Aggression Among Adults in the Social Context of the Bar - Article Example

Critical Review of the Article “Aggression Among Adults in the Social Context of the Bar” by The article by Kathryn Graham and Samantha Welis which is called “Aggression among Adults in the Social Context of the Bar” examines how different methods of research among which there are natural observation and interview can give insight on such phenomenon as aggressive behavior of people in bars. Aggressive behavior proves to be spread among visitors of pubs and bars due to the severe intoxicated condition and the character of participants, however, the exact causes of such behavior cannot be explained by one or two simple facts. Graham and Welis documented 117 of incidents of aggressive behaviour during observations and received the information about 55 such incidents from interviews. Though a number of studies were directed to examining the connection between aggressive behaviour and intoxication little or now research were conducted in the specific places for alcohol consumption. Therefore, the authors supposed that social context of the bar has certain effects on the participants of the aggression. First the authors outline the previous research done in this sphere. And it turns out that the previous research conducted in this sphere aimed to study the following notions in the context of aggression in bars: the average number of the participants as well as the characteristics, cross-cultural differences as well as environmental factors that contribute to the aggressive behavior. The triggers of aggressive behaviour in bars were also the object of attention of different studies. The very nature of the aggression in social context of the specific environment such as a bar was the least examined phenomenon that is why Graham and Welis directed their attention to it primarily. They hypothesized that the specific environment as well the context of the incident contributed to the appearance of aggressiveness among individuals to a certain extent. The authors aimed to find out how the behaviour of all participants involved into the aggressive episode influences its course and what aspects of social interaction define the aggressive incident. Moreover, the authors aimed to outline the general course of events development during aggressive incidents: general number of participants involved, levels of aggression and intoxication of participants, the environment that influenced the incident directly and indirectly. The chosen methods of research allowed authors to define the context of the aggressive incidents and compare it to the context defined by previous research in this sphere. As the methods of the study Graham and Welis selected natural observation and interview. Natural observation was conducted with the help of 7 assistants who visited the location which were usually reported as having high level of aggression. The assistants were taught to identify the aggression according to three basic factors such as emotional state, intention and harm. However, they were trained to identify the episodes that did not grow into serious aggressive incidents but had certain attributes of them. Overall the research was conducted during 93 days in the bars of Ontario. Interviewees were recruited with the help of the advertisement in colleges and attracted 35 five respondents who described their personal involvement into aggressive episodes. The researchers were primarily interested in the moods of the participants, their level of intoxication, and the actions and reactions that led to the outburst of aggression. The results of the research were exciting but confusing for the readers and the researchers themselves at some point. First Graham and Welis faced the difficulty with identifying of the beginnings and endings of the incidents of aggression. A number of incidents described by interviewees and observed by the assistants have either prehistory of conflict between the participants or did not end in some logical way. As an example the authors chose the description of the episode when the company of people who were fighting in the bar waited for the other company outside the bar to continue the argument. Overall, the researchers concluded that defining the beginning and endings of the aggressive incidents was really difficult because they were mostly very ambiguous. Another important aspect of the conflicts in bars that was determined in the course of observation mostly was changing roles of peacemakers and aggressors. Graham and Weils pointed to the fact that the people who started the fight could eventually perform the roles of peacemakers and vice versa. Another valuable result of the study achieved in the course of observation was the exclusion of the number of the incidents which did not have aggressive intent and the actions of the participants remained horseplay more than real aggression. The results of the research were coherent and described in detail. In the course of the research the main characteristics off aggressive incidents were determined: the participants, the location, the level of aggression, the degree of intoxication, and the context of aggressive episodes. The participants involved were mostly male only 74%, male and female 21, 9 % and female only very rarely 4,1 %. The location where the aggressive incidents usually tool place were the area with the most loaded traffic: serving bars, exits, and dance floors which could be explained by easy physical contact and proximity of participants. The aggression observed was categorized according three levels: nonphysical, medium, and severe. Nonphysical level of aggression included yelling, shouting and was observed in 32% of incidents, medium level of aggression consisted of pushing and slapping and was observed in 26, 6 % cases, and severe aggression was determined as punching and kicking and was established in the rest 4, 1 % of incidents. The general level of aggression was between 5, 6 and 6, 3 in observation and according to the interviews. It was estimated that higher level of intoxication were observed in primary and secondary participants of the incidents more often. Generally the reasons for the incidents were determined to have the following typology: conflict with staff, bar activity, trouble making and offensive behavior, interpersonal and relationship issues. The authors specified a number of more precise reasons belonging to each category like sexual harassment, inappropriate service and so on. Among the limitations of the study the authors mentioned the usage of convenience samples and the necessity to replicate the results with the help of representative samples. Poorly established relationship between the triggering factors of the incidents and the quantity, the level of intoxication and the gender of participants was another limitation. The limitations of the methods were also evident: in the case of interviews there were some biases while in natural observation the assistants could rarely distinguish the reason and the trigger of the conflict. Overall the results achieved in the course of the experiment were consistent with the previous studies in this sphere and Welis and Graham managed to demonstrate the interconnectedness between the social context of bars and aggressive incidents. The level of intoxication was determined to correlate with the possibility of aggressive incidents and their severity. The quantity of participants and the number of male participants also had positive relationship with the level of aggressiveness. The researchers conducted a serious and well-formulated study and demonstrated precise and versatile data regarding such a common phenomenon as aggressive behavior in bars. The study gives several insights on the nature of the conflicts, its participants but in general it only proves the data received in previous research. The topic is not innovative and the study lacks preciseness and some specificity in conclusion. In other words, Graham and Walis did not interpret the results of observation ad interviews to achieve new valuable data on the topic. Moreover, the limitations of the research are serious for considering the study significant in its field. References Graham, K. & Welis, S. (2001). Aggression among Adults in the Social Context of the Bar, Addiction Research and Theory, 9. Read More