Theoretical explanations for aggression
PSY 102 Grand Canyon Week 6 Discussion 2
America is a very violent country, compared to countries like Great Britain and India. How do the theoretical explanations for aggression help explain this? How do the ideas of conformity, compliance, and obedience tie into this discussion?
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Theoretical explanations for aggression
Introduction
Aggression is a normal, adaptive behavior that increases fitness in many animals. However, aggression can also be costly and harmful to individuals, causing injury or death. Thus, understanding the causes of aggression has been an important area of research for many decades in psychology and biology.
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Aggression is a natural behavior that evolved to increase fitness under certain circumstances and has been documented in many species including humans. Aggression can be beneficial to an individual if it results in increased access (and therefore mating opportunities) with other members of their group at the expense of enemies outside their group. However, aggression can also cause harm to victims if not controlled appropriately by the aggressor who may inflict serious injury or death upon them (e.g., through bites). Therefore understanding the causes of aggression is important for both understanding its evolutionary origins as well as ensuring its control (to prevent harm).
Evolutionary
Aggression, like most behaviors, is a natural and common behavior. Aggressive acts are adaptive in that they allow an organism to survive and reproduce. For example, if you’re attacked by a predator while you’re trying to get food or avoid being eaten yourself (a much better outcome than missing out on your next meal), then aggression makes sense—it’s how you can best protect yourself from harm and make sure that you get enough food for yourself and the rest of your group. If there are only two options: run away as fast as possible or fight back with whatever means necessary; then running away isn’t always an option because it will leave behind weaker members who cannot defend themselves against predators later on down the road; thus fighting back may be necessary if one wants any chance at survival at all!
Aggression also plays an important role in shaping our evolutionary history—not just because it helps keep us alive today but also because it influences genes over time so we become more likely than others who don’t exhibit aggressive tendencies towards each other during childhood development stages up until adulthood age 30+.
Instinct theory
The instinct theory of aggression is the idea that aggression is a natural response to certain stimuli. This theory was proposed by ethologist Konrad Lorenz and was popularized by his student Niko Tinbergen.
Lorenz believed that aggression is an innate drive or instinct directed toward certain stimuli, such as mating and fighting (i.e., survival). He also believed that this drive could be activated in both humans and animals depending on their genetic makeup, so it isn’t just something we do because we’re programmed by culture or society; instead, everyone has access to their own version of “fight or flight”—and if you’re not careful enough about what triggers your fight-flight response then you’ll end up getting hurt!
Social learning theory
Social learning theory suggests that aggressive behaviour is learned by watching others and observing rewards. This can occur in the form of verbal messages (e.g., “Don’t mess with me!”), physical threats or violence, rewards such as praise and money, or even punishment if you don’t follow instructions.
Social learning theory also explains why aggression is more likely to be repeated if it’s rewarded: because people want what they see other people get without having to work hard for it themselves! Aggression may also be learned through watching violent media – although there’s no evidence that this leads directly into violence itself, it does influence children’s attitudes toward violence (see ‘Violence’).
Frustration-aggression hypothesis
Frustration-aggression hypothesis
The frustration-aggression hypothesis is a popular theory that explains aggression as a response to frustration. According to this theory, aggression is an attempt to relieve the tension caused by an inability to complete a task or achieve something. For example, when you’re trying to learn how to play your guitar but keep messing up every time so you give up and yell at your teacher instead of continuing on with your lessons; or when someone cuts in front of you in line at the bank and makes you feel frustrated enough that you want them punished for their behavior (which may include hitting them).
The frustration-aggression hypothesis states that aggression is not only a response to frustration but also motivates it.
Drive theory of aggression
The drive theory of aggression holds that aggression is a drive that must be released. Aggression is a response to frustration, arousal and the need for self-defense.
According to this view, aggressive behavior is not just an expression of hostile feelings but also a way of coping with them. It allows people who feel threatened or angry to take action quickly in order to reduce their discomfort level—whether it be physical pain or emotional stress—and get on with life again without being attacked by others (or so they think).
Cue-arousal theory
Cue-arousal theory is a psychological theory of aggression that states that aggressive behaviour is caused by a person’s response to an external stimulus. The theory was developed by John Dollard and Neal Miller in 1938, and it has been used to explain many different types of aggression.
Theory of learning: Aggression is learned through classical conditioning, where the aggressive behavior is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) such as a loud noise or angry face. This pairing causes the brain to associate those conditions with fear and danger, which leads us to feel threatened when confronted by them again in future situations where we encounter them without any prior experience with them first hand before being exposed again later on down line
Cognitive neoassociation model of aggression.
The cognitive neoassociation model of aggression is one of the most widely accepted theories of aggression. It argues that aggression can be learned through the association of environmental cues and aggressive thoughts and feelings.
In this model, a person’s environment may include any number of things such as media depictions or depictions in video games. A series of exposures to these stimuli results in what psychologists call “cues” (i.e., events) that elicit certain feelings in people who have been exposed to them repeatedly over time—for example: watching violent television programs leads some viewers to feel more aggressive than others because they associate watching these shows with feeling angry or frustrated when something goes wrong during an episode; playing violent video games makes some players think about killing fictional characters onscreen; seeing someone else being beaten up by another person might prompt you think about beating them up yourself even though you don’t know each other personally
Conclusion
To summarize, aggression is a complex phenomenon that involves many factors. It may be the result of biological evolution or the other way around, but it is usually more likely due to social factors. Different theories have been proposed to explain why people become aggressive and which are most valid: evolutionary, instinctual/instinctive and learning models; cognitive neoassociation theory; frustration-aggression hypothesis; drive theories regarding aggression
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