4/10/00 Monday

Today’s lecture continued the unit on aggression which was started Wednesday, 4/5/00. The first major point of the lecture was that our interpretation of a situation as warranting aggression is affected by a lot of mediating variables. The point of this was that it usually is not the case that ONE thing will provoke aggression. There are many variables that seem to influence the level of aggression that is displayed. The next topic that was discussed was excitation transfer theory, and the studies that have been done in support of this notion. The lecture was completed with a brief examination of some of the individual difference variables in arousal/aggression.

Key terms:

*mediators of aggression

*cues

*lack of respect

*belligerence

*presence of weapons

*black (color)

*actual violent acts

*excitation transfer

*gender differences in aggression

*regional differences in aggression

*authoritarian personality