aggression (redirected from food-related aggression)

aggression, a form of behavior characterized by physical or verbal attack. It may appear either appropriate and self-protective, even constructive, as in healthy self-assertiveness, or inappropriate and destructive. Aggression may be directed outward, against others, or inward, against the self, leading to self-destructive or suicidal actions. It may be driven by emotional arousal, often some form of frustration, or it may be instrumental, when it is used to secure a reward.

Sigmund Freud postulated (1920) that all humans possessed an aggressive drive from birth, which, together with the sexual drive, contributed to personality development, and found expression in behavior. Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz suggested that aggression was innate, an inherited fighting instinct, as significant in humans as it was in other animals. He contended that the suppression of aggressive instincts, common among human societies, allows these instincts the chance to build up, occasionally to the point where they are released during instances of explosive violence. Many psychoanalysts have argued against these theories, which see aggression as a primary drive, offering the possibility that aggression may be a reaction to frustration of primary needs. In the late 1930s, John Dollard argued that any sort of frustration inevitably led to an aggressive response.

More recently, Albert Bandura has performed studies that indicated that aggression is a learned behavior. Using children in his studies, Bandura demonstrated that, by watching another person act aggressively and obtain desirable rewards or by learning through personal experience that such behavior yields rewards, aggression can be learned. Leonard Berkowitz has contended that all animals learn the most effective response to an aversive occurence (one where the expected reward is denied), whether it be attack or flight. A number of psychologists contend that children and adolescents are vulnerable to media portrayals of violence, particularly in film and television. Popular media tends to depict violence as relatively common, and generally effective. Anonymity may facilitate aggression: when an individual is part of a large group, he may be more likely to elicit aggressive behavior, in a process known as deindividuation.

Recent research on the biological basis of aggression has sought to show that genetic factors may be responsible for aggressive behavior. In the 1970s it was suggested that men who were born with an extra Y chromosome were likely to display more episodes of aggressive behavior than men who were not born with this extra chromosome. Still, conclusive proof has yet to be found for a genetic theory of aggression.

Other factors, including learning difficulties, minimal brain damage, brain abnormalities—such as temporal lobe epilepsy—and such social factors as crowding and poverty have been suggested to have contributed in certain cases to exaggeratedly aggressive behavior. Psychological investigation into aggressive behavior continues, with significant corrolary studies being performed in endocrinology—to determine whether hormonal imbalances have an impact on behavior—and in primate research. Each theory may be accurate in part, since aggression is believed to have a number of determining factors.

Bibliography

See J. Archer and K. Brown, ed., Human Aggression (1988); R. A. Baron and D. R. Richardson, Human Aggression (1991).

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aggression

1. an attack or harmful action, esp an unprovoked attack by one country against another

2. Psychol a hostile or destructive mental attitude or behaviour

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aggression [ə′gresh·ən]

(psychology)

Feelings and behavior of anger and hostility usually manifested by punitive or destructive actions; often associated with frustration.

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Aggression

Behavior that is intended to threaten or inflict physical injury on another person or organism; a broader definition may include such categories as verbal attack, discriminatory behavior, and economic exploitation. The inclusion of intention in defining aggression makes it difficult to apply the term unequivocally to animals in which there is no clear means of determining the presence or absence of intention. As a result, animal violence is usually equated with aggression. There are four main approaches to understanding the causes or origins of human aggression. First, the basis may be differences among people, due either to physiological difference or to early childhood experiences. Second, there are sociological approaches which seek the causes of aggression in social factors such as economic deprivation and social (including family) conflicts. Third, causes may be found in the power relations of society as whole, where aggression arises as a function of control of one group by another. Fourth, aggression may be viewed as an inevitable (genetic) part of human nature; this approach has a long history and has produced extensive arguments. Given the wide variation in aggressive behavior in different societies and the occasional absence of such behavior in some groups and some individuals, a general human genetic factor is unlikely. However, some genetic disposition to react with force when an individual is blocked from reaching a goal may provide an evolutionary basis for the widespread occurrence of violence and aggression. The existence of different kinds of aggression suggests that different evolutionary scenarios need to be invoked and that aggression is not due to a single evolutionary event; it is likely that aggression is multidetermined and rarely, if ever, due to a single factor. See Behavior genetics

Aggression in humans ranges through fear-induced aggression, parental disciplinary aggression, maternal aggression, and sexual aggression. One clearly biologically adaptive type, defensive aggression, occurs when fight responses are mobilized in defense of an organism's vital interests, such as obtaining food or the protection of its young. The aim of defensive aggression is not destruction but the preservation of life. Thus, aggression can serve both destructive and constructive purposes. Among animals, the varieties of aggression include most of the human types as well as predatory aggression, territorial defense, and sexually related aggression in competition for a mate.