Prosocial / Aggressive Behavior - Essay Example

For example, if aggressive behavior is a characteristic that is portrayed by a child’s family member, the child is likely to grow up being more aggressive than a child who is brought up by parents who are altruistic and compassionate to others. People have different ways of expressing their emotions through their behavior. People can experience anger, for example, but express it in totally different ways. Anger is a perfectly valid emotion that can be the result of either internal or external factors.

Internal factors that may cause anger comprise of situations or living conditions that are not being solved fast enough or according to how a person thought they would be. External anger can be caused by the expressions of others or the occurrence of events that cause frustration. Either way, anger helps people to adapt in a natural way to potential threats. In most societies, people are taught from a young age not to express anger openly and so are usually reluctant to do so in public. Even outgoing personalities tend to feel embarrassed after they have expressed their anger and have calmed down.

Society perceives anger to be a very destructive emotion, and because its expression is not openly discussed or encouraged, most people grow up not knowing how to effectively express it according to their personality types without necessarily causing harm to others. The expression of behaviours is usually dependent on a person’s personality (Nettle, 2009). A person with a laid back personality is not likely to get physically violent when he or she gets angry. He or she is more likely to look for ways of resolving a quarrel by seeking to understand what the other party is feeling.

If the other person persists in the attack, the person with a calm personality will likely remove himself from the situation or seek for a third party to arbitrate. Moreover, such actions do not mean that the situation has been resolved. Calm people, when unfairly attacked, can resort to passive – aggressive behavior that is marked by sarcasm or silent treatment. Due to the fact that they feel that it is wrong to openly express anger or are afraid to confront their own feelings, they often use underhanded methods to ‘get back’ at people who annoy them (Cervone and Pervin, 2009).

They can hurt offenders in more calculated ways than those who get physically violent because they are skilled in attacking their enemies in covert ways without having to confront them directly. This means that they enemies are usually caught unawares when they strike back to repay for past offenses. A person with an outgoing personality and who readily expresses emotions will react to anger in a very different way. This individual is more likely to lash out either physically or verbally at the other party because he or she is not afraid of physically or verbally giving expression to what is being felt.

This person, when attacked, immediately feels the need to physically attack the person causing his or her enraged feelings. The outgoing personality, when attacked, may also use verbal methods to ‘cut-down’ others by hurling insults, making belittling comments or yelling profanities about them, as well as their family members. People with self sacrificial personality types express anger in very different ways. A large percentage of such personality types