Aggression: instinct or learned response?

In an era in which nuclear weapons are quite affordable, so that a single act of aggression may cause disaster, in an age when many people experience, often aggressive thoughts and impulses and personal health effects of interpersonal relationships have led psychologists to focus on the study of the emotional reactions – aggression.

Emotions determine not only the general reaction, but the specific reactions. Laugh when we rejoice when we are frightened we withdraw, become aggressive when we are angry. These reactions have a broad social significance. Psychologists who have focused their studies on aggression is based on two major theories of social behavior, which explains the different nature of aggression. While Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of aggression considered as instinct, social learning theory consider that a learned response.

The term describes an aggressive behavior that intentionally injures another Handful physically or verbally, or destroy property. If, in a crowded bus, a person will accidentally step on the foot and immediately apologized and asked, her behavior can not be considered aggressive, but if someone will step foot on the chair you sit in the office, then you can consider this act as being aggressive.

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, many of our actions are determined by instincts, especially sexual instinct. When their expression is frustrated, induce an aggressive impulse. Psychoanalytic theorists have added guidance, then frustration aggression hypothesis the following statement: whenever an individual effort to achieve a goal is blocked, induce an aggressive impulse that motivates behavior to remove the obstacle (person or object) causing appearance of frustration. You have to notice the two key aspects of this statement: the first is that frustration causes aggression and the second is that aggressiveness is an instinct properties (that is a form of energy that persists until the goal is reached and also that it is an innate reaction to hunger, sex or other basic instincts). This impulse (instinct) is subject to controversy.

If aggression is indeed an instinct, like hunger, then we can find patterns of aggression similar to our own and other species (as found patterns of hunger similar to ours). Even if there are observations that are comparable with the human animal aggression, there are many differences (only men can trigger widespread wars).

Social learning theory refers to human social interactions, but has its roots in animal behavior  studies. Theory focuses on behavior patterns that people develop in response to situations created by the environment. Many of the behavioral patterns are learned by watching the actions of others. A child who sees the expression of pain of his brother, who was the dentist’s chair, be afraid of their first appointment with the dentist. This theory emphasizes the role models in the transmission of specific behaviors and emotional responses.

Aggression can be learned through observation or imitation and the more strengthened (encouraged), the more manifest. A frustrated person for personal or disrupted by blocking some stressful events, felt a negative emotion. The answer, that it causes this emotion, depends on the type of response that an individual has learned to use them to cope with stressful situations. Frustrated individual may seek help from others, can become aggressive, it can withdraw itself may try to remove obstacles or seek salvation in alcohol or drugs. The answer you choose will be the one who solved the frustration in the past. From this perspective, the frustration causes aggression, in general, people who have learned to adverse situations by aggressive responds.