Aggression from Two Psychological Perspectives - Essay Example

Running Head: Aggression from Two Psychological Perspectives Aggression from Two Psychological Perspectives [Institute’s Aggression from Two Psychological Perspectives Introduction Aggression is a problem faced by almost eighty percent members of the society. The main reason of aggression is to hurt the other person through some way. It can be exposed in a number of ways that is physically, behaviorally, or verbally. Aggression is a destructive activity and it is the primary reason of breaking many social relations; therefore, a great concern related to aggression is its origin and cause. Not only human beings, but animals also face aggression in their life. It is such a behavior, which intents at injuring the other party. In other words, it can be said that aggression is the presentation of an aversive stimulus to a victim, which is usually unwilling. Aggression has two main types that are hostile aggression and instrumental aggression (Bernstein, 2010). Aggression stands among the basic topics of psychology and it is viewed from many different perspectives. These perspectives are biological perspectives, psychodynamic perspective, cognitive perspective, learning perspective and socio-cultural perspective. The behavioral and the biological perspective of aggression are discussed below. Comparison between the Behavioral Approach and the Biological Approach of Aggression According to the behavioral approach, researchers believe that this approach is made based on observed behavior that is the behavior of animals and humans and how it is adopted. Due to this reason, behavioral approach of aggression is based on the learning history of aggression of an individual. On the other hand, the biological perspective of aggression views aggression as something that is inherited and in which is based on genetics in animals and human beings. Both, the behavioral and the biological perspectives are widely different from one another but both of these perspectives have high significance (Bernstein, 2010). When treating a patient who has a problem related to aggression, both of these approaches are equally valued and the therapist keeps both of these approaches in mind. Aggression can arise due to any reason, it is not essential that an individual whose parents are highly aggressive has adopted aggression through inheritance. Such individual can also adopt aggression through his learning history of behavior (Nelson, 2005). The biological psychologists believe that aggression is a controlled by a physical methodology and follows the physical laws. In addition to this, they believe that the controlling machine, which every living thing has, is the complex machine named as brain. Since brain is a machine, it works on certain principles and laws of human body. Apart from this, since biological approach of aggression is based on genetics, the situation of two twins who have the same aggressive behavior follows the biological perspective and ignores the behavioral perspective of aggression (Nelson, 2005). This is because it is not necessary that the two twins will adopt the same behavior but it is true that they will adopt the same nature from biological perspectives because they are born from one mother. In addition, behavioral psychologists believe that a child may adopt aggressive behavior if he keeps on observing the other child who is being rewarded for such behavior. Keeping in view the pleasure of reward, there is eighty percent probability that the child who is observing the other child will adopt the same behavior very soon. Similarly, if other children will observe that child they will also adopt this behavior and this process will keep on going. In addition to this, behavioral perspective also states that aggression can also be used as a defending activity. For instance, a child thinks that a person is dangerous and can harm him any time so in order to defend himself, he might use aggression as a defending activity. The behavioral perspective also says that aggression is also used in conflicts, disagreements and threats (Merrell, 2003). As far as cause of aggression is concerned, behavioral psychologists believe that the cause of aggression is an external cause where as the biological psychologists believe that that aggression is an internal cause. According to the behavioral perspective, it is much better to look at the external behavior of a person when dealing with aggression. The behaviorist’s psychologists hold a theory named as frustration-aggression theory. According to this theory, aggression is always the result of frustration. This means that the impact of frustration is aggression (Merrell, 2003). Besides, frustration has no other side effect except aggression and all the other side effects are related to aggression. For instance, if Sam’s brother stoles his car, he will get frustrated and will react in aggression or if someone keeps on irritating Sam due to his poor result in exams, he will get frustrated and will again react with aggression. According to this theory, behaviorist psychologists believe that the foundation of aggression is frustration. Due to frustration, teenagers are more aggressive and they are highly involved in committing crimes. Some other behavioral theories suggest that aggression is also adopted from role models. In order to prove this point, a research was done. In that research, a group of children was shown a movie in which it was clearly seen that adults are reacting aggressively with the dolls. After showing that movie, kids were given some toys, so that their reaction and impact of the movie can be checked. It was observed that the children played aggressively with the dolls. In contrast with the behavioral perspective, the biological perspective suggests that aggression is an internal cause and it depends upon the genetics. Children of aggressive parents are more likely to show aggressive attitude in contrast with the children of non-aggressive parents. There are three main types of the biological perspective of aggression. These types are socio-biological approach, behavioral genetic approach and the ethological approach. Biological approach states that the foundation of aggression is the biological functioning of human beings rather than the psychological nature. According to the ethological approach, aggression energy keeps on building inside us. However, the aggression mainly depends upon two elements that are the victim and the amount of energy produced (Rancer, 2010). The socio biological view states that the proximate factors are not only the cause of aggression but it is also the result of some ultimate factors. On the other hand, the behavior genetic view states that those individuals who are related to each other in terms of genetics are likely to have similar aggressive activities and tendencies. As it is mentioned above that many biological psychologists believe that the basis of aggression are the biological or the genetic factors, therefore, patients having problems regarding aggression must be treaded chemically. A number of researchers revealed that besides the physical factors, behaviors, relationships, and social roles also have a natural genetic foundation. Moreover, it was also revealed that those individuals have less tendency of controlling their violent impulses, which go through concentrated rates of serration. Such significant discoveries give support to the fact that while dealing with some types of aggression, biological factors cannot be denied (Rancer, 2010). There are strong as well as weak points in the biological perspective of aggression. The weak point is that purpose and cause is not clearly defined in the biological perspective. On the other hand, the strong point is that the biological theories play a key role and are highly effective in treatment of patients with aggression. Biological perspectives suggest that the environment in which a person lives is not the only factor that has an impact on his aggressive attitude. However, behavioral perspective also has some weak points. One drawback of the behavioral theory is that it is unrealistic that the all aggression cases are adopted from the environment and other factors have no contribution in it. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that both of the psychological perspectives of aggressions discussed in the paper that is the biological and the behavioral perspective have some strong points besides having the weak points. However, research has been done regarding these theories and approaches bit still, there is a need of a detailed study and experiments regarding aggression and its related factors. Conclusively, it can be said that aggression is both behavioral and biological in nature. Any single theory is not sufficient to explain the real cause of aggression. However, all of the theories provide a great approach and treatment methods regarding aggression but aggression can only be properly described and treated by keeping in view all the theories in mind. References Bernstein, D. A. (2010). Essentials of Psychology. [S.l.] : Wadsworth Pub Co. Merrell, K. W. (2003). Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents. London: Routledge. Nelson, R. J. (2005). Biology of Aggression. New York : Oxford University Press. Rancer, A. S. (2010). Arguments, Aggression, and Conflict: New Directions in Theory and Research. Chicago: Taylor & Francis. Read More