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Vol. 11
10/ 2002 |
2nd
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UNDERSTANDING ANGER: THEORIES AND FACTS
Ones dislike people who are different
Research has shown that, in general, we like people like
ourselves and dislike people who are different (Byrne, 1969). We naturally like
people who reward us and dislike people who punish us; and, similarity is
rewarding. If groups are competitive, critical, and punishing of each other,
the dislike and aggression between the groups grow.
Groups
and cultures tend to create ingroups and outgroups. Thus, Hitler used the
existing hostility against Jews to unite, motivate, and deceive the German
people in the 1930's. Likewise, the
Sometimes
the minority that is discriminated against by the majority culture turns the
anger inward, resulting in self-destructive behavior, such as low self-esteem,
self-blame (like abused women), alcoholism, drug abuse, and passive-resistance
to the dominant culture's ideals of what is success. Certainly for a white
northern European culture to believe that African, Chinese, and Indian cultures
and histories are unimportant and inferior, is to be ignorant and disrespectful.
Being poor is enough to make you mad, but to have your
ancestors deceived, neglected, and disgraced is too much. Let's hope conditions
improve before the wrath is unleashed outward. More about
prejudice later.
Powerful
forces within a group increase the likelihood of aggression. We feel compelled
to believe and act the way our family or group does (see conformity in chapter 8).
We want to be liked by our ingroup. We are taught to
be obedient to authority. Finally, if being in a group relieves us of the
responsibility for our group's decisions and if we can act anonymously (without
being singled out and punished), we humans are very capable of becoming
dangerous and cruel. Every human being should be constantly aware of the
potential injustice and maliciousness that lurks within ourselves
and our groups. See the Zimbardo study below if you
think I am exaggerating.
In
his famous "Prison Experiment," Zimbardo
(1973) demonstrated how ordinary, well-adjusted college students could
transform themselves--with no directions from authorities--in just six days
into authoritarian, brutal, sadistic "prison guards" who enjoyed
their power to degrade and punish others. A good description of this amazing
study is given in the Zimbardo site, including pictures and a
frank admission by the principle investigator of how emotionally involved he
became. In another study, Zimbardo (1969) found that
in secret normally "sweet, mild-mannered college girls" shocked other
girls almost every time they could. He concluded, "it
didn't matter that the fellow student was a nice girl who didn't deserve to be
hurt."
It
is not clear why we are or can be so cruel. In the Milgram
study, cruelty was encouraged by an authority, but this was not the case in the
Zimbardo studies. Likewise, Berkowitz (1983) believes
violence comes from inside us, not from group encouragement. The evidence
suggests that we may be mean by following the rules of a violent group or
the orders of a violent person or the urging of a violent feeling
inside.
Any pain leads
to aggression--hatred for the wrong reasons?
If
two animals are hurt when close to each other, they will frequently start to
fight. This is so common and occurs across so many species, the pain-aggression
connection may be unlearned. However, it is quite clear that past learning
experience can modify the response--many animals prefer to run or to attack
only under certain conditions (Berkowitz, 1983). Berkowitz suggests that all
kinds of unpleasant stimuli lumped together, not just pain or frustration, give
rise to impulsively aggressive tendencies in humans. An amazing variety of
events seem to increase our anger: foul odors, high room temperatures,
cigarette smoke, disgusting scenes, unpleasant interactions with others, fear,
depression, unattractiveness or handicaps in others, expectation of pain,
general discomfort, and merely thinking about punishing someone.
Even
though cognition can stop an aggressive impulse (you don't punch out your
dentist), much of the connection between unpleasantness and aggression escapes
our awareness. We all experience pain, frustration, and lots of unpleasant
events and, presumably, as we suffer, we are inclined to be indiscriminately
aggressive. But we can recognize how unreasonable our anger is. We can
recognize that all sources of unpleasantness contribute to our aggressiveness,
making some of our hurtful, punitive impulses as unreasonable as the rat
attacking an innocent cage-mate. Another example, given by Berkowitz, is when
we are suffering from depression, we may become more hostile. Perhaps increased
awareness of our irrationality will help us be less impulsive, less inclined to
blame the nearest human for our suffering, and more able to control our
thoughts (away from revenge and irritating fantasies), our actions, and our
group's aggression. I wonder if the pain-aggression connection helps explain
our high rate of divorce, child abuse, and our national tendency to quickly
replace an old enemy with a new one?