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Overview
Aggression does not appear to have one,
single cause or root. Much of Personality
Psychology deals with issues and concepts
that have many causes, many variables that
impact the issue, and Aggression is no
different.
Research
Thus, research has looked into
I.biological predispositions (its
innate, evolutionarily adaptive,
biological),
II.learning history (either classical,
operant, or modeling),
III.emotional states leading to maladaptive
thinking processes or lack of skills and
IV.culture as influencing the amount of
aggression a person displays.
I. Biological causes
1. It is innate Psychoanalytic and
Psychodynamic theories support this idea.
Thanatos is our basic biological drive towards
aggression, destruction and death.
I. Biological causes
2. Researchers using Evolutionary Theory and
Animal Models also propose the idea that
aggression is an innate instinct that is crucial
for the survival of our species. We must
aggress to defend our young, territory, and
other resources.
Evolutionary theory,
cont.
Much of human aggression does not seem
to fit the models and theories that describe
innate aggression, however.
Altruistic aggression (a strong member of a
family protecting a weaker one; a few
select soldiers going to war for an entire
country) is supported by research, but the
other theories (that we fit animal models)
are not well supported by research for
humans.
Biological brain
structures
A. certain brain structures when electrically
stimulated will lead to aggressive behaviors,
showing there is an anatomical structure that
is involved in aggression, but most humans
have this structure and the differences in
level of aggression in people cannot be
explained by differences in the amount of this
structure being stimulated.
Biological - hormones
Regarding hormonal etiologies for aggression,
studies supporting hormonal causes focus on
physical aggression as opposed to verbal
aggression.
Positive correlations between testosterone
levels and amount of physical aggression
have been found.
Biological hormones,
Problems
Correlation does not mean Causation
Proving that Hormonal differences are
causing differences in aggression is
difficult to prove, as acting aggressively
causes increases in hormones just as
increases in hormones cause increases
in aggression.
Plus, if it were truly hormones then all
males would be more aggressive than all
females and that isnt the case. See
Gender Differences Discussion below.
Biological hormones,
alternative explanations
It may be that a third variable (extroversion,
social dominance, impulsivity,
competitiveness or nonconformist thinking)
is increased by testosterone and that leads
to the likelihood of problems being solved
via aggression.
Operant conditioning also is involved in that
if aggressive behavior is emitted due to this
extroversion or nonconformist thinking and
if this behavior is reinforced as a child, that
child grows up to continue using aggression,
since it works.
Gender Differences
studies
Research finding Gender differences in
aggression state that these differences prove
that males are more aggressive than females
and that this means biology (usually
testosterone) is the cause of aggression.
Biological - Genetics
Twin studies- do not support a genetic cause
of aggression or criminality. Environment is
imp.
Some genetic abnormalities (XYY) have higher
rates of criminality (1/1000 births but 1/35100 in jail), but they also have lower IQs and
tend to not do violent crimes and most XYYs
dont become criminals. So, they may just be
people who are too big to go unnoticed or are
not smart enough to get away with their
crimes vs someone more aggressive.