Aggression: a social learning analysis - Essay Example

Aggression is evident in every aspect of our lives. The media is replete with stories of conflict. There is no avoiding the references: the insurgency in Iraq, the struggle with terrorism,the military war complex, the list goes on. Moving from the international scale to the domestic it is present when we drive on our roads and encounter the anger that wells up in traffic. There is hardly a place where we don t see this behavior. But while it is present everywhere classification is a more elusive problem. The age old question inevitably arises: Is aggression acquired through social acculturation or is it something inherent, that is to say is simply an inborn trait. There are many approaches to the subject. Every discipline has an approach that appears to be compelling and relevant. This paper will take the stand the aggression is inborn and in the footsteps of famed behaviorist Konrad Lorenz will make that case with support from the areas of animal behavior, sport and criminal behavior. This spectrum explores many of the manifestations of aggression. The suggestion of inevitability in the form of instinct in animals. The ritual and mass entertainment value of aggression in contact sports and finally the form of aggression that plays on societies atavistic fears in criminal behavior. Konrad Lorenz in his seminal book On Aggression outlined what he believed was the biological basis of aggression. He believed that intra-species aggression, as he called it, was a necessary force for survival of a species. The aggression that was apparent in animal mating behavior was perhaps the most clear illustration of Natural Selection at work. Animals were instinctively driven to aggression withing their own kind to ensure a form of competition where the best genes would be the most aggressive and competitive and this victory of drives would be carried on to the next generation. While this assertion would appear to suggest that because aggression is innate then violence and strife are therefore, as a natural consequence, inevitable; it is not the assertion that Lorenz makes even at the level of animal behavior. For as he puts it " "Redirection of the attack is evolution's most ingenious expedient for guiding aggression into harmless channels," (Lorenz 54) Lorenz therefore suggests that practically all animal behavior even when it is not typically aggressive is still a displaced form of aggression. Lorenz' theories of innate forces shaping aggression were challenged by Developmental Biologists who made a good case for the importance of Developmental factors in animal behavior, like ,"In rhesus macaques, for example, the recognition of emotional expressions in conspecifics and the ability to cooperate in agonistic interaction depend on infant social interaction for their development (Mason, 1985)." (Griffiths) The developmental theories did not however negate Lorenz assertions. Innate qualities were always to be seen in the context of the forces of Natural Selection. Lorenz was just rather emphatic that whatever the insults of upbringing the innate aggressive drive was always present and there was no sentiment in its relation with the forces of Natural Selection: a creature survived or died on its own strengths and weaknesses. While animal behavior is often used as a model for human behavior, another interesting perspective is to examine contact sports activities which are most obviously aggressive and yet enjoy a great deal of attention from society Aggression in contact sports is a source of fascination for a mass audiences. Football in America is a rite of passage and a pastime but it is underneath its veneer a brutal activity. The violence is not a source of repulsion for a large part of the population but rather a source of revelry. One football player expressed the joy of the aggression of the sport: "football allows you to use your body in harmony with your mind. You not only have an inward attitude toward your opponent; you must also physically hit him as hard, as cleanly, and as devastatingly as you can. There is intense joy in using one's body as the language of emotion - a kind of serenity and honesty". (Kerr 52) This appears to support the ideas of Lorenz that aggression is innate and ultimately rewarding in the immediate sense. Not all agree with this view as is evident in the words of Griffin: "competitiveness, physiological activation, physical contact, and the rules of sport all seem to conspire to increase the likelihood of aggression occurring in both players (to the decrement of performance) and to spectators. " (Griffin 385) Certainly arguments can take the obverse view but the immense popularity of violence in sport in a controlled fashion certainly hints at Lorenz's idea of "Redirection of Attack". Sport and aggression with its theatricality and rules of order remove the aggression from everyday lives and make it palatable. Crime and aggression on the other hand, are a very real threat and for present day people living in the modern world, it is the closest parallel to the dangers of the animal kingdom. Nowhere else is the relationship between crime and aggression better demonstrated than in the differences in crime rates between men and women: "A number of sources suggest that men are much more likely than women to be physically aggressive. For example, men commit more violent crimes and are also more likely than women to be victims of violent crime" (Graham, and Wells) The extension to Lorenz' argument of innate aggression is not a difficult one to make. Men in terms of their biological history seen in primates competed for viable mates and it appears that this behavior is again seen in men in society. To make this assertion is not to deny the many social factors that determine criminal behavior. To subscribe to Lorenz' idea of innate aggression is not to casually dismiss the social inequities that are also important factors in the cause of criminal behavior but rather more firmly underscore them through the "Redirect of Attack" that Lorenz applies to the determinants of crime. Economically marginalized individuals do not have the ways to divert their aggressive impulses and therefore their aggression is often sadly across the boundaries of the law. The innateness of aggression is intrinsically a more fair approach to criminal behavior. This is certainly the case unless of course it is confounded with other factors which produce a dangerous cocktail of defining whole groups on intrinsic criminal behavior. This is certainly not the attention of this argument. The terrible legacy of the popularity of the Eugenics movement in the late 19th century ascribed innate qualities on a quite another dimension. Its horrible legacy in the Nazi Atrocities of World War II are not anything that anyone would wish replicated. Aggression as an innate quality is asserted here because of the essential democratic nature of the argument. Aggression as a driving force in criminal behavior can be seen then as outcome of individuals acting on innate impulses in absence of better outlets for that aggression. Of course, this is not to suggest that all crime is a result of economic marginalization. Criminal behavior crosses the entire economic spectrum from rich to poor. Aggression is an innate quality. It is as Lorenz suggests a driving force in the animal kingdom. Intra- species aggression is an outcome of the forces of Natural Selection. Those members of the species that are most aggressive, and not necessarily in the most direct way but in terms of dominating others, are the ones that are most likely to pass on their genes to their offspring and ensure reproductive success. While the danger of aggression within species is always present the Redirection of Drives ensures that this aggression is not nihilistic. In the sports world aggression is lauded as a virtue. In Football the most violent of sports there is in America a rite of passage that recognizes the necessity of violence an such violence is institutionalized. But to take Lorenz' argument in its proper sense aggression is not in a fixed relationship with violence. Lorenz' thesis would defend the idea that Golf, too, is the result of a redirection of an aggressive impulse and for that matter every other sport that exists. In criminal behavior there is a demographic pattern that reflects the gender differences in aggression. Crime and violent crime is more prevalent among the male population. Of course, the measurements of aggression may not be properly applied to get clear sense of the gender difference. For example, perhaps there is a form of aggression that females exhibit that should be accorded the same scale of the violence of male crime but that research remains to be done. Aggression therefore is an innate quality and if it is understood as such in the sense that Lorenz intended it, it would be clear to all. Works Cited Bandura, Albert. Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Berkowitz, Leonard. Aggression: A Social Psychological Analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Graham, Kathryn, and Samantha Wells. "The Two Worlds of Aggression for Men and Women." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (2001): 595+. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Griffin, Murray. "Aggression in Sport: Inevitable, Avoidable, or a Matter of Semantics." Peace and Conflict 2.4 (1996): 385-386. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Griffiths, Paul E. "What Is Innateness." The Monist 85.1 (2002): 70+. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Kerr, John H. Rethinking Aggression and Violence in Sport. New York: Routledge, 2004. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Lorenz, Konrad. On Aggression. Trans. Marjorie Kerr Wilson. London: Routledge, 2002. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Moyer, K. E. Violence and Aggression: A Physiological Perspective. New York: Paragon Press, 1987. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Reith, Margaret. "Viewing of Crime Drama and Authoritarian Aggression: An Investigation of the Relationship between Crime Viewing, Fear, and Aggression." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 43.2 (1999): 211. Questia. 11 May 2006 . Cover Sheet: Outline: Aggression is innate is the thesis statement. Support is provided Karl Lorenz, On Aggression First supporting parargraph: Innate Aggression is seen in the Animal world. Support provided by Karl Lorenz On aggression Potential ideological fallacy. Theory is reductive, that is it does not look for explanations beyond the theory itself. The contrary argument in "what is innateness "by Paul Griffiths. Makes the point about Developmental Theories being important but is contrarian without recognising the merits of Lorenz' argument. 2nd Supporting paragraph: Innate Aggression is seen in the sports world. Support: John Kerr Rethinking Violence in Sport argument made entirely on the anecdotal citing of the sentiments of one player. Argument made by emotion, Contrary view: Griffin, Murray. "Aggression in Sport: Inevitable, Avoidable, or a Matter of Semantics." Peace and Conflict 2.4 (1996): 385-386. Questia. 11 May 2006 argument made by hearsay of supporting evidence without applying the evidence in question 3rd Supporting paragraph: Aggression in Crime. Relied mostly on demographic differences in crime between men and women although did argue the complexities of the issue. Graham, Kathryn, and Samantha Wells. "The Two Worlds of Aggression for Men and Women." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (2001): 595+. Questia. 11 May 2006 Relied on the statistic of differences of male and female crime behavior difference and extrapolated this to aggressin behavior. Conclusion: Did raise points of departure in the argument or in other words where the arguments were in need of more fleshing out. These strategies were necessary in short paper covering an impossibly large subject. Read More