How Does Psychology Explain Aggressive Behaviors?

Aggression is present every day in our environment. We find it in the news, on the streets and on the networks. It seems to be a natural tendency of the human being, so that, to a greater or lesser degree, it would nest in everyone. Aggressive behaviors occur in multiple forms and there are theories that highlight their adaptive value for our survival as a species.

Psychology has devoted a lot of time and work to the study of aggressive behaviors, their causes, processes and consequences. There are covert or explicit aggressive behaviors, direct or indirect, by word or act, physical, verbal, psychological or relational.

Aggressive behaviors: hostile or instrumental

Broadly speaking, we can speak of two types of aggressive behaviors. Hostile aggression and instrumental or predatory aggression. They differ mainly in their motivation. They have different backgrounds, predict different problems, and are associated with different cognitive and emotional processes.

• Hostile aggression: it is an impulsive aggression, with the purpose of doing harm. It has a strong emotional charge. It is a reactive aggression.
• Instrumental or predatory aggression: it is premeditated and cold. The main objective is not to do harm, even if it does, but it hides other interests behind it. It can be guided by theft or the acquisition of power. It is a planned aggression, either for revenge or for interest.

Biology of aggressive behaviors

There does not appear to be a direct correlation between genetics and aggressive behaviors. Rather, it would be an interaction between biological and environmental factors that would make us more prone to aggressiveness. On the other hand, let’s think that aggression between human beings is highly regulated socially.

Different types of aggressive behaviors seem to originate in different areas of the brain. The amygdala, hippocampal formation, septal area, prefrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus appear to modulate aggressive behaviors through connections with the medial and lateral hypothalamus (Haller 2014).

A decrease in gray matter has been found in especially aggressive subjects. The combination of high levels of testosterone and low levels of cortisol has also been proposed as a stimulator of aggressive behaviors . Serotonin levels also play an important role in aggressive behavior, in its manifestation and in its control.

Innate drive or learned behavior

There is the neo-associationist theory, developed by Berkowitz from the works of Freud, which considers that the aggressive impulse is activated when the subject is prevented from achieving a desired goal. This results in a negative affective state, which is what would cause aggressive behavior in the individual.

We also have Bandura’s theory of social learning , which proposes that it is external influences that stimulate aggressive behaviors and is integrated into our behavioral repertoire by imitation. That is, it is acquired by watching other people behave aggressively. This is especially the case if the person being observed has the sympathy of the learner and regards him or her as a peer. Also if it is observed that some benefit is obtained from aggressive behavior.

These are basically the two positions from which Anderson and Bushman start, who proposed an integration of both models. This third theory takes into account biological, environmental, psychological and social factors to explain aggressive behavior. Aggression occurs due to an interaction of the individual’s personal characteristics and external stimuli that activate a set of cognitive and emotional processes.

Factors that precipitate or intervene in aggressive behaviors

Among the factors that precipitate or intervene in aggressive behaviors we can point out, among others, the social instigators, the non-social ones and the internal factors of the individual. Social instigators include triggers such as provocation, the perception of being unfairly treated or social rejection.

One of the non-social instigators are aggressive cues (images or objects present in the situation that activate aggressive thoughts). It would be the case of the presence of weapons in the situation. On the other hand, we find environmental stressors such as heat, crowding or loud noises that often act as triggers for aggressive behaviors.

There are also cognitive factors that intervene in aggressive behaviors. It would be rumination, moral disconnection or the activation of scripts or scripts (schemes that represent situations that guide aggressive behavior). These scripts are memory stores of experiences and situations that are easily retrieved. They also store beliefs about what normal behavior should look like in certain circumstances.