Aggression

Origin of Aggression:
Freud(1930) assumed that we have an instinct to
aggress. From his theory of death instinct (Thanatos), he
argued that aggression may be turned inward self-
destructively or directed outward, towards others.
Although Freud recognized that aggression can be
controlled, he mentioned that it could never be
eliminated, because aggression is natural to the human
being.

Meaning and definition:

The simplest definition of “aggression”, and the one
favored by those with a learning theory or behaviorist
approach, is that it is any behavior that hurts others.
Aggression is defined as any action that is intended to
hurt others.

Related terms:
1. Anger: Aggressive feelings.
2. Frustration: The blocking or thwarting of goal-
directed behavior.

Two types of Aggression:

1. DIRECT AGGRESSION:
  Behavior intended to hurt someone face-to-face.
 Two types: Physical and verbal.

 PHYSICAL AGGRESSION: This type involves using

physical force or violence against others. It can
include actions like hitting, kicking, pushing, or any
form of physical harm. Physical aggression is
influenced by the male sex hormone testosterone
(Dabbs, 1998), and it may also be influenced by the
other biochemical factors including the
neurotransmitter serotonin.
 VERBAL AGGRESSION: Verbal aggression involves
using words to harm or intimidate others. This can
include yelling, name-calling, threats, or any form of
hostile communication.
2. INDIRECT AGGRESSION:
 Behavior intended to hurt someone behind their
back.
 Malicious gossiping, speaking ill at back.

Types of aggression which lie between the category of

Antisocial and prosocial:
1. ANTISOCIAL AGGRESSION: refers to aggressive behavior
that is characterized by a disregard for social norms,
rules, and the rights of others. This type of aggression is
often associated with individuals who have antisocial
personality traits or disorders, such as psychopathy or
sociopathy.
Antisocial aggression can manifest in various ways,
including physical violence, verbal abuse, manipulation,
and exploitation of others. These behaviors are typically
driven by a lack of empathy, impulsivity, and a tendency
to disregard the consequences of one’s actions on others.
EXAMPLE: These kind of people can manipulate their
coworkers into doing extra work for them by false
promises or using threats.

2. PROSOCIAL AGGRESSION refers to aggressive behavior

that is intended to achieve a positive outcome or protect
others' well-being. Unlike antisocial aggression, which
disregards social norms and others' rights, prosocial
aggression is motivated by a desire to help or defend
others.
EXAMPLE: Imagine a situation where a person witnesses
someone being physically assaulted by a stranger on the
street. In response, the bystander intervenes
aggressively, physically confronting the assailant and
using force to stop the assault and protect the victim.

3. SANCTIONED AGGRESSION: refers to aggressive

behavior that is officially approved, justified, or permitted
within certain contexts or by specific authorities. This
type of aggression may occur in settings where
aggression is deemed necessary or acceptable under
certain circumstances, such as in self-defense, law
enforcement, or military operations.
Example:
In a military context, soldiers may engage in aggressive
actions such as combat, using force against enemy
combatants in warfare. These actions are sanctioned by
military rules of engagement and international laws
governing armed conflict. The aggression is justified
within the context of defending one's country or
achieving military objectives, and soldiers are trained and
authorized to use force under specific circumstances.

Similarly, in self-defense situations, individuals may use

aggressive actions to protect themselves from harm. For
instance, if someone is physically attacked by an
assailant, they may use force, such as striking back or
restraining the attacker, to defend themselves. In this
case, the aggression is sanctioned by self-defense laws
that allow individuals to protect themselves from
imminent danger.

Causes
1. Personal causes of aggressive behavior:
 Personality: people with type A behavior pattern,
which is characterized by extreme sense of
competitiveness, overactivity and a sense of time
 pressure, is associated with high level of aggression
and increased levels of coronary heart disease
(CHD).

-Besides some researchers have shown that they are

hostile.

-Type A are less likely to engage in instrumental

aggression.

-Some evidences began to accumulate that some

male individuals, who were born with an extra Y
chromosome (XYY), tended to display more
aggression and violent behavior.
 Cognitive control and processing- hostile
attributional bias:
-The degree of reasoning ability determines
aggressive behavior to some extent and the
perception of intention is critical to the decision to
retaliate aggressively or not.
-For example, suppose you are walking on a very
busy road and somebody collides sharply with you.
At this juncture, you feel annoyed, but he apologises
by saying ‘sorry’, you perceive this mitigating
information indicating the fact that the act was not
intentional.
-Hostile attribution bias is the tendency to interpret
the ambiguous behavior of others as hostile. Under hostile
attribution bias, people assume that others have negative
 intentions towards them and want to hurt them, even when
others have no such intentions.
 Disinhibition: often associated with “frontal lobe
disinhibition”
Loses sense of control and does things which are not
normally associated with one’s personality.
An individual context
 Deindiviudalization: When in social situations, a
person loses individuality and becomes part of the
mob.
“mob mentality”
Associated with concert and soccer riot and looting
behavior.
A close companion of deindividuation is
dehumanization, which means taking away the
human qualities of another person. It has been found
that when people are determined to aggress against
an individual beliefs and values to the target of their
aggression.
 Narcissism: Person having narcissistic trait tend to
have an overinflated view of their own ability or
accomplishments. Such persons generally hold the
view that they are more capable than others.
They tend to show higher degree of aggression even
to the slights from others.
 Traits As Situational Sentivities (TASS model):
for example, generally people behave aggressively
only when they are faced with strong situational
factors, such as strong provocation or frustration.
The TASS model suggests that people with high trait
 aggressiveness respond aggressively even to very
weak provocations.
 Sensation seeking: There are persons who seek
thrills, excitement and adventures. Such persons are
described by the social psychologists as one who are
sensation seeking or having a closely related trait,
that is, impulsivity. Researchers have revealed that
people high in sensation seeking or impulsiveness
tend to experience anger and hostile feelings more
often than others.
 Gender differences.

2. Socio- cultural factors of aggression

 Direct provocation: Reseachers have shown that
physical or verbal provocation from others is one of
the strongest causes of aggression.
When we are provoked from others such as when we
receive unfair criticism, sarcastic remarks or even
physical assaults from others, we tend to return such
aggression if we are confirmed that the other person
has intended to harm us.
 Increased level of arousal: Researchers have
confirmed the fact that heightened arousal, whatever
its source may be, can enhance aggression in
response to provocation, frustration or any other
factors. For example, presence of weapons increases
aggression more strongly when people are already
aroused or angered.
 -Excitation transfer theory: suggests that the arousal
produced in one situation can persist and intensify
emotional reactions occurring in later situations.
 Frustration: Frustration always lead to some form
of aggression and aggression always stems from
frustration.
 Exposure to media violence: Researchers have
shown that the exposure to violence in films,
television and video games increases the tendency
to aggress against others because such exposure
makes the persons less sensitive to violence and its
consequences.
3. Situational factors of aggression
 Heat:
Climate has an impact on human behavior.
For example: Offensive odours, cigarette smoking,
noise, air pollution have been found to be related
to aggressive behavior.

Likewise, crowding has also been found to be

related to aggressive behavior.
It has been found in studies that the hotter years
indeed produced higher rates of violent crimes.

 Behavioral models:
Bobo doll experiment, imitating model.
In another study, the participants in this
experiment were first angered and then watched
 either a real-life incident of aggression or a
fictional portrayal of aggression. Subsequently, the
participants were given opportunity to aggress
against a confederate. Results were revealed that
those who had seen the actions of aggression
models were more aggressive than those who had
seen the actions of aggressive models were more
aggressive than the members of a control group,
who had not witnessed any film.

 Stress.

 Reinforcement: positive reinforcement on

aggressive act.
 Aggressive cues:
Seeing a gun or a violent film tends to arouse a
frustrated person and makes him more aggressive.
Weapon effect.

 Drugs:
In an experiment, the participants who had
consumed large doses of marijuana, were found to
ve significantly less aggressive than the participants,
who had consumed large doses of alcohol.

Prevention and control

1. Punishment and retaliation:
Punishment is the procedure in which aversive
consequences are delivered to the person when they
engage in aggressive acts. Punishment may come in
form of imposing large fine, putting the person in
prison, giving physical punishment for aggressive
actions.
2. Catharsis: Catharsis is the reduction of
aggressive arousal brought about by performing
aggressive acts. The catharsis hypothesis explicitly
states that if the persons give vent to their anger and
hostility in non-harmful ways, their tendencies to
engage in aggressive act decrease in future.
3. Reducing frustration.
4. Cognitive interventions: Apology is one popular
technique of reducing aggression. Apology obviously
means accepting wrongdoing that includes a request
for forgiveness. Such apologies tend to reduce anger.
5. observing of non- aggressive models- a
social learning approach: just as aggressive
model increases aggression, non-aggressive models
tend to reduce it.
Pacifist tactics.
Kisses to bobo dolls.
6. Forgiveness.