Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

According to attributional approaches, the amount of harm perpetrated, norm violation, and intent are criteria for defining aggression and evoking an observer's evaluation of the act. The major purpose of this study was to examine whether these criteria are used to define hostile, prosocial, and accidental aggression in terms of classical defining features or a prototypic view of the concept. Participants made judgments of typicality, blameworthiness, and aggressiveness about acts in stories portraying the three types of aggression. The results supported a classical view, showing that harmful acts characterized by malevolent intent and norm violations were judged as more typical, more aggressive, and more blameworthy than harmful acts lacking either or both of these criteria. Moreover, avoidability and motive acceptability were significant predictors of evaluations (blame) of the aggression. These results have implications for attributional analyses of aggression and suggest the need for a reorientation of emphasis in moral judgment research.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Armstrong, S. L. , Gleitman, H. , & Gleitman, L. R. (1983). What some concepts might not be. Cognition, 13, 263-308.

Cantor, N. , & Mischel, W. (1979). Prototypes in person perception. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 12, pp. 3-52). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Cantor, N. , Smith, E. E. , French, R. , & Mezzich, J. (1980). Psychiatric diagnosis as prototype categorization. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 181-193.

Coleman, L. , & Kay, P. (1981). Prototype semantics: The English word lie. Language, 57, 26-44.

Darley, J. M. , & Zanna, M. P. (1982). Making moral judgments. American Scientist, 70, 515-521.

Fehr, B. , & Russell, J. A. (1984). Concept of emotion viewed from a prototype perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 113, 464-486.

Ferguson, T. J. & Rule, B. G. (1983). An attributional perspective on anger and aggression. In R. Geen & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Aggression: Theoretical and empirical reviews. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Feshbach, S. (1971). Dynamics and morality of violence and aggression: Some psychological considerations. American Psychologist, 2, 281-292.

Fincham, F. D. , & Jaspars, J. M. (1980). Attribution of responsibility: From man the scientist to man as lawyer. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 13). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

10.

Gergen, K. J. (1984). Aggression as discourse. In A. Mummendey (Ed.), Social psychology of aggression: From individual behavior toward social interaction. New York: Springer.

11.

Landau, B. (1982). Will the real grandmother please stand up? The psychological reality of dual meaning representations. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 11, 47-62.

12.

Mervis, C. B. (1980). Category structure and the development of categorization. In R. J. Spiro (Ed.), Theoretical issues in reading comprehension. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

13.

Mervis, C. B. , & Rosch, E. (1981). Categorization of natural objects. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 89-115.

14.

Mummendey, A. , Linneweber, V. , & Loschper, G. (1984). Aggression: From act to interaction. In A. Mummendey (Ed.), Social psychology of aggression: From individual behavior toward social interaction. New York: Springer.

15.

Pepitone, A. (1981). The normative basis of aggression: Anger and punitiveness. Reserches de Psychologie Sociale, 3, 3-17.

16.

Piaget, J. (1965). The moral judgment of the child. New York: Free Press.

17.

Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 192-233.

18.

Rosch, E. , & Mervis, C. B. (1975). Family resemblances: Studies on the internal structure of categories. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 573-605.

19.

Rule, B. G. , & Ferguson, T. J. (1984). The relations among attributions, moral evaluation, anger, and aggression in children and adults. In A. Mummendey (Ed.), Social psychology of aggression: From individual behavior toward social interaction. New York: Springer.

20.

Rule, B. G. , & Nesdale, A. R. (1976). Moral judgment of aggressive behavior. In R. G. Geen & E. C. O'Neal (Eds.), Perspectives on aggression. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

21.

Shultz, T. T. , & Scheifer, M. (1983). Towards a refinement of attribution concepts. In J. M. Jaspars , F. D. Fincham , & M. Hewstone (Eds.), Attribution theory and research (pp. 37-62). London: Academic Press.

22.

Weiner, B. (1985). An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion. Psychological Review, 92, 548-573.

Conceptions of Aggression

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References