Psychological Perspectives of Aggression and Violence: A comparison of psychodynamic and behaviouris

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Psychological Perspectives of Aggression and Violence:

A comparison of psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches

The study of violence and aggressive behaviour has been of immense importance to the psychological discipline. With this, have come a variety of different approaches each with varying explanations as to origins, causes and management of this behaviour. One of the fundamental problems in this area is the actual definition of the terms aggression and violence, and what behaviour can be said to be typical of these expressions. The differing factor between these two terms and the one that has commanded a great deal of debate is the notion of intent. It is with this that psychologists have been able to distinguish between the two terms and provide some universal definition for this otherwise, awkward area. Violent behaviour can be seen as one which causes harm to others, whether the intent to cause harm was present or not, while aggressive behaviour can be seen as one which causes intentional harm to others (Glassman 1979).

To understand how different approaches are able to explain aggression and violence, it is necessary to look at the origins and history of each approach. The