Aggression
Aggression is a behavior aimed at opposing or attacking something or someone. Though often done with the intent to cause harm, it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some.[1] It may occur either reactively or without provocation. In humans, aggression can be caused by various triggers. For example, built-up frustration due to blocked goals or perceived disrespect.[2] Human aggression can be classified into direct and indirect aggression; whilst the former is characterized by physical or verbal behavior intended to cause harm to someone, the latter is characterized by behavior intended to harm the social relations of an individual or group.[3][4][5]
In definitions commonly used in the
In an interdisciplinary perspective, aggression is regarded as "an ensemble of mechanism formed during the course of evolution in order to assert oneself, relatives or friends against others, to gain or to defend resources (ultimate causes) by harmful damaging means. These mechanisms are often motivated by emotions like fear, frustration, anger, feelings of stress, dominance or pleasure (proximate causes). Sometimes aggressive behavior serves as a stress relief or a subjective feeling of power."[8][9] Predatory or defensive behavior between members of different species may not be considered aggression in the same sense.
Aggression can take a variety of forms, which may be expressed physically, or communicated
Overview
Dollard et al. (1939) proposed that aggression was due to frustration, which was described as an unpleasant emotion resulting from any interference with achieving a rewarding goal.[11] Berkowitz[12] extended this frustration–aggression hypothesis and proposed that it is not so much the frustration as the unpleasant emotion that evokes aggressive tendencies, and that all aversive events produce negative affect and thereby aggressive tendencies, as well as fear tendencies. Besides conditioned stimuli, Archer categorized aggression-evoking (as well as fear-evoking) stimuli into three groups; namely, pain, novelty, and frustration, although he also described "looming", which refers to an object rapidly moving towards the visual sensors of a subject, and can be categorized as "intensity."[13]
Aggression can have adaptive benefits or negative effects. Aggressive behavior is an individual or collective social interaction that is a hostile
A number of classifications and dimensions of aggression have been suggested. These depend on such things as whether the aggression is verbal or physical; whether or not it involves
The operative definition of aggression may be affected by
Biological approaches conceptualize aggression as an internal energy released by external stimuli, a product of evolution through natural selection, part of genetics, a product of hormonal fluctuations. Psychological approaches conceptualize aggression as a destructive instinct, a response to frustration, an affect excited by a negative stimulus, a result of observed learning of society and diversified reinforcement, a resultant of variables that affect personal and situational environments.[23][24]
Etymology
The term aggression comes from the Latin word aggressio, meaning attack. The Latin was itself a joining of ad- and gradi-, which meant step at. The first known use dates back to 1611, in the sense of an unprovoked attack.[25]
A psychological sense of "hostile or destructive behavior" dates back to a 1912 English translation of Sigmund Freud's writing.[26] Alfred Adler theorized about an "aggressive drive" in 1908. Child raising experts began to refer to aggression, rather than anger, from the 1930s.[27]
Ethology
Ethologists study aggression as it relates to the interaction and evolution of animals in natural settings. In such settings aggression can involve bodily contact such as biting, hitting or pushing, but most conflicts are settled by threat displays and intimidating thrusts that cause no physical harm. This form of aggression may include the display of body size, antlers, claws or teeth; stereotyped signals including facial expressions; vocalizations such as bird song; the release of chemicals; and changes in coloration.[28] The term agonistic behaviour is sometimes used to refer to these forms of behavior.
Most ethologists believe that aggression confers biological advantages. Aggression may help an animal secure territory, including resources such as food and water. Aggression between males often occurs to secure mating opportunities, and results in selection of the healthier/more vigorous animal. Aggression may also occur for self-protection or to protect offspring.[29] Aggression between groups of animals may also confer advantage; for example, hostile behavior may force a population of animals into a new territory, where the need to adapt to a new environment may lead to an increase in genetic flexibility.[30]
Between species and groups
The most apparent type of
An animal defending against a predator may engage in either "
Aggression between groups is determined partly by willingness to fight, which depends on a number of factors including numerical advantage, distance from home territories, how often the groups encounter each other, competitive abilities, differences in body size, and whose territory is being invaded.
Within a group
Aggression between conspecifics in a group typically involves access to resources and breeding opportunities. One of its most common functions is to establish a dominance hierarchy. This occurs in many species by aggressive encounters between contending males when they are first together in a common environment.[37] Usually the more aggressive animals become the more dominant.[38][39] In test situations, most of the conspecific aggression ceases about 24 hours after the group of animals is brought together.[37][40] Aggression has been defined from this viewpoint as "behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of the organism relative to the dominance position of other organisms".[41] Losing confrontations may be called social defeat, and winning or losing is associated with a range of practical and psychological consequences.[42]
Conflicts between animals occur in many contexts, such as between potential mating partners, between parents and offspring, between siblings and between competitors for resources. Group-living animals may dispute over the direction of travel or the allocation of time to joint activities. Various factors limit the escalation of aggression, including communicative displays, conventions, and routines. In addition, following aggressive incidents, various forms of conflict resolution have been observed in mammalian species, particularly in gregarious primates. These can mitigate or repair possible adverse consequences, especially for the recipient of aggression who may become vulnerable to attacks by other members of a group. Conciliatory acts vary by species and may involve specific gestures or simply more proximity and interaction between the individuals involved. However, conflicts over food are rarely followed by post conflict reunions, even though they are the most frequent type in foraging primates.[43]
Other questions that have been considered in the study of primate aggression, including in humans, is how aggression affects the organization of a group, what costs are incurred by aggression, and why some primates avoid aggressive behavior.
Aggression, fear and curiosity
Within ethology, it has long been recognized that there is a relation between aggression, fear, and curiosity.[46] A cognitive approach to this relationship puts aggression in the broader context of inconsistency reduction, and proposes that aggressive behavior is caused by an inconsistency between a desired, or expected, situation and the actually perceived situation (e.g., "frustration"), and functions to forcefully manipulate the perception into matching the expected situation.[47][13][48] In this approach, when the inconsistency between perception and expectancy is small, learning as a result of curiosity reduces inconsistency by updating expectancy to match perception. If the inconsistency is larger, fear or aggressive behavior may be employed to alter the perception in order to make it match expectancy, depending on the size of the inconsistency as well as the specific context. Uninhibited fear results in fleeing, thereby removing the inconsistent stimulus from the perceptual field and resolving the inconsistency. In some cases thwarted escape may trigger aggressive behavior in an attempt to remove the thwarting stimulus.[48]
Evolutionary explanations
Like many behaviors, aggression can be examined in terms of its ability to help an animal itself survive and reproduce, or alternatively to risk survival and reproduction. This cost–benefit analysis can be looked at in terms of evolution. However, there are profound differences in the extent of acceptance of a biological or evolutionary basis for human aggression.[49]
According to the male warrior hypothesis, intergroup aggression represents an opportunity for men to gain access to mates, territory, resources and increased status. As such, conflicts may have created selection evolutionary pressures for psychological mechanisms in men to initiate intergroup aggression.[50][51]
Violence and conflict
Aggression can involve violence that may be adaptive under certain circumstances in terms of natural selection. This is most obviously the case in terms of attacking prey to obtain food, or in anti-predatory defense. It may also be the case in competition between members of the same species or subgroup, if the average reward (e.g., status, access to resources, protection of self or kin) outweighs average costs (e.g., injury, exclusion from the group, death). There are some hypotheses of specific adaptions for violence in humans under certain circumstances, including for homicide, but it is often unclear what behaviors may have been selected for and what may have been a byproduct, as in the case of collective violence.[52][53][54][55]
Although aggressive encounters are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom, with often high stakes, most encounters that involve aggression may be resolved through posturing, or displaying and trial of strength.
Gender
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General
Gender plays an important role in human aggression. There are multiple theories that seek to explain findings that males and females of the same species can have differing aggressive behaviors. One review concluded that male aggression tended to produce pain or physical injury whereas female aggression tended towards psychological or social harm.[57]
In general, sexual dimorphism can be attributed to greater intraspecific competition in one sex, either between rivals for access to mates and/or to be chosen by mates. This may stem from the other gender being constrained by providing greater parental investment, in terms of factors such as gamete production, gestation, lactation, or upbringing of young. Although there is much variation in species, generally the more physically aggressive sex is the male, particularly in mammals. In species where parental care by both sexes is required, there tends to be less of a difference. When the female can leave the male to care for the offspring, then females may be the larger and more physically aggressive. Competitiveness despite parental investment has also been observed in some species.[58] A related factor is the rate at which males and females are able to mate again after producing offspring, and the basic principles of sexual selection are also influenced by ecological factors affecting the ways or extent to which one sex can compete for the other. The role of such factors in human evolution is controversial.
The pattern of male and female aggression is argued to be consistent with evolved sexually-selected behavioral differences, while alternative or complementary views emphasize conventional
According to the 2015 International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, sex differences in aggression is one of the most robust and oldest findings in psychology.[63] Past meta-analyses in the encyclopedia found males regardless of age engaged in more physical and verbal aggression while small effect for females engaging in more indirect aggression such as rumor spreading or gossiping.[63] It also found males tend to engage in more unprovoked aggression at higher frequency than females.[63] This analysis also conforms with the Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology which reviewed past analysis which found men to use more verbal and physical aggression with the difference being greater in the physical type.[64] There are more recent findings that show that differences in male and female aggression appear at about two years of age, though the differences in aggression are more consistent in middle-aged children and adolescence. Tremblay, Japel and Pérusse (1999) asserted that physically aggressive behaviors such as kicking, biting and hitting are age-typical expressions of innate and spontaneous reactions to biological drives such as anger, hunger, and affiliation.[65] Girls' relational aggression, meaning non-physical or indirect, tends to increase after age two while physical aggression decreases. There was no significant difference in aggression between males and females before two years of age.[66] A possible explanation for this could be that girls develop language skills more quickly than boys, and therefore have better ways of verbalizing their wants and needs. They are more likely to use communication when trying to retrieve a toy with the words "Ask nicely" or "Say please."[67]
According to the journal of Aggressive Behaviour, an analysis across 9 countries found boys reported more in the use of physical aggression.[66] At the same time no consistent sex differences emerged within relational aggression.[66] It has been found that girls are more likely than boys to use reactive aggression and then retract, but boys are more likely to increase rather than to retract their aggression after their first reaction. Studies show girls' aggressive tactics included gossip, ostracism, breaking confidences, and criticism of a victim's clothing, appearance, or personality, whereas boys engage in aggression that involves a direct physical and/or verbal assault.[68] This could be due to the fact that girls' frontal lobes develop earlier than boys, allowing them to self-restrain.[67]
One factor that shows insignificant differences between male and female aggression is in sports. In sports, the rate of aggression in both contact and non-contact sports is relatively equal. Since the establishment of Title IX, female sports have increased in competitiveness and importance, which could contribute to the evening of aggression and the "need to win" attitude between both genders. Among sex differences found in adult sports were that females have a higher scale of indirect hostility while men have a higher scale of assault.[69] Another difference found is that men have up to 20 times higher levels of testosterone than women.
In intimate relationships
Some studies suggest that romantic involvement in adolescence decreases aggression in males and females, but decreases at a higher rate in females. Females will seem more desirable to their mate if they fit in with society and females that are aggressive do not usually fit well in society. They can often be viewed as antisocial. Female aggression is not considered the norm in society and going against the norm can sometimes prevent one from getting a mate.[70] However, studies have shown that an increasing number of women are getting arrested for domestic violence charges. In many states, women now account for a quarter to a third of all domestic violence arrests, up from less than 10 percent a decade ago. The new statistics reflect a reality documented in research: women are perpetrators as well as victims of family violence.[71] However, another equally possible explanation is a case of improved diagnostics: it has become more acceptable for men to report female domestic violence to the authorities while at the same time actual female domestic violence has not increased at all.[72] This could be the case in a situation where men had become less ashamed of reporting female violence against themsuch a situation could conceivably lead to an increasing number of women being arrested despite the actual number of violent women remaining the same. —
In addition, males in competitive sports are often advised by their coaches not to be in intimate relationships based on the premises that they become more docile and less aggressive during an athletic event. The circumstances in which males and females experience aggression are also different. A study showed that social anxiety and stress was positively correlated with aggression in males, meaning as stress and social anxiety increases so does aggression. Furthermore, a male with higher social skills has a lower rate of aggressive behavior than a male with lower social skills. In females, higher rates of aggression were only correlated with higher rates of stress. Other than biological factors that contribute to aggression there are physical factors as well.[73]
Physiological factors
Regarding sexual dimorphism, humans fall into an intermediate group with moderate sex differences in body size but relatively large
Physiology
Brain pathways
Many researchers focus on the brain to explain aggression. Numerous circuits within both neocortical and subcortical structures play a central role in controlling aggressive behavior, depending on the species, and the exact role of pathways may vary depending on the type of trigger or intention.[75][4]
In mammals, the
Stimulation of the amygdala results in augmented aggressive behavior in hamsters,
The broad area of the cortex known as the
The role of the chemicals in the brain, particularly
The hormonal
In human,
Testosterone
Early androgenization has an organizational effect on the developing brains of both males and females, making more neural circuits that control sexual behavior as well as intermale and interfemale aggression become more sensitive to testosterone.[91] There are noticeable sex differences in aggression. Testosterone is present to a lesser extent in females, who may be more sensitive to its effects. Animal studies have also indicated a link between incidents of aggression and the individual level of circulating testosterone. However, results in relation to primates, particularly humans, are less clear cut and are at best only suggestive of a positive association in some contexts.[92]
In humans, there is a seasonal variation in aggression associated with changes in testosterone.[93] For example, in some primate species, such as rhesus monkeys and baboons, females are more likely to engage in fights around the time of ovulation as well as right before menstruation.[91] If the results were the same in humans as they are in rhesus monkeys and baboons, then the increase in aggressive behaviors during ovulation is explained by the decline in estrogen levels. This makes normal testosterone levels more effective.[94] Castrated mice and rats exhibit lower levels of aggression. Males castrated as neonates exhibit low levels of aggression even when given testosterone throughout their development.
Challenge hypothesis
The challenge hypothesis outlines the dynamic relationship between plasma testosterone levels and aggression in mating contexts in many species. It proposes that testosterone is linked to aggression when it is beneficial for reproduction, such as in mate guarding and preventing the encroachment of intrasexual rivals. The challenge hypothesis predicts that seasonal patterns in testosterone levels in a species are a function of mating system (monogamy versus polygyny), paternal care, and male-male aggression in seasonal breeders. This pattern between testosterone and aggression was first observed in seasonally breeding birds, such as the song sparrow, where testosterone levels rise modestly with the onset of the breeding season to support basic reproductive functions.[95] The hypothesis has been subsequently expanded and modified to predict relationships between testosterone and aggression in other species. For example, chimpanzees, which are continuous breeders, show significantly raised testosterone levels and aggressive male-male interactions when receptive and fertile females are present.[96] Currently, no research has specified a relationship between the modified challenge hypothesis and human behavior, or the human nature of concealed ovulation, although some suggest it may apply.[93]
Effects on the nervous system
Another line of research has focused on the proximate effects of circulating testosterone on the nervous system, as mediated by local metabolism within the brain. Testosterone can be metabolized to
Aromatase is highly expressed in regions involved in the regulation of aggressive behavior, such as the amygdala and hypothalamus. In studies using genetic knockout techniques in inbred mice, male mice that lacked a functional aromatase enzyme displayed a marked reduction in aggression. Long-term treatment with estradiol partially restored aggressive behavior, suggesting that the neural conversion of circulating testosterone to estradiol and its effect on
Another hypothesis is that testosterone influences brain areas that control behavioral reactions. Studies in animal models indicate that aggression is affected by several interconnected cortical and subcortical structures within the so-called
In human studies, testosterone-aggression research has also focused on the role of the
General associations with behavior
Scientists have for a long time been interested in the relationship between testosterone and aggressive behavior. In most species, males are more aggressive than females. Castration of males usually has a pacifying effect on aggressive behavior in males. In humans, males engage in crime and especially violent crime more than females. The involvement in crime usually rises in the early teens to mid teens which happen at the same time as testosterone levels rise. Research on the relationship between testosterone and aggression is difficult since the only reliable measurement of brain testosterone is by a lumbar puncture which is not done for research purposes. Studies therefore have often instead used more unreliable measurements from blood or saliva.[102]
The Handbook of Crime Correlates, a review of crime studies, states most studies support a link between adult criminality and testosterone although the relationship is modest if examined separately for each sex. However, nearly all studies of juvenile delinquency and testosterone are not significant. Most studies have also found testosterone to be associated with behaviors or personality traits linked with criminality such as antisocial behavior and alcoholism. Many studies have also been done on the relationship between more general aggressive behavior/feelings and testosterone. About half the studies have found a relationship and about half no relationship.[102]
Studies of testosterone levels of male athletes before and after a competition revealed that testosterone levels rise shortly before their matches, as if in anticipation of the competition, and are dependent on the outcome of the event: testosterone levels of winners are high relative to those of losers. No specific response of testosterone levels to competition was observed in female athletes, although a mood difference was noted.[103] In addition, some experiments have failed to find a relationship between testosterone levels and aggression in humans.[104][22][105]
The possible correlation between testosterone and aggression could explain the "roid rage" that can result from anabolic steroid use,[106][107] although an effect of abnormally high levels of steroids does not prove an effect at physiological levels.
Dehydroepiandrosterone
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is the most abundant circulating androgen hormone and can be rapidly metabolized within target tissues into potent androgens and estrogens. Gonadal steroids generally regulate aggression during the breeding season, but non-gonadal steroids may regulate aggression during the non-breeding season. Castration of various species in the non-breeding season has no effect on territorial aggression. In several avian studies, circulating DHEA has been found to be elevated in birds during the non-breeding season. These data support the idea that non-breeding birds combine adrenal and/or gonadal DHEA synthesis with neural DHEA metabolism to maintain territorial behavior when gonadal testosterone secretion is low. Similar results have been found in studies involving different strains of rats, mice, and hamsters. DHEA levels also have been studied in humans and may play a role in human aggression. Circulating DHEAS (its sulfated ester) levels rise during adrenarche (≈7 years of age) while plasma testosterone levels are relatively low. This implies that aggression in pre-pubertal children with aggressive conduct disorder might be correlated with plasma DHEAS rather than plasma testosterone, suggesting an important link between DHEAS and human aggressive behavior.[97]
Glucocorticoids
Glucocorticoid hormones have an important role in regulating aggressive behavior. In adult rats, acute injections of corticosterone promote aggressive behavior and acute reduction of corticosterone decreases aggression; however, a chronic reduction of corticosterone levels can produce abnormally aggressive behavior. In addition, glucocorticoids affect development of aggression and establishment of social hierarchies. Adult mice with low baseline levels of corticosterone are more likely to become dominant than are mice with high baseline corticosterone levels.[97]
Glucocorticoids are released by the
The HPA axis is related to the general
Pheromones
In many animals, aggression can be linked to
Genetics
In general, differences in a continuous phenotype such as aggression are likely to result from the action of a large number of genes each of small effect, which interact with each other and the environment through development and life.
In a non-mammalian example of genes related to aggression, the
In mice, candidate genes for differentiating aggression between the sexes are the Sry (sex determining region Y) gene, located on the Y chromosome and the Sts (steroid sulfatase) gene. The Sts gene encodes the steroid sulfatase enzyme, which is pivotal in the regulation of neurosteroid biosynthesis. It is expressed in both sexes, is correlated with levels of aggression among male mice, and increases dramatically in females after
Mice with experimentally elevated sensitivity to oxidative stress (through inhibition of copper-zinc superoxide dismutase, SOD1 activity) were tested for aggressive behavior.[114] Males completely deficient in SOD1 were found to be more aggressive than both wild-type males and males that express 50% of this antioxidant enzyme. They were also faster to attack another male. The causal connection between SOD1 deficiency and increased aggression is not yet understood.
In humans, there is good evidence that the basic human neural architecture underpinning the potential for flexible aggressive responses is influenced by genes as well as environment. In terms of variation between individual people, more than 100
Society and culture
Social and cultural aspects may significantly interfere with the distinct expression of aggressiveness. For example, a high population density, when associated with a decrease of available resources, might be a significant intervening variable for the occurrence of violent acts.[123]
Culture
Culture is one factor that plays a role in aggression.
American psychologist
Joan Durrant at the
Analyzing aggression culturally or politically is complicated by the fact that the
Media
Some scholars believe that behaviors like aggression may be partially learned by watching and imitating people's behavior, while other researchers have concluded that the media may have some small effects on aggression.
Children
The frequency of physical aggression in humans peaks at around 2–3 years of age. It then declines gradually on average.[146][147] These observations suggest that physical aggression is not only a learned behavior but that development provides opportunities for the learning and biological development of self-regulation. However, a small subset of children fail to acquire all the necessary self-regulatory abilities and tend to show atypical levels of physical aggression across development. These may be at risk for later violent behavior or, conversely, lack of aggression that may be considered necessary within society. Some findings suggest that early aggression does not necessarily lead to aggression later on, however, although the course through early childhood is an important predictor of outcomes in middle childhood. In addition, physical aggression that continues is likely occurring in the context of family adversity, including socioeconomic factors. Moreover, 'opposition' and 'status violations' in childhood appear to be more strongly linked to social problems in adulthood than simply aggressive antisocial behavior.[148][149] Social learning through interactions in early childhood has been seen as a building block for levels of aggression which play a crucial role in the development of peer relationships in middle childhood.[150] Overall, an interplay of biological, social and environmental factors can be considered.[151] Some research indicates that changes in the weather can increase the likelihood of children exhibiting deviant behavior.[152]
Typical expectations
- Young children preparing to enter kindergarten need to develop the socially important skill of being assertive. Examples of assertiveness include asking others for information, initiating conversation, or being able to respond to peer pressure.
- In contrast, some young children use aggressive behavior, such as hitting or biting, as a form of communication.
- Aggressive behavior can impede learning as a skill deficit, while assertive behavior can facilitate learning. However, with young children, aggressive behavior is developmentally appropriate and can lead to opportunities of building conflict resolution and communication skills.
- By school age, children should learn more socially appropriate forms of communicating such as expressing themselves through verbal or written language; if they have not, this behavior may signify a disability or developmental delay.
Aggression triggers
- Physical fear of others
- Family difficulties
- Learning, neurological, or conduct/behavior disorders
- Psychological trauma
The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961. In this work, Bandura found that children exposed to an aggressive adult model acted more aggressively than those who were exposed to a nonaggressive adult model. This experiment suggests that anyone who comes in contact with and interacts with children can affect the way they react and handle situations.[153]
- Summary points from recommendations by national associations
- American Academy of Pediatrics (2011): "The best way to prevent aggressive behavior is to give your child a stable, secure home life with firm, loving discipline and full-time supervision during the toddler and preschool years. Everyone who cares for your child should be a good role model and agree on the rules he's expected to observe as well as the response to use if he disobeys."[154]
- National Association of School Psychologists (2008): "Proactive aggression is typically reasoned, unemotional, and focused on acquiring some goal. For example, a bully wants peer approval and victim submission, and gang members want status and control. In contrast, reactive aggression is frequently highly emotional and is often the result of biased or deficient cognitive processing on the part of the student."[155]
Gender
Gender is a factor that plays a role in both human and animal aggression. Males are historically believed to be generally more physically aggressive than females from an early age,
Although females are less likely than males to initiate physical violence, they can express aggression by using a variety of non-physical means. Exactly which method women use to express aggression is something that varies from culture to culture. On Bellona Island, a culture based on male dominance and physical violence, women tend to get into conflicts with other women more frequently than with men. When in conflict with males, instead of using physical means, they make up songs mocking the man, which spread across the island and humiliate him. If a woman wanted to kill a man, she would either convince her male relatives to kill him or hire an assassin. Although these two methods involve physical violence, both are forms of indirect aggression, since the aggressor herself avoids getting directly involved or putting herself in immediate physical danger.[162]
See also the sections on testosterone and evolutionary explanations for gender differences above.
Situational factors
There has been some links between those prone to violence and their alcohol use. Those who are prone to violence and use alcohol are more likely to carry out violent acts.[163] Alcohol impairs judgment, making people much less cautious than they usually are (MacDonald et al. 1996). It also disrupts the way information is processed (Bushman 1993, 1997; Bushman & Cooper 1990).
Pain and discomfort also increase aggression. Even the simple act of placing one's hands in hot water can cause an aggressive response. Hot temperatures have been implicated as a factor in a number of studies. One study completed in the midst of the civil rights movement found that riots were more likely on hotter days than cooler ones (Carlsmith & Anderson 1979). Students were found to be more aggressive and irritable after taking a test in a hot classroom (Anderson et al. 1996, Rule, et al. 1987). Drivers in cars without air conditioning were also found to be more likely to honk their horns (Kenrick & MacFarlane 1986), which is used as a measure of aggression and has shown links to other factors such as generic symbols of aggression or the visibility of other drivers.[164]
Frustration is another major cause of aggression. The
There is some evidence to suggest that the presence of violent objects such as a gun can trigger aggression. In a study done by Leonard Berkowitz and Anthony Le Page (1967), college students were made angry and then left in the presence of a gun or badminton racket. They were then led to believe they were delivering electric shocks to another student, as in the Milgram experiment. Those who had been in the presence of the gun administered more shocks. It is possible that a violence-related stimulus increases the likelihood of aggressive cognitions by activating the semantic network.
A new proposal links military experience to anger and aggression, developing aggressive reactions and investigating these effects on those possessing the traits of a serial killer. Castle and Hensley state, "The military provides the social context where servicemen learn aggression, violence, and murder."[165] Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also a serious issue in the military, also believed to sometimes lead to aggression in soldiers who are suffering from what they witnessed in battle. They come back to the civilian world and may still be haunted by flashbacks and nightmares, causing severe stress. In addition, it has been claimed that in the rare minority who are claimed to be inclined toward serial killing, violent impulses may be reinforced and refined in war, possibly creating more effective murderers.[166]
As a positive adaptation theory
Some recent scholarship has questioned traditional psychological conceptualizations of aggression as universally negative.[41][167] Most traditional psychological definitions of aggression focus on the harm to the recipient of the aggression, implying this is the intent of the aggressor; however this may not always be the case.[168] From this alternate view, although the recipient may or may not be harmed, the perceived intent is to increase the status of the aggressor, not necessarily to harm the recipient.[169] Such scholars contend that traditional definitions of aggression have no validity because of how challenging it is to study directly.[170]
From this view, rather than concepts such as assertiveness, aggression, violence and criminal violence existing as distinct constructs, they exist instead along a continuum with moderate levels of aggression being most adaptive.[41] Such scholars do not consider this a trivial difference, noting that many traditional researchers' aggression measurements may measure outcomes lower down in the continuum, at levels which are adaptive, yet they generalize their findings to non-adaptive levels of aggression, thus losing precision.[171]
See also
- Aggressionism
- Aggressive narcissism
- Bullying
- Child abuse
- Conflict (disambiguation)
- Displaced aggression
- Duelling
- Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
- Hero syndrome
- Homo homini lupus
- Microaggression
- Non-aggression pact
- Non-aggression principle
- Parental abuse by children
- Passive aggressive behavior
- Rage (emotion)
- Relational aggression
- Resource holding potential
- Revenge
- School bullying
- School violence
- Social defeat
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Further reading
- R. Douglas Fields, "The Roots of Human Aggression: Experiments in humans and animals have started to identify how violent behaviors begin in the brain", Scientific American, vol. 320, no. 5 (May 2019), pp. 64–71. "Decisions to take aggressive action are risky and bring into play specific neural circuits." (p. 66.)
External links
- When Family Life Hurts: Family experience of aggression in children – Parentline plus, 31 October 2010
- Aggression and Violent Behavior, a Review Journal
- International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA)
- Problems in the Concepts and Definitions of Aggression, Violence and some Related Terms by Johan van der Dennen, originally published in 1980
- Aggression and brain asymmetry Archived 12 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine