Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)

Semester: Autumn, 2022

ASSIGNMENT No.2
Q. 1 Is aggression inborn? Explain in light of the theories of aggression.
The instinct theory of aggression was advanced by Sigmund Freud (1927) the great psychoanalyst of yester
years. In his earlier writings, Freud was of view that all human behaviour originates either directly or indirectly
from ‘EROS’, the life instinct, which helps in reproduction of life.
In this back ground aggression was considered simply as a reaction to the blocking of libidinal impulses. Thus,
it was neither an automatic nor an inevitable part of life.
But in course of psychoanalysis and particularly after the second world war Freud gradually came to know the
presence of two basic urges such as Eros and Thantos or life instinct and death instinct instead of one instinct
(Life instinct) held earlier.
Thus revising his earlier view on instincts he wrote. After long doubts and vacillations we have decided to
assume the existence of only two basic urges Eros or the Life instinct and Thantos or the Destructive instinct.
Thus Freud with experience and analysis gradually came to adopt the nature of human aggression, and proposed
a second major instinct named the Thantos, the force of death or destruction whose energy in directed towards
the destruction or termination of life, towards hatred, anger and violence and towards all sorts of aggressive
feelings, actions, dealings and behaviours.
He thus held that all human behaviour including aggressive behaviour stems from the complex interaction
between the instinct of Eros and Thantos and the constant tension between them.
Freud held that the death instinct is unrestrained and results in self destruction. So he indicated that through
other mechanisms like displacement, the energy of Thantos i.e. aggression is redirected out ward so that it
serves as the basis for aggression against others instead of destructing the self.
Thus in Freud’s view aggression originates primarily from the redirection of self destructive death instinct away
from the person towards others. The instinct theory of aggression was not much developed by Freud in the
beginning. But later on, he and his associates worked on it and attempted to explain it in detail.
The instinct theory of aggression originates from the instinct of death or destruction. Physiologically the death
instinct represents the force which tend to destroy the organic life and to lead organic matter back to the
inorganic state.
Psychologically the death instinct gives rise to hostile and aggressive behaviour, to aggressive sexual activity or
to self and race destruction. Thus love and hatred, pleasure and pain, life and death instincts go side by side. The
death instinct otherwise known as the instinct of aggression is also expressed in destructive and aggressive
intellectual activities such as criticism, satire and taunts.
According to the instinct theory of aggression, aggression is a global instinctive, steam boiler like force which
Freud and his associates argue is urgently required and basically inevitable for self preservation as well as
reproduction. McDougall has also denoted the phenomenon of aggression in the instinct of combat on the basis
of the instinct theory of aggression first postulated by Freud, Miller, Dollard and others.
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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
According to Freud when we analyze the desire for love we also find some desire for aggression. Thus the best
loved friend becomes the bitterest enemy when both fall out. In our hence attitude towards every stimulus there
is the desire for love as well as aggression.
The instinct theory of aggression holds that aggression is inherited and biological in nature and is expressed
overtly and covertly i.e., outwardly and internally. Subsequently Freud had decided there is no use in trying to
get rid of man’s aggressive inclinations.
His positive social proposals were to break up human societies in to small communities through which the
aggressive instinct can find an outlet in enmity towards those outside the group in a conveniently and relatively
harmless form.
Freud holds that life and death instincts are primary instincts and all other instincts are derived from these. But
recently Freud’s concept of aggressive instinct or death instinct, which he said is the basis for conflict between
human groups, has been discarded.
The instinct theory of Freud (1927) is said to be the starting point but not the corner stone of psychoanalysis.
Psychologists working in the area of frustration and aggression have in fact found that aggression in not
instinctive, but it develops as a reaction to frustration of basic urges experienced during early childhood period.
According to Alexander “Fear of the consequences of losing love because of jealousy gives rise to
aggression. No matter whether love or hate are instinctual or early acquired, they are always with us. The
facts of love and hate are psychological data independent of the theory.”
The two instincts advanced by Freud are not mutually opposed to each other. Behaviour originated by life
instinct may have strong components of death instinct and behaviour mainly motivated by death instinct may
have strong components of life instinct. Same psychologists object to the death instinct advanced by Freud.
They say death instinct is a part of life instinct and hence it not justified to introduce it as a separate instinct.
Some biologists also go against the aggressive instinct advanced by Freud. They argue that life instinct
motivates an organism to live and to do whatever is possible for the sake of living. It is due to this that we are
organisms. If we wish death, how could we be called organisms?
Recent by Freud’s conception of aggressive instinct (death or destructive instinct) which he said is the basis for
conflict between human groups has been discarded. Research findings earlier mentioned indicate that the view
about innate drive for aggression or destruction is not correct since in most of the instances aggression is found
to be due to frustration arising out of early childhood experiences.
Social learning and imitation also induce aggression. Aggression may occur due to some hormonal and
biological factors, but it is not instinctive as Freud held.
According to Berkowitz (1962) Research findings offer little support for Freud’s reasoning. He held that the
view of an innate drive for destruction can be attacked both factually and logically.

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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
The group for advancement of psychiatry (1964) formally rejected the instinct theory of aggression advanced by
Freud and held “war is a social institution; it is not inevitably rooted in the nature of man.” These
conclusions are supported by studies during Second World War.
The great majority of soldiers reported that their reason for fighting was to get the job done or the desire not to
let their outfits down. Only 2 percent said that they fought out of anger, revenge or fighting spirit. Another
3percent gave replies that might be interpreted as aggressive such as crushing or cutting the aggressor piece by
piece.
The men in the front or boarder where expression of aggression would have been maximum and in accordance
with their actions expressed very few aggressive feelings. But it was however noticed that soldiers in the
training camps where aggression, hostility and combat is part of the training, most frequently expressed hatred
and aggressive feelings for the enemy.
Though some critics of Freud hold that the instinct theory of aggression is now considered a matter of historical
importance and though recent psychologists have discarded the term instinct from the glossary of psychology
the instinct theory has its importance in view of the fact that all researches on theories of aggression have been
reinforced by Freud’s theory of aggression.
Freud and his followers did not believe that aggression can be completely uprooted. They however viewed that
the intensity of aggression can be reduced by the promotion of positive emotional attachment among people
with the help of substitute out lets such as engagement in adventure works like sports, swimming, athletics,
mountaineering, space travel, Karate, Judo etc.
Lornez’s View:
Observations of animals in their natural habitats led some psychologists to view that aggressive drive has an
innate, biological or instinctive basis. In the opinion of Konrad Lorenz, aggression which causes physical harm
to others starts from a fighting instinct that human beings share with other organisms. The energy associated
with this instinct is spontaneously produced in individuals at a more or less constant rate.
The probability of aggression increases as a function of the amount of stored energy and the presence and
strength of aggression releasing stimuli. According to him aggression is inevitable and at times spontaneous
outbursts of powerful feelings occur like volcanic irruption.
Lorenz considers aggression as a “true, primarily species preserving instinct”, in humans as well as in
animals. Though observation of animal behaviour suggests that the innate instinct of aggression drives animals
to aggressive behaviour, the same should not be generalized in case of human beings, and such generalization if
made by anybody is highly questionable.
There are in fact major differences between human aggression and animal aggression. While animal aggression
can be controlled and regulated by immediate changes in the stimulus, human aggression can be maintained by
mediating cognitive structures and to a much smaller degree stimulus bound. (Feshbach)

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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
Thus the issue of biological basis of aggression is a controversial one and needs further debate. But according to
Mussen, Conger & Kagan there is strong possibility that constitutional factors play a significant role in human
aggression. They further view that sex differences in aggressive behaviour most likely have a biological basis.
It is found that experimental administration of hormone of male monkeys, pigs to female rat’s pigs and monkey
makes them much more aggressive in their approaches to others. Further it is seen that activity level of a person
is connected with his constitution. An active child is more found to be involved in aggressive encounters.
2. Frustration Aggression Hypothesis:
Miller and Dollard in their stimulating yet no less illuminating book “Frustration and Aggression” define
frustration as “that condition which exists when a goal response suffers interference.” Frustrating events are
those which block the individual’s goal oriented behaviour, threaten his sell’ esteem or deprive him of the
opportunity to gratify his important motives and immediate goals.
When an event or situation disturbs or upsets the child or the adult, it is considered frustrating. But a situation
which is considered frustrating for one person may not be frustrating for another person. Here parental training,
social class, economic status and early childhood training for frustration tolerance play their role.
Freud probably for the first time gave the term frustration a scientific basis. Frustration in simple terms may be
defined as that state in the organism which exists as a consequence of interference in the goal oriented
behaviour and gives rise to a number of maladaptive or substituted reactions.
A person who fails to marry his sweet heart because of parental rejection and social restrictions is said to be
suffering from severe frustration.
Frustration during childhood may arise from several sources because of his helplessness at birth. The famous
German psycholosist Ottorank held that birth cry indicates the greatest frustration in human life. The pangs of
separation from the mother acts as a tremendous source of frustration.
Minor interferences however may bring mild and brief reactions of aggression. The view of Freud and his
followers that aggression is an instinct and innate drive has been rejected by later psychologists like Miller;
Bollard and many others. They have proposed that it is a frustration instigated drive.
The Frustration-Aggression hypothesis proposed by Miller Bollard and others (1939) is a significant
contribution is tracing the causes of aggression. This hypothesis states that aggression is always a consequence
of frustration. Miller applied this hypothesis to the Negroes of U.S.A. to study their reaction as a consequence to
the frustration imposed by the white groups.
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis postulates the following:
1. A thwarting person’s efforts to reach a goal induces an aggressive drive in him which in turn triggers off a
behaviour to injure or destroy the person or object which has caused the frustration.
2. The expression of aggression reduces the desire for it.
The key aspect of the hypothesis is that aggression is the measure and fundamental reaction to frustration
though other responses like regression, withdrawal, reaction formation and displacement etc. may occur.
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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
According to this hypothesis aggression is not inborn but is a learned behaviour. Since frustration is found
universally aggression is also found universally, they say, and hence frustration may be considered as a drive.
Marke and Ervin (1970) further view that even though the presence of some genetic or biological factors in
aggression cannot be ruled out in case of human beings, these mechanism are under the cognitive control of
man. A person with a particular brain injury may react aggressively to situations which may not give rise to any
aggressive response in case of a normal person without brain injury.

Q. 2 Explain the approaches of reducing aggression.

The Frustration – Aggression hypothesis formulated by Miller Dollard and associates hailed that aggression
accumulates in an individual as a result of his frustrating experiences and out bursts of a particular point where
it becomes severe. In order to avoid aggressive out bursts accumulation of frustrating experience should be
discouraged.
This can be done by allowing the individual to express his tension and pent up emotions in between. If the
anger, hostility and tension etc. are not released and suppressed aggressive act and violence becomes
unmanageable.
i. Catharses:
That is why, Freud has recommended catharsis or out let of pent up emotions as the most suitable way of
releasing tension. In psychotherapy this principle of catharsis is very much used even now a day. It is every
body’s experience that the principles of catharsis minimizes aggressive experience. Everyone in day to day life
must have found that when mild anger and feelings of anguish are expressed one feels relieved, otherwise there
is anxiety.
ii. Talking Therapy:
When one feels hostility or annoyance against someone, if he tells this to some one of confidence like a good
friend, a spouse, son or daughter or any well wisher his aggression is released without harming the enemy or
target of aggression.
By talking out ones suppressed and repressed urges the expression of aggression can be managed
aggressiveness will be expressed without doing otherwise continuous but unexpressed aggressive anxiety and
mental illness. When others experiences of the victim the victim gets relaxed.
iii. Writing Therapy:
When a less dominant person is insulted = dominant person, the less powerful person will aggression towards
the aggressor. Take the examples wife in Indian society. If the husband maltreats the wife or frustrates her she
cannot express her aggression towards her- society does not appreciate it.
In such a situation the wife can write down her aggressive feelings towards her husband in can be released and
give her peace of mind. Otherwise this may lead to depression, anxiety and neurosis. Management and control
of aggressive tendencies can thus be possible through writing therapy.
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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
Daily diary writing is a kind of writing therapy. That is why o said diary writing is maintained by mentally ill
persons. By this technique hostile feeling can be relieved without target of aggression.
iv. Displacement:
Aggression of children can be relieved through displacement or transfer of aggression to some objects like toy,
doll or any non living object. So children are given toys and big dolls to express their aggression on these
objects, instead of expressing, suppressing and repressing it.
Various observations and experimental studies do indicate that when children are given the chance to express
their anger and aggression in course of their growth, they become less hostile afterwards.
Hence, in order to control one’s aggression which is dangerous for the society, one has to learn to express the
pent up emotions in small degrees as and when the occasion so demands. Non aggression can be possible
through displacement of anger.
v. Catherses:
Fishback conducted an experiment on some college student who was subjected to derogatory remarks and
insults. Among them one group was allowed to express his pent up emotions through T.A.T cards and the
second group through writing stories on some T.A.T. cards.
These subjects showed less hostility and aggression compared to the third group which was administered with
an aptitude test and hence did not get the chance to release his aggressive feeling. Similar evidences are found
in many other studies which indicate that catharsis can be very useful in reducing and controlling the feelings of
hostility and control.
vi. Judicious Early Childhood Training:
Aggressive behaviour can be prevented to some extent by judicious early childhood training, proper parental
care, and adequate parenting style. By trying to fulfill the basic needs of the child, the child can be exposed to
less frustration inducing situations.
The child should not be harashed on allowed to cry for a continuous period. He should be given the training
from the early child to face frustration in an adoptive instead of mal adoptive manner. His training should be
flexible rather than rigid.
vii. Good Parental Model:
The child should be exposed to good and normal models. Parents should try their best not to quarrel in the
presence of a child. They should try to be beet models for the child to imitate. They should do what they preach.
There should not be any gaff between preaching and actual practice.
viii. Training to Tolerate Frustration:
Instead of fulfilling all the required and unnecessary wishes of the child — under certain cases, he should be
trained to tolerate frustration. Frustration tolerance can be generated in the child by not fulfilling what-ever he
wishes. The genuine needs should be no doubt fulfilled.

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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
But certain wishes which are undesirable should not be fulfilled and he should be trained gradually to tolerate
the frustration of certain needs. Because of the difference in frustration tolerance capacity people differ in their
aggressive reactions. In this case imitation of models tolerating frustration also helps a lot in the management
and control of aggression.
Control of Television, Video Shows and Films showing Aggressive Models:
By controlling the child’s viewing of aggressive and violent models in T.V., Pictures and video a lot of
aggressive behaviour can be controlled. This will be discussed in detail separate in a subsequent chapter.
i. Non Reinforcive Action:
If aggressive behaviour is encouraged it is reinforced. But through non reinforcive action arousal of anger and
hostility can be reduced. If the too much aggressive behaviour of the child is discouraged through social
learning and socialization process, the child will learn to reduce his hostile actions. If aggressive behaviour is
mildly penalized it will be non reinforcive.
ii. Loss of Love:
When the child is involved in various hostile and violent activities he should be told by his parents, particularly
the mother that she would not love him or take care of him if he is engaged in hostile activities. The child who
never wants to loose the love of his mother would definitely try to do so. This I have experimented with my
grand son Anuraag.
iii. Observation of Non Aggressive Models:
Aggression can be reduced effectively in highly aggressive boys by allowing them to observe models who
behave in a restrained and non-aggressive manner in the face of provocation. This can be effectively done by
the television and movie industries. Nonviolent movies and serials should be produced more and more and
telecast in the television.
During the formative period of one’s personality imitation is maximum, and very quick. It is said by social
psychologists that if the aggressive behaviour of children go unchecked or unrestricted in the early formative
years, they are more probable to be reinforced and continue in his adult life which is dangerous for the society
and nation.
iv. Teaching of Discipline and Morality:
By training the child to be, disciplined and develop positive values and morality a lot of aggressive behaviour
can be controlled. Parents and teachers have to play an active role in this regard. A disciplined and socialized
individual with moral values will not try to show frequent violence which is harmful for the family and the
society.
v. Flexibility in Punishment during Childhood and No Rigid Training:
The life history of several convicts and criminals in jails has shown that those who have been jailed for their
aggressive acts most of them were severely punished during childhood and punished repeatedly. That is why

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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
there is a saying that a woman who has been severely punished by his mother in law she also punishes her
daughter in law severely when she becomes a mother in law.
Q. 3 Explain the theory of attraction with practical examples.
People tend to assign an “attraction rating” to other people they meet, but also to themselves. This rating is then
used as a compass when choosing friends and partners. However, we don’t automatically choose the individuals
with highest rating as our friends (most of us don’t connect on Facebook with Scarlett Johannson or George
Clooney). Instead, we compare our rating with those of other people, and tend to become friends with people
who get similar attraction scores to our own.
How do we measure the “attraction rating”? In the physical world, we give points for physical attractiveness,
wealth, intelligence, sense of humor etc. In the online world, we would increase the attraction score for
popularity (how many RSS readers do you have?), design, contribution to the community etc.
One easy conclusion from this theory is that the more attractive you become in the online world, the more likely
is the chance that you will draw other attractive members to join your community.
There are of course other factors that explain how people choose friends, and all of them can be used to increase
our chances of creating a vibrant community:
 Proximity. Being close to someone makes it easier to become friends with them. Become closer to your
prospective community members, join the social networks they participate in, comment on their blogs.
 Association. People associate their feelings towards others with their current state. If they are in good
mood when they get to know you, it increases the chances they will want to become friends with you.
 Similarity. We like people that agree with us (similarity of opinions) and that look or behave like us
(similarity of behavior).
 Reciprocal Liking
Q. 4 Why do we help? Explain the benefits and costs of helping with examples.
Evolutionary roots for prosocial behavior
Our evolutionary past may provide keys about why we help (Buss, 2004). Our very survival was no doubt
promoted by the prosocial relations with clan and family members, and, as a hereditary consequence, we may
now be especially likely to help those closest to us—blood-related relatives with whom we share a genetic
heritage. According to evolutionary psychology, we are helpful in ways that increase the chances that our DNA
will be passed along to future generations (Burnstein, Crandall, & Kitayama, 1994)—the goal of the “selfish
gene” (Dawkins, 1976). Our personal DNA may not always move on, but we can still be successful in getting
some portion of our DNA transmitted if our daughters, sons, nephews, nieces, and cousins survive to produce
offspring. The favoritism shown for helping our blood relatives is called kin selection (Hamilton, 1964).
But, we do not restrict our relationships just to our own family members. We live in groups that include
individuals who are unrelated to us, and we often help them too. Why? Reciprocal altruism(Trivers, 1971)
provides the answer. Because of reciprocal altruism, we are all better off in the long run if we help one another.
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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
Semester: Autumn, 2022
If helping someone now increases the chances that you will be helped later, then your overall chances of
survival are increased. There is the chance that someone will take advantage of your help and not return your
favors. But people seem predisposed to identify those who fail to reciprocate, and punishments including social
exclusion may result (Buss, 2004). Cheaters will not enjoy the benefit of help from others, reducing the
likelihood of the survival of themselves and their kin.
Evolutionary forces may provide a general inclination for being helpful, but they may not be as good an
explanation for why we help in the here and now. What factors serve as proximal influences for decisions to
help?
Egoistic motivation for helping
Most people would like to think that they help others because they are concerned about the other person’s
plight. In truth, the reasons why we help may be more about ourselves than others: Egoistic or selfish
motivations may make us help. Implicitly, we may ask, “What’s in it for me?” There are two major theories that
explain what types of reinforcement helpers may be seeking. The negative state relief model (e.g., Cialdini,
Darby, & Vincent, 1973; Cialdini, Kenrick, & Baumann, 1982) suggests that people sometimes help in order to
make themselves feel better. Whenever we are feeling sad, we can use helping someone else as a positive mood
boost to feel happier. Through socialization, we have learned that helping can serve as a secondary
reinforcement that will relieve negative moods (Cialdini & Kenrick, 1976).
The arousal: cost–reward model provides an additional way to understand why people help (e.g., Piliavin,
Dovidio, Gaertner, & Clark, 1981). This model focuses on the aversive feelings aroused by seeing another in
need. If you have ever heard an injured puppy yelping in pain, you know that feeling, and you know that the
best way to relieve that feeling is to help and to comfort the puppy. Similarly, when we see someone who is
suffering in some way (e.g., injured, homeless, hungry), we vicariously experience a sympathetic arousal that is
unpleasant, and we are motivated to eliminate that aversive state. One way to do that is to help the person in
need. By eliminating the victim’s pain, we eliminate our own aversive arousal. Helping is an effective way to
alleviate our own discomfort.
As an egoistic model, the arousal: cost–reward model explicitly includes the cost/reward considerations that
come into play. Potential helpers will find ways to cope with the aversive arousal that will minimize their costs
—maybe by means other than direct involvement. For example, the costs of directly confronting a knife-
wielding assailant might stop a bystander from getting involved, but the cost of some indirect help (e.g., calling
the police) may be acceptable. In either case, the victim’s need is addressed. Unfortunately, if the costs of
helping are too high, bystanders may reinterpret the situation to justify not helping at all. We now know that the
attack of Kitty Genovese was a murderous assault, but it may have been misperceived as a lover’s spat by
someone who just wanted to go back to sleep. For some, fleeing the situation causing their distress may do the
trick (Piliavin et al., 1981).

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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
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The egoistically based negative state relief model and the arousal: cost–reward model see the primary
motivation for helping as being the helper’s own outcome. Recognize that the victim’s outcome is of relatively
little concern to the helper—benefits to the victim are incidental byproducts of the exchange (Dovidio et al.,
2006). The victim may be helped, but the helper’s real motivation according to these two explanations is
egoistic: Helpers help to the extent that it makes them feel better.
Altruistic help
Although many researchers believe that egoism is the only motivation for helping, others suggest that altruism
—helping that has as its ultimate goal the improvement of another’s welfare—may also be a motivation for
helping under the right circumstances. Batson (2011) has offered the empathy–altruism model to explain
altruistically motivated helping for which the helper expects no benefits. According to this model, the key for
altruism is empathizing with the victim, that is, putting oneself in the shoes of the victim and imagining how the
victim must feel. When taking this perspective and having empathic concern, potential helpers become
primarily interested in increasing the well-being of the victim, even if the helper must incur some costs that
might otherwise be easily avoided. The empathy–altruism model does not dismiss egoistic motivations; helpers
not empathizing with a victim may experience personal distress and have an egoistic motivation, not unlike the
feelings and motivations explained by the arousal: cost–reward model. Because egoistically motivated
individuals are primarily concerned with their own cost–benefit outcomes, they are less likely to help if they
think they can escape the situation with no costs to themselves. In contrast, altruistically motivated helpers are
willing to accept the cost of helping to benefit a person with whom they have empathized—this “self-
sacrificial” approach to helping is the hallmark of altruism (Batson, 2011).
Although there is still some controversy about whether people can ever act for purely altruistic motives, it is
important to recognize that, while helpers may derive some personal rewards by helping another, the help that
has been given is also benefitting someone who was in need. The residents who offered food, blankets, and
shelter to stranded runners who were unable to get back to their hotel rooms because of the Boston Marathon
bombing undoubtedly received positive rewards because of the help they gave, but those stranded runners who
were helped got what they needed badly as well. “In fact, it is quite remarkable how the fates of people who
have never met can be so intertwined and complementary. Your benefit is mine; and mine is yours” (Dovidio et
al., 2006, p. 143).

Q. 5 Explain peacemaking. Also elaborate the four C’s of peacemaking.

The term “peacemaking” is used in two ways. First, peacemaking is sometimes used to refer to a stage of
conflict, which occurs during a crisis or a prolonged conflict after diplomatic intervention has failed and before
peacekeeping forces have had a chance to intervene. In this context peacemaking is an intervention during
armed combat.

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 Course: Social Psychology Part – II (5640)
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The second way the term is used is to mean simply “making peace.” Idea of making peace implies a certain
devotion towards that goal. Peacemaking is necessary and important in cases of protracted violence that do not
seem to burn themselves out and in cases where war crimes and other human devastation demand the attention
of outside forces. In both cases, peacemaking always implies the threat of violent intervention as an act of last
option. In the second case it may demand violent intervention sooner rather than later.
Social psychologists have focused on four strategies for helping enemies become comrades. We can remember
these as the four C’s of the peacemaking: Contact, Cooperation, Communication, Conciliation.
Contact
Might putting people into close contact reduce their hostilities? There are good reasons to think so. yet, despite
some encouraging early studies of desegregation, other studies show that in schools mere desegregation has
little effect upon racial attitudes, like the one study by social psychologist Walter Stephan (1986). According to
him, sometimes desegregation has led to increased prejudice (especially by Whites toward Blacks) and
sometimes to decreased prejudice (especially by Blacks towards Whites). But on balance the effects are
minimal for both Black and White students. In most schools, interracial contact is seldom prolonged or intimate.
When it is structured to convey equal status, hostilities often lessen.
Here equal-status contact means the contact made on equal basis. Just as a relationship between people of
unequal status breeds attitudes consistent with their relationship, so do relationships between those of equal
status. Thus, to reduce prejudice, interracial contact should be between persons equal in status.
Cooperation
Although equal-status contact can help, it is sometimes not enough. Contacts are especially beneficial when
people work together to overcome a common threat or to achieve a superordinate goal. A superordinate goal is a
shared goal that necessitates cooperative effort; a goal that overrides people’s differences from one another.
In his boys’ camp experiments, Sherif used the unifying effect of a common enemy to create cohesive groups.
Then he used the unifying power of cooperative effort to settle the conflicting groups. Taking their cue from
experiments on cooperative contact, several research teams have replaced competitive classroom learning
situations with opportunities for cooperative learning. Their heartening results suggest how to constructively
implement desegregation and strengthen our confidence that cooperative activities can benefit human relations
at all levels.
Extending these findings, Samuel Gaertner with his fellows (1990, 1991) reports that working cooperatively has
especially favorable effects under conditions that lead people to define a new, inclusive group that dissolves
their former subgroups. If, for example, the members of two groups sit alternately around a table, (rather than
on opposite sides), give their new group a single name, and then work together, their old feelings of bias against
the former outsiders will diminish. “Us” and “them” become “we”.
Communication

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Conflicting parties can also seek to resolve their differences by bargaining either directly with one another or
they can ask a third-party to mediate by making suggestions and facilitating their negotiations. Or they can
arbitrate by submitting their disagreement to someone who will study the issues and impose a settlement.
When a pie of fixed size is to be divided, adopting a tough negotiating stance tends to gain one a larger
piece (for example, a better price). When the pie can vary in size, as in the dilemma situations, toughness more
often backfires.
Third-party mediators also help resolve conflicts by facilitating constructive communication. Their first task is
to help the parties rethink the conflict and to gain information about the other party’s interests. By prodding
them to set aside their conflicting demands and opening offers and to think instead about underlying needs,
interests and goals, the mediator aims to replace a competitive “win-lose” orientation with a cooperative “win-
win” orientation that aims at a mutually beneficial resolution. Mediators can also structure communications that
will peel away misperceptions and increase mutual understanding and trust.
Conciliation
Sometimes tension and suspicion run so high that communication becomes all but impossible. Each party may
threaten, coerce or retaliate against the other. Unfortunately, such acts tend to be reciprocated, thus escalating
the conflict. In such times, small conciliatory gestures by one party may elicit reciprocal conciliatory acts by the
other party. Thus tension may be reduced to a level where communication can occur. One such conciliatory
strategy, GRIT (graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension reduction), aims to alleviate tense international
situations.
Those who mediate tense labor-management and international conflicts sometimes use one other peacemaking
strategy. They instruct the participants in the dynamics of conflict and peacemaking. The hope is that
understanding – understanding how conflicts are fed by social traps, perceived injustice, competition and
misperceptions and understanding how conflicts can be resolved through equal-status contact, cooperation,
communication and conciliation – can help us establish and enjoy peaceful, rewarding relationships.

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