Theories of Aggression
Mirna Ramirez
EDU 524: Coping with Stress and Violence
June 13, 2018
Benjamin Roberson
Concordia University Irvine
School of Education
Theories of Aggression
Acts of violence have increasingly plagued the nation, beginning with the Columbine massacre in 1999 that fueled subsequent rampages and spreading to the most recent school shootings in Texas and Indiana. In many of cases, the culprits were seemingly normal people that directed their aggression toward innocent bystanders. Learning about these and other acts of violence on the news has become such a pervasive occurence that it leads one to ask the following questions: What is the cause of this unleashed aggression toward society? How can one …show more content…
In fact, most people can go their entire lives without ever engaging in violence, whether it be toward others or themselves, which serves as a counterexample to the “psycho-hydraulic” model. Furthermore, in both Freud’s and Lorenz’s theories, aggression is compared to a biological drive where pressure builds to engage in an activity, we engage in that activity, and then the pressure is reduced for a time. If we do not satisfy our biological drives - say, thirst, hunger, sleep - eventually we die. True human drives do fit this model, but aggression does not; if we do not behave aggressively, we do not get more aggressive nor do we die from a lack of aggression (Gentile, 2013). A more applicable model would be one in which aggression is not a drive but a response to frustrated desires and aims, which is the basis of Dollard’s Frustration-Aggression …show more content…
Dollard et al. (1939) posited that when a person is frustrated or provoked, retaliating against the provoking agent reduces aggressive feelings and the resulting aggressive actions. Thus, revenge is presented as a way of allowing an individual to feel better because it releases frustration (Gentile, 2013). Sometimes, however, individuals may not be able to challenge their source of frustration. In these cases, the aggression is displaced onto an innocent target. This displacement of aggression creates a cathartic relief because the aggression has been released, even if it was not toward the original target (Jost & Mentovich, 2017). In this sense, the F-A theory is similar to Freud’s ideas regarding displacement and catharsis - both theories descibe displacement as a way of discharging tension and achieving a state of relief. However, the difference between the two theories is the source of the aggressive forces; for Freud, aggression was an instinctual drive that all humans are born with (Thanatos) and must constantly be balanced with the drive for pleasure and life (Eros) (Karr, 1971). For Dollard and the rest of the research team at Yale, aggression was always a direct result of a person’s frustration, not caused by internal conflict but by outside stressors (Jost & Mentovich,
Mirna Ramirez
EDU 524: Coping with Stress and Violence
June 13, 2018
Benjamin Roberson
Concordia University Irvine
School of Education
Theories of Aggression
Acts of violence have increasingly plagued the nation, beginning with the Columbine massacre in 1999 that fueled subsequent rampages and spreading to the most recent school shootings in Texas and Indiana. In many of cases, the culprits were seemingly normal people that directed their aggression toward innocent bystanders. Learning about these and other acts of violence on the news has become such a pervasive occurence that it leads one to ask the following questions: What is the cause of this unleashed aggression toward society? How can one …show more content…
In fact, most people can go their entire lives without ever engaging in violence, whether it be toward others or themselves, which serves as a counterexample to the “psycho-hydraulic” model. Furthermore, in both Freud’s and Lorenz’s theories, aggression is compared to a biological drive where pressure builds to engage in an activity, we engage in that activity, and then the pressure is reduced for a time. If we do not satisfy our biological drives - say, thirst, hunger, sleep - eventually we die. True human drives do fit this model, but aggression does not; if we do not behave aggressively, we do not get more aggressive nor do we die from a lack of aggression (Gentile, 2013). A more applicable model would be one in which aggression is not a drive but a response to frustrated desires and aims, which is the basis of Dollard’s Frustration-Aggression …show more content…
Dollard et al. (1939) posited that when a person is frustrated or provoked, retaliating against the provoking agent reduces aggressive feelings and the resulting aggressive actions. Thus, revenge is presented as a way of allowing an individual to feel better because it releases frustration (Gentile, 2013). Sometimes, however, individuals may not be able to challenge their source of frustration. In these cases, the aggression is displaced onto an innocent target. This displacement of aggression creates a cathartic relief because the aggression has been released, even if it was not toward the original target (Jost & Mentovich, 2017). In this sense, the F-A theory is similar to Freud’s ideas regarding displacement and catharsis - both theories descibe displacement as a way of discharging tension and achieving a state of relief. However, the difference between the two theories is the source of the aggressive forces; for Freud, aggression was an instinctual drive that all humans are born with (Thanatos) and must constantly be balanced with the drive for pleasure and life (Eros) (Karr, 1971). For Dollard and the rest of the research team at Yale, aggression was always a direct result of a person’s frustration, not caused by internal conflict but by outside stressors (Jost & Mentovich,