As social being, humans associate with each other and such interactions apparently influences one another’s feelings thoughts and behavior either negatively or positively. Aggression is one such negative side of human behavior (Hsieh & Chen, 2017). Often people engage in aggression as an attempt to harm or cause pain to others. Depending on the underlying motive, aggression can be instrumental or hostile. The latter is attributed to the feelings of anger with an intention of causing pain while a desire to achieve certain goals might not necessarily involve the intent to provoke pain as per the intentional type of aggression (Hsieh & Chen, 2017). With the complexities in understanding the aggression dynamics, different theories have been formulated to explain the etiology of aggression. Within the different fields of psychology, aggression theories are grouped into psychoanalytic/instinct and drive theories which include the frustration-aggression and social learning theories. In this regard, the paper aims at comparing and contrasting the different theories of aggression and their significance in the disciplines of social psychology.
The General Aggression Model
To begin with, understanding the theories of aggression necessitates the conceptualization of the general aggression model (GAM). The dynamic and cognitive model acts as comprehensive framework for understanding aggression. It therefore helps in solving the complex and perplexing questions relating to the etiology of aggression and its association with processes such as violence (Anderson & Bushman, 2018). Drawing heavily on the social learning and other socio-cognitive theories, the general aggression model includes biological, situational and personological models variable in solving aggression puzzles.
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The Instinct theory
Under the psychodynamic approach, psychoanalysis or instinct is a well-known theory that was coined by Sigmund Freud. The theorist postulated that all humans own two basic drives that have a hand in determining behavior and personality development namely; the drive for pleasure and the drive for aggression referred to as Eros and Thenatos respectively (Guntrip, 2018). Freud thus believed that aggression resulted from an innate urge similarly to the drive for food. He therefore hypothesized that aggression can only be reduced by engaging in activities which can release it. He believed that aggression resulted from an innate urge similar to the drive for food. In this case, Freud eluded that many instincts that result in aggression are rooted in the primary two main instincts of death and life. Specifically, the instinct theory of aggression posits that either internally or outwardly. Besides, just like the social learning theory, Freud postulates that imitation and social learning induces aggressive response.
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
As initially coined by Dollard et al in 1939, the frustration –aggression hypothesis indicated that the duo are interrelated whereby the occurrence of aggressive behavior is a predisposing factor for frustration while on the other hand existence of frustration potentially results in some form of aggression ( Breuer & Elson, 2017). Moreover, the theorists identified other factor that contributes to the frustration-aggression association. The desire to meet and complete set goals; the extent to which frustration bars goal completion and the number of times in which completion of goals was hindered were highlighted as factors that would positively be linked with aggression. Besides, team behind the hypothesis, eluded that depending on the intensity of aggression, the strongest reactions are directed to the perpetrator of frustration. However, in contrast to the retaliatory behavior, aggression response can be channeled towards innocent victims, thus characterizing the displaced type of aggression. Notably, the original formulation by Dollard et al overlooks the common understanding of frustration as an emotional experience and brings forth insights that pins frustration as interference to the occurrence of a desired goal-response. Coupled with highlighted variables, frustration thus acts as a prerequisite for aggressive response.
In general, the frustration-aggression hypothesis is a theory whose basic framework underlies the psychodynamic explanation of aggression causation through frustration and other variables including withdrawal, reaction formation, regression and displacement. Similarly to Freud’s instinct theory, the universality of frustration in causing aggression grants it the consideration of being a drive. Just like the social learning theory, the frustration-hypothesis are part of the drive theories that succinctly suggests that behavior such as aggression mainly stems from the external urge or drive to harm others. Also in line with the instinct theory, aggression is considered as a stored form of energy that is compounded with new encounters of frustration. With the shift in the theoretical focus, internal processes such as attribution of frustration has been considered as relevant in conceptualizing the frustration-aggression link besides the already known environmental contingencies ( Breuer & Elson, 2017). In this case, the perception of frustration as arbitrary, crowns it as a predicament to the intensity and probability of potential aggressive response. Thus Freud’s ideology of catharsis proposes that the aggression response is desirable since it aids in draining off accumulated aggressive urges, although the frustration hypothesis somehow disputes its correlation to innate behaviors.
Social Learning Theory
As theorized by Albert Bandura, the social learning theory posits that people learn from each other as they interact through imitation, observation and modeling (Horsburgh & Ippolito, 2018). This theory has been considered as a bridge between the cognitive and behaviorist learning theories since it focuses on motivation, memory and attention. Through learning, human’s forms ideas of how behaviors are performed and later on the acquired information acts as a guideline for the action portrayed. In this regard, Bandura among other proponents of the social learning theory denote that, prior experiences equip people with the readiness to cope of threatening situations. Thus in contrast to the frustration-aggression theory, the social learning theory emphasizes that arousal which emanates from frustration does not necessarily result in aggression but rather creates a condition for the preparedness to cope with aggression. In this case, the variations in the elicited responses solely depend on the type of responses an individual has learned during earlier periods of life. Perhaps one might respond through aggression, regression, withdraw or silence approaches.
Particularly, aggression has been demonstrated as a learned behavior through imitation, modeling or reinforcement from the surroundings such as the media influence (Deaton, 2015). Although aggression relies on the impact of human interactions and external environmental factors, the social learning theory coincides with Freud’s instinct theory in underscoring innate personal factors as determinants of one’s identification with and imitation of other people behavior and ultimate response to aggression.
Conclusion
To sum it up, aggressive is a complex dynamic behavior whose etiology evokes enormous discussion. However, with the input of formulated theories, conceptualization of aggression has been made easy. As highlighted above, Freud’s instinct theory, the frustration-aggression hypothesis and social learning theories are some of the common theoretical approaches that are applied in the various disciplines of social psychology to explain the occurrence of aggression. The theories have been explored as crucial tools in understanding the psychology of behavior change particularly in humans in response to social processes and as an explanatory model for violence and crime-related activities.
References
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2018). Media Violence and the General Aggression Model. Journal of Social Issues , 74 (2), 386-413.
Breuer, J., & Elson, M. (2017). Frustration–Aggression Theory. The Wiley handbook of violence and aggression , 1-12.
Deaton, S. (2015). Social Learning Theory in the Age of Social Media: Implications for Educational Practitioners. Journal of Educational Technology , 12 (1), 1-6.
Guntrip, H. (2018). Psychoanalytic theory, therapy and the self . Routledge.
Horsburgh, J., & Ippolito, K. (2018). A skill to be worked at: using social learning theory to explore the process of learning from role models in clinical settings. BMC medical education , 18 (1), 156.
Hsieh, I. J., & Chen, Y. Y. (2017). Determinants of aggressive behavior: Interactive effects of emotional regulation and inhibitory control. PloS one , 12 (4), e0175651.
