Social Psychology: Aggression Theories

Abstract

Human aggression is a social behavior that manifests itself in different facets. There are different social psychology theories that explain and offer a platform for understanding aggressive behavior. The paper will offer to analyze different theories towards understanding how various social psychologists contribute to the study of aggression. The paper analyses the theory in their chronological order. The approach will go a long way in giving a platform to establish the changes that have taken place over time and in the event shed light to the changing approaches and their contributions to the understanding of aggression. Also, the paper will strive to discuss factors that may influence an individuals level of aggression both at a personal level and the environment in which they live.

Introduction

There are different forms of aggression which include but not limited to physically harming another person, use of hurting verbal words, and use of digital platforms to destroy the reputation of another individual.  Aggression may either be deliberate or unintentional. Some people display aggressiveness just as a response to provocation while others find it easy to react aggressively owing to their personal traits and nature of the environment in which they live. Striving to understand the reasons why people may display aggression goes a long way to help social psychologists to design ways to control the same. Aggression may lead to poor coexistence between people in a society and in the event, lead to the cost of managing the same. Increased violence due to peoples aggression is a precursor to health problems.

Early Social Psychology Theories

The social psychology field has for long placed forth different frameworks that attempt explain causes and consequences of aggression.

The Frustration-Aggression theory

The theory came to play after the world war II. The theory presupposes that, for aggression to occur, goal blocking has to ensue. The aspect of goal blocking leads to frustrations and further aggression. However, it came evident that frustration does not always rise to aggression. People who face obstacles while goal seeking, may find other means to achieve their goal and avoid frustration hence no aggressiveness (Meyer, 2016). The new approach was keen to highlight that people adapt to different negative experiences and in the event learn how to respond to frustrations either through aggressive or nonaggressive mechanisms.

Learning theory

The theory takes shape through the concept of classical conditioning. The classical conditioning entails the aspect of learning through associating one thing to the another. Pavlov was the champion of this approach and he highlights that people become accustomed to pairing things together, and in the event, their mental process become conditioned to expect the same to happen in the same manner. Later, Thorndike and Skinner introduced operant conditioning that alludes to the fact that people will always feel persuaded to repeat behaviors they have been rewarded and avoid those they have been punished. Bandura in his approach indicates that people can learn aggression through the act of imitating others. Through the “Bobo Doll”, he demonstrates that children after watching the film with aggressive behaviors, they were able to display the same behavior through the aspect of imitation. Further, he uses the aspect of vicarious learning to demonstrate how children imitate after any aggressive behavior that has been rewarded. Bandura’s social conditioning theory explains that once people observe a violent act they decide on how to act with respect to the same behavior. He reiterates that once a person is exposed to aggressive behavior, they are more likely to imitate such behavior. People are more likely to imitate aggressive behavior that has been rewarded and more especially if the same occurs on a high-ranking person in society. Rewarding the aggressors allows them to reinforce their actions, and in the event, maintain such acts in future. Punishment on the other side makes people avoid tendencies of aggression (Valdes, 2018). Although it is not possible to generalize the Bobo experiment to adults, a research done by Philips who was a psychologist found that homicide cases were on the increase once there was a major televised boxing event. Therefore, his research justified the aspect of social learning in adults.

Cognitive labeling theories

The theory takes shape through physiological arousal which acts as a prerequisite for aggression. Schacter is cited to advance this school of thought and he attributes the aspect of aggression to the aspect of people’s ability to look for cues around the environment they exist and ascertain the same to their arousal. Therefore, exposing people to arousing events tends to build up their aggressive tendencies once they are provoked.

Mainstream theories

Information and script theories

The approach came to play during the computer era in the 1980s. The era gave social psychologist a new way of analyzing aggression as they would feature the same through inputs, outputs and information processing just as computers would do. There are two theories that take after this approach, that is, Social Information Processing theory and script theory. The Social Information Processing was instrumental in highlighting how people interpret the behavior of others.   For instance, if an individual is confronted by another, they interpret the same as motivated by hostile intentions.  On the other side, Script theory alludes to the acquisition of scripts just as it is the case with actor’s script that is motivated by direct or observational learning. People internalize scripts which define how they will behave once exposed to such situations. Therefore, once an individual is exposed to a particular situation, they would use internalized script relevant to such situation and behave in accordance with what he deems will be appropriate (Cooke, 2017). If the scripts are violent in nature and the person habitually uses the same to respond to issues, then such a person is likely to display aggression.

The Cognitive Neo-Association Theory

The theory takes shape through neural connectivity by ascertaining the fact that, the brain acts as a platform from where concepts, emotions, memories, and action remain interconnected. Such interconnections will lead to any unpleasant physical environment producing negative results in terms of feelings and thoughts. The effect of the same leads to inducement of either a fight or flight and in the event, depending on the affected individual personality, a fight response would induce aggression (Leonard, 2012). In any case, if such a person is in a position to weigh the consequences of his behavior such thought will make him consider the actions, and in the event, moderate his aggression.

Current theoretical approaches

General Aggression Model

The model is cited to offer the most comprehensive aggression approach. The model provides a platform to engage a wide spectrum of variables that include but not limited to those producing negative effects. The model integrates social psychological theories with other theories from other disciplines in psychology to explain the aspect of aggression.  In any case, the models emphasize the fact that, the aspect of aggression comes to play through an individual and his traits such as genes, biology, attitudes, values, believes among other characteristics. The person in question would use aggression related cue to respond to an environmental trigger that may be provocative. The person and the environment determine the internal reactions which lead to affects, cognitions and psychological impact. People while responding to different situations develop impulses to aggress. People would respond to such impulses depending on the time available to them. The cognitive resources allow people appraise and reappraise their actions, and in the event, consider the consequences of the same (Anderson & Warburton, 2015). The resultant action may be aggressive or otherwise, but in any event, the reaction to such situations will depend on individual’s personality.

The extent of reactions owing to internal psychological processes, factors that trigger aggression coupled with means of reinforcing and learning behavior gives a framework through which short-term and long-term aspects of aggression dimensions.

Aggressive determinants

It is imperative to acknowledge the fact that aggression varies from on individual to the other due to varied factors as analyzed below;

Personal factors

Gender aspect

Social psychology identifies the aspect of gender as a determinant of aggression in the sense that men are considered as more violent than females. This is more pronounced as observed in violent behavior and physical aggressiveness. Men are deemed as highly probable to apply direct aggression under provocation.

Trait-related anger

Some people are more inclined to responding aggressively when provoked. Such people are said to be sensitive to any slight provocation. In this case, different personality traits come to play, that is, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. These attributes are said to exhibit high levels of aggression and coupled with low levels of empathic behavior. Narcissists respond aggressively whenever they feel insecure in the environment they exist such as humiliation and insults among others. Psychopaths on the other side tend to care less about any negative effects that may take effect on their victims or themselves due to their actions. Machiavellians tend to lack remorse and careless of the consequences of their actions to the people around them, but they are too careful to what happens to themselves once they act in a particular manner (Paulhus, Curtis, & Jones, 2018). They take caution to ensure they will not be held responsible for their actions.

Impulsivity

The concept of impulsivity takes shape from a young age and can be used to demonstrate possibility aggression in one’s adulthood. The people suffering from impulsivity have problems controlling their emotions and as such, they tend to be aggressive.

IQ levels

Research has demonstrated that there is a connection between aggression and intelligence. Therefore, people with IQ are likely to be aggressive

Factors that influence people to act aggressively

Hormones

High levels of aggression have always been attributed to testosterone hormone. The testosterone hormone is cited to be high in males than women and as such, males are more likely to be aggressive. Further, older men harbor low levels of the same as compared to teenagers and young male adults (Bak, 2016). Also, research demonstrates that low levels of oxytocin lead to high aggressiveness.

Genetic aspect

People who demonstrate aggressive behavior are likely to have inherited the same from their parents. Some genetic markers have a direct influence on aggression and other antisocial behavior due to their possibility to produce impulsivity in individuals. Such markers include polymorphism and serotonin and may lead to higher chances of aggression if a person has been exposed to maltreatment during childhood.

Environmental factors and cues of aggression

Violent media

People exposed to violent behavior are more likely to display aggression. For instance, children who watch violent films internalize violence as a normal behavior (Warburton, 2014).  The exposure to violence pressures one to make bias decisions which favor violence and aggressive behaviors which lead to a reduction in empathy.

Violent environment

People who thrive in a violent environment conventionalize the same as normal behavior. For instance, children who have been raised in a violent home are most likely to take the same root. The boys are likely to exercise such against their partners while girls on the other side, will accept violence on them as normal. In any case, violent environment includes violent homes, neighborhoods and war-torn nations are likely to become influenced to become aggressive.

Stressors within one’s Environment

Some environmental stressors such as physical pain, massive noise, high temperatures and living in areas that experience bad odor are cited to increase aggression. However, it is worth noting that such aggressors are more likely to cause aggression if the affected persons have no control of the environment.

Anonymity

It is more likely to hurt a person whom you are not familiar with as opposed to when such a person is well known to you. Therefore, faced with a provocative situation, may increase aggression if such person is new since it induces the body to react towards a fight.

Substances

The use of drugs and alcohol increases an individual’s likelihood to react aggressively. Such substances diminish the ability to make a sound judgment, and in the event, lead to aggression. Further, such substances

Conclusion

In conclusion, the different social psychologists have come forth to explain why people in any society may become violent or not. The theories which can be traced back to the World War I, have been instrumental in the understanding of the concept of aggression. Despite some having limitations, all these theories offer vital insights in the area of aggression. Players in the field of psychology can use such insights to treat individuals who depict mental disorders that lead to aggression. Such theories also offer an impetus for other researchers to carry out more investigations on the same aspect to advance previous findings or come up with totally different findings.

References

Anderson, C., & Warburton, W. (2015). The General Aggression Model and Domestic Violence. Retrieved from https://public.psych.iastate.edu/caa/abstracts/2015-2019/15WA-2.pdf

Bak, W. (2016). Personality predictors of anger. The role of FFM traits, shyness, and self-esteem. The Journal of Committee for Psychological Sciences of Polish Academy of Sciences, 47(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ppb-2016-0044

Cooke, T. (2017). Social Information Processing: A Useful Framework for Educational Psychology. Educational Psychology Research and Practice, 3(1), 50-69. Retrieved 2018

Leonard, B. (2012). A cognitive-neoassociation theory of aggression. American Psychological Association, 99-117. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446249222.n31

Meyer, D. (2016). Hamilton and the Frustration-Aggression Theory. Retrieved from https://sites.tufts.edu/fall16psy13dmeyer/2016/12/02/hamilton-and-the-frustration-aggression-theory/

Paulhus, D., Curtis, S., & Jones, D. (2018). Aggression as a trait: the Dark Tetrad alternative. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 88-92. Retrieved 2018, from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.04.007

Valdes, A. (2018). Challenging Behavior, Parental Conflict and Community Violence in Students with Aggressive Behavior. International Journal of Psychological Research, 11(1), 50-57. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323150652_Challenging_Behavior_Parental_Conflict_and_Community_Violence_in_Students_with_Aggressive_Behavior

Warburton, W. (2014). Apples, Oranges, and the Burden of Proof – Putting Media Violence Findings Into Context. European Psychologist, 19, 60-67. doi:https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000166