AGGRESSION

Anish Shankar Menon 1221009

Two papers
Paper 1
Exposure to violent media: The effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and feelings

Paper 2
Automatic effects of alcohol and aggressive cues on aggressive thoughts and behaviours

Paper 1

Effect of media on aggression:

Exposure to violent media increases both short and long term tendencies of aggression Most studies on television and movies. New research on video games music not studied in depth

Venting

Ancient Greek idea Popularized by Breuer and Freud Experiencing and expressing aggression will reduce subsequent aggressive behaviour

Violence in music

Key differences between violence in music and other media

Not graphic Lyrics are lost in the music More focus on music and less on lyrics

Then what is the danger?

Use of words that prime aggression Violent themes of the music Imagination

Theoretical perspective

General Aggression Mode (GAM) Anderson and Bushman

The overall framework

Effect of violent songs on aggressive thought and effect The arousal effects are controlled by:
Song selection Measuring perceived arousal

Appraisal and aspects level are not discussed Trait hostility and humour were investigated as potential moderating variables

The experiments

A total of 5 experiments were conducted Experiments 1 and 2 effects of violent lyrics on state hostility and aggressive cognitions, respectively. Experiment 3 effects of violent lyrics and trait hostility on state hostility and aggressive cognitions using a broader set of songs and a different measure of aggressive cognition. Experiments 4 and 5 combined effects of violent humorous song lyrics on aggressive thought and affect and included trait hostility

Experiment 1

29 Female and 30 male participants 2 (song) x 2 (sex) x 2 (participant pool) factorial design Songs in pairs
Suggestions from undergrad students 1 violent the other nonviolent or minimal violence Understandable and same genre 2 songs used Same music group Tool 5 mins.
Violent Jerk off from Opiate Nonviolent Four degrees from Undertow

 Procedure:
Contemporary song couple of psychological tasks Assigned song State Hospitality Scale (Anderson et. Al., 1995)

Results: 2 (song: violent vs. nonviolent) 2(participant pool: volunteer vs. psychology) ANCOVA
the violent song produced higher levels of state hostility than the nonviolent song (Ms = 2.60 and 2.19), F(1, 54) = 5.97, MSE = 0.426, p < .02. Females reported higher levels of state hostility than males (Ms = 2.62 and 2.17), F(1, 54) = 6.71, MSE = 0.426, p < .02.

Experiment 2

Similar to experiment 1 in all regards except that dependent variable was a measure of aggressive cognition 61 undergrad volunteers (30 females, 31 males) Dependent variable Ratings of a large number of word pairs from Bushman (1996)

 Aggressive - (blood, butcher, choke, fight, gun, hatchet, hurt, kill, knife, and wound) Ambiguous in meaning - (alley, animal, bottle, drugs, movie, night, police, red, rock, and stick)
People with trait hostility perceived greater similarity between aggressive and ambiguous words

Volunteers Rate the pairs as similar, associated or related 1 to 7 rating from not related to extremely related

 Average similarity scores were calculated aggressive ambiguous (100), ambiguous ambiguous (45) and aggressive aggressive (45) The second two pairings were within-subject controls Contrast scores were computed The 2nd and 3rd scores were averaged and from this the 1st score was reduced. Smaller scores indicated more similarity in 1st pair than the control pair Participants who heard violent songs would have smaller scores

 The 2 (song: violent vs. nonviolent) 2 (subject pool: volunteer vs. introductory psychology) ANCOVA Only 1 effect, the predicted main effect of music lyric content, F(1, 56) = 4.24, MSE = 0.113, p < .05 Mean similarity score of experimental group increased by almost half of a scale point (0.45) on a 7-point scale. The corresponding song effect on the control pairs was much smaller; the mean similarity increase was just slightly more than a quarter of a scale point (0.27).

Experiment 3

Broaden the tests 4 pairs of violent and non-violent songs used Moderating effects of trait hostility examined using the Caprara Irritability Scale (Anderson, 1997; Dill et al., 1997; Caprara et al., 1985) Accessibility of aggressive thoughts: participants were timed as they read aggressive and nonaggressive words.

 Additional controls difficulties:

for

possible

interpretational

Check for difference in arousal properties No song control to test state hostility and aggressive cognition

Counterbalance the order in which the two dependent variables were assessed on the basis of other findings that measuring one aggression-related variable frequently changes the outcome of subsequently measured variables, a sort of psychological uncertainty principle (Lindsay & Anderson, 2000). The experiment used a 3 (song type) x 2 (order) x 2 (sex) factorial design with trait hostility as a continuous independent variable.

Procedure

83 female and 79 male undergraduates Preselection done:

Caprara Irritability Scale Upper and lower quartiles chosen

An adaptation of the Caprara Irritability Scale (Caprara et al., 1985). The adaptation (Anderson, 1997; Dill et al., 1997) involved reverse scoring and using the 10 friendly filler items, along with the original 20 irritable items.(This was the Trait Hostility Scale)

 The participants listened to one of eight songs Then they completed the dependent variables Participants in the no-song condition went directly from the THS to the dependent variables. Word pronunciation test Other questionnaires Perceived Arousal Scale (PAS: Anderson et al., 1995, 1996) contains 31 adjectives describing feelings of arousal (e.g., energetic) or lack of arousal (e.g., listless). Participants ratings were based on how they felt at the present moment using 5-point Likert-type scales (1 = very slightly or not at all, 3 = moderately, 5 = extremely). The lack-of-arousal items are reverse scored.

 PAS: The main effect of type of song did not approach significance, F(1, 140) = 1.31, p < .25. Thus, violent-lyric effects on other variables cannot be attributed to arousal differences. The only reliable effect on PAS was a negative relation to trait hostility, F(1, 140) = 16.65, MSE = 0.512, p < .001.

Experiment 4

Generality of the violent song effect on aggressive thoughts and feelings by using humorous songs and including trait hostility. If humor and violent content combine additively, nonviolent humorous songs will yield levels of aggressive affect and thought that are significantly lower than levels obtained from violent humorous and no-song control conditions.

Procedure
65 Female and 74 male Completed the measure of trait hostility participants either listened to one of the humorous songs (violent or nonviolent) or they continued directly to the dependent measures (no-song control). Next, participants completed the SHS and the word completion task. Participants in the two song conditions then completed the Music Questionnaire. Those in the control condition listened to the nonviolent song and then completed the Music Questionnaire.

Experiment 5

Replicated experiments 1 to 4 Effects of violent lyrics and trait hostility on state hostility and aggressive cognition with both humorous and nonhumorous songs. The design was a 2 (violent or nonviolent music lyrics) x 2 (humorous or nonhumorous lyrics) factorial, with a no-song condition and trait hostility as a continuous independent variable.

State hostility score

Pooled results

Paper 2

People need not drink alcohol to become aggressive, the mere thought is enough O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! That we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
William Shakespeare, Othello

Theories

Two broad categories: Pharmacological models models.

and

expectancy

Pharmacological models propose that alcohol increases aggression by impairing higher level cognitive functions such as inhibitory control. Expectancy-based models propose that alcohol increases aggression because people expect it to.

Experiment 1

Mere exposure to alcohol- and weaponrelated cues automatically increases the accessibility of aggressive thoughts Participants would respond more quickly to aggressive words (but not to neutral words) after seeing alcoholic beverage bottles and weapons than after seeing nonalcoholic beverage bottles.

Experiment 2

Extended the results of Experiment 1 by testing the hypothesis that mere exposure to alcohol- and aggressive related cues increase aggressive behavior

Thank you