Describe_and_Evaluate_Theories_of_Aggression

Describe and Evaluate Theories of Aggression. There are many forms of aggression used in society today, from name calling in the playground to domestic violence which is a man or women being beaten by his or her spouse. There are several on-going debates regarding aggression development one of the main debates is nature versus nurture with Konrad Lorenz supporting the nature theory by suggesting that aggression is an instinct that we are all born with and Albert Bandura supporting the nurture theory, he believes that a child is influenced by their surroundings and by their upbringing. So could aggression be genetically transferred to us like the colour of our hair or eyes or does it develop as we grow and mature and interact with the world around us. Freud agreed with the nature theory to aggression development, he believed in the instinct theory. He believed that everyone is born with an instinct to live, Eros, and an instinct to die, Thanatos and that as our aggression builds up and builds up , this process is known as the hydraulic theory, we can turn our death instinct towards others in a movement of self preservation to stop us from destroying ourselves. Freud advised that the only way around this was to find another way to vent our aggression build up with some form of cathartic release such as sport. Lorenz studied animals as he believed we evolved from animals and found that we have inherited a fighting instinct from them. He supports the nature theory but his beliefs differ from Freuds as he finds aggression a beneficial instinct that doesn’t come from an internal struggle between our life and death instincts but from an instinct to protect territory, partners and young from rivals of the same species. Megargee and Mendelsohn agreed Freuds theorys and completed a study on people who had committed brutally aggressive crimes, they found that there aggression was repressed and over controlled until it built up so much that something inconsequential caused an aggressive outburst, and as Freuds theory predicts, after the outburst the attacker returned to a normal calm state with no signs of an aggressive nature. There are a lot of problems with the instinct theory one being that it is difficult to test and another being that not everyone displays the same levels of aggression in the same circumstances which suggests biological factors alone cannot be responsible. Also there are some societies that show almost no acts of aggression at all such as the Amish located in both America and Canada and the Nubians situated in Egypt. There is also the view that aggression is something we learn or imitate from people around us this is known as the social learning theory. Bandura didn’t believe that aggression is a build up of aggressive energy that has to be released he also didn’t believe that aggression is an instinct that we are all born with, he believed that children repeat what they are shown by parents, peers and even characters of television programs. He feels that if they see people getting what they want through forms of aggression they will repeat the aggression to get what they want in the future. He completed a study involving primary school children and a bobo doll which let the children observe a bobo doll being aggressively attacked by an adult. Some children saw the adult being rewarded for the attack and some saw the adult being punished and the remaining children saw the adult being neither rewarded nor punished. The children were then allowed to play with the bobo doll themselves, the children who where most aggressive where those who had seen the adult rewarded for it, and the ones who were the least aggressive were those children who seen the adult punished. In later studies Bandura showed that children who didn’t act aggressively towards the doll because they had seen the adult being punished had still learned the adults behaviour by offering them rewards to act aggressively and the majority of the children then imitated the aggressive acts shown by the adults. Therefore proving that the child had still learnt the behaviour even if they didn’t initially repeat it. This is supported by Zeanah and Zeanah who found through a study of adults that those who abuse or are aggressive towards their children where usually abused as children themselves. Straus also believed in the social learning theory and found through his own research that if a child sees or experiences aggression when growing up they are more likely to display it as adults. One of the main criticisms of Bandura’s research is that the actions Bandura documented as being aggression from the children could also have been interoperated as the children playing with the bobo doll as it is actually designed to be kicked and punched over. Durkin also felt that it was an unfair test as there are very few occasions if any where an adult will be aggressive towards something and then encourage a child to do the same so therefore the study was unrealistic. Also while the children were happy enough to hit the doll there was no documentation showing that they were aggressive towards other children suggesting that they were not actually being aggressive and were only playing as they are aware the doll wouldn’t be hurt by their actions. David Skuse from the Institute of Child Health also conducted his own study on 224 former male child abuse victims he disagrees with Zeanah and Zeanah and found that only 12% of these abused children went on in later life to copy or imitate this abuse. There have been many scientists that feel that outside factors are the cause of aggression, Berkowitz studied the effects of coldness on aggressive tendencies and found that students that held their hands in very cold water showed an increase in the likeliness of aggression towards fellow students. Whereas Carlsmith and Anderson studied 79 cities between 1967 and 1971 and they found that aggression was more likely to occur when it was particularly hot days. With so many studies showing different triggers and responses to aggression it is unlikely that we will ever find a definite cause. It could be a combination of all theories or just depend on the subject concerned however as long as there is aggression and violence in society it will continue to be researched and studied. Bibliography Davenport G.C (1994) An Introduction to Child Development Collins Educational London Gross R. And McIlveen R. (1998) Psychology A New Introduction Greengate Publishing Services Kent www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1093439 Accessed 21/03/09 www.beyondintractability.org/essay/aggression Accessed 21/03/09 www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/Aggression.topicArticleId-25438,articleId-25408.html Date accessed 21/03/09 www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/bandura.htm Date accessed 21/03/09 http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1809 Date accessed 21/03/09 http://209.85.229.132/search'q=cache:xd_v53tfKawJ:learn.hackney.ac.uk/file.php/32/Psychology_-_Dean/Social_Psychology/Handout_06_-_Theories_of_Aggression.doc+theories+of+aggression&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk Date accessed 21/03/09