DEFINING AGGRESSION: THREE DISTINCTIONS

When we think of aggression and violence, most of us probably

think first of crimes committed by one individual against another.

According to a recent national survey, each year 16 percent of all

married persons engage in some act of physical violence against their

mate, ranging from throwing something to using a knife or a gun on

them.

A great many parents commit surprising levels of violence against

their own children. The same study showed that 13 percent of the

parents had hit their child with an object in the previous year, 58 percent

had slapped or spanked their child, and 3 percent had threatened their

child with a gun or knife sometime in the child.s life. The authors

estimate that about 1.5 million children are physically injured by their

parents each year. The most violence in families occurs between siblings.

In a given year, 40 percent of all children hit their own siblings with an

object, and 16 percent beat up their sibling.

Because people frequently treat one another so badly, even

destructively, social psychologists have done a great deal of research to

try to understand the violence people do to each other, usually under

the general heading of research on aggression.

Although it might seem that everybody understands what aggression

is, there is considerable disagreement about how to define it. Let us

make three important distinctions here. The first is whether we should

define aggression simply in terms of hurtful behavior, or whether we

need to take into consideration whether the person has hurtful intentions.

The simplest definition of aggression, and the other favored by those

with a learning or behaviorist approach, is that aggression is any

behavior that hurts others.

One of the first attributions people make about aggression is of the

person.s intent. If a person tries to hurt someone, we ordinarily consider

her to be aggressive; if she is not trying to cause harm, she is not being

aggressive.

A second major distinction is also needed, between antisocialand

prosocialaggression. Normally we think of aggression as bad. After all,

if an aggressive act results from an intent to hurt another person, it

must be bad. But some aggressive acts are good. We applaud the police

officer who shoots a terrorist who has killed innocent victims and is

holding others hostage.

A third distinction is between aggressive behavior and aggressive

feelings, such as anger. Our overt behavior does not always reflect our

internal feelings. Someone may be quite angry inside, but make no

overt effort to hurt another person.

We need to consider both the factors that increase anger and the

restraints that may prevent it from being translated into aggressive

action.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 969