Identify and Describe Any Four of the Seven Situational Influences

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--Interpersonal provocation: Not surprisingly,we're especially likely to strike out aggressively against those who have provoked us,say,by insulting,threatening,or hitting us.
--Frustration: We're especially likely to behave aggressively when we're frustrated,that is,thwarted from reaching a goal.In one study,a research assistant asked participants to perform a difficult paper-folding (origami)task at an unreasonably rapid pace,and either apologised for moving participants along too quickly or told them to pick up the pace ("I would like to hurry and get this over with").Frustrated participants-those in the first condition-were later more likely to give the research assistant a low job-related evaluation.
--Media influences: As we learned in Chapter 6,an impressive body of laboratory and naturalistic evidence points to the conclusion that watching media violence increases the odds of violence through observational learning.Laboratory experiments show that playing violent video games also boosts the odds of real-world violence.
--Aggressive cues: External cues associated with violence,such as guns and knives,can serve as discriminant stimuli (see Chapter 6)for aggression,making us more likely to act violently in response to provocation.Berkowitz and LePage (1967)found that the mere presence of a gun-as opposed to a badminton racquet-on a table triggered more aggression in subjects who'd been provoked by mild electric shocks for supposed poor performance on a task.
--Arousal: When our autonomic nervous systems (see Chapter 3)are hyped up,we may mistakenly attribute this arousal to anger,leading us to act aggressively.Zillman and his colleagues found that participants who pedalled an exercise bicycle delivered more intense electric shocks to someone who'd annoyed them than did participants who sat still.
--Alcohol and other drugs: Certain substances can disinhibit our brain's prefrontal cortex (see Chapter 3),lowering our inhibitions toward behaving violently.After being provoked with electric shocks by an "opponent" (who was actually fictitious)during a competitive game,participants tended to choose more intense electric shocks after consuming alcohol or benzodiazepines,such as Valium (see Chapter 16),than after consuming a placebo.But alcohol is likely to trigger aggression only when the target of our aggression occupies the focus of our attention,as when someone is threatening us directly.
--Temperature: Rates of violent crime in different regions of the United States mirror the average temperatures in these regions.Because warm temperatures increase irritability,they may make people more likely to lose their tempers when provoked or frustrated.Nevertheless,because extremely warm temperatures are more common in the southern United States,in which violent crime rates are especially high (see the Cultural Differences section on pages 506-507),investigators have had to rule out the rival hypothesis that this "heat effect" is due to geographical region.They've succeeded in doing so by demonstrating that even within the same geographical region,warmer temperatures are associated with higher rates of violence.

Identify and Describe Any Four of the Seven Situational Influences

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