David Stonner

The facilitation of aggression by aggression: evidence against the catharsis hypothesis.

Nnety male subjects were either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by a male confederate. On a subsequent maze-learning task, one third of the subjects shocked the confederate, one third observed as the experimenter shocked the confederate, and one third waited for a period of time during which the confederate was not shocked. Finally, all subjects shocked the confederate as part of a code-learning task. Subjects who had been attacked and had shocked the confederate during the maze task delivered shocks of greater intensity on the code task did subjects in the other two conditions, and the former subjects also experienced a greater reduction in diastolic blood pressure than did the latter. The results contradict the hypothesis of aggression catharsis and are discussed in terms of feelings of restraint against aggressing that a subject experiences after committing an aggressive act.

The facilitation of aggression by aggression

90 male college students were either attacked or treated in a more neutral manner by a male confederate. On a subsequent maze-learning task, 30 Ss shocked the confederate, 30 observed as the E shocked the confederate, and 30 waited for a period of time during which the confederate was not shocked. Finally, all Ss shocked the confederate as part of a code-learning task. Ss who had been attacked and had shocked the confederate during the maze task delivered shocks of greater intensity on the code task than did Ss in the other 2 conditions, and the former Ss also experienced a greater reduction in diastolic blood pressure than did the latter. Results contradict the hypothesis of aggression catharsis and are discussed in terms of feelings of restraint against aggressing that an S experiences after committing an aggressive act. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

The meaning of observed violence: Effects on arousal and aggressive behavior ☆

Eighty male subjects were either attacked by a confederate or treated neutrally and then watched a violent movie. Subjects were told beforehand that the fighting in the movie was motivated by either desires for revenge, by professionalism, or by altruism. Other subjects were shown the film without comment. Relative to subjects in all other conditions, subjects who had been attacked and told that the fight was motivated by revenge subsequently (1) gave more intense shocks to the confederate, (2) rated themselves as less restrained in aggressing, and (3) manifested higher levels of blood pressure at the conclusion of the film. The results indicate that the meaning attched to observed violence may affect the aggression elicited by that violence in at least two ways: by lowering inhibitions against aggressing, and by raising arousal levels.

The context of observed violence: Inhibition of aggression through displays of unsuccessful retaliation

Forty male Ss who had previously been angered by a confederate (C) and 40 who had not were shown a boxing movie. The film was described to one-quarter of all Ss as professional aggression, to one-quarter as an unsuccessful attempt at vengeance, and to one-half as a successful attempt at vengeance. Subsequent attacks against C tended to be most intense in angry Ss who had regarded the movie as revenge and among nonangry Ss who interpreted it as professional violence. The results are attributed to lowering of inhibitions against aggression by the film.

Extraversion-introversion and the effects of favorability and set size on impression formation

In an impression formation task extraverts (n = 20) and introverts (n = 20) were asked to rate the likability of target persons described by varying numbers of favorable or unfavorable traits. The extraverts rated target persons described by favorable traits as more likable (p <.05) and target persons described by unfavorable traits as less likable (p <.05) than did the introverts. These findings support the hypothesis that the differences in social responsiveness between the extravert and the introvert are a product of two processes. First, the extravert, because of his stronger need for stimulation, is more likely than the introvert to interact with other persons. Second, as a result of this interaction the extravert learns to be more responsive to both the positive and negative reinforcement potential of other persons.

An extended apparatus for measuring aggression in humans

An extension of Buss’s device for measuring human aggression is described, and the status of aggressive response latency as an indicator of aggressive motivation is discussed. An experiment is described in which measures of latency correlated negatively with those of shock intensity, and both discriminated between Ss who were motivated to aggress and those who were not.

Similarity, Conditioned Affect, and Interpersonal Attraction

Summary Fifty-four female subjects participated in a study designed to measure effects of similarity on attraction toward another girl. Positive, neutral, or negative affect was first classically conditioned to the girls first name, after which the girl was made to appear similar or dissimilar to the subject in beliefs and attitudes. The girl was rated as more attractive when she was similar to the subject than when she was dissimilar. In addition, the effects of similarity and prior conditioning interacted.

Reactions to aggression-related stimuli following reinforcement of aggression

Summary Twenty-four male subjects were reinforced for aggressing with verbal approval from the experimenter, or not reinforced, then presented nine verbs previously scaled for aggressiveness associations as cues for further aggressive responses. Subjects who received approval from the experimenter increased their level of aggressiveness over reinforced trials, whereas nonreinforced subjects did not. Reinforced subjects also reacted with greater aggressiveness to words having strongly aggressive connotations than did nonreinforced subjects, but were no more aggressive than the latter when words having weaker connotations for aggression served as eliciting cues.