Limited Resources as a Source of Human Aggression

Introduction:

Those that experience a shortage of resources will be more prone to be more aggressive to acquire those resources. According to Eibl-Eibesfeldt, “by war, groups acquired access to resources which were blocked by other groups. Groups of people have acquired land and driven away or even exterminated those who lived there before (1977).” It should come to no one’s surprise that wars have been started due to limited resources. However, my intention of this experiment will mostly be verbal anger. According to Archer, “most considerations of animal aggression concentrate on the forms that occur in response to resource competition (2009).” This should also be true of humans and I will demonstrate that in my experiment about deliberately taking away resources.

Literature Review:

Archer, J. (2009). The nature of aggression. International

Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 32(4), 202-208.

Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (1977). Evolution of destructive aggression.

Aggressive Behavior, 3(2), 127-144.

Methods:

I know about a football house party that I will be going to on Sunday and I am in charge of food. The item will be pizza. I will create a shortage by merely stating I’m going to order the pizza, and have my buddy who works at one of the restaurant chains in town only deliver just one medium sized pizza instead of four large pizzas. Over the next half hour, I will try to gauge people’s reactions to the limited amount of pizza available. I will get another buddy in on the act, and he will purposely eat a large amount of that one pizza. I hope that there is some sort of rift between people that want to share a small amount to satisfy their appetite for the short term, or if members will try to go every person for themselves and satisfy their own appetite. My role is to pretend to fix the order over the phone while observing what people say to each other. I think there will be some verbal hostility between people at the party. I hope to keep it relatively short and end any possible hostilities by receiving the rest of the pizza about half an hour later. I will then ask afterward, one on one, to about ten to twelve people what they thought of the one pizza and the people around them.

Passive Aggressive Behavior in the Workplace

(blog 2)

We all know what aggression is. But what is passive aggression? According to Signe Whitson, it is "a deliberate and masked way of expressing hidden anger." Whitson wrote an article for Psychology Today called "Passive Aggressive Behavior in the Workplace: Exposing Office Crime"

According to the article, an employee may use passive aggressive actions in order to voice his opinions, sabotage group projects or other employees, or to get revenge. Some examples of passive aggressive behaviors in the workplace include:
- Writing aggressive notes or emails rather than confronting someone personally or trying to solve the problem.
-Failing to complete an assignment properly or performing low-quality or incomplete work and then blaming others. One might say that he wasn't given proper instructions or tools.
-Calling in sick when he is part of an important group project, therefore sabotaging the other members of the group and the entire project.
-Getting back at someone that he has a grudge against by going behind their back. Rather than confronting the person who he's mad at, one might spread false rumors to try to get the other fired.

Just as we have defined aggression in class, passive aggressiveness is always deliberate. Passive aggressiveness is different in that the person is more discreet about his actions. He might try to be anonymous (write an anonymous note) or pretend that he didn't know any better or did something on accident. People often use passive aggressiveness more in the workplace because they think that they won't get in as much trouble as they would if they used traditional aggression.

Here is a YouTube video about passive aggressive emailing in the workplace.


Passive aggression seems to be quite common in the workplace. It is a way that people "deal" with problems without actually solving the problem or confronting someone that they are angry with. I have seen it in a lot of my own jobs, especially with the notes and emails. Another example that I have seen is a manager who, rather than telling an employee that he has been doing poorly at their job, will just cut their hours without notice.

Here is a website that I thought of while researching this topic. It's a blog that shows real passive aggressive notes that people have written. Other people take pictures of them and send them to the website. It sometimes has offensive language, so read at your discretion: http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

What types of passive aggression behaviors have you noticed at your own jobs?

Last week's story evaluation

Before the Thanksgiving break last week we had the group assignment to define aggression and then read that short story and pick out what acts were aggression according to our definition. There tended to be several schools of thought on how it was defined and what specific actions in the story were indeed aggression. I was confused leaving class last week about one that several groups labeled as aggression that was later said to not be an act of aggression. I would like to take a moment to try and argue that it maybe was indeed an act of aggression.

The specific action I am talking about was, "Depressed and angry, the thief smashes his fist into the concrete cell wall, fracturing three fingers." This was labeled as not an act of aggression due to the fact that the thief did not hit the wall intending to destroy something and that the act of hitting the wall was not aimed at an "other" type thing. My argument is this: if aggression can be hot or a responsive action to strong emotion, then couldn't the thief have been acting on that emotion and the wall just happened to be the recipient of his outpouring anger?

The other example used that is closely related to the one above, "the thief angrily kicks and dents a waste container", this one labeled as aggression due to the fact that it was aimed at the destruction of an object, I feel really should be classified in the same category as the first one. The thief didn't kick the garbage can with the true intent of destroying it, he kicked the garbage can still acting on the same emotion that fueled the hitting of the wall. Therefore, if the garbage can example is aggression, couldn't we label the wall example aggression too? Also, if it isn't aggression, then what is it?

The Good Doll and the Bad Doll

(blog 1)
While reading the Montana Standard today, I came across an article by Leonard Pitts called Sammy Sosa: Cosmetics or Self-Image? He discusses the controversial practice of African Americans using skin bleaching creams to make their skin lighter.

I thought of this class when he mentioned a psychology study called the "doll test." In the 1940's, a black psychologist named Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted a study with children and dolls. In the study, black children were shown a black doll and a white doll, and asked questions about them. For example, when asked which doll is the "good" doll, most of the children would point to the white one. When asked why she was the good one, they said it was because she is white. On the other hand, the children often referred to the black dolls as "bad."

Leonard Pitts mentions a YouTube video called "A Girl Like Me" For this video, the study was recreated and black children were again asked to choose between a black doll and a white doll. They were also asked which doll was good and which was bad, and most of the children said the black doll was bad. When a young black girl was asked to show the researcher which doll looked the most like herself, she hesitated before reluctantly pointing to the black doll. 15 out of the 21 children preferred the white doll, and most children had negative comments about the black doll.



I remember watching a tv show awhile back (I think it may have been Tyra, Dr. Phil, or Oprah) in which parents admitted to bleaching the skin of their children, as well as their own. One mother used bleaching creams on her three sons every day because she said that it would make them more attractive. When the boys were interviewed, they said that they hated getting it done, but that they had to do it so that they wouldn't be ugly.

I find this sad because black children often grow up thinking that they are not good enough the way that they are. They pick up on negative stereotypes of themselves and other black people at a very young age.They are also pressured to change how they look in order to fit society's standards. The girls in the video above talk about how they are looked down upon if they don't straighten their naturally curly or kinky hair, and how they need to change their whole look in order to feel accepted.

White people aren't exempt from these types of pressures. Many white women (and some men) feel the need to go to tanning beds, use tanning chemicals, or sit in the sun for long periods of time to make their skin darker. As a fair-skinned girl with freckles, I often get negative comments from people about how "pale" "pasty" or "white" my skin is. I gave into peer pressure and tanned when I was younger, but don't anymore. For some reason, people don't understand why I would be ok with having light skin. When I was planning my wedding last year, many people asked when I was going to start tanning for my wedding. When I told them that I wasn't going to, they looked at me like I was crazy. For some reason, my light skin is seen as a negative thing by some people, and something that I should change (and harm myself while doing.)

I find it very ironic that while black people are using creams to lighten their skin, white people are doing things to make themselves darker.

While many states require older drivers to take competency test for driving, there is not a test to determine if they are competent to own a firearm.

The issue of whether older people should be allowed to own guns is important for the following reasons. First gun ownership among older adults is growing faster than any other age group. Second as the population ages there are an increased number of people with cognitive impairment sometimes resulting in dementia. The idea of a demented person having a gun is a concern. Third unlike driving or piloting a plane there is not a procedure for insuring that people with dementia use proper caution when handling a gun.

Dementia is a term used to describe brain conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, strokes, and some less common diseases. Symptoms of dementia include personality changes, memory loss, confusion, language and speech problems, depression, increased anxiety and aggressiveness.

Gun ownership among older adults is on the rise. In Florida for example a 2004 survey showed the 130,000 of the states 338,000 concealed weapon permits were issued to people over 50. In the U.S. people older than 65 are now more likely than any other age group to own a gun.


There is the case of an 82 year old man by the name of Mario Mendez who shot himself in the eye while responding to imaginary burglars in his house. He had a history of memory difficulties, cognitive functioning impairment, and he had lost his ability to perform the tasks of daily living, along with paranoid delusions. He actually believed that there were burglars in his house, so he stayed awake all night, with his gun.

Although there not a lot of information about the risks of owing a firearm and dementia patients. How many people would want a person with dementia to have access to a firearm?


Greene, E., Bornstein, B., & Dietrich, H. (2007). Granny, (don't) get your gun: Competency issues in gun ownership by older adults. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 25(3), 405-423. doi:10.1002/bsl.766. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2007-10401-007&site=ehost-live

Sugar Mama's no longer... Cougar dating all the way

Sugar mama's is no longer the socially acceptable term for an older lady who dates a younger man. The new term is now Cougar dating. When I stumbled upon this article (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-true-love/200911/sugar-mamaboy-toy-the-new-cougar-dating) in psychology today that stated 90% of these older "Cougars" were looking for a long term relationship I began to question why an older woman would want a younger man over a man of her own age? What has the older gentleman done to be out casted like this? I searched out the reference link (http://www.cougared.com/index.php?dll=Survey) on this page and discovered that an actual survey was done. This survey questioned Cougars and younger men. Some of the things that were discovered I found very interesting, 52% of Cougar couples split the check when they go to dinner, 73% of the young man's friends did not make a big deal or even care that their friend was dating someone old enough to be his mother, and one of the top places to meet and enter into a cougar relationship was found to be at the workplace. Does this mean that the social norm is changing? Our society seems to be coming more open minded. The reasons the "Cougars" stated that they preferred the younger men were that older men are more lazy, younger men were more sexually fulfilling, and the number one reason was that older men carried to much emotional baggage. This made me laugh, I think my hypothesis here is that in our society getting old is avoided at all cost by women of today and being with a younger man somehow satisfies the women emotionally in that goal to feel younger. Women go to great extent to look young and maintain their beauty because the idea of being old means they are ugly. Older women today focus on staying in shape, get plastic surgery's and do the botox thing, why would they not psychologically seek out a younger man to compliment their belief of preserving their youth? For whatever the reason, younger men have the advantage today. It would be interesting to take a look at why younger men what older women.

Proposed Study for Conformity/Groupthink

When we were discussing groupthink and conformity in class I thought of this study because I always fall victim of this particular behavior. I am wondering if anyone else does?

Hypothesis: that groupthink and conformity can be automatic or hot.

Operational Definition: how many students misspell the common word exactly like the professor does verses how many students continue to spell the common word correctly (or even misspell it a different way which would be assumed that they felt was their correct way) at the end of the semester.
Sample: all general psychology students at Montana Tech.

Method: The professor would do a lecture class in which required the students to take exact copy of the notes from a power point slide. Throughout the semester the professor would misspell a common word every time he used it throughout the entire semester. (Example of this would be the word Psychology spelled pyschology.) At the end of the semester the professor would give an exam with questions requiring the word to be used in the answer multiple times.

Possible Results: If at the end more students spelled the word exactly the way the professor spelled the word throughout the semester it would then show a possibility that these students changed their way of spelling to match/conform to the professors. It would be interesting to ask them later in a survey if they noticed they did this or if they did this for social desirability in the professors eyes. If it were found that less than noticeable or no students at all spelled the word exactly the way the professor spelt it then this could suggest that nobody noticed or that everyone continued to correct the word for themselves but did not want to correct the professor.

Discussion: Groupthink and conformity are important situations to study. Learning weather they can be automatic or deliberate is also a very important factor. If we would conform automatically to something as simple as misspelling a word and not pointing it out do to an authoritative figure, what else could possibly be overlooked or automatically assumed? This is something that could produce uncertain actions within a community, politics, health care, courts of law, education etc. I think that studies done in these areas are well worth it for the purpose of prevention.