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An aggression machine I. The intensity of aggressive defence aroused by aggressive offence
Author(s) -
PITKÄNEN LEA
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1973.tb00091.x
Subject(s) - aggression , offensive , psychology , intensity (physics) , social psychology , operations research , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
PitkÄnen, L. An aggression machine. I. The intensity of aggressive defence aroused by aggressive offence. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 56–64.‐Sixty 9‐year‐old boys were tested with an aggression machine (PAM) designed by the writer. PAM allows the variation of both S (light) and R (pressing a button) intensities. The stimuli and responses were given the designations of offensive and defensive aggression, respectively. The following main hypotheses were supported: (1) The intensity of impulsive aggressive defence to an aggressive offence was adapted to the intensity of attack. (2) The intensity of aggressive defence was determined by the authority of the attacker, the defence being strongest when the attacker was a person of the same age and status, and least vigorous when the attacker was a figure of authority or a weaker person. (3) The correlations of the intensity of aggressive defence against different attackers depended on the similarity of their social position; the correlations were higher the closer the position.