Theories of Aggression

2324 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Summary of the psychoanalytic theory

Theories of Aggression

"Two Gunman at Colorado School Reportedly Kill Up to 23 Before Dying in a Siege." On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, of Columbine High School, shocked the nation when they entered the school armed with guns and explosives, killing fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives. Stories of random violence and aggression such as this all too often plague the media. While the attention of the nation has recently been focused on the Colorado slayings, history reveals countless other similar crimes of aggression targeted towards innocent individuals. In both Nazi Germany and the more recent Bosnia conflict, ethnic cleansing has been used to violently eliminate certain races. In the early 1990s, Timothy McVegh's vengeful intentions led him to use a car bomb to kill hundreds of innocent people in the explosion of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.

In these cases, the culprits were seemingly normal people that displaced their aggression on innocent bystanders for a variety of reasons. What is the cause of this unleashed aggression toward society? How can we come to explain such acts of aggression and violence? Are they a result of societal influences, or are some individuals biologically predisposed to crime? This paper attempts to analyze some of the prevailing theories of aggression. The theories can be classified into three groups: innate or biological theories, drive theories and social learning theories. In light of the evidence produced for each, it is my goal to formulate a conclusion about which particular theory seems most substantiated and reasonable.

Sigmund Freud is well known as the father of psychoanalysis. In his early theory, Freud ass...

... middle of paper ...

...h murders and violence, we must regard aggression as a summated response to many factors. Individually, the factors probably are harmless, but when united, they can be unleashed as aggression in which case terrible crimes take the lives of so many innocent people.

WWW Sources

1)Freud's Theory

http://home.fgi.net/~freud/index.htm

2)Freud Biography

http://werple.net.au/~gaffcam/phil/psych1.htm

3)Instinct Theory

http://www.student.richmond.edu/~efecteau/instinct.html

4)Aggression Theories

http://rock.uwc.edu/psych/psy330/outlines/aggression.htm

5)Theories of Aggression

http://www.unn.ac.uk/academic/ss/psychology/resource/it/1/HAZ.HTM

6) The Theoretical Development of Aggression

http://academic.csub.edu/~lvega/dustin2.html

7) Aggression and Violence: Examining the Theories

http://www.nursing-standard.co.uk/vol12-27/research.htm

Show More
Related

  • Bullying Among Nurses: A Summary of the Literature

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Several databases including Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Cochrane were accessed using the key words “workplace violence,” “nurses,” student nurses,” horizontal violence,” “bullying,” “oppression,” and “intergroup conflict.” The purpose of the literature search was to determine the predominance of horizontal violence among new nurses and nursing students.

    Read More

  • The Motivation Behind the Columbine High Shootings

    3724 Words  | 8 Pages

    In its societal context, the Columbine school shootings are not an obvious part of a discernible sociological pattern. We know that approximately 4,500 youngsters are killed every year in intentional shootings, with thirty per cent of that number probable suicides. That's almost 13 a day, the same number as were killed in Littleton (The Washington Post, April 25, 1999). The data on school shootings, according to the Center for Communicable Diseases, indicate that only about 28 per cent actually occurred inside the school and that one-third of the victims were not...

    Read More

  • Bullying Within the Nursing Profession in Australia

    2321 Words  | 5 Pages

    Workplace bullying is increasingly being recognised as a serious problem in society. Reports from the general media and professional press suggest that there is increasing evidence that the scale of bullying, harassment and violence amongst health care staff is widespread (UNISON, 2003). Chaboyer, Najman, and Dunn (2001) explain that although nursing in Australia is now considered a profession, the use of horizontal violence, bullying and aggression in nursing interactions has been identified as a serious problem. Levett-Jones (as cited in Clare, White, Edwards, & van Loon, 2002) explains that the recipients or victims of bullying within the nursing profession are often graduate nurses, with 25% of graduates reporting negative experiences. Bullying behaviour often renders the workplace a harmful, fearful and abusive environment and has a devastating effect on the nurse, healthcare team and patient. This essay will discuss the issue of bullying within the nursing profession, with a particular focus on the experiences of graduate nurses. The contributing historical, social, political and economic factors will be explored in order to better understand the origins of this trend. The subsequent impact of bullying on nursing practice will be analysed and recommendations for practice, supported by current literature, will be provided.

    Read More

  • The Frustration-Aggression Theory

    97 Words  | 1 Pages

    Social psychologists conclude that the frustration-aggression hypothesis remains tentative and that multiple factors may be associated with the expression of aggressive behavior. Critics of the frustration aggression theory point out that frustration does tend to lead to aggression in some circumstances but not always (Berkowitz, 1990). Theorists also suggested that a broader term than frustration should be used as the source of aggression because aggression can be elicited or instigated by other factors, such as the character and perceived intent of the instigator, personality factors and life experiences of the frustrated individual, and environmental conditions (Meyer,

    Read More

  • Sport, Aggression, Violence and Victimization

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    Goldstein, J. (1986). The Nature of Human Aggression. Aggression and Crimes of Violence. New York. Oxford University Press, 3-29.

    Read More

  • Workplace Violence in Nursing

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    The issue of workplace violence in nursing was brought into the light after several studies were performed focused on this topic. A chart shown in the United States Department of Labor, 2004, showed the increasing rates of ...

    Read More

  • Columbine Shooting

    1495 Words  | 3 Pages

    On April 20, 1999, within the tiny, suburban city of Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enacted a full-scale assault on columbine high school throughout the middle of the school day. The boys' idea was to kill many of their colleagues. With guns, knives, and a large number of bombs, the two boys walked the hallways and killed. Once the day was done, twelve students, one teacher, as well as the two murderers were dead; and 21 of them were wounded. The haunting question remains: why did they decide to do this?

    Read More

  • Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Legalized

    2109 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, between 1990 and 1999, a well-known advocate for physician assisted suicide, Jack Kevorkian helped 130 patients end their lives. He began the debate on assisted suicide by assisting a man with committing suicide on national television. According to Dr. Kevorkian, “The voluntary self-elimination of individual and mortally diseased or crippled lives taken collectively can only enhance the preservation of public health and welfare” (Kevorkian). In other words, Kevor...

    Read More

  • Essay On Violence In Nursing

    1797 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nurses encounter various challenges in the workplace. One of the most alarming trends is that they often become the victims of physical violence. It should be kept in mind that healthcare settings account for about 60 percent of all violent assaults that occur in various American workplaces (Gates, Gillespie, & Succop, 2011, p. 59). Additionally, more than 50 percent of nurses report that they suffered from physical abuse, at least once (Gates et al., 2011, p. 60). In turn, this tendency makes nurses even more vulnerable to the effects of stress. Moreover, they are likely to feel dissatisfied with their jobs. This paper is aimed at reviewing the scholarly articles that can illustrate the origins of this problem and its impacts on the experiences

    Read More

  • Aggression Social Psychology

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aggression is a sub-field under social psychology because social psychology is the study of how individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior changes in groups while interacting with other people. In comparison, aggression falls directly under this category because psychologist’s main goal is to try to understand how aggressive people tend to change in their behavior and mentality when their objective is to cause pain. People who are aggressive either physically or psychological educe pain and suffering upon an individual by verbally assaulting someone, berating them, spreading vicious rumors, or even name calling. Everyday schoolchildren are getting bullied, spouses are facing domestic violence, families encounter arguments, and the list continues because everyday aggressors react negatively to these scenarios. However, they are levels of extreme aggressive behavior compare to the others, such as violence being the highest form of aggression. Kassin et al. states compared to violence, the other forms of aggression, such as anger and hostility are less harmful compare to violence because “people can be angry with others and regard them with great hostility without ever trying to harm them” (2014). When someone is angry, they are usually experiencing irritation, hate, or other displeasing feelings. Similarly, those who express hostility, which are negative feelings the aggressor

    Read More

  • Incivility In Nursing

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    Eques, A. L., & Leinung, E. Z. (2013, July-September). The bully within and without: Strategies to address horizonal violence in nursing. Nursing Forum, 48(3), 185-190. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12028

    Read More

  • What is the Effect of Horizontal Violence on the Burn Out Rate of Registered Nurses?

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vessey, J., Demarco, R., & DiFazio, R. (2010). Bullying, harassment, and horizontal violence in the nursing workforce: The state of the science. Annual Review Of Nursing Research, 28, 133-157. doi:10.1891/0739-6686.28.133

    Read More

  • Aggression And Aggression

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sell, Hone, and Pound (2012) examined the importance of physical strength in shaping male psychology. Aggression and violence are fairly effective ways of winning conflict in the competition for resources between males, but can impose large costs on the loser of the conflict (Sell et al., 2012). The consequences of conflict would have put high pressure for the male brain to evolve ways of interpreting the odds of success, to determine when to avoid conflict or engage in aggressive and violent actions (Sell et al., 2012). The authors outline evolved mechanisms for aggression and their effect on the decisions of modern-day human males.

    Read More

  • Lateral Violence In The Workplace

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    The target population being used for this thesis consists of nurses, nurse managers, and nursing care assistants. The setting will take place at a hospital in Saginaw, MI on three medical surgical floors. Lateral violence in the workplace has been well researched but there have been few studies examining what

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud's Theory Of Psychoosexual Development

    1724 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sigmund Freud was one of the original pioneers in the field of Psychology. The work that he accomplished throughout his lifetime laid a foundation for many theorists after him. The theorists that worked in Psychology, after Freud, were able to form their own thoughts, ideas, and hypotheses about the human mind after learning from his work. Sigmund Freud’s major contribution in the field of Psychology was his theory about the human psyche; which he called the Id, the Ego, and the Super-Ego. This theory was based on the human personality and its formation. Many of Freud’s analysis strategies became common practice in the field of Psychology and are still used today. Sigmund Freud will always be one of the most influential figures in the

    Read More

More about Theories of Aggression

Open Document