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Aggression is behaviour intended to harm another. Aggressive behaviour can be verbal, physical or indirect. The social learning theorists view aggression as a behaviour that is learned through observation and maintained through reinforcement. Within this essay I shall discuss the limitations of these views, as well as other theories of aggression.We learn both aggressiveness and how to express aggression through direct reinforcement, indirect enforcement, identification and imitation. Bandura et al. (1961, 1963) showed that if children saw an adult behave aggressively towards a doll called Bobo by kicking, punching and shouting at it, they were more likely to imitate these actions, and even more likely to imitate the adults if they were rewarded. Bandura claimed that if aggression were identified early in children they would refrain from becoming criminals in later life. However, biological theorist argue that the children used in the Bobo experiment were manipulated into responding to an aggressive movie, also teased and frustrated because they could not touch the other toys on display in the room. Biological theorists claim that this experiment was unethical and morally wrong as Bandu
However critics of this theory have argued that violence on the television allows the watcher to relate with the characters involved in the violent act, so therefore they are able to release all aggressive thoughts and feelings through relation. Perhaps the best way to view aggression is to see it as having a mixture of different causes in different situations, and that all of the theories play a part to some extent in explaining the build up and exhibition of aggression. However, Siann (1985) stated that no physiological system has the overall effect on aggressive behaviour and is therefore not the sole cause for this behaviour. Calhoun (1962) demonstrated that overcrowding of rats produced aggressive behaviour, although there was plenty of food, some of the rats still eat their babies because the lack of space led to stress. Most of the research has underestimated how far the viewers selectively interpret what they see, and the complex ways in which the 'fictional' and the 'real' interrelate. Many theories have been developed over the years, suggesting that there could be many different causes of aggression. Also there is said to be a link with aggression in the form of hormones. The assumption behind this theory is that two primitive forces, 'the life and death instincts' oppose each other in our subconscious, and this incongruence is the origin of all desires to aggress. Freud stated that if this kind of energy is not released then it can cause psychological problems such as suicide or depression. It states that when individuals have overwhelming physiological excitement such as happiness, pain, loud music, exercise, drugs and even overcrowding can lead to aggressive behaviour. The parents who solve disputes at home by smacking and yelling become the child's role model, so the child becomes resistant to punishment and even harder to control. This idea however, has a crucial flaw in that having defined the general aim of the death instinct Freud failed to determine its source. Patterson et al (1989) has argued that coercive home environments can unleash aggressiveness, such as strict discipline and lack of supervision can results in "disrupted bonding" between parents and their children. If the participant had watched the aggressive film, or there was an aggressive instrument in the room like a gun, then they were more likely to give a greater number of shocks to the individual, than those that had watched the non-aggressive film.
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Acceptance Essays
