REDUCING AGGRESSION:Punishment, Incompatible response strategy

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Social Psychology (PSY403)

Lesson 36

REDUCING AGGRESSION

Aims

To introduce different social and psychological strategies to reduce aggression.

Objectives

Describe various methods to reduce aggression: punishment, inducing incompatible responses,

reducing frustration, and teaching of non aggressive responses

Introduction

Legal systems throughout the world use punishment to deal with violent criminals. The most common

treatment is punishment; ultimate punishment is death. Three conditions necessary for punishment being

effective are described below:

· Prompt

· Relatively strong

· Consistent

Relatively effective strategies

· Punishment

· Inducing incompatible responses

· Reducing frustration

· Teaching non aggressive responses

Punishment

Is punishment truly effective?

· Aggressor punisher may serve as an aggressive model according to social learning theory

That is exactly the process underlying the continuing cycle of family violence (Hanson et al., 1997)

Although punishment may reduce aggressive behavior, it does not teach the aggressor new

prosocial forms of behavior

Fear of punishment or retaliation reduces aggression only in the immediate situation.

Generates anger, sparks counter-aggression: Cognitive neo-associationist model would suggest that

it may even provoke intense anger in the aggressor-turned-victim (if aggressors are extremely

angry, threats of punishment will not work)

Even if they worked, this is too expensive to be a wide-spread solution

Incompatible response strategy

· All organisms are incapable of engaging in two incompatible responses/ emotions

Inducing incompatible responses/ emotions with anger may effectively deter such actions (Robert

Baron, 1976)

Baron's study (1976) based on Turner et al.'s (1975) observation that motorists honk their horns to

express their irritation

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Social Psychology (PSY403)

Baron's study (1976):

· Instructed a research confederate to driving a car near campus to frustrate other motorists by

stopping car at a traffic light for 15 seconds

· Two observers noted the motorists' frustration

· Three experimental conditions

o Inducing empathy

o Creating humor

o Mild sexual arousal

Two control conditions

o Simple distraction

o Being absent from the scene

Figure 1: Aggression inhibiting influence of incompatible responses

Reducing frustration

· Government

responses to try to

reduce large-scale

economic

frustrations

are

% of honking

sometimes

effective,

sometimes not.

Latency of

Homicide studies

honking

Pakistan

Control

Em pathy

Sexual

(Suhail & Javed,

arous al

2002; Suhail &

Khalid,

2006)

indicate that people involved in homicidal acts belonged to middle social class, supposed to have

more social and psychological conflicts and burdens.

However, such programs can not totally eliminate frustration, so other techniques for reducing

aggression are necessary.

Teaching non aggressive responses to provocation

· Social modeling

· Internalizing anti-aggression beliefs

· Apologies as aggression controllers

· Social skills training

· Reducing exposure to violence

Social modeling:

· Social learning theorists contend that non aggressive models can urge observers to exercise

restraint in the face of provocation

Research participants who watched a non aggressive model exhibit restraint in administering

shocks to a victim were subsequently less aggressive (Baron & Kepner, 1970)

Aggression can be controlled by having an authority figure condemning the behavior of aggressive

individuals

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Social Psychology (PSY403)

Less imitation in child if an adult condemns TV violence (Horton & Santogrossi, 1978)

The last two points discussed above refer to just condemning not modeling.

Internalizing anti-aggression beliefs:

· When people internalize certain beliefs and attitudes into their self-concept, they are more likely to

act in ways consistent with them (belief ownership)

When children were prompted to generate reasons why it was bad to imitate TV violence, TV

violence had less impact on their attitudes and behavior (Huesmann et al., 1983)

Apologies as aggression controllers:

Study by Ken-ichi Ohbuchi et al. (1989):

· Japanese college students were embarrassed by their poor performance while working on a

complex experimental task

Because the experimenter's assistant committed a series of errors in presenting experimental

material to them

Experimenter criticized the assistant who then either apologized for causing the participants to fail,

or said nothing

Participants were asked to rate the assistant on several dimensions which were to be used as a basis

for the assistant's grade

A public apology significantly reduced hostility

The implications of these techniques are that by just saying sorry you can reduce interpersonal

hostility.

Any gender differences in willingness to apologize?

· Women are more willing than men to take responsibility for a perceived social transgression

(Gonzales at al., 1990)

Women tend to be more apologetic when severely reproached (Hodgins & Liebeskind, 2003)

Men have a fear of "losing face" or social status in such confrontations (Hodgins et al., 1996)

Social skills training:

· The art of apologizing is just one skill in a large repertoire of interpersonal skills learned through

the process of socializing

Children of low IQ are less likely to learn, hence have more of a combative interpersonal style that

invites aggression and further interferes with their intellectual development

As children mature, their impulsive aggressive reactions to anger are replaced by more socially

acceptable aggressive responses, such as negotiations, compromise, and cooperative problem

solving

Social skills training can take many forms: role-playing of non aggressive behaviors, modeling the

prosocial actions of others, or generating non aggressive alternative solutions to conflict

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Social Psychology (PSY403)

In one 12-session intervention program, both male and female delinquents not only showed

increased skills in solving social problems, but also exhibited a decrease in their aggressive beliefs

and actions (Guerra & Slaby, 1990)

Reducing exposure to violence:

Robinson et al.'s study (2001):

· Third- and fourth-grade students at 2 comparable schools were examined over a 6-month period

In one school TV and video-game exposure was reduced by one-third by encouraging students and

parents to engage in alternative forms of home entertainment

Intervention school children showed less subsequent aggression on the playground

Reading

· Franzoi, S. (2003). Social Psychology. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Chapter 13.

Other Readings

· Lord, C.G. (1997). Social Psychology. Orlando: Harcourt Brace and Company. Chapter 8.

· David G. Myers, D. G. (2002). Social Psychology (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

· Taylor, S.E. (2006). Social Psychology (12th ed.). New York: Prentice Hall.

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