As well as examining gender differences, social psychologists have tried to find out which types of personality are related to aggression. In recent years many researches showed that people who have type A personality are more likely to engage in aggression. Since type A people are more “ambitious, high achieving, perfectionist”, (Crisp & Turner, 2007), they compete with others to achieve their goals when compared to others. Thus, it seems that type A people are hostile people and they tend to show more aggression. One study showed type A people have more tendency to commit child abuse crime (Strube, Turner, Cerro, Stevens & Hinchey, 1984; cited in Hogg & Vaughan, 2005). Moreover, there is evidence that self-esteem is highly associated with aggression. Generally, people with low self-esteem are thought to be aggressive. Social psychologists support this idea by using the violent behaviors of gang members (Anderson, 1994; Jankowski, 1991), people who engage in domestic violence (Renzetti, 1992) and terrorists (Long, 1990) (cited in Crisp & Turner, 2007). However, there are also psychologists who argued against this view and maintained that high self-esteem in fact leads to aggression. Many researches provide evidence that people high in narcissism react more aggressively than nonnarcissistic people. Narcisstic people view themselves very positively and they are more confident that their aggressive behavior will result in positive outcomes. For instance, they believe that they are more likely to win a fight or an argument. Since people with high self-esteem see themselves superior, they are more sensitive to threats to their superiority. When another person contradicts this view, they may react aggressively (Baumeister, Bushman & Campell, 2000). Although many research which provide little support this idea, further research is necessary to find out the direct evidence.
The last person-centered determinant that brings about aggression is alcohol. Alcohol is seen as a person-centered factor because different levels of consumption cause individual differences in people’s aggressive behavior. It is widely believed that some people become more aggressive when they consume alcohol. This idea is supported by the fact that violence is seen in bars and nightclubs frequently. This reveals a possible link between alcohol and aggression. There are many researches confirming the existence of such a link. Bushman and Cooper (1990) conducted 30 experiments and discovered that participants who consumed substantial amount of alcohol behaved more aggressively and respond to provocations strongly than those who did not consume alcohol. Although the reason why alcohol consumption increases aggression is not addressed, one possibility is that alcohol reduces the individuals’ ability to process the information (Bushman, 1993, 1997; Bushman & Cooper, 1990; cited in Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2007). For example, when you consume high level of alcohol, if a person who you initially dislike someone provoke you but, then apologized, you might be less able to process this information, and so you will more likely to act aggressively. It is obvious that behaviors and attitudes that are normally kept under control might be release when alcohol is consumed. Therefore, it provides us with an excuse for our antisocial, illegal and immoral behaviors.
Although there are some certain individual characteristic that may make people more likely to behave aggressively than others, some situational features are important to explain the causes of aggressive behavior. The first situation-centered determinant that leads to aggression is physical environment. Physical environment can be divided into three categories: Temperature, crowding and noise. A number of studies have shown that the higher the temperature, the more aggressive people are. Heat triggers the aggression because of the fact that it causes the “psychological arousal, irritation and discomfort” (Crisp & Turner, 2007, p. 217). Anderson (1984) (cited in Crisp & Turner, 2007) found a positive correlation between heat and aggression. He examined the rate of murders and rapes over a two-year period and he found that the more the daily temperature, the more these kind of crimes.. Similar to heat, high density of people can bring about aggression. Aggressive behaviors of crowds of football fans, and the fights in bars and nightclubs support this view. The reason why people act aggressively in crowded places is that they feel more anonymous and therefore they are less responsible for such behaviors; their adherence to social norms decreases. (Crisp & Turner, 2007). Furthermore, loud, unwanted and unpredictable noises are more likely to increase aggressive behavior. Glass and Singer (1973) (cited in Crisp & Turner, 2007) conducted an experiment to test the effect of noise on aggression. They had participants complete a math task under noisy conditions and under quiet conditions. They found that participants in the noisy place felt more uncomfortable when the noise is loud and they cannot control it. Like heat and crowding, noise result in aggression because it increases the psychological arousal and stress. It can be clearly seen that these three aspects of physical environment greatly influence the aggression.
The second situational factor that leads to aggression is cultural influences. Although aggression occurs all over the world, aggression and violence vary over time and between cultures. Beliefs, norms and expectations in a culture can influence level and type of aggression. There are some studies which are conducted to understand the similarities and differences between cultures in terms of aggression. For instance, Fujihara et. al (1999) examined attitudes of Japanese, Spanish and American university students toward different kinds of aggression. They found that American and Spanish students are more likely to approve verbal aggression than Japanese students. On the other hand, American students showed more predisposition toward physical aggression than Spanish and Japanese students. Although there are many research supporting the idea that cultural influences are important in showing aggression, it would be wrong to compare aggression levels among societies in any sense. Despite the fact that the western cultures regard “democracy, human rights and non-violence” as the main cultural values (Hogg & Vaughan, 2005, p.467), USA and UK began to fight against Afghanistan and Iraq. While they may claim that they aimed to reduce the terrorism and repression, it is inevitable that they are viewed as very aggressive. Therefore, it will be easier to examine the aggression within a specific society rather than between different societies.
Finally, social disadvantage is another situation-centered factor that influences the aggression. When a group believes that they are disadvantaged because of the unfair circumstances and believes that they are unable to change their position in the society, they may show aggressive reaction. Markowitz (2003) maintained that people who are lack of economic advantages put more emphasis on either economic (e.g. money) or other (e.g. respect) resources to suppress their insufficiency. When economic opportunities that they want to possess are absent, they regard the attitudes that stimulate aggression as a means to achieve their goals. The key factor in the association between aggression and social disadvantage is the extent to which a socially disadvantaged group has a sense of “relative deprivation” (Crisp & Turner, 2007). Relative deprivation can be related to the feeling that the chance of improving one’s condition is very difficult. Therefore, since the improvement cannot be achieved legitimately, this deprived group or person can show aggression. There are some supports that relative deprivation is valid for some recent events in Europe. For instance, violence against Turkish immigrants increased in the eastern part of Germany, where unemployment level is still very high (Hogg & Vaughan, 2005). Based on this, it can be said that social disadvantage may contribute to occurrence of aggression.
All in all, there are some people who are considered to be highly aggressive while others rarely show aggression signs even in the most insufferable circumstances. Although situational factors make some contributions to determine whether or not an individual display aggression in a certain situations, there are also individual differences in how aggressive people are in general. Aggression is commonplace in modern societies and it is an important issue that should be solved immediately. Wanting is not enough to stop it. In order to reduce the aggression in society, we should find out underlying reasons of aggression and violence.
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