Berkowitz, L. (1983) The experience of anger as a parallel process in the display of impulsive, "angry" aggression. In R. G. Geen and E. I. Donnerstein (Eds.) Aggression: Theoretical and Empirical Reviews. Volume 2. Issues in Research. Academic Press.
1.	Theories of emotions.
	a.	It is possible to classify theories of emotions in terms of the weight assigned to individual's cognitions.
		1.	Some theories emphasize neurological and somatic responses and neglect cognitions.
		2.	The dominant view in social psychology insists that cognitive processes create differentiated emotional feelings.
	b.	Problems with the cognitive formulation.
		1.	In many of these studies the cognitive processes are inferred rather than measured directly.
		2.	Cognitive formulations assume that physiological arousal is neutral affectively. The cognition steers.
2.	General behavior theory (Hull, Spence, Farber, Zajonc)
	a.	The response an individual is set to perform can be energized by an irrelevant drive.
		1.	The person has to be disposed to perform the action.
		2.	The person has to be ready to attack someone before the extraneous arousal will lead to aggression.
		3.	Anger is not required.
		4.	Frustration is not required.
	b.	An associationistic analysis--Geen and O'Neal (1969)
		1.	Non-provoked university men watched an aggressive or a non-aggressive movie scene.
		2.	They then were given instructions to deliver electric shock to a fellow student.
		3.	At the same time, they were exposed to moderately arousing (but nonpainful) white noise or no sounds.
		4.	In keeping with general behavior theory, the arousal treatment interacted with the movie condition.
			a.	Men were most aggressive when (1) they had seen the aggressive film and (2) they heard the arousing noise.
			b.	Cognitions were not necessary.
			c.	What was sufficient were (a) aggressive cues and (b) general arousal of any kind.
		5.	This is an associationistic analysis.
3.	Leventhal's perceptual-motor theory of emotion.
	a.	Berkowitz believes that this theory provides the best account of emotions and is compatible with his neobehaviorist position.
	b.	Emotion is a "subjective perceptual experience."
		1.	Physiological reactions are at best only imperfect indicators of perception, not important components of emotion.
		2.	The experience of emotion grows out of a constructive process.
			a.	A variety of elements are integrated into a whole.
	c.	Stages
		1.	Perceptual motor stage--generates the quality of feelings comprising the emotion.
		2.	Planning and deliberative action stage (This second stage is not relevant to Berkowitz' theory)
	d.	The perceptual motor stage.
		a.	When the person encounters the exciting event, whatever it might be, the person
			1.	Detects the occurrence.
			2.	Interprets it.
			3.	Exhibits expressive-motor reactions to this perception.
		b.	The point of a neobehaviorist position is that an emotional experience grows out of this process. It does not arise from any thoughtful inferences or judgments that the person makes about herself on seeing the situation and observing her responses to it.
		c.	The person reacts, and these spontaneous reactions (particularly in the facial region) feedback into the central nervous system as the primary generator of the distinctive emotional feelings.
	e.	Schematic or emotional memory is the second major mechanism in emotional processing.
		a.	Relatively concrete, episodic representations of earlier emotions--eliciting situations are integrated with the expressive reactions to enrich the perceptual-emotional experience.
		b.	Subtler feelings of intimacy, envy, pride, etc. are produced by this process--feelings that go beyond the immediate situation and the quick, direct reactions to it.
		c.	Emotional schemata are perceptual-motor memories
			1.	They operate very rapidly like, for example, the recognition process.
			2.	They act as selective devices focusing on attention on particular stimulus features and generating expectations.
			3.	Play an important role in generalizing emotional experiences.
			4.	Generalizations take place along dimensions that are like concrete episodes similar to the original emotional experience.
	f.	Evocation of emotional schemata
		a.	Network conception of relationship between mood and memory.
		b.	Linkage between emotional feelings and particular thoughts. Evocation of certain images or ideas might then elicit the feelings that had been connected with these thoughts in the past.
		c.	Compatible with Berkowitz's (1971) suggestion that words and symbols having an aggressive meaning evoke other ideas with the same meaning and feelings conducive to the display of aggressive behavior.
4.	Aversively stimulated aggression
	a.	We are concerned with violent action as well as the emotional perception.
		1.	What factors control the behavior?
		2.	What factors control the relationship between the behavior and the emotional experience?
	b.	Berkowitz' position
		1.	Aversive events are the root of angry aggression.
		2.	Aversive events arouse
			a.	Fear.
			b.	Inclination to escape or avoid.
			c.	Expressive-motor reactions associated with anger.
			d.	Schematic memories associated with anger.
		3.	Regardless of whether the aversively stimulated person is consciously aware of these expressive responses and memories, these internal reactions produce a tendency to attack the perceived source of unpleasantness.
			a.	Aversive events create instigations to flight or fight and situational experiences of fear and anger may accompany these instigations.
			b.	Comparative strengths of these emotional experiences and their associated action tendencies depend upon situational conditions and prior learning.
			c.	Learning might also complicate the instigation to attack so that the aversively stimulated individual is inclined to injure a suitable target.
5.	Flow charts illustrating the evolution in Berkowitz' theory were shown and discussed in class. These flow charts illustrated the following four components of the evolution in Bekorwitz' theory.
	a.	Berkowitz' (1962) theory that frustration leads to anger which creates a readiness to aggression. Anger and aggressive cues increase the instigation to aggression.
	b.	Berkowitz' (1983) theory that anger is a parallel process. Aversive events and aggressive cues interact with schematic emotional memory to construct the perception of an aversive event which increases the instigation to aggressive expressive-motor reactions. Schematic emotional memory includes such things as cues, associations, anger, aggressive episodes, positive reinforcement for aggression, associations with aversive events, etc.
	c.	Berkowitz'(1983) theory views negative emotions as necessary for impulsive aggression. Aggressive cues serve as accelerators of the instigation to aggression.
	d.	Berkowitz' (1983) theory views anger as a parallel process. Anger is not a necessary condition. Negative emotions are necessary for impulsive aggression.
6.	This lecture is intended to clarify Berkowitz' position regarding impulsive aggression and correct statements (pages 33, 147, and 199) made by Moeller about Berkowitz' theory.