Vanessa was on top of the world at the start of eighth grade. She had her cool, fun, and popular best friend Stacey by her side, all the coolest clothes, and a cell phone! She was in the "in crowd" by association, which she was perfectly fine with. Everything was going great until the jealous and mean girl showed up (bet you could've guessed that one). Nicky, that jealous and mean girl we all feared in middle school, essentially ousted Vanessa from the "in crowd" in order to find her in and get closer to Stacey. How did she do that, you ask? Well, it's as simple as this: Nicky used relational aggression. Relational aggression is aggression that harms another person through the manipulation of relationships. Often, relational aggression takes form through gossiping, spreading of rumors, and shunning another person (Aronson et. al, 2013). In this clip, Nicky used her popularity status in order to ostracize and exploit Vanessa. She manipulated Vanessa's relationship with her former BFF Stacey by talking behind Vanessa's back and diminished Vanessa's self-esteem, calling her things like "Mayor of Planet Frizz-Ball." Nicky was a "successful" bully in that she used relational aggression to purposefully harm Vanessa and Vanessa's peer relationships, all while bolstering her own popularity status.
So, how it is that we learn to behave in aggressive ways? According to Social Learning Theory, people learn social behaviors by observing and imitating others. Today, the media heavily influences our behavior and the way in which we interact with others. Research demonstrates that watching violence and aggression in the media, whether it be on TV or while playing video games, increases our aggressive behavior, thoughts and actions (Aaronson et. al, 2013). We know that when children are exposed to violence frequently, they are more likely to exhibit violent behaviors. But what about more covert forms of aggression like relational aggression? Does watching acts of relational aggression, like what is portrayed in "Odd Girl Out," result in the same hostile and aggressive acts?
To uncover this, Coyne et. al conducted an experiment during which female participants were randomly assigned to watch one of three different movie clips: one involving physical aggression, one involving relational aggression, or one involving no aggression at all. At the conclusion of watching one of the three clips, participants completed a questionnaire and were told that the experiment was over, but there was another experiment going on next door. A confederate of the experiment then walked in (perfect timing, right?), posing as the experimenter of the "other study" and encouraged them to join. After complying, participants then completed timed, advanced puzzle tasks, during which the confederate shouted things like "hurry up" and "you are going to screw things up" in order to frazzle them. They then completed a reaction time test, during which participants competed against an opponent, who was also a confederate of the study. When the opponent had a slower reaction time, the participant was to administer a noise blast and choose the loudness level as well as the duration. Coyne et. al found interesting results, that participants in the physical aggression condition gave significantly louder noise blasts and longer noise blasts to the opponent than those in the non-aggression condition, but that were was no difference in the level and duration of noise blast given between those in the physically aggressive and relationally aggressive conditions. In addition, participants who viewed both the physical and relational aggression videos gave harsher evaluations of the confederate, post-experiment. These findings are important and expands the discussion that viewing violence in the media, as viewing overt forms of aggression, such as violence, and more covert forms such as relational aggression, contributes to more overall aggressive behaviors (Coyne et. al, 2008).
Coyne's findings demonstrate the power that even watching relational aggression in the media can have on behavior. Although relational aggression is not as salient to us as more violent and physical forms of aggression, we still pick up on cues and social scripts that influence our behavior. This may also be why women are more likely to engage in more relationally aggressive acts, as our culture's social scripts tell us that women should not be physically violent (Aaronson et. al, 2008). Instead, women are portrayed as engaging in "petty" gossiping, which is often seen as "girls just being girls." These "petty" acts are consistently portrayed within the media, and do have a significant impact on the ways in which we behave. If we are exposed to relational acts of aggression, even those that are not so obvious, such as when Stacey told Vanessa that the lunch table was too crowded, we pick up on those behaviors and mimic them, as explained by Social Learning Theory. Sometimes, those can even generalize into other forms of aggression such as physical aggression, as demonstrated by Coyne's experiment. We do not know where Nicky learned to behave in such a way in "Odd Girl Out," but research suggests that the media is a heavy contributing factor in that process. She and all of the other bullies in the world have to learn to use relational aggression to exploit others and manipulate their relationships from somewhere. Therefore, it is important that we pay attention to not only physical forms of aggression in the media, but also more covert forms, as they too have a significant impact on our behavior.
References:
Aronson, Elliot, et al. Social Psychology. 8th ed. New York: Pearson Education Limited, 2013. Print.
Coyne, S. M., et. al. (2008). The effects of viewing physical and relational aggression in the media: Evidence
for a cross-over effect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(6), 1551-1554.
Emily Smith
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