Aggression: Children and Adults Show Aggression When Feeling Threatened

             By referring what has been studied and learned about aggression, it can be understood that children or even adults will show aggression when they feel threatened. Children from divorced homes have issues with low self-esteem and social competence because they are left out from one or both parents due to that they are usually self-absorbed from their own emotional pain. It is clear that children and adults become very withdrawn even though they do attempt express their emotional pain to others. It is apparent that when children and adults do not have the attention that they need at home, they show aggression in a negative way.
             Fromm (1973) has argued that we must distinguish in man two entirely different kinds of aggression. The first kind, which he shares with all animals, is a phylogenetically programmed impulse to attack (or to flee) when vital interests are threatened. This 'defensive' or 'benign' aggression is in the service of the survival of the individual and the species, is biologically adaptive, and ceases when the threat has ceased to exist. The other type, 'malignant' aggression, i.e., destructiveness and cruelty, is specific to the human species and virtually absent in most mammals; it is not phylogenetically programmed and not biologically adaptive; it has no purpose, and its satisfaction is lustful (THE 'EVIL' MIND: PT. 3. CRUELTY AND 'BEAST-IN-MAN' IMAGERY).
             From there, it is clear that if a person bottles up their emotions for a long time, he or she can become extremely aggressive to the point that they will physical harm to others as it was seen in the case of Joe. With that, it has become that malignant aggression can become an issue for those who have dealt feelings of aggression for a long time. Research has determined that children have more emotional and social issues than adults because they are developing their personalities. A child acts out...

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Aggression: Children and Adults Show Aggression When Feeling Threatened. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 16:46, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/203178.html