Custom essays on Psychology Article Critique

The study of human aggression attracted the attention of many specialists, including R.A. Baron, who studied the mechanisms and factors influencing the reduction of human aggression. In his study entitled “The Reduction of Human Aggression: A Field Study of the Influence of Incompatible Reactions”, R.A. Baron focused his attention on the study of the impact of such emotions as empathy, humor, and mild sexual arousal on human aggression. The researcher attempted to find out the impact of empathy, humor, and sexual arousal on individuals and their aggression. In actuality, the study involved drivers who stuck in a conditioned traffic jam and the researcher tested the reaction of drivers focusing on the manifestation of the aggression through honking the horn.
At the same time, the researcher exposed subjects to empathy, humor, and mild sexual arousal before the experiment and control groups were not exposed to such emotional impacts. The subjects were supposed to react respectively to their feelings and emotional state to the traffic jam and the action or, to put it more precisely, the inaction of the driver, who failed to move at the green light on the crossroad. In such a way, the researcher attempted to find out the impact of empathy, humor and mild sexual arousal on drivers’ aggression compared to the control groups who were not exposed to any impact before the beginning of the experiment.
As a result, the researcher found out that drivers exposed to empathy, humor and mild sexual arousal have proved to be more latent and less inclined to manifestations of aggression, such as honking the horn, while staying in the traffic jam, whereas drivers, who were not exposed to the impact of empathy, humor empathy and mild sexual arousal, have proved to be more aggressive. In addition, R.A. Baron revealed the fact that such environmental factors as high temperature and ambiance could have had a negative impact on drivers and increased their aggression. In this respect, it should be said that the horn honking was used as dependent variable. Another dependent variable was latency, which revealed the internal balance and psychological characteristics of each driver and his current psychological state. In fact, both horn the honking and latency were used by the researcher to measure the aggression of drivers: the more latent drivers were and the less frequently they honked horns the less aggressive they were and, on the contrary, the lack of latency and the high frequency of horn honking. At the same time, the exposure of subjects of the study to empathy, humor and mild sexual arousal were independent variables for all subjects but the two control groups were exposed to these emotional impacts. In addition, the researcher took into consideration such a variable as the temperature of the ambiance, which Baron believes to have a negative impact on the subjects. The measurement of variables focused on the degree of aggression and the impact of variables was respectively assessed. To put it more precisely, the lack of aggression or the frequent manifestation of aggression allowed researchers to evaluate the impact of independent variables on the behavior of the subjects of the study. In case of temperature, the researcher assessed the impact of this variable and measured it on the ground of the degree of temperature which was in cars of drivers and outside.
The study used experimental methods of analysis because the entire study was based on the field experiment, while researchers observed and noticed reactions of the subjects on the situation created in terms of the experiment to study their aggression. The study involved subjects exposed to the impact of empathy and two control groups which comprised of the subjects, who were not exposed to the emotional impact at all.
At the same time, the study has a problem with respect to the validity of the operational definitions. To put it more precisely, the study was grounded on the experiment, which naturally made subjects aware of their involvement in the study and they could not always respond to the impact of experiment as they would have done in the real life situation. In addition, the researcher did not take into consideration the purpose of drivers and their intentions, i.e. it is unclear what were their goals to drive but this factor is very important because it is quite natural that aggression may increase depending on the purpose of the drive. For instance, if a person is about to be late for a work, or date, or whatever else he or she may be more or less aggressive.
Furthermore, the reliability of the operational definitions may be also questioned. In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that R.A. Baron involved only male subjects in his research. It proves beyond a doubt that such grouping and selection of subjects make the outcomes of the research quite arguable. At any rate, the gender of subjects could have influenced the outcomes of the study consistently because male subjects are different from female ones in regard to their psychology as well as their driving style and behavior on the road. Therefore, the researcher should involve at least one group of female subjects and one control group consisting of females to make his experiment more reliable. In such a way, the study turns out to be one-sided in regard to the gender of the subjects involved in the experiment. The involvement of female drivers could expand the scope of the study and reveal not only the difference in the impact or the lack of impact of empathy, humor, and mild sexual arousal on the behavior of the subjects and their responses to the experiment.
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning the threat to the internal validity of the study. In this respect, it is possible to single out individual psychological peculiarities of subjects involved in the experiment. As the matter of fact, the researcher did not distinguish psychological peculiarities of the subjects involved in the study. However, their psychological peculiarities could have influenced the validity of the study consistently because a priori some subjects were more aggressive or inclined to aggression than others. However, the researcher did not measure the aggressiveness of subjects before the experiment and focused entirely on the observation of their behavior during the experiment and its analysis after the experiment.
In addition, it is necessary to take into consideration the error variance of the study, which is the temperature of the ambiance during the experiment. In fact, the researcher could not control the temperature of ambiance by any means during the experiment but R.A. Baron did recognize that the temperature of the ambiance had influenced the reaction of subjects and increased the risk of aggression. In such a situation, it is extremely important to take into consideration the fact that the researcher did not and could not change the temperature of the ambiance. Nevertheless, he makes his conclusions about its impact on the aggression of the subjects of the experiment.
Thus, the study conducted by R.A. Baron is very important but it is still very important to understand what the emotional impact on human aggression depending on the gender of subjects of the research is. In fact, it is possible to presuppose that the response of male and female subjects may differ. Therefore, it is possible to reconstruct the experiment conducted by R.A. Baron but involve not only male subjects but also female subjects as well. Moreover, it is necessary to create a group consisting of females solely which may be compared to a group consisting of males solely. At the same time, the two control groups used by R.A. Baron should also be changed and divided on the basis of gender of the subjects, i.e. one group should consist of females and one – of males. Finally, it is important to minimize the risk of errors and it is necessary to exclude the temperature of the ambiance as the variable that may influence the outcomes of the study.

 
References
Baron, R.A. (1976). “The Reduction of Human Aggression: A Field Study of the Influence of Incompatible Reactions.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 6(3), pp. 260-274.
Myers, D.G. (2008). Exploring Psychology. New York: Random House.