Human Aggression

307 Pages·1977·7 MB·English

by  Robert A. Baron (auth.)

Human
Aggression
PERSPECTIVES IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
A Series of Texts and Monographs • Edited by Elliot Aronson
INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
By Edward L. Deci
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
By Harold B. Gerard and Norman Miller
HUMAN AGGRESSION
By Robert A. Baron
A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring
delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon
actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.
Human
Aggression
ROBERT A. BARON
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Baron, Robert A
Human aggression.
(Perspectives in social psychology)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Aggressiveness (Psychology) I. Title.
BF575.A3B35 301.6'3 77-24567
ISBN 978-1-4615-7197-1 ISBN 978-1-4615-7195-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-7195-7
© 1977 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1977
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
227 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10011
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To The Little Red-Haired Girl,
who is the source of my incompatible responses,
and to my parents,
who gave me the freedom to grow.
Preface: A Note to My
Colleagues
An announcement appearing in a recent issue of a newsletter distrib
uted quarterly to several thousand psychologists read, in part, as fol
lows:
Free. A bibliography of approximately 350 books on human aggression is
available from Prof. Gordon W. Russell. (Italics added)
Given such a wealth of existing materials on aggressive behavior, one
may well wonder why, at the present time, I have chosen to add to
this huge assemblage by writing still another volume on the same
topic. While this is an eminently reasonable question, I hope that I can
respond to it with equally reasonable answers. Basically, my decision
to produce the present volume stemmed from two major sources.
First, it grew quite naturally out of my own teaching experience.
Over the years, I have frequently conducted both advanced under
graduate and graduate classes on the topic of human aggression. Un
fortunately, in selecting appropriate texts for these courses, I have
often found myself confronting something of a dilemma. The choice, it
seemed, was one between two distinct categories of books. In the first
were several scholarly, comprehensive treatises, which were designed
for professional audiences and which, as a result, were far "over the
heads" of the students I asked to read them. In the second group, by
way of contrast, were a number of briefer, simpler texts, more readily
comprehended by unsophisticated readers. Disappointingly, though,
these were also usually quite restricted in scope. Thus, while both
groups offered certain important advantages, neither seemed quite ap
propriate for several of my courses.
Vll
PREFACE ix
also many newer lines of research, to which I will return below, are
represented in various chapters. And finally, I have included a sepa
rate unit on methods for the study of aggression-a feature that I
believe to be unique to the present volume. In these ways, I have at
tempted to produce a text that is as broad and eclectic in coverage as I
could make it.
While the present volume grew, in part, out of my desire to pro
duce what I thought might prove to be a useful teaching aid, it also
developed out of a second major motive. During the past few years, a
large number of new-and to me, exciting-lines of investigation have
emerged in rapid order. These have been extremely varied in scope,
including, among many others, such diverse topics as the effects of
sexual arousal upon aggression, the impact of environmental factors
(e.g., heat, noise, crowding) upon such behavior, interracial aggres
sion, and the influence of heightened self-awareness. Despite the fact
that such topics have already generated a considerable amount of re
search, they were not, to my knowledge, adequately represented irt
any existing volume. Given this state of affairs, it seemed to me that a
reasonably comprehensive summary of this newer work might prove
both useful and timely. In particular, I felt that it might serve as a
useful source of reference both for new researchers wishing an over
view of the field and for established researchers whose harried sched
ules made it difficult for them to keep up with all lines of research and
all new developments. The present volume, then, was written with
this second goal firmly in mind. In sum, Human Aggression grew
out of my desires to (1) provide a text suitable for use in con
junction with advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate
courses on aggression and (2) provide a useful summary of recent lines
of investigation as yet unincorporated into existing texts. Looking
back, I can honestly say that I have spared no effort in my attempts to
attain these goals. Given the imperfect nature of all human endeavors,
though, I am also sure that I have fallen short of my ideal objectives in
several different respects. My major hope, then, is simply that I have
at least moved in the right (i.e., useful) directions. Of course, in an
important sense, only you, my colleagues and readers, can tell me
whether, and to what extent, this is in fact the case. Thus, I eagerly
and a bit impatiently-await your judgments and comments.
ROBERT A. BARON
West Lafayette, Indiana
Acknowledgments
In writing this text, I have been aided immeasurably by many individ
uals. While I could not hope to list all of them here, I can, at the least,
offer my thanks to those whose assistance has been most important.
First, I would like to thank the many colleagues who-by keeping
me abreast of their own work, responding to my requests for reprints
and preprints, and sharing their ideas with me-have made a sub
stantial contribution to this volume. In a very real sense, it could not
have been written without their aid.
Second, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to my
good friend 001£ Zillmann, who, through our many personal discus
sions, has often helped me to shape and hone my ideas. His contribu
tion to the present volume in this and many other ways is gratefully
acknowledged.
Third, I wish to extend special thanks to Ed Oonnerstein, whose
thoughtful and insightful reviews of the entire manuscript helped me
to improve it in many different respects.
Fourth, I would like to express my gratitude to Seymour Weingar
ten, my editor, whose enthusiasm for the project was always high and
whose expert opinions, thoughtful suggestions, and unflagging sense
of humor (!) helped guide it to successful completion.
And finally, I wish to thank my wife, Sandra, who evaluated each
chapter as it was completed, who prepared the entire manuscript for
publication, and who, through her support and encouragement,
helped me to face all those lonely and seemingly endless sessions at
the typewriter. To her, to the other persons mentioned on this page,
and to many others as well, a warm and heartfelt "THANKS!"
R.A.B.
xi
Contents
1. AGGRESSION: DEFINITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES 1
Aggression: A Working Definition ...................... 5
Aggression as Behavior ............................ 7
Aggression and Intention .......................... 8
Aggression as Harm or Injury ...................... 10
Aggression Involves Living Beings ................. 11
Aggression Involves an Avoidance-Motivated Recipient 12
Aggression Defined: A Recapitulation .............. 12
Hostile versus Instrumental Aggression ............. 13
Contrasting Theoretical Perspectives on Aggression:
Instinct, Drive, or Social Learning? ............. 15
Aggression as Instinctive Behavior: Innate Urges
toward Death and Destruction ............. 16
Aggression as an Elicited Drive: Motivation to Harm
or Injure Others ........................... 21
Aggression as Learned Social Behavior: Direct and
Vicarious Training for Violence ............ 32
Summary............................................. 36
2. AGGRESSION: METHODS FOR SYSTEMATIC STUDY .. 39
Laboratory Methods for the Study of Aggression: Hurting
within the Context of a Controlled Psychological
Environment 42
xiii
xiv CONTENTS
Verbal Measures of Aggression: When Words (or
Evaluations) Harm ........................ 43
"Play" Measures of Aggression: Assaults against
Inanimate Objects ......................... 47
"Safe" Attacks against a Live Victim: Noninjurious
Physical Aggression ....................... 51
Direct Physical Aggression: Hurt without Harm ..... 54
Field Methods for the Study of Aggression: Harm-Doing
Behaviors in Naturalistic Settings ............... 69
Aggression in Traffic Situations: Horn Honking at
Intersections .............................. 69
Personal Confrontations: Direct Elicitation of Overt
Aggression ............................... 71
Summary 74
3. SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF AGGRESSION ......... 77
Frustration: Interpersonal Thwarting as an Antecedent of
Aggression ................................... 79
Evidence Suggesting That Frustration Facilitates
Aggression ............................... 80
Evidence Suggesting That Frustration Does Not
Facilitate Aggression ...................... 83
Frustration and Aggression: A Tentative Resolution 87
Verbal and Physical Attack: Direct Provocation from
Others as an Antecedent of Aggression ......... 92
Exposure to Aggressive Models: The Impact of Witnessed
Violence ...................................... 98
Exposure to Live Aggressive Models: The "Contagion"
of Violence ............................... 99
Aggressive Models in the Mass Media: The Effects of
Filmed and Televised Violence ............. 101