Fight with siblings, sometimes shouting at the elders, or hurting oneself physically out of fury- all these are the post consequences when a person is angry with the situation or people around. Sometimes it is deeply rooted and comes bursting out after piling up a lot in mind, or most of the time it’s just very situational and triggered by some aspects of daily life.
When we see so much violence, both verbal and physical we tend to think that it is an innate behavioral trait to get angry, that resides inside living beings. Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau believes that humans are generally gentle and tender creatures by nature who get angry because the society and environment around them demand them to be. The natural instinct of us humans is to be tender but circumstances won’t let us be so, we have to show aggression when anything goes wrong.
The only thing that is distinguishable is the intensity of it in different people. Some might get angry and cannot control their very instinct to be the same way with others. On the other hand, some are good at keeping their aggression to themselves in order to not hurt the other person or because they just don’t want to disrupt their peace in showing out their very true aggression most of the time.
What Is Aggression?
In social and behavioral sciences, aggression is defined as an action or response by an individual that tends to deliver something unpleasant and bad to another person, sometimes they might tend to harm the other person physically as well. Aggression is overt or covert, harmful social interactions with the definite intention to inflict damage upon another individual or group of individuals.
This trait is also observed in animals, but it is basically triggered only from some sort of torture they ought to suffer, like starvation or physical assault. But in humans, many other factors are also included and they are related deep to emotions mainly.
Aggression can be triggered by various aspects and it mainly gets triggered by frustration due to the blocked goals of feeling disrespected or suppressed. Human aggression is differentiated into two types- direct and indirect aggression.
Direct aggression- It is characterized by some verbal or physical behavior that intends to cause harm to others.
Indirect aggression- It is characterized by the change in behavior towards the other person in order to harm the social relations of the individual or group.
Read more about the causes and effects of aggression
Various Forms of Existing Aggression
Aggression is not limited only to physical harm, it could take many different forms in real life. The forms are:
Physical Aggression
It is a form of aggression causing alarming physical harm towards others. It can include hitting using hands or legs, throwing objects, breaking toys, or any other possessions that can come in handy.
This type of behavior is extremely common in young children and toddlers and it is believed that it reduces with age growth but only if the children are taught and put in limits properly.
Mental Aggression
Frustration leads to mental aggression. If a person is suffering under some serious stress in life due to family, friends, relationships, job, money, or any other factor, he/she might show signs of mental aggression. The person gets irritated very soon, starts showing disinterest in social gatherings, and has a blaming attitude towards the world.
Verbal Aggression
Not everyone always is violent, some just use their mouth to get relieved from their aggression, but it’s not any less. The person with a trait of verbal aggression says very filthy and unpleasant things to people due to which generally nobody wants to get involved with that person in any manner.
Emotional Aggression
This form of aggression is a silent poison that affects the sufferer’s mind at the most. The people with emotional aggression are generally the ones with introverted nature. They don’t know how to express their feelings in front of anyone and so they get frustrated inside with all the baggage of their emotions. These kinds of people cry a lot when they are angry, it is the only way they tend to know to show out their feelings.
Along with aggression, abuse might also kick in like an uninvited guest. So, it becomes important to understand the different types of abuse.
Get an insight into the emotional and psychological abuse
Factors Affecting Aggression
There can be many factors and reasons contributing to aggression. Most of them fall under the following three categories.
Biological Factors
It is gender-based. Researchers suggest through studies that men are most likely to engage in physical aggression in order to harm others than women. Mostly women, in general, show the traits of verbal or emotional aggression.
Environmental Factors
It is based on how a person is raised since childhood. The upbringing of a person plays a vital role in defining the traits they show while they grow. A person who has lived in an environment of aggression and physical abuse might believe that this kind of behavior is socially acceptable and hence may continue to show the same.
Physical Factors
Cognitive and psychological problems, alcohol addiction, drug use, brain injuries, or even abnormalities can trigger aggression in humans at some level of extent.
Basic Purposes of Aggression
It might sound absurd or even unbelievable that there might exist some purpose of aggression also. But this is true! The different purposes of aggression are:
To dominate the other person
To achieve a goal
To intimidate or threaten someone
To express anger and hostility
To express possession
To compete with others
Sometimes a reaction to pain
In response to fear
The Bottom Line
Violence is not only harmful to society but it also affects the health of the victim and the person who shows aggression. The person having too much aggression inside can encounter changes in the brain that could lead to depression or anxiety. Aggression is most often delivered towards the people we get encountered in our daily lives around like the family members, neighbors, friends, or co-workers. But there is always a possibility of getting better, and so is with aggression.
You can control aggression at your own personal levels through recognizing your behavior, understanding what and why triggers your aggression, give yourself time, try doing meditation, always realize that it’s fine to be angry sometimes but just in limits, be open to confession and confrontation to others about how you feel and most importantly believe in yourself and believe that you could change some angles of your life with little efforts and patience.
Bipolar disorder is another interesting yet disturbingly difficult medical condition. If you wish to know more, check out this amazing article on bipolar disorder.
Written By - Pavas Shrigyan
Edited By - Neha Kundu
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