Russell G. Geen

Drive theory of social facilitation: Twelve years of theory and research

Reviews research on social facilitation since 1965. It is concluded that the drive-theory analysis proposed by R. B. Zajonc in 1965 still provides the best overall theoretical framework for explaining social facilitation, but that N. B. Cottrells (1968, 1972) elaboration, which emphasizes learned d

Role of cognitive-emotional mediators and individual differences in the effects of media violence on aggression.

Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that observation of media violence elicits thoughts and emotional responses related to aggression. In Experiment 1, highly violent videotapes elicited more aggressive cognitions than did a less violent tape. This effect was moderated by the trait of stimulus screening. In Experiment 2, aggressive cognitions increased with the level of violence in the videotape, and physical assaultiveness influenced this effect. Hostility and systolic blood pressure were higher in response to the most violent video than in response to the other two. Hostility was influenced by emotional susceptibility and dissipation-rumination, and systolic blood pressure was influenced by emotional susceptibility and assaultiveness.

The Catharsis of Aggression: An Evaluation of a Hypothesis

Publisher Summary Theorizing on aggression catharsis that follows psychoanalytic or ethological reasoning formulated in the frustration–aggression hypothesis assumes a basic linear cause–effect model. According to this model, provocation to aggression creates a state of arousal that motivates aggression, which in turn lowers arousal and diminishes the probability of further violence. Evidence from psychophysiological research indicates that under some conditions, aggression does produce decreased arousal when the latter is quantified in terms of cardiovascular activity. Data regarding the effects of aggression on the other indices of autonomic recovery are ambiguous. Aggression does not promote cardiovascular recovery in the following conditions: when the target possesses a higher social status than the attacker, when aggression is a manifestly inappropriate response in a given situation, and when the individual is predisposed to react to aggression with the feelings of guilt. The notion of catharsis has not been confirmed, that reductions in aggression following aggression, insofar as they have been demonstrated, might be more parsimoniously explained in terms of active inhibition, and that in the absence of such inhibitions the expression of aggression increases the likelihood of further such behavior.

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 meaning of observed violence: Real vs. fictional violence and consequent effects on aggression and emotional arousal ☆

Abstract Sixty male subjects were either attacked or treated neutrally by a confederate, after which each saw a videotape of two men fighting. Subjects were informed that fight was either real or fictitious or were given no explanation of it. Subjects who had previously been attacked and had observed the fight under a set to perceive it as real were subsequently more punitive in their treatment of the confederate than subjects in all other conditions. The combination of prior attack and observation of real violence also sustained blood pressure (BP) at near the level produced by the attack, whereas BP of attacked subjects in the other conditions declined during the time the fight was observed. Palmar sweat measures revealed that observation of real violence was more arousing than observation of fictitious fighting. The results are discussed in terms of the effects that the reality of observed violence has on emotional arousal.

Evaluation apprehension and response withholding in solution of anagrams

Abstract Sixty male Ss who were classified as high or low scorers on the Sarason Test Anxiety Scale performed a difficult anagrams task either alone, before a passively observing experimenter or in the presence of an experimenter who both observed and evaluated the Ss performance. Ss who were high in test anxiety attempted fewer anagrams and had fewer correct solutions in the Evaluated condition than in the Alone condition, but also had a higher proportion of correct solutions out of total attempts. Low test-anxiety Ss did not show variable performance across conditions for any measure. Follow-up studies showed that when Ss were encouraged to attempt partial solutions neither test anxiety nor experimental treatment influenced any of the measures of performance. State anxiety change scores from baseline to post-treatment assessment showed a generally negative correlation between anxiety and number of anagrams attempted. The results indicate that fear of failure engendered by test anxiety and experimenter evaluation caused Ss to withhold responding.

Discriminability and criterion differences between extraverts and introverts during vigilance

In a signal detection task introverts were better able than extraverts to distinguish between the signal and noise distribution (p < .001) and also set a higher criterion point for their responses (p < .01). The results show that superior vigilance in introverts reported by other investigators is due to two processes.

Social evaluation influence on cardiovascular response to a fixed behavioral challenge: Effects across a range of difficulty levels

Participants performed five memory tasks—ranging in difficulty from very low to very high—under public or private conditions. The publicity and difficulty variables interacted to determine systolic pressure and heart rate responses during performance. Where performance was public, responsiveness on the parameters increased with difficulty to a point and then dropped; where performance was private, responsiveness was relatively low at all difficulty levels. Diastolic pressure responses were configured similarly, although in that case the interaction was not reliable. Findings corroborate and extend results from a previous study, argue against some explanations of those results, and strengthen the case for a recent active coping analysis of cardiovascular audience effects. Findings also strengthen the case for a broader model of effort and cardiovascular response, which has potential for advancing our understanding of a range of phenomena and processes related to behavior and health.

Test anxiety and visual vigilance.

Twenty male and 20 female subjects, previously classified as high or low in test anxiety, participated in an experiment on visual vigilance under conditions designed either to enhance or minimize feelings of being tested. Detection rate declined across the 36 min of the task among subjects high in test anxiety who believed that they were being tested and in subjects low in test anxiety who did not. False detection rates revealed no significant differences among conditions. Analysis of sensitivity to signals according to statistical decision theory revealed low sensitivity in both the high-anxiety test and low-anxiety/no-test conditions than in the other two. Analysis of decisional criteria showed that subjects in the high-anxiety test condition were more conservative in setting a criterion than subjects in the other three conditions. No sex differences were found. The results are discussed in terms of an elaboration of Sarasons (1978) model of test anxiety.

1 – Processes and Personal Variables in Affective Aggression

Publisher Summary Affective aggression is a response to some event or change in the environment, or to the mental representation of such an event. This chapter provides an overview of the processes involved in cognitively controlled aggression. Berkowitz has clearly stated that the initial impulsive reaction to negative affect is only a potential first stage in aggression. The anger, hostile thoughts, and aggressive motor patterns evoked at this stage are only “rudimentary.” Beyond this point, cognitive processes play an important role in what happens. The expectancy-value analysis of aggression has received some empirical support. A person who is deficient in the ability to receive and respond to social cues may manifest reactions to social information that are inappropriate and possibly maladaptive. The relationship between aggressiveness and social competence is a reciprocal and cyclical one. It is commonly believed in society that men are more aggressive than women; research has shown effects that are more complex. A major program of research into individual difference variables in human aggression has been reported by Caprara and associates, who have conceptualized a number of personality variables as antecedents of aggressive behavior and have developed scales to assess these variables.