Theories of Agression - Essay Example

Theories of Aggression Much of what is known today concerning human behaviour and thought is as a result of the different psychological theories. Forinstance, by studying behavioural psychological theories, one can learn how conditioning is utilized in understanding new behaviours and information. The numerous psychological theories, some of which seem to have lost favour while others still remaining widely accepted, have all immensely contributed to the understanding of both human thought and behaviour. An in depth study into these theories can enable one attain a richer and deeper understanding of the past, present and where psychology is heading to. This essay will examine the theories of aggression and discuss their development, the relevant studies, limitations, applications, current views and adaptations. As much as aggression is a subject of study in a number of disciplines, it is still not easy to directly study human aggression probably due to its sporadic occurrence that does not provide much reason for its acknowledgement or its reporting. This complexity perhaps, comes out in the form of each scientific discipline possessing its own theories in an attempt to explain aggression. Aggression theories can be placed into the three categories of social learning theories, drive theories and biological/innate theories (Gill & Williams, 2008). Sigmund Freud is popularly recognized for coming up with psychoanalysis. Freud states in his early development theory that the motivation for human behaviours originates from sexual drive and the libido energy (Fromm, 1973). The libidinal energy is derived from the instincts of life and its repression often comes out as aggression. Freud’s example of this aggressive behaviour is shown in his works of Oedipus Complex and childhood aggression. Boys at the age of around five normally feel the urge to pursue close and intimate relationships with their mother since they regard their mothers as the providers of love and food. These feelings are accompanied by aggression towards their fathers who they regard as competitors for their mother’s affection. Similarly, Freud developed the Electra Complex as the female version of Oedipal Complex in which girls aged five develop feelings that make them want to relate to their fathers, rejecting the mother in the process. Both boys and girls eventually outgrow the Oedipal Complex and begin relating with their fathers and mothers, respectively. These are examples of innate personalities that occur in all humans (Fromm, 1973). Konrad Lorenz viewed instinctual aggressiveness from a differing perspective from Freud by regarding instinctive aggressiveness as a result of evolution. Lorenz’s theory is seen as a mixture of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Freud’s theory and it views aggressive behaviour as a necessity for survival of any species. According to Lorenz, aggressiveness is very beneficial to a population as it results in a population being both healthier and stronger. Lorenz asserts that less aggressive population members, who are seen as weak, are usually wiped out by stronger more aggressive members during evolution; this is one example of the biological aggression theories. A common factor in most of the biological aggressive theories is the suggestion that chemical and genetic influences manifest themselves inform of aggression. There is some empirical evidence that is supportive of this suggestion by proving that by electrically stimulating certain locations of the brain, aggressive behaviour can be induced or inhibited. Some biologists have suggested that the factor that causes aggressiveness is encoded in the genes, though this has yet to be scientifically proven (Gill & Williams, 2008). Drive theories point out aggressiveness as being as a resultant of the impulse developed from an innate need. One popular aggressive drive theory is the hypothesis of frustration-aggression which was proposed by John Dollard. The hypothesis points out that frustration and aggression are linked to another in an effect and cause relationship, aggression being an effect of frustration and frustration causing aggressiveness. The early studies of this hypothesis were carried out on prison populations and revealed that frustration levels were directly proportional to aggressiveness and the likelihood to commit crimes. These tests were arrived at by comparing the prisoner’s age, intelligence and economic position. Several other researches have shown that frustration is just but one of the many causes of aggressiveness as there are numerous other factors that could result in aggression. Green and Berkowitz in 1967 proved that frustration is but mere weak cause of aggressiveness and that there are factors that are more likely to push an individual towards aggressive behaviour that it (Berkowitz, 1969). This led to the modification of this theory to include in it the other factors like tension. According to Bandura (1973), the social learning theory is a very important theory that can be utilized in understanding aggressive behaviours and the other psychological disorders. The social learning theory differs from the other models in that it does not characterize aggressive behaviour to be as a resultant of internal mechanisms. The hypothesis states that aggressive behaviour initially is acquired from social behaviours and is afterwards maintained by other factors. There have been numerous proposals on the methods through which the learning and maintenance of aggressive behaviour takes place for instance, if an animal’s or human’s performance of an aggressive act is proceeded by a positive reinforcement, the probability of the animal or human to repeat the act severally increases, pushed by the desire to acquire more rewards. This is an example in which the aggressive behaviour is positively connected to the reward thereby encouraging more aggressiveness. The other method that aggressive behaviours can be acquired from is through social referencing also known as social modelling. An example of social modelling can be seen in younger children who always look at familiar faces to learn how to react to particular situations or towards certain people. This has even sparked the ongoing debate about what programs are to be shown in television programs (Bandura, 1973). There are those who argue that some of the programs shown on television, especially the violent ones, negatively influence the viewers by portraying violence as an acceptable behaviour. By watching violent shows, the viewers tend to become more aggressive, especially if the shows become more frequent and violent (Chandler, 2004). Some video games require a lot of aggressiveness in order to win, particularly the ones involving shooting the opponents. By rewarding the more aggressive player, the game is actually encouraging the aggressive behaviour (Drabman & Thomas, 1974). Researchers point out that once acquired, aggressive behaviours are maintained by factors like self-reinforcement, in which an individual feels proud of his or her harmful actions. Of the three aggression theories, the most popularly is the social modelling theory. Limitations Freud may have been accredited with coming up with such a thoughtful theory in the early days of psychology studies but his theory has some limitations in that, despite his interest in early child development, there is little evidence that Freud actually observed children before coming up with his findings and as such, his theories are only based on hypotheses. For a theory to be regarded as genuine there has to be some evidence or at least some tangible and credible support to show that the theory actually works, this Freud’s theory lacks. The biological theories offer a more in depth explanation of the causes of aggressive behaviour but there is still limited evidence that proves these theories. The research on genetics is still ongoing though, and maybe future studies will offer more explanations on the role of biological elements in aggressive behaviours. Furthermore, these theories do not address the most common causes of aggression (Breckler, Olson & Wiggins, 2006). The social learning theory seems to be the most supported and documented aggression theory. This is perhaps due to the fact that it seems more widely applicable to both genders and at all ages and furthermore, the theory as undergone continuous modifications over the recent years, each time incorporating new findings. Its limitation arises from the fact that it concentrates more on how aggressive behaviour is learned as opposed to when the aggression will occur. Conclusion This article has shown that all the aggression theories have limitations and therefore, one cannot accurately cover the subject of aggressiveness from just one theory since doing so will most probably lead to narrow conclusions that can only be applied to certain situations. This means that, if one is to arrive at a well-rounded and all inclusive conclusion, one has to approach the problem from different scientific points of view. Aggression therefore, should and cannot be explored using just one of these theories rather, by merging the strengths of all the theories of aggression, so as to arrive at a dependable and general ideology. This means, one has to include the ideas of libido energy, frustration, biological effects, and social factors and may still have to do some research on the respective areas of research should these factors not give a convincing conclusion. Aggression is a manifestation of the central nervous system and is an output that has multiple causes. Generally, behaviours result from external outputs, internal inputs, intermediate inputs or even intrinsic factors. When considered individually, these factors may seem rather harmless but when combined, they can come out as aggression which in turn may lead to the devastating crimes experienced in today’s world. References Bandura, A. (1973), Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis, Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Berkowitz, L. (1969), Roots of aggression: a re-examination of the frustration-aggression hypothesis, Atherton Press: New York. Brecker, S.J., Olson, J.M. and Wiggins, E.C. (2006), Social psychology alive, Cengage Learning: California. Chandler, D. (2004), Television Violence and Children’s behaviour, Viewed on 12th May, 2010, available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/tv-violence_and_kids.html Drabman, R. and Thomas, M. (1974), “Does Media Violence Increase Children’s Toleration of Real Life Aggression?” Developmental Psychology 10: 418-421. Fromm, E. (1973), The anatomy of human destructiveness ,Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Michigan. Gill, D.L., Williams, L., (2008), Psychological dynamics of sport and exercise, Human Kinetics: Illinous. Read More