Chapter 10 discusses the complexities of aggression and antisocial behavior, exploring various factors such as biological instincts, social learning, and media influences. It covers theories explaining aggression, including the frustration-aggression hypothesis, and highlights the impacts of narcissism and hostile biases on behavior. Additionally, it evaluates experimental studies, including Milgram’s and Zimbardo’s, illustrating how situational factors can drive aggressive actions.

1. Chapter 10
Aggression & Antisocial Behavior
1
Today’s outline
Why are people aggressive?
Instinct/Biology
Narcissists
Social learning
Media & violence
Aggression under orders
Milgram’s study
Assertiveness instead of aggression
Antisocial Behavior
Antisocial behavior: any behavior that has a negative impact on
other people
Aggression: hurting another person or achieving one’s goals at
the expense of another person
E.g. war, homicide, riots, rape, assault, forcible robbery, family
violence, bullying, etc.

2. Why are we aggressive?
Why are we aggressive?
First, as a quick note, with each passing year the world has
grown more peaceful
Despite what it may seem like from the media
The world is many times more peaceful than in ancient times,
where proportionally more people would died in wars
In the 2000’s there were only 2k deaths per year from warring
countries whereas in the 1950’s there were 65k per year.
Instincts
Ethologists: people who study natural behavior patterns of
animals
Believe that aggression is innate in all animals, including
humans, e.g. killer instinct
Freud would have agreed
The fact that we are biologically capable of aggression does not
mean that aggression is inevitable or “part of human nature”
The vast majority of people are NOT aggressive
Some cultures show very little: Eskimos, Navajo

3. Biology
Testosterone correlated with aggression
May partially explain why we see more physical violence from
men than woman
Alcohol & other drugs lower inhibitions
The majority of murders and violent crimes involve alcohol
Body temperature is also linked to aggression
For this reason prisons usually keep a cool temperature
Other innate causes of aggression
Well, this theme has come up many times so far in this course,
but once again:
Narcissists
Violent individuals often have high self-esteem and grandiose
self beliefs
Bushman & Baumeister (2002), the authors of your textbook,
also found that violent prisoners have higher narcissism scores
than nonviolent people
Narcissism continued
Narcissistic personality inventory:
‘I insist on getting the respect I deserve’
Then participants mark the extent to which they agree
Direct quote from the Columbine killer:
“Isn’t it fun to get the respect that we’re going to deserve?”
Narcissistic rage, yikes!!!

4. Aggression as a response to Frustration
Frustration-aggression hypothesis: frustration tends to lead to
aggression
road rage
watch for verbal aggression when people are frustrated
Why though?
Perhaps because frustration is an aversive state
Aggression as a response to aversive stimuli
Aversive stimuli make us more sensitive to aggressive cues
Aversive stimuli: pain, temperature, odors, etc.
Aggression cues: signals that are associated with aggression
Rude gestures, middle finger, body language
Weapons effect: observation that weapons serve as strong cues
for aggressive behavior
Murders are much more likely in homes with guns
Hostile world bias
By default, some people just have a hostile world bias
They will have an ambiguous interaction with someone, but
interpret it as hostile
The person with the hostile world bias is making attributions
about the other person’s behavior and intent
They also assume accidentally hurtful things were intended to
offend them
They expect aggressive behavior from others
This bias has been found significantly more in aggressive
people than non-aggressive people

5. Aggression as a Learned response
Social learning theory: combines learning principles with
cognitive processes, socialization, and modeling to explain
behavior
Aggression must be learned
No instinctive (innate) desires for shooting guns, knife fights,
and so on
Instead aggression is 'modeled'
Bandura's Bobo Doll Study
kids observe an adult playing aggressively & mimic
Learned through Media Violence
Media exposure teaches aggressive actions; people, especially
children, learn aggressive behaviors from media such as
television
Social learning theme: violence is rewarded
Kids who watched a lot of tv were more likely to be aggressive
as adults
Media exposure desensitizes people to violence
Desensitization: reduced emotional sensitivity
Bloody fight film to boys, those who watched heavy amounts of
tv were much less affected
Learned through Media Violence
In a 15 year longitudinal study, children who watched a lot of
violent TV shows in 2nd and 3rd grade were 3x more likely to
commit a violent crime as an adult in their 20’s
Media Violence Cont'd
The media results may occur due to priming

6. Aggressive thoughts
Priming makes all topics related to aggression salient (meaning,
easily accessible or at the forefront of your thoughts)
Priming:
neural networks of ideas
Tide ____ water, moon or
Tide ____ detergent
Depends on how you were primed! With words related to
washing clothes or with words related the ocean and moon
Parents as Media Guides
Model positive ways of getting along in the world
Limit total media time
Closely monitor what children experience
Show disapproval of violent media heroes
Media can also model prosocial behavior
Prosocial behavior: behavior toward others that is helpful,
constructive, or altruistic
E.g., educational programming
Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, etc.
My response
The research is probably right about the link between media and
aggression...it makes sense...
I know there has been dissent on this topic, if anyone finds a
recent meta-analysis refuting these claims, email it to me

7. Aggression and Pornography
Aggressive pornography: depictions in which violence, threats,
or obvious power differences are used to force someone (usually
a woman) to engage in sex
Increases actual male aggression against women
Specific type of aggression: bullying
Bullying: any behavior that deliberately and repeatedly exposes
a person to negative experiences
Bullying can be verbal (name-calling, insults, teasing) or
physical (hitting, pushing, confining)
Can be direct (“in your face”) or indirect (intentional exclusion,
spreading rumors)
Male bullies are more likely to engage in direct aggression;
female bullies tend to specialize in indirect aggression
Aggression as an order
One potential excuse for aggression is:
“He told me to” or “It’s policy”
The following is a classis experiment in psychology.
Some of its methodologies have been called into question, but
the main finding has been replicated many times
Social Influence: Obedience
Obedience: conformity to the demands of an authority
E.g., would you shock a man with a known heart condition who
is screaming and asking to be released?
Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Studies
A “teacher” (real research participant) tries to “teach” word
pairs to a “learner” with an apparent heart condition (an

8. accomplice)
Ever more intense “shock” is administered every time the
learner made a mistake
As mistakes were made, shock levels rose; once 300 volts
(“severe shock”) was reached, the learner screamed and
provided no further answers; regardless, 65% obeyed the
researcher (who insisted the experiment continue) by going all
the way to 450 volts
Milgram Results
Milgram Discussion
Obedience to authority
Rejected responsibility
The 'teachers' had breakdowns
Follow-ups:
When conducted at shabby building instead of Yale
48% instead of 65% (original) administered the max shock
Authority figure closer = more compliance
A group of people who disobey greatly reduced obedience, but
one accomplice didn’t reduce the likelihood to shook at a high
value
Themes of Zimbardo's Prison Study
The power of 'roles’
Participants were assigned to either be mock prisoners or mock
prison guards
Anonymity for guards (sunglasses, uniforms, etc.), loss of
identity for prisoners (given a number, jumpsuit)
Guards in Zimbardo’s study became verbally and physically
abusive and some prisoners suffered break-downs

9. There were issues with this study too, its methodology was not
great, but the overall point about anonymity and anti-social
behavior still stands
Note the irony: Zimbardo researching the Lucifer Effect & evil
people, but didn't stop his own study in time. Highly unethical.
His girlfriend suggested he stop...
Themes for Milgram & Zimbardo's Studies
THE POWER OF THE SITUATION!!!
Situation > you being a good person
Situations determine our actions to a profound extent (the
essence of social psychology)
So...
Don't make the mistake of thinking you would have acted
differently, or you won't grasp the profound weight of these
studies. Assume you'd shock for max value if told to or become
abusive if you could get away with it anonymously
Other types of antisocial behavior
Lying is also an antisocial behavior
To learn more about that, I suggest taking a legal psychology
course if you haven’t yet
You’ll be taught about different methods that are used to detect
deception
Additionally, the DSM has a classification of ‘antisocial
personality disorder’
That is another way of saying psychopath or sociopath
Meaning a complete disregard for the lives of others
Finally someone even worse than a narcissist!
It goes without saying they’re extremely dangerous

10. Assertiveness Training
Assertiveness training: instruction in how to be self-assertive
without being aggressive
Self-assertion: standing up for your rights by speaking out on
your own behalf; direct, honest expression of feelings and
desires
Assertiveness Techniques
When you expect a possible confrontation with someone
Rehearsing the dialogue, posture, and gestures you might use to
assert yourself
Practice in front of a mirror
Role-play scenes with a friend taking the part of a really
aggressive or irresponsible person, as well as a cooperative one.
Overlearn: practice that continues after initial mastery of a skill
Assertiveness Techniques (cont’d)
Broken record: self-assertion technique that involves repeating
a request until it is acknowledged
Good way to be assertive without being aggressive
How to Limit Anger
Anger control: personal strategies for reducing or curbing anger
Define problem as precisely as possible
Make a list of possible solutions
Rank likely success of each solution
Choose a solution and try it
Assess how successful the solution was and make adjustments if
necessary

11. Chapter 6
Emotion & Affect
Today’s Outline
Emotions in general
Are men or women more emotional?
Theories of emotion
Misattribution of arousal
Happiness!
What actually makes us happy?
How to increase our level of contentment and avoid common
misconceptions about what brings us joy
Anger
Physiological arousal and performance
How do we define emotion?
Emotion: a conscious state that involves an evaluative reaction
to something
Mood: a feeling state that is not clearly linked to some event
Affect: hard to define
Can be positive affect (good emotions) or negative affect (bad
emotions)
Or can imply automatic, non-conscious emotions

12. Universal emotions
Are emotions a cultural phenomenon or a consistent, innate
human occurrence?
At least these 6 emotions were easily recognized in a meta-
analysis of 37 countries and 5 continents
Universal emotions
Those emotions were all posed and exaggerated
It’s harder to tell emotions in the real world across cultures
E.g. Asian Americans tend to regulate their emotions more than
non-Asian Americans
That make discerning an Asian American’s mood more difficult
Even within one’s own culture, it can be challenging
Adults learn to hide their emotions well
Discerning emotions
How good are you at discerning happiness?
Which of Julia Robert’s smiles indicate genuine happiness?
Discerning emotions
Which did you guess and why?
The answer is the picture on the right!
Duchenne smile:
Contracted muscles around the eye, which raises the smile into
more of a V or raises the cheeks
The smile is more open as well
Let’s look at some more examples

13. Discerning emotions
Sex differences in emotions
6 basic emotions were similar across cultures, but what about
between the sexes?
Who is more emotional?
The stereotype would say women, but does that hold up to
empirical scrutiny?
Sex differences in emotions
Several studies that have used different methodologies, such as
self-report data or being hooked up to instruments that measure
physiological arousal, have found:
No differences based on sex
Other studies have found differences but only in specific,
limited situations
Young male children are more emotional
Men at work feel more anger
Men fall into love faster and experience more distress upon
breaking up
Sex differences in emotions
If anything then, men are more emotional
The stereotype of men being cool and rational may exist as a
standard to help regulate potentially volatile, strong male
emotions

14. Let’s back up and review some of the general theories of
emotions
Theories of Emotion
James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Common sense says, ‘See a bear, feel afraid’
Stimulus then emotional response
Their theory:
See bear, physiological arousal kicks in (elevated heart rate),
feel fear
Theories of Emotion
James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Support for this theory:
Facial feedback hypothesis
Participants who held a pen in their teeth and then watched
cartoons rated them as more funny/enjoyable
It forces the facial muscles into a smile which leads to happy
feelings
Participants who held the pen between their lips (mimicking a
frown) rated the cartoons as less funny
Beyond that though there wasn’t much empirical support for
this theory
Theories of Emotion
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
A stimulus is present, then someone simultaneously has

15. information relayed to the cortex (which determines the
emotion) and the hypothalamus (which sets off the
physiological response)
The thalamus is the way station that sends those two signals
Theories of Emotion
Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion
Has influenced many studies in social psychology
You see a snake (stimulus), you simultaneously have
physiological arousal (more air in the lungs) and attach a
cognitive label to the situation (fear), then you experience fear
in full
TV analogy, arousal is the volume, fear is the channel switch,
and experiencing fear is watching the program
Misattribution of Arousal
The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion allows for the
physiological arousal to be mislabeled with the wrong emotion
Dutton & Aron (1974) suspension bridge study
Misattribution of Arousal
The researchers surveyed male participants who were crossing
that scary bridge (which apparently wobbled and had low hand
rails)
At the other end was an attractive women who surveyed them
and then tore off a piece of the paper and wrote her number on
it, asking them to call her
Participants in the scary bridge condition were more likely to
call her, compared to the control condition (a small, normal
bridge further up the river)

16. In both conditions though the woman was the same
Misattribution of Arousal
The researchers claimed the male participants experienced
physiological arousal from the fear of crossing the bridge,
which was then misattributed to being attracted to the female
confederate
The problem is:
No other studies have been able to replicate the notion that a
negative emotion can be misattributed to a positive one (or vice
versa)
Positive to positive or negative to negative, yes
Reinterpretation of bridge study: participants felt relief or
triumph and that was misattributed to attraction
Other disconnects between mind/arousal
How in tune are people with their body? Is the mind on the
same page as one’s genitals?
Unfortunately for many women, the answer is no
The correlation between stated mental arousal and physical
arousal is only .25
For men it’s better, .60
In other studies on the disconnect between mind and sexual
arousal, there have been some hilarious results…(see next slide)
Other disconnects between mind/arousal
In a study by Adams, Wright, & Lohr (1996), male participants
were asked to rate their thoughts feelings about homosexuality
Participants then watched a video showing gay sex scenes
Participants were hooked up to a penile plethysmograph, which
measures sexual arousal
Ironically, those men with the most anti-gay attitudes were the
ones most turned on by the videos…

17. Other disconnects between mind/arousal
A similar but slightly different study was conducted by other
researchers on female participants
The participants were hooked up to a vaginal plethysmograph,
which measured vaginal lubrication
The women who reported the highest levels of guilt about sex
were the ones who were the most turned on by the videos
They even stated they did not enjoy the films
Happiness!
Thus far we’ve covered general theories of emotion and arousal,
but let’s focus on a specific one – happiness
After all, what’s the point of psychology if not to understand
how to all live happier lives and enjoy our time on this planet?
Understanding Happiness
One of the most crucial concepts for understanding our own
happiness is the hedonic treadmill
The idea here is that life always goes up and down and you will
return to your default level of happiness
E.g. lottery winners are back to their pre-win levels of
happiness in < 1 year
And to some extent, even after bad events, like serious
accidents, people return to near pre-accident levels of happiness
But negative events take longer to return to baseline from than
fortunate events
Understanding Happiness
Similarly, some objective indicators have been found to predict
happiness but their effect sizes are quite weak:

18. Being healthy
Having a happy marriage
Career success or Having enough money
Studies I’ve read show that earning money up to 60,000 a year
increases happiness, but the gains in happiness beyond 60k are
negligible
Kids are a surprising exception, they make parents unhappier.
But people do see their life as more meaningful when they have
kids
Understanding Happiness
So you’re probably thinking “Ok ok, so if winning the lotto
doesn’t make us happy and the usual objective life goals don’t
make us much happier, than what does make us happy?”
One thing that does is – subjective life goals
Doing what is really important to you, doing what you love
But more importantly, what really predicts happiness is just
your overall default disposition!
Are you a happy, positive person?
Were you happy 10 years ago? Past happiness is a strong
predictor of future happiness
Increasing our happiness
No matter whether you have thus far been happy or unhappy,
there are things you can do to be happier and more content
Indeed many researchers have estimated we have at least 40%
control over our own happiness:
Increasing our happiness
1. Seek to form strong, meaningful, trusting social bonds, with

19. your partner, your family, & friends
Around 3-5 good friends is a number to shoot for
Social support is consistently an extremely strong predictor of
health and happiness
Fits with all we know about social psychology; we are truly
social animals
2. Physical arousal is key for mood/affect regulation
Exercising is directly tied to reducing feelings of depression
and anxiety
When we become inactive it’s like our animal brain begins to
freak out
Increasing our happiness
Do things that feel good, e.g. eat tasty things, nap and relax,
play, listen to music
Pursue your subjective goals
Thankfulness, this can’t be overstated.
- Constantly reflect on or make lists of all the good things
in your life or the good things that have happened to you. And
if you’re religious or spiritual, praying about how blessed your
life is. Maintaining an optimistic mindset
Take-home points: happiness
Remember, if you think you’ll be happy when you get married,
land that dream job, get rich, etc…you won’t be. That’s just the
hedonic treadmill and you’ll inevitably drift back to baseline.
Therefore, adjust your baseline level of happiness. Be happy
just because; for no reason. Or simply because the world is
beautiful
You have control over your own happiness
It’s up to you to build a thankful, optimistic mindset and a
healthy life filled with loving relationships

20. Understanding Anger
Anger is a strange emotion, it seems to serve little purpose in
our everyday lives
It prepares us to fight, but how often do we do that?
Anger kind of seems like a relic of our evolutionary past
One theory is that we get angry because we want to resolve
conflicts in relationships we care about
If we didn’t care about the relationship, we would probably just
express contempt and just not interact with the person who
made us angry any more
Understanding Anger
There are many drawbacks to anger:
Repressed anger often leads to heart disease
Many studies have shown angry people make extremely bad
decisions…like really dumb (Leith & Baumeister, 1996)
Paradoxically, angry people tend to be way more optimistic than
depressed or anxious people
Similarly, angry people are also typically very energized and
ready to take action
Anger makes people feel powerful
But none of that leads to correct choices/decision-making
Anger makes our decisions impulsive and we fail to into
account negative consequences
Understanding other Emotions
Take-home point about anger:
If you play sports or games to win, avoid anger, you’ll just
make very bad choices
Also the idea of catharsis doesn’t pan out in research studies
If you go hit a punching bag to ‘cool off’, you don’t cool off,
you’re more likely to stay mad.

21. As we don’t have time to cover each emotion, let’s just consider
generally the relationship between arousal and different
good/bad emotions
Understanding Emotions
As we can see, some emotions are similar on arousal level but
have the completely opposite emotional valence
As if they’re mirror images, e.g. alarm and excitement
Arousal & Performance
Regardless of the emotion we ascribe to it, what can we learn
about the general presence of physiological arousal and its
effect on us?
*Classic study, Yerkes-Dodson
Some arousal is good, it increases oxygen to brain & muscles
and it focuses our attention
But too much is bad, leads to anxiety
Emotional Intelligence
The final topic we’ll touch on for emotions is emotional
intelligence
We always talk about IQ, but what about EQ?
What good does it do someone to be a genius, but so depressed
that he/she is unmotivated to get outta bed or work?
Emotional intelligence is defined as:
“The ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate
emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and
emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate one’s
emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth”

22. Emotional Intelligence
EQ is a popular topic among businesses
In the Harvard Business Review, an article on EQ attracted
more interest than any other article in last 40 years
Validated scales have developed to measure one’s EQ
Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test
Emotional intelligence is correlated with success in fortune 400
insurance companies
People with high EQ held higher positions, received better
rankings from peers, etc.
Emotions continued
We’ll be continuing to explore emotions to some degree as we
look into stress, coping, aggression & antisocial behavior, and
prosocial/helping behavior.
Chapter 9
Prosocial Behavior
Today’s Outline
Why do people help others
Altruism vs. Egoism debate
Role of empathy
Who is likely to receive help and when will people help (or not
help)
Good Samaritan study
Kitty Genovese case
5 steps to helping and obstacles that block helping
What can we do to increase helping

23. Education, modeling
Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior: doing something that is good for society as
a whole
Or any behavior that has a positive impact on other people.
Prosocial Behavior – Fairness/helping
Many animals are sensitive to fairness
E.g. if researchers give some animals better treats or more treats
for doing the same task
Animals that get unexciting treats feel ‘underbenefited’ and get
mad
But so far only humans will help others when they are
‘overbenefited’
If a human receives more for the same work, they will often
help by giving some of it to those less fortunate
Remember learning about upward social comparison?
Humans are sensitive to overpforming and making others
sad/jealous
Altruism vs. Egoism
Altruism
When we help out of the goodness of our hearts or because of
empathy
Skeptics may argue we only ever help because we get something
out of it:
Reciprocity
Positive feelings (feels good to help, selfish)
Relieve negative feelings that we feel due to empathy (E.g. you
can feel less bad about a person being homeless if you bring
them some food)

24. A sense of doing the right thing (feels good)
Empathy and Helping Others
Empathic arousal: emotional arousal that occurs when you feel
some of the person’s pain, fear, or anguish
Empathy-helping relationship: we are most likely to help person
in need when we feel emotions such as empathy and compassion
There is evidence that people will help due to both reasons,
altruism & egoism
Altruism vs. Egoism
Batson et al. (1981) examined this
Participants met a confederate named Elaine, who they would
have to shock
Later they overhear her telling the experimenter she had a bad
experience with being shocked when young is now very afraid
of electricity
Experimenters manipulated empathy in participants by telling
them Elaine has similar traits to them (high empathy) or
dissimilar traits (low empathy)
Participants given the opportunity to escape/leave the study
Some were in an easy-escape condition, ‘you can leave after
Elaine gets shocked twice’
Some were in a hard-escape condition, ‘you have to watch all 10
shocks’
Altruism vs. Egoism
Low-empathy participants who could easily escape did so and
left poor Elaine to her fate
But they didn’t have to watch her get shocked, which relieves

25. negative emotions (Egoism)
About half of the participants in the Low-empathy, hard-escape
condition took Elaine’s place and half escaped the study
Among high-empathy participants almost all chose to stay and
help Elaine by switching places (supports Altruism)
Altruism vs. Egoism
My thoughts on the Batson et al. study: I’m not a skeptical kind
of person, I believe in altruism
*But in response to that study’s claim: couldn’t you just say
that someone felt better about taking Elaine’s place than they
did about letting her suffer, and that out-weighted the
annoyance of being shocked, so that’s still egoism?
In any event, I think if a study were able to show some people
help out of duty and with no positive neurochemicals being
released, that would be altruism
Who is likely to receive help:
Receiving Help:
Beautiful people, both men & woman
Similar people
E.g. club members helping other club members
Women in general
Those likely to give help:
Men, to strangers
Women, to family
Happy people

26. When will people help?
Good Samaritan Study (Darley & Batson)
Seminary Students (participants)
Asked to give a talk/lecture
Independent Variables:
Some asked to do a talk on the Good
Samaritan parable; others on career choices
Also, some put in a rush (you’re late for the talk) or others not
in a rush
Dependent Variable: Helping
Will they help someone who is on the ground, moaning?
Results:
No difference between talks (wow...)
Participants in the 'no rush' condition: 6x more likely to help
Good Samaritan Study
It’s kind of amazing that despite having the Good Samaritan
story primed, seminary students still didn’t stop to help
Even in the no-rush condition, no difference in helping behavior
based on which talk was going to be given
Tragic case where no one helped
Let’s take a few minutes to review famous and tragic case of
not receiving help…Kitty Genovese
Watch the following video before proceeding with the lecture
Just as a warning, what you’ll hear about will be sad/disturbing,
proceed accordingly
If you opt not to watch it, please read up on a summary instead,
as there will be questions on the test about this case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdpdUbW8vbw

27. Kitty Genovese
So, why did no one help?
Researchers were motivated by this incident to find out exactly
that, as you saw
Notes: the amount of witnesses may have been overblown by
the media, but perhaps not
Either way, the case lead to some important findings,
specifically, it lead directly to Darley and Latane’s study that
you’ll read about in a minute
Helping Others
Bystander apathy: unwillingness of bystanders to offer help
during emergencies
Related to number of people present
More potential helpers present, less likely people will give help
Steps to Helping & Obstacles to Helping
Darley & Latane’s 5 Steps to Helping:
1. Notice something is happening
Obstacle: self-concerns (running late, etc.)
2. Interpret as emergency
Obstacles: Pluralistic Ignorance (everyone looks to each
other and no one moves); ambiguity
3. Take Responsibility
Obstacle: Diffusion of Responsibility (Darley & Latane):
6 people vs. 1 person. 6 = almost never helped, 1 = almost
always helped); ‘surely someone else already called 911’
4. Decide how to help
Obstacle: competence issues, people don’t feel qualified
to help
5. Actually helping

28. Belief in Just World Recap
A nice thought, but it leads to Victim Blaming
E.g. rape victim dressed proactively, poor people are just lazy,
etc.
People with strong beliefs in a just world only help those who
they feel deserve it
Typically, belief in a just world scales with wealth & power
Very wealthy: world is just
Average: world is somewhat just
Very poor: world is unjust
How can you secure help when needed?
Consider the 5 obstacles to helping and try to bypass them
E.g. Diffusion of responsibility
Bypass by pointing to someone in a crowd and say “You, please
help me”
E.g. Bypass competency issues by telling him/her how to help
“Please call 911 for me” “Please see if the manager or a chef
knows the Heimlich Maneuver”
By doing those two steps you’ll also bypass pluralistic
ignorance. If you need help and someone hasn’t noticed the
problem, ask anyway
Money & Helping
Is money the “root of all evil?”
Perhaps, perhaps not
But what we do know is that money increases self-sufficiency
Less likely to give help or to ask for help
It reduces prosocial behavior (helping, cooperation, &
forgiveness)
In one study, participants who saw a money screensaver (vs. a
fish screen saver) were less likely to help a confederate who

29. spilled pencils
Money and helping
In another study, participants who were primed with money
were less likely to help a confederate on a very difficult word
puzzle when he/she asked for help
Finally, in a third study, those participants primed with money
were more likely to choose to do the experiment alone rather
than in a group
The greater issue/irony here is this:
If the people who have the means to help the most (those with
money) are the least likely to help, then people will never get
help from those who can provide it
Education
Just by virtue of having taken this lecture, you’re now more
likely to be a helper! Congrats!
One study found that after having heard a lecture on the
bystander effect vs. either a different lecture or no lecture
Participants who heard the bystander effect lecture were more
likely to help someone who seemed passed out
67% vs 27% (no lecture/other lecture)
These findings persisted 2 months later as well
Other educational materials
Some TV shows for children have been found to be wholesome
enough to increase helping behavior
E.g. Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street

30. Modeling helpfulness
Helping behavior can be very socially contagious!
In a game where students could donate gift cards to orphans or
keep them, 0% donated
But in the condition that had an adult model who donated some
of his, 48% donated
If you want to inspire your friends/family to do charity work or
donate their time, start with you!
Final note
We’re more likely to help in-group members
But often the people who need help are not in our in-group, so
it’s easy to turn a blind eye
Your textbook authors suggest trying to shift our view to where
all people are our in-group
I agree, cheesy as that may sound, I think it’d be much for the
better
Chapter 4
Health, Stress, & Coping
Quick note
Just letting you know that I titled this lecture chapter 4, but it’s
not the same chapter 4 as in your recommended textbook
These materials are taken from a different text that had a
chapter on health and stress

31. I’m not sure why the Baumeister & Bushman text doesn’t have a
chapter on this; many social texts do
Today’s Outline
Define Stress
Discuss some common Causes of stress
Discuss Effects of Stress
Discuss Reducing/Preventing/Coping with stress
Stress
We talk a lot about it...
But what is it?
And is it necessarily a bad thing?
Stress
Stress: mental and physical condition that occurs when a person
must adjust or adapt to the environment
Both unpleasant events (work pressures, relationship troubles)
and pleasant events (a new job, travel)
&
Eustress: good stress
getting married, playing sports, going on a date, vacations, etc.

32. Stress Reaction
The Stress reaction is the same whether it's good stress or bad
stress
The Autonomic Nervous System reacts the same to good stress
or bad stress
The sympathetic nervous system kicks in to ramp us up
Thus, in some ways, its our PERCEPTION of stress that matters
Is what we're doing a fun challenge, e.g. an intense game of
basketball or an unpleasant, intimidating task, e.g. taking a
test.
As far as the body goes, pleasant thrills and stressful tasks are
the same
Explains how some people hate and some people love roller
coasters
Stress
However, one note to make here:
Short-term stress, whether good stress or bad stress, doesn't
result in any damage
But long-term stress is another matter
What causes Stress?
Behavioral causes
Innate causes
Situational causes

33. Behaviors that can lead to stress
Any behaviors that cause people to be unhealthy can result in
stress
Alcohol abuse
Could result in failing grades, being stressed about school , or
strained relationships if you're a 'mad drunk'
Other risk factors:
Inactive life style, unhealthy diet, smoking, drugs,
risky/unprotected sex
The actual issue and the stress from the issue
Cyclical: obesity --> difficulty exercising --> health problems -
-> stress --> eating more --> discouraged --> more stress, etc.
'Innate' levels of stress
Personality Types (validated)
Type A personality
key features: anger, hostility, & mistrust
ambitious, competitive, achievement oriented
believe enough effort can overcome any obstacle
push themselves accordingly
time urgency (think Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland)
at twice the risk for heart attack :(
aka cardiac personality
Situational Causes
Unpredictability
Whether it's at work, home, etc.
We're all kind of control freaks
We don't like curve balls
E.g. boss asks you to work late and help on an important project

34. that's due the next day
E.g. if I gave you a pop quiz right now, that counted for 5% of
your grade, wouldn't you be stressed/pissed?
Work, workload, & deadlines
any position of leadership comes with more stress
Situational Causes
Life Events
Let's see how you're doing!
Read through the list on the next two slides. Check any that
apply.
Add up your Life Change Units score
Then we'll see how stressed we all are
Life Events and Life Change unitsLife EventLife Change
UnitsDeath of parent100Unplanned
pregnancy/abortion100Getting married95Divorce of
parents90Acquiring a visible deformity80Fathering a
child70Jail sentence of parent for over one year70Marital
separation of parents69Death of a brother or sister68Change in
acceptance by peers67Unplanned pregnancy of
sister64Discovery of being an adopted child63Marriage of
parent to stepparent63Death of a close friend63Having a visible
congenital deformity62Serious illness requiring
hospitalization58Failure of a grade in school56Not making an
extracurricular activity55Hospitalization of a parent55Jail
sentence of parent for over 30 days53
Life Events and Life Change unitsBreaking up with boyfriend or
girlfriend53Beginning to date51Suspension from

35. school50Becoming involved with drugs or alcohol50Birth of a
brother or sister50Increase in arguments between parents47Loss
of job by parent46Outstanding personal achievement46Change
in parent's financial status45Accepted at college of
choice43Being a senior in high school42Hospitalization of a
sibling41Increased absence of parent from home38Brother or
sister leaving home37Addition of third adult to
family34Becoming a full fledged member of a
church31Decrease in arguments between parents27Decrease in
arguments with parents26Mother or father beginning work26
Life change scale results
Above 300 = very stressed, 80% chance of getting sick in the
near future
150-299 = moderately stressed, 50% more likely to get sick in
the near future
Less than 150 = low stress, 30% more likely to get sick
I scored here
0 stress, very little stress! Hurray!
Thinking about the Life Change Scale
The Life Change Units we just discussed invoke a definition of
stress that is really just based on CHANGE
This make sense given the definition of stress: 'adaptation to
the environment.’
To adapt we must change
It's interesting because most people probably wouldn't think
that: for example outstanding personal achievement, less
arguing from parents, and marriage were all on that list
Deaths and divorce were at the top

36. Situational Causes
Frustration
Blockage of a goal: worst when the goal is important or there's
time urgency
Often based on social situations
frustrated with spouse, coworkers, kids, etc.
The reaction to the frustration can worsen the stress:
aggression (or displaced aggression), inflexible persistence,
giving up on a goal, etc.
Aka the frustration-aggression hypothesis
Situational Causes
Acculturative Stress, aka culture shock
E.g. me moving to Miami 9 years ago
"Why are people I don't know greeting me with a kiss on the
cheek, my Grandma and my Mom don't even do that!“
I’m kidding though, that obviously wasn’t stressful
High-stress reactions:
1. Marginalization (rejecting old culture, but also being
rejected by new culture)
2. Separation: avoiding contact with new culture even though
you're in a new place
Low-stress reactions
3. Integration: maintaining old cultural identify & new one
4. Assimilation: totally meshing into new culture
Effects of stress
General Adaptation Syndrome
Occurs from long-term stress (Work, a serious illness, etc.)
3 Stages
1. Alarm Reaction
Sympathetic nervous system at work. More adrenaline, high

37. heart rate, less digestion, etc.
Some results of that: headache, sore muscles, stomach aches
General Adaptation Syndrome Cont'd
2. Resistance
Body comes into balance, those symptoms disappear.
Superficial symptoms gone
Outwards body seems ok, but psychosomatic effects begin
Psychosomatic Effects are real
Skin rashes, hives, migraines, blood pressure, asthma,
indigestion, sexual problems, ulcers, etc.
Not to be confused with a hypochondriac
General Adaptation Syndrome Cont'd
Some physical examples from my colleagues and me during
Qualifying Exams:
hives
insomnia
me: really tense muscles
3. Exhaustion, usually not collapsing, instead:
1. Emotional (anxiety, apathy, irritability, mental fatigue)
2. Behavioral Signs (avoidance of social, work, or health-
related behaviors)
3. Physical Signs: tiredness, illness, excessive worry about
health

38. More Effects of Stress
Continuing off the idea of vulnerability to illness during periods
of exhaustion...
Psychoneuroimmunology:
Times of stress = weakened immune system
E.g. many more colds during and after Final Exam times
Stress & Depression
Depression:
Students:
Depressed students score half a grade lower, on average
Occurs due to:
Work issues, trying to get high grades and struggling to meet
idealized expectations of themselves, isolation, loneliness,
breakups of romantic relationships, etc.
Results in:
Sad, empty, or some anxious feelings. Also feeling guilty,
worthless, helpless, & pessimistic
Difficulty concentrating, lack of interest in usual fun activities
Effects of Stress Cont'd
Learned Helplessness
Any time an animal or person initially learns that to escape

39. something harmful or stressful is very difficult. But later, even
if they can easily escape, they don't.
E.g. someone who grew up with an abusive parent (hard to
escape)
May not engage in behaviors to reduce or remove stress later in
life, e.g. studying hard for exams
Responses and reduction of Stress
3 main concepts:
1. Preventative Behaviors
2. Problem-focused Coping
3. Emotion-focused Coping
Preventative behaviors against stress
Wellness
BE SOCIAL!!!! friends, family, etc.
Have fun for at least some time every day (balance)
Staying clean & organized
Promoting general physical health
avoiding hypertension with a good diet
lower in: salt, red meat, and dairy
higher in veggies, fruits, & fish
30 minutes of cardio 5x a week
positive outlook: hope, optimism
Comedy - humor relieves stress:
May I suggest...Arrested Development
Reducing Stress via Problem-focused Coping

40. My opinion:
Problem focused-coping works better for me than emotion-
focused coping
The theory: instead of coping with the problem, just remove the
problem in the first place
Problem focused-coping works best when you have control of
the stressor
E.g. finishing a project/paper/studying
Reducing Stress via Problem-focused Coping
Appraising the Stressors
1. Primary Appraisal
Is the situation positive or threatening, relevant or irrelevant?
Passively processing the situation/stressor, initial opinion
2. Secondary Appraisal
This is where people who don't feel much stress react
differently than those who get really stressed
Perceive the stressor as a challenge/opportunity rather than a
threat. A plan is developed for how to overcome
What are you telling yourself about it? can you beat this
problem?
Control!!! Focusing on the control you have over it
Problem-Focused Prevention of Stress
Working ahead of time
It prevents the aspect of stress we call 'pressure'
I can vouch for this being effective
Reactive vs. proactive work
Reactive:
Project is becoming due, better work on it
E.g. me in college! But not during grad school
Proactive:

41. Doing a certain/set amount of work during allotted time
You'll find you get ahead pretty fast
Avoid distractors!! No Facebook! No Youtube! No other
forms of “multi-tasking” or listening to music. Just focus!
Reducing Stress via Emotion-focused Coping
Works best when you don't have control or only have moderate
control over the stressor
E.g. coping with a death
First we'll cover defense mechanisms, then other emotion-
focused coping techniques
Defensive Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are adaptive: maintain self-esteem
If we took full blame for every time we messed up,
we would not be happy
Happy people actually have more positive illusions and beliefs,
as we’ve learned
Depressed people gauge their abilities more
accurately/realistically...but...that's not as adaptive as being a
little naively optimistic
But too much use of Defense Mechanisms can be maladaptive
Defense Mechanisms: Examples
Denial: protecting oneself from an unpleasant reality by
refusing to perceive it

42. E.g. maybe the test will be canceled
Repression: unconsciously preventing painful or dangerous
thoughts from entering awareness
Reaction formation: preventing dangerous impulses from being
expressed in behavior by exaggerating opposite behavior
‘Pretending' to love working out even if you hate it
Defense Mechanisms: Examples (cont’d)
Regression: retreating to an earlier level of development or to
earlier, less demanding habits or situations
Projection: attributing one’s own feelings, shortcomings, or
unacceptable impulses to others
E.g. you feel guilty about being selfish, "I don't want to go out
tonight", project that on to friend who wants to go out, "Don't
be selfish, I want to stay in"
Defense Mechanisms: Examples (cont’d)
Rationalization: justifying one’s behavior by giving reasonable
and “rational,” but false, reasons for it
E.g. I can't turn in the paper because my printer broke
May be true. But the paper shouldn't have been done last
minute.
Isolation: separating contradictory thoughts or feelings into
mental compartments so that they do not come into conflict
Stats are a part of Psych. I love Psych but I hate stats!
Defense Mechanisms: Examples (cont’d)
Compensation: counteracting a real or imagined weakness by
emphasizing desirable traits or seeking to excel in the area of
weakness or in other areas
E.g. If I failed something, think of something you usually
succeed at

43. Defense Mechanisms: Examples (cont’d)
Identification: taking on some of the characteristics of an
admired person, usually as a way of compensating for perceived
personal weaknesses or faults
E.g. I've seen it in grad students, if put on defensive, they may
name-drop more. "Well, when I work with so and so, we..."
Intellectualization: separating emotion from a threatening or
anxiety-provoking situation by talking or thinking about it in
impersonal “intellectual” terms
E.g. GRE is just a measure of ability to do high school math
Emotion-Focused Strategies to reduce stress
Meditation
Any calming activity that interrupts upsetting thoughts
Reading, watching a comedy, chatting with a friend
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Tensing and releasing each muscle in the body
Makes a nice-feeling contrast
Guided Imagery
Going on a mental vacation. Getting in that mindset
Can add to traditional meditation
Emotion-Focused Strategies to reduce stress
Slowing down
Our behaviors, thoughts, etc.
“Goal is distance not speed"
Replacing negative statements with positive ones
"I'm gonna bomb this test"
Replaced: "I've passed 100 tests before this"
Again, being Social. Interacting with our support networks of
family and friends

44. Isolating is the wrong choice