What is Aggression?
Aggression is a word we use nearly every day to identify the behavior of others and ourselves. We tend to call other people aggressive if they cut off your car in traffic, if they shout and hit the wall or the table in frustration or when sports players verbally abuse the other team’s players during half time but it is not just all this, social psychologists define aggression as intentional behavior aimed at causing either physical or psychological pain, the behavior can be verbal or physical (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2002).
It is necessary to differentiate between the two types of aggression, one being hostile aggression and the other being instrumental aggression. Hostile aggression is a type of aggression that is the response to an insult or any threat on the other hand instrumental aggression refers to the pre-planned aggressive behaviour to achieve a goal for example a boy who bullies everyone in the playground, so all the other kids give him their lunch money (Gabbey, 2018).
Social psychologists are still exploring that whether being aggressive is instinctual, situational. For example, we know for a fact that cats stalk and kill rats but biologist Zing Yang Kuo (1961) wanted to signify that aggressive behaviour is not instinctual but that aggressive instinct can be inhibited by early experience. So, he conducted an experiment where both, a kitten and a rat were raised together in the same cage, not only the cat refrained from attacking the rat, but the two become close companions on the other hand Irenaus Eibl-Eiblesfeldt, a ethnologist (1963) demonstrated an experiment where he raised a rat in isolation that is without any experience to aggression or fighting, the rat then attacked other fellow rat when they were introduced in the same cage. So, even though aggressive behaviour can be modified by experience as shown by Zing Yang Kuo’s experiment, Eibl-Eibesfeldt showed that aggression does not necessarily need to be learned. (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2002).
Causes of Aggression:
Hormones
Hormones play a large part in a person being aggressive, the male sex hormone called testosterone has shown aggression in humans and animals. Literature shows strong correlation between the hormone testosterone and aggression. The levels of testosterone are higher in men than females and they are much higher in younger adults than in older men. (Stangor, n.d.)
Cultural and gender differences
There are numerous cultures where males are expected to be brave are required to display how strong and masculine they are. Their behaviour is reinforced and accepted in the society whereas those men who are not aggressive are perceived as weak, this results in non-aggressive men being aggressive to be accepted among their peer and society as a whole Majority of the cultures consider aggressive men as strong and desirable on the other hand if women show aggressive tendencies are regarded as bossy and disrespectful which makes them undesirable. (Stangor, n.d.)
Social situations leading to aggression
Consider this as an example, you have asked your neighbour to drop you to college today for some reason, and he shows up late. When you mention that you are so late for your class, he accuses you of being overly anxious and assures you that you will be reach college just in time. Halfway through his car grinds to a halt in bumper to bumper traffic. You keep starring at your watch and he again assures you that it will be fine and that we will reach there just in time. A few minutes later your hands start to sweat, and you get out of the car to survey the road ahead and there is nothing else but gridlock as far as you can see. You get inside the car and slam the door in frustration and just glare at your neighbour. This example suggests that unpleasant frustrating experiences can be major causes of aggression. Aggression is more likely to increase when the frustration is unexpected as mention in the example above.
Exposure to violence in the media
We all are aware of the classic experiment conducted by Albert Bandura and his associates where he demonstrated the power of social learning (e.g.: aggression) in his bobo doll experiment by observing others and imitating them. The experiment procedure was adults hitting with their palms, strike it with a mallet, kick and yell aggressive things to the doll, the kids on the other hand were exposed to this violence. Later the kids individually were allowed to play with the doll, the kids in the control group never unleased any aggressive behaviour on the doll whereas those exposed to the violence, imitated the adult and even went beyond the imitations, watching others being violent and aggressive can increase the levels of aggressiveness (Cherry, 2016). Media violence may serve to give kids already prone to violence and aggression permission to be aggression. It may also make children not prone to aggression being aggressive (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 2002)
This article was written by Areesha Qureshi, Psychology Student
References
Cherry, K., 2016. What the Bobo Doll Experiment Reveals About Kids and Aggression.Verywell Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/bobo-doll-experiment-2794993
Elliot Anderson, timothy D.wilson, Robin M.Abert, 2002, Aggresion. Social psychology, fourth ed, pp. 414-435
Gabbey, A., 2018. Aggressive Behavior. Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/aggressive-behavior
Definitions.uslegal.com. n.d. Instrumental Aggression Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc.. Retrieved from https://definitions.uslegal.com/i/instrumental-aggression/
Stangor, n.d. Defining Aggression. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/defining-aggression/
Stangor, n.d. The Biological and Emotional Causes of Aggression. Opentextbc.ca.Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/the-biological-and-emotional-causes-of-aggression/
Warburton, W. and Anderson,, C., 2015. Aggression. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Craig-Anderson-19/publication/304183682_Aggression_Social_Psychology_of/links/5cb765dd299bf120976cc445/Aggression-Social-Psychology-of.pdf
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