockage of or interference with a personal goal
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis: ‘occurrence of
aggressive behaviour always presupposes the existence of
frustration’, and ‘existence of frustration always leads to
some form of aggression’
• Being in a bad mood: venting to improve your mood
Inner causes of aggression (cont’d.)
• Hostile cognitive biases

• Hostile attribution bias: attribute ambiguous actions by
others as being aggressive. e.g. someone pumps into you
• Hostile perception bias: perceiving social interactions as
being aggressive. e.g. think two people are arguing
• Hostile expectation bias: assume people will react to
potential conflicts with aggression
(cont’d.)
• Age and aggression

• Young children are the most aggressive human beings on earth
• 25% of interactions among toddlers involve some kind of
physical aggression
• Human children naturally rely on physical aggression to resolve
their disputes
• Most people become less aggressive over time
(cont’d.)
• Gender differences in aggression and violence
• Men and women deal with stress differently
• Fight or flight syndrome: response to stress that involves
aggressing against others or running away
• Tend and befriend syndrome: response to stress that involves
nurturing others and making friends
• Relational aggression – harming other people’s social relationship,
feelings if acceptance or inclusion in a group
Interpersonal causes of aggression
• Selfishness and influence

• Means for people to get what they want
• Domestic violence: hurting those we love
• Physically harmful actions that occur within the home or family,
between people who have a close relationship with each other
• South African women experience very high levels of domestic
violence
External causes of aggression
• Weapons effect: increased aggression as a result of the mere

presence of a weapon
• Weapons can also increase hostile biases
• Mass media: media exposure can increase aggressive behaviour
• Violent media and media containing sex (e.g., rape depictions)
The media and aggression
External causes of aggression
(cont’d.)
• Unpleasant environments
• Hot temperatures and unpleasant environmental events
increase aggression
• Chemicals influences
• Hormones (e.g., testosterone) and neurotransmitters (e.g.,
serotonin)
• Alcohol and other drugs of abuse
Self and culture
• Norms and values

• Some cultures or subcultures place a positive value on fighting
and aggression
• Respect a man who fights well
• Self-control
• Criminals show low self-control
• Violence starts when self-control stops
• Wounded pride
• Violent individuals typically think they are better than others
• Narcissistic traits
• There is usually provocation
Other antisocial behaviour
• Lying: not telling the truth

• Most people lie at least once per day
• Lying takes more cognitive resources than telling the truth
• People aren’t good at detecting liars
• Cheating: undesirable, yet widespread
• “Cheaters high” -
Other antisocial behaviour (cont’d.)
• Stealing
• Employees steal from employers
• Customers shoplift
• Identity theft: stealing personal information
• Littering
• When everybody else seems to be littering, individuals
are more likely to litter, too
Summary
• Humans engage in antisocial behaviours, including aggression

• Aggression has many causes and influences
• Human cultures mostly attempt to restrain violence and
aggression
• Antisocial behaviours, including aggression, are often a result
of several personal and environmental factors

8 - PSSO - Chapter 10 - Unit 8 - 2023

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Unit 8

Aggression and antisocial behaviour

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

• Rwanda genocide: illustrates important points about

now than in the past?

• What are some causes of increased aggression?

• Hostile cognitive biases

• Age and aggression

• Selfishness and influence

• Weapons effect: increased aggression as a result of the mere

• Norms and values

• Lying: not telling the truth

• Humans engage in antisocial behaviours, including aggression

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