HUMAN AGGRESSION

What are three critical ways in which aggression and violence have impacted our society?

REFERENCES

Across the Biological and Social Sciences, there are numerous (and often conflicting) explanations for why humans are such an aggressive and violent species. We will review some of the most prominent explanations in each discipline and weigh the pros and cons of each perspective. Behavioral research on chimpanzees, our closest living relative species, offers a great deal of insight into the genetic and evolutionary understanding of aggression and violence. Similarly, psychological and behavioral research on small children across various cultures and rearing environments offers insight into sociological and environmental foundations for aggression and violence. Ultimately, most scientists agree that a synthetic explanation incorporating both Biology and Culture is the most meaningful and valuable perspective take when analyzing the origins of aggression and violence.

ETEXT. What is aggression? In everyday conversation, some people may describe a salesperson who tries really hard to sell merchandise as "aggressive." The salesperson does not, however, want to harm potential customers. Most social psychologists define human aggression as any behavior intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed.11 This definition includes three important features. First, aggression is a behavioryou can see it. Aggression is not an emotion, such as anger (see Chapter 6 for a discussion of emotion). Aggression is not a thought, such as mentally rehearsing a murder (see Chapter 5 for a discussion of cognition). Second, aggression is intentional (not accidental), and the intent is to harm. For example, a dentist might intentionally give a patient a shot of anesthetic (which hurts!), but the goal is to help rather than hurt the patient. Third, the definition stipulates that the victim wants to avoid the harm. Thus, again, the dental patient is excluded because she or he is not seeking to avoid the harm (in fact, the patient probably booked the appointment weeks in advance and paid to have the dental work done). Suicide and sadomasochistic sex play are also not included because again the victim actively seeks to be harmed. Note that behaviors that are intended to harm others are still acts of aggression even if they don't actually harm them. For example, if a person shoots a gun at you but misses, it is still an act of aggression. It is useful to distinguish among various forms and functions of aggression. By "forms" we mean how the aggressive act is expressed, such as physically (e.g., hitting, kicking, stabbing, shooting) or verbally (e.g., yelling, screaming, swearing, name calling). In displaced aggression, a substitute aggression target is used.12 For example, a man is berated by his boss at work but does not retaliate. When he gets home, he kicks his dog or yells at a family member instead. Different forms of aggression can be expressed directly or indirectly. In direct aggression any behavior intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid the harm displaced aggression any behavior that intentionally harms a substitute target rather than the provocateur direct aggression any behavior that intentionally harms another person who is physically present indirect aggression any behavior that intentionally harms another person who is physically absent aggression, the victim is physically present; in indirect aggression, the victim is absent. For example, physical aggression can be direct (e.g., hitting a person in the face) or indi-rect (e.g., burning his house down while he is away). Likewise, verbal aggression can be direct (e.g., screaming in a person's face) or indirect (e.g., spreading rumors behind her back). Males are more likely than females to use direct aggression, whereas females are more likely than males to use indirect aggression.13 Aggressive acts may also differ in their function or motivation. Consider two ex-amples. In the first, a husband finds his wife and her lover together in bed. He grabs his rifle from the closet and shoots and kills them both. In the second, a "hit man" uses a rifle to kill another person for money. The form of aggression is the same (shooting and killing victims with a rifle); however, the motives appear quite different. In the first example, the husband is probably motivated by anger. He is enraged when he finds his wife making love to another man, so he shoots them both. In the second example, the "hit man" is motivated by money. The "hit man" probably does not hate his victim. He might not even know his victim, but he kills the person anyway for the money.