Aggression and Violence - Coursework Example

Aggression and Violence Number Introduction Aggression is defined as any sortof behavior which exhibits any intent to injure or harm oneself, another individual or object. Violence on the other hand is the exhibition of the extreme end of physical aggression and can result in murder or physical assaults. The intention to cause harm to others is a necessary and vital feature of all aggressive behavior and it is worth noting that aggression has, more often than not, been the preceding behavior for violence and acts of violence (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). Social psychologists attribute the use of aggression and violence to the need for an individual to achieve a particular goal, to simply cause harm to another person, to assert dominance over others, to express possession over materials and as reactions to emotions such as frustration, fear and anger. Aggressive behavior exhibited by numerous individuals has been noted by both social and evolutionary psychologists to have several roots ranging from genetics to learned acquisitions. Aggression is injurious, destructive and hostile and can manifest in numerous different forms. Aggression can be passive, verbal or hostile. It is worth noting that aggressive behavior can involve the act of depriving people of a need or refusing to perform an action that will intentionally result in emotionally or physically hurting someone (Berkowitz, 2003). Aggression can be traced across different age groups, cultures and genders. Evolutionary psychologists argue that aggression is an integral part of human survival and historically offered and evolutionary advantage to the reproduction of the human species. However, feelings of frustration or anger have also been noted to be some of the underlying caused for its manifestation in individuals (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). Aggression and violence pose major problems for both societies as well as the criminal justice system due to their economic and social costs. Apart from causing physical injury, aggression and violence can cause psychological harm. In hospitals and prisons, aggression and violence contribute to the elimination of any sort of therapeutic environment in which prisoners and patients can be assisted to improve or change their attitudes and behavior. Aggression and violence are therefore detrimental to the wellbeing of both patients as well as prisoners. Aggressive as well as violent acts and the likelihood of future violence are of particular concern for those who working the mental health industry in both hospitals and prisons. The psychological effects of aggression can be far reaching especially on victimized loved ones who react by denying the behavior, blaming themselves or justifying the aggression directed toward them by intellectualizing the exhibited aggressive behavior. Bandura’s social learning theory as well as the Script theory proposed by Huessmann, are both key theories that explain the prevalence of violence in today’s society. Additionally, there are numerous factors that can be seen to be the modern causes of violence or aggressive behavior. Such factors include increased access to information through the internet and media as well as the increased accessibility to weaponry (Berkowitz, 2003). Although measuring societal rates of violence and aggression is fraught with difficulties due to the politics that affect the definition of aggression and violence, homicide rates have been used as the measure for societal aggression and violence. The different types of aggression Aggression and violent behavior today is sufficient enough to make it a social problem worthy of widespread attention. There are 2 key types of aggression namely: Hostile aggression also referred to as impulsive, affective or reactive aggression Instrumental aggression Hostile aggression is typically characterized by a triggering frustrating event, an impulse to hurt an object or individual, and an internal state of emotional arousal (Berkowitz, 2003). Hostile aggression is usually conceived as impulsive or unplanned, thoughtless and driven by underlying emotions such as anger, fear or frustration. In addition it has the ultimate motive of causing harm to an intended target. Impulsive aggression is fast, automatic and is characterized by the lack of consideration of the consequences of the action. Instrumental aggression, on the other hand, is based on the intention of an individual to obtain a reward from their behavior and actions. In contrast to hostile aggression, instrumental aggression is usually conceived as premeditated and solely used as a means of obtaining a goal rather than harming others. Premeditated aggression is conceived as deliberative, instrumental and slow (Berkowitz, 2003). Theories of aggression One cannot understand the social psychology of aggressive behavior and violent actions without placing it in a developmental context of differing social cognitive processes at different ages. This is due to the fact that aggressive behavior occurs in both adults and children but have different manifestations. There are five theories that attempt to explain the cause and origins of aggression and violent behavior in individuals. These are cognitive neo-association theory, social learning theory, script theory, excitation theory and the social interaction theory, Cognitive Neo-association theory This theory suggests that aversive events such as provocations, frustrations, loud noises, unpleasant smells and uncomfortable temperatures all produce negative effects. These events automatically stimulate various thoughts, expressive motor reactions, memories and physiological responses associated with both flight and fight tendencies in individuals. The cognitive neo association theory posits that aggressive behaviors, emotions and thoughts are all linked together in memory (Berkowitz, 2003). Social learning theory Bandura’s social learning theory posits that individuals acquire aggressive responses much in the same way they acquire other forms of complex social behavior. The social learning theory suggests that children learn behaviors of aggression through observing others, especially authority figures, or through direct experience. The theory further suggests that although individuals may learn aggressive behaviors, they can choose to continue the behavior or not to engage in conduct associated with aggression (Berkowitz, 2003). Script theory This theory proposes that when children observe violence in the mass media, they learn aggressive scripts. These scripts define one’s situations and act as guides to one’s behavior. The script theory suggests that an individual first selects a script to represent the situation and subsequently assumes a role in the script (Malamuth & Check, 1981). Once learned, an individual may retrieve a script at a later time in order to use it as a guide for behavior. This theory is particularly useful in accounting for the generalization of complex perception-judgment-decision behavioral processes in individuals. Excitation theory This theory notes that physiological arousal dissipates slowly and if two arousing events are separated by a short amount of time, arousal from the first event may be misattributed to the second event. Excitation transfer theory further suggests that anger can be extended for a long period of time especially if an individual consciously attributes the heightened arousal to anger. This suggests that an individual is predisposed to aggressive behavior for as long as this self-generated label of anger persists. Social interaction theory The social interaction theory interprets aggressive behavior as social influence behavior. This theory suggests that an actor can use aggressive behavior as a means to produce change in a targets behavior. It suggests that the actions of the aggressors are directed by the expected rewards. The most relevant theory that can explain the characteristics of modern aggression and violence is the script theory. There has been an increase in the number of cases of aggression among children due to media violence. The screening of violence over the media has been seen to desensitize children to the suffering and pain of others. There has been far-reaching research on the link between televised violence and violent behavior amongst adolescents. Current studies have shown a direct correlation between aggressive conduct and watching violence depicted in many media services and suggest that media is a variable that put children at risk of aggressive behavior (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). According to the American Psychological Association, watching playing violent scenes them on games and television, can desensitize children to the suffering and pain of others and may be a greater risk of acting aggressively toward others and theyre less bothered by violence in general and less likely to see anything wrong with it.   Studies disclose that children watch roughly twenty eight hours of television a week (Tompkins, 2003). American children and adolescents are exposed to increasing amounts of media violence, especially in television, movies, video games, and youth-oriented music. By 18, the average young person will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). Many of the studies that claim positive results concerning a link between media violence and ensuing aggression, actually have negative or inconclusive results. Media violence researches frequently fail to report for other variables such as heredity traits, personality and introduction to family violence that may explain both the reason some people become violent and why they may decide to expose themselves to violent media. In more recent years, violence has become the most popular form of entertainment. Most fictional programs on television and scenes depicted in most games need this violence to develop a storyline that would be interesting and captivating to most viewers. The violence is far more graphic and disturbing than in the past (Tompkins, 2003). Many argue that media violence is at least partly to blame for the school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, Taber, Alberta and Erfurt, Germany.   Proponents of the idea that violence depicted on both television and video games affects the behavior of children state that, contrary to other beliefs, these scenes teach a higher sense of the justification of the use of violence in different situations (Tompkins, 2003). It teaches that violence is a correct avenue to solve differences, which is not an acceptable action within real life situations. The classic setting of using violence for a virtuous cause may interpret in daily life into a validation for using violence to even the score against supposed victimizers. Consequently, defenseless youth who have been maltreated may be tempted to use aggressive means to resolve problems. The hero in most of these scenes also teaches them that violence has no consequences because he/she never gets in trouble for their actions. Most psychologists agree that experiences teach children during their early years and have a longstanding effect on their lives. Toddlers between the ages of eighteen to sixteen months are intelligent enough to comprehend the significance of the programs (Tompkins, 2003) that they watch and respond in the same manner to both actual and acted violence since their link between dream and actuality is still not strong. Furthermore, toddlers between the ages of three and five years are engrossed by extremely dramatic scenes, which in today’s viewing, is mostly violence. Additionally, children who are in elementary schools believe that TV reflects real life and will become more active in displaying hostile conduct after watching violent scenes because they have been learning form a young age through watching and imitating what they see their through the violent acts of supposed movie heroes (Malamuth & Check, 1981). Children who observe the aggressive shows, even hilarious cartoons, were more apt to hit their playmates, quarrel, refuse to comply with class rules, leave tasks uncompleted, and were less eager to wait for things than those who watched the nonviolent programs since children have fewer checks on primal violent urges than adults. It is further noted that more aggressive children are more likely to watch media violent behavior as it makes their own behavior seem common. Their successive screening of violence then raises their violent scripts and viewpoint through observational learning and makes further aggression even more likely (Malamuth & Check, 1981). Measures taken to control aggression and violence in individuals It is worth noting that recent studies suggest that attempts to change overly aggressive behavior in individuals becomes increasingly difficult and less successful as individuals become older. This has been attributed to the fact that one’s increased life experiences form well-rehearsed and accessible knowledge structures that are highly difficult to change (Berkowitz, 2003). The most successful interventions for aggressive behavior and violence appear to be those that address multiple sources of potentially maladaptive learning environments at a young age. Treatments that have been tried on juvenile offenders that include boot camps, scared-straight tactics, individual and group therapy have a general consensus of failure and there is little evidence of sustained success. This is due to the fact that these approaches do not address the wide range of factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of violent behaviors (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). The most promising approach to treating violent and aggressive behavior in juveniles is the multi-systemic therapy approach. This is a family oriented approach that first identifies the major factors contributing to the violent and delinquent behaviors. Examined factors include biological factors, peer groups, work, school, and neighborhood as well as family factors. Treatments include severely restricting violent as well as criminal behaviors whereas pro-social opportunities are rewarded and enhanced (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 1992). Bibliography Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. (2002). Human Aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 27-51. Berkowitz, L. (2003). Aggression: Its Causes, Consequences and Control. New York: McGraw-Hill. Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C.-L., & Eron, L. D. (1992). "Longitudinal Relations Between Childrens Exposure to TV Violence and Their Aggressive and Violent Behavior in Young Adulthood: 1977 - 1992. Developmental Psychology, 202-221. Malamuth, N. M., & Check, J. V. (1981). The Effects of Mass Exposure on acceptance of Violence against Women: A Field Experiment . Journal of Research in Personality, 436-446. Tompkins, A. (2003). The Psychological Effect of Violent Media on Children. Allpsych Journal. Read More