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Running head: Aggression Nature vs. Nurture

Aggression: Nature vs. Nurture
Jessica Martin
General Psychology
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Physical assault and aggression is the second leading cause of death among 14-17 year
olds (Loeber, 1997). But why are humans so aggressive in the first place? There are two sides of
the debate: Nature vs. Nurture. Some say that its human nature, genetics that cause most
behaviors. While others say that we act as we learn from childhood and adolescence.
But What Is Aggression? Aggression is a behavior that causes or intends to harm others.
Accidental harm does not count as aggression because the action did not intentionally mean to
hurt the victim. There are two types of aggression: Hostile and Instrumental. Instrumental
aggression is aimed at obtaining an object, privilege, or space with no deliberate intent to harm
another person (Berk, 1999) its a learned response. For example, a parent yelling at a child to
prevent them from running into the middle of the street and being hit by a car. Hostile aggression
is aggression intended to harm another person, such as hitting, kicking, or threating to beat
someone up (Berk, 1999) an example would be a parent yelling at a child to make them feel bad.
Its usually driven by arousal, impulsivity, and is immediate to situational provocation
(Berkowitz).
Many psychologists believe that aggression is mostly due to biological terms (Albert,
Walsh, Jonik, 2003) like hormones, genetics, or the amygdala which is part of the limbic system.
One theory that suggests that aggression is triggered mostly due to nature rather than nurture is
found in our limbic system. The amygdala controls the ability to of an individual to perceive
particular emotions in people. Its also stated that the amygdala controls and triggers aggression
(Lorenz, 1963). Another biological factor that proves the cause of aggression is hormones like
testosterone. (Albert, Walsh, Jonik, 2003) studies have shown experiments that have been done
on humans have a clear cause and effect of relationships between aggression and testosterones.
The studies showed psychologists doing blood tests to see what level of testosterone humans
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have and compared this to how aggressive they feel or act. However, it is not certain that
increased aggression causes high testosterone or if increased testosterone causes aggression.
Another cause can be from family genes carried onto the individual.
Although there are many biological reasons, many psychologists believe that aggression is
mostly environmental. Like television, video games, models or surroundings. This includes the
way we are brought up. The people we learn from and the experiences weve had. All of these
can affect us to behave a certain way. Children learn from watching other people. This is called
observational learning. A study was done by Albert Bandura in 1963 called the Bobo Doll
experiment. (Bandura, Ross & Ross, 1963) 24 children where shown a previously taken video of
an adult attacking a Bobo doll in a distinctive manner. Another 24 children were exposed to a
non-aggressive model and the final 24 children were used as a control group and not exposed to
any model at all. Later the children were let in one by one. It seemed that the children that had
perceived the man who treated the Bobo told with aggressiveness were acting the same way to
the Bobo doll with similar ways of hitting shouting and including the hammer. However the
children who were not shown the video were less aggressive and calmer (Bandura, Ross & Ross,
1963). The findings support Nurture theory. That is, children learn social behavior such as
aggression through the process of observation learning, through watching the behavior of another
person. The person that we observe from and learn from is called a role model. A role model can
be anyone we look up to and watch, like super heroes, celebrities, relatives, friends or even
teachers. We are most likely to imitate someone if we think there is a reward with it for us.
Overall the biological side sees aggression as something that comes from birth and
everyone has it rather that the tendency of being aggressive due to how our brain learned it from
the environment. The nurture theory however sees aggression as being learned from the
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environment. Therefore it is difficult to decide which theory to take sides with, as both of them
are hard to study consistently. Whether people are naturally aggressive or learn aggression from
television and video games is not yet understood.

References


Albert, D.J.; Walsh, M.L.; Jonik, R.H. (1993). "Aggression in humans: What is its biological
foundation? Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 17 (4): 40525.
Bandura, A.; Ross, D.; Ross, S. A. (1963). "Imitation of film-mediated aggressive
models". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 66 (1): 3
11.doi:10.1037/h0048687
Berk, L. (1999). Infants, children, and adolescents (3
rd
Ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Berkowitz, Leonard, Aggression: A social psychological analysis.

Berman ME, Walley JC. 2003. Imitation of self-aggressive behavior: An experimental test of
the contagion hypothesis. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 33(5):10361057.
Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression (1963).
Loeber, Rolf. Key issues in the development of aggression and violence from childhood to early
adulthood. Annual Review of Psychology. 48 (1997): 371-410. ProQuest. Web. 7
February 2012
New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill. (1962). xv 361 pp.