BS ASSIGNMENT

TRANSFORMING AGGRESSION INTO COMPASSION

SUBMITTED BY: RISHIBHA RAI MBA- IB, SECTION C

Defining aggression is not an easy task because it can vary depending on the culture, individual, or situation. What is aggressive to some might be normal to others. Aggressiveness can also be confused with assertiveness, which is a different thing altogether. Being assertive means standing up for oneself or taking the initiative to get things done. Aggression is an intentional behavior that is done to cause harm or pain to another person. Aggression can come in many forms. It can be verbal, physical, successful or unsuccessful. No matter what, the action was intentionally made to try and cause harm, and that makes the action aggressive. Accidents cannot be classified as aggression because they were actions not intentionally made. Aggression can be broken down into two different types. Hostile aggression- When an act of aggression comes from feelings of anger and is intended to inflict pain, then it is called hostile aggression. An example of this would be someone stabbing a knife into another person's leg. Obviously, this is an act that is made with the intention of causing pain. Instrumental aggression- Any other act of aggression that isn't intended to cause pain is called instrumental aggression. This might be an older brother wrestling with his younger sibling. The aggression is in good fun and not necessarily to inflict serious pain. Where it Comes From Aggression usually comes from anger, and the motives for violent acts of anger come from the feelings a person has. These feelings have been put into five different groups that explains acts of conflict and aggression.

1. Superiority - The belief that one is superior to another. 2. Injustice - The belief that one has a legitimate reason to be aggressive against another. 3. Vulnerability - The belief that one is one could be aggressively annihilated at the hands of another. 4. Distrust - The belief that another will not honor their promises or commitments. 5. Hopelessness - The belief that one cannot improve their condition.

Biological Causes
Evolutionary psychologists speculate that in modern society men must be aggressive to attract females, as they have always been. But rather than be good at physical fighting, they must be able to excel socially and/or make a decent financial living. Scientists spend a lot of time researching animals such as bonobos or chimpanzees in hopes that their behavior will shed some insight on the causes of human aggression. Whereas bonobos are peaceful, loving animals, chimpanzees can be extremely violent. Observation of the animal kingdom shows that most, but not all, species evolved to have aggressiveness. The determining factors are in an animal's previous social experiences as well as the genes that have been passed down through time. Aggressiveness and violent behavior has been linked to the following physical and biological causes:

Tumors and disruptions affecting the limbic system. Epileptic seizures. Endocrine abnormalities. Birth complications. Nervous system abnormalities like minimum brain dysfunction and extreme EKGs. Hyperactivity. Genetics. Learning disorders. Personality disorders. Disconnect between the limbic and frontal cortex areas of the brain. Low blood sugar. Alcohol and drugs

Psychological Causes
The researchers Weiner and Wolfgang found these psychological causes for violence and aggression:

Prolonged frustration or disruption of goal seeking. Stress (inability to deliver what is demanded). Socially learned behavior.

Combination of all environmental forces that invite violent response. Effect of rewards that come attached to violent behavior. Combination of all inhibitory forces, both internal and external. Strength of an immediate situation with respect to triggering the offender. Lack of alternative nonviolent responses available to the offender. Cultural inversion or reaction formula; i.e. "Since I can't be on the football team I will pick fights with the football players."

Pain and Discomfort

Animals that are in pain will often times become irritable and attack anything around them. The same reaction occurs in human beings. If someone accidentally hits their leg against something they will feel a rush of pain and immediately feel like lashing out or yelling. Experiments have shown that those who experience pain are more likely to act aggressively. Discomfort from things like heat, humidity, air pollution, and offensive odors can also cause irritability and result in violence or aggression. Interpreting whether or not crimes were committed because of something such as the weather is not an easy task. By analyzing statistics we are able to see whether or not heat or humidity correlates to an increase in violence. We can also see the relationship by observing everyday situations like traffic jams and baseball games, comparing the attitudes and behavior of people on hot days versus cold days. Since heat increases aggression and violence, it is important that the police stay on high alert during days that the temperature is high.

Frustration-Aggression Theory
Frustration stemming from social situations is a common cause of aggression. Imagine someone is talking negatively about someone you love very much, or that you are stuck in traffic and it is your first day to a new job. Both of these situations bring with them high levels of frustration and anger. The natural response is to try and verbally or physically attack something, even if deep down you know that it isn't going to help the situation. This is summed up in the frustrationaggression theory, which states that frustration, or the perception of being prevented from attaining a goal, increases the probability of an aggressive response.

For a study from 1941 called "Frustration And Regression; An Experiment With children", researchers performed an experiment with a group of kids to try and see how frustration would influence their behavior. The group was led to a room full of attractive toys that was blocked by a wire screen. The kids could only stand there, frustrated that they could not play with the toys. When they were finally allowed into the room, the children threw, punched, stomped, and were altogether destructive. The researchers led a different group of children to the room and allowed them to immediately play with the toys. Without any previous feelings of frustration, the kids respected the toys and played very happily. Of course, frustration does not always lead to aggression, but it does seem to produce the anger and annoyance that makes a person more likely to snap and lose control of their temper. There are some factors that come into play when determining whether or not frustration will lead to aggression, such as the reasons behind the aggression and who is involved. If someone mentally disabled destroyed an art piece you had been working on for months, you might consider twice before throwing a punch or yelling an obscenity. If your son hid your shoes one morning and made you late for work, you could immediately become aggressive or realize that it was the day that you promised to take your son out on a walk and had not. It is also important to understand that aggression is not the direct result of deprivation but rather a relative deprivation, where the perception that one is not getting what they deserve or expect will cause them to become aggressive or violent. Aggression is also the result of being provoked by someone else. For instance, if someone calls you a stupid moron for no reason, then you are being stimulated into aggression.

Aggressive Stimulus
An aggressive stimulus is an object that is associated with aggressive responses and whose presence can increase the probability of aggression. Studies show that when people are made angry or frustrated in areas where there is a gun or other weapon available, they will be more likely to show aggression than those in areas without such weapons. This helps explain why some cities that allow gun ownership have many more murders per year than cities that restrict gun ownership, as is the case with Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. Just

the mere presence of a gun or weapon is enough to increase violence and aggression, and since America is a nation of gun admiring-- this spells trouble.

Reducing Aggression
Punishment is the most widely used tactic in trying to stop aggressive behavior, but how well does it work? The thing about punishment is that it can come off as an aggressive act itself. If aggression is used to fight aggression, then one might never learn why aggression is bad to begin with. Studies have focused on children who grow up with parents that use highly aggressive tactics as punishment. Such children will often become prone to violence when they grow up. For this reason, severe punishment might not be the best route to take when one is trying to teach another person a lesson. It has been found that mild punishment is more effective in teaching a child to stop doing a certain behavior. Severe punishment does not cause a child to try and seek internal reasons to not do an immoral behavior, whereas mild punishment will. As long as the punishment threat is enough to cause a child to stop doing something long enough to think about why they would not want to do it, then it is often times enough to make the child never want to do the behavior again. This phenomenon has to do with dissonance and is also called insufficient punishment.

Calming
To help control anger, one can use a technique called actively enabling to try and make frustrations dissipate. To do this, a person does simple things like counting to ten, taking deep breaths, or engaging in a distracting activity. These actions should help to calm someone down and prevent aggression and violence by giving them time to think things through.

Communication and Venting

It is important for someone in a relationship who feels angry to express their anger in a nonviolent and non demeaning way. This will help both members of the relationship gain insight

into what could be improved in the relationship and how. To express this anger, one would usually make a clear and calm statement indicating what they feel and how their partner or friend caused those feelings. This is also called effective communication. If it is not possible to talk to the person who has caused the anger, another way one can release their inner anger or frustration is through writing. By keeping a journal, inner thoughts can be clearly formulated and expressed, which is therapeutic for the mind.

Teaching Empathy and Problem-Solving Skills

To help lower violence and aggression everywhere, it is important that we teach people how to have empathy and effectively solve their problems. Empathy is the ability for someone to put themselves in another person's shoes to imagine what or how they might be feeling. Doing this will usually help diminish feelings of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding. Schools now more than ever try to teach children the value of empathy in diffusing anger and erasing hatred. Training people how to problem-solve is also a good way to help lower aggression and violence. If people can think for themselves and successfully complete their goals and work through their problems, then they won't have feelings of frustration and anger. Without frustration and anger there is less violence or aggression. Of course, these are solutions that are easier said than done.

An Aggressive Society
These days, our senses are bombarded with aggression. We are constantly confronted with global images of unending, escalating war and violence. In our personal lives, we encounter angry people cursing into cell phones, watch TV talk shows where guests and audiences intimidate each other verbally and sometimes physically, or attend public meetings that disintegrate into shouting matches. Parents scream from the sidelines of their children's sports events: "Get aggressive!" Employees are rewarded for aggressive timelines and plans. Dictionaries define aggressive action as hostile, but also positively as assertive, bold, and enterprising.

Aggression destroys relationships. People believe that in order to survive, they must combat the opposition. Fear and anger destroy hope for healthy communities, workgroups, families, and organizations. Relationships fracture, distrust increases, people retreat into self-defense and isolation, paranoia becomes commonplace.

Aggression in Organizations
And organizational aggression is on the rise, mirroring the societal trend. Competition has become increasingly ruthless, with strategies that aim to destroy competitors and achieve total market domination rather than strategies of coexistence within well-defined niches. In many organizations, aggression is a nearly invisible medium that influences decisions and actions. It's evident in the consistent use of war and sports metaphors. We "bring in the big guns," "dominate the field," plan "a sneak attack," or "rally the troops." The resurgence of command-and-control leadership is a less obvious but strong form of aggression, where the will of one person is imposed on others with the demand for obedience and compliance. Increasing aggression is having a profound impact on organizational relationships. Distrust is on the rise, so much so that in one survey, managers reported that the primary reason they attend meetings is because they don't trust what their colleagues will do in their absence. More employees are retreating into self-protective stances, hoarding resources and information for fear of losing further control of their work. And worker stress levels are at an all-time high. In Canada, one-third of lost work days are from emotional and psychological causes. Similar statistics prevail in England and the United States. Until we find alternative means to work together without so much aggression, we will continue to experience increasing anger, frustration, impasse, and exhaustion.

Solving Problems Free from Aggression

For eons, humans have struggled to find nondestructive ways of living together. Today, if we are to resolve the serious problems that afflict and impede us, we must find the means to work and live together with less aggression. To step aside from aggressive responses to problem solving requires a little-used skill:humility. Humility is a brave act--we have to admit that we don't have the answer. We need more information, more insight. This kind of humility is rare in competitive, embattled organizations and communities, but it is what we need to find real solutions. One wise educator put it this way: "Humility is admitting that I don't know the whole story. Compassion is recognizing that you don't know it either." Hopefully, humility leads us out of our bunkers to open ground, where we step away from the rigidity of our positions and become a bit curious. We need to be open to the possibility that colleagues and even strangers have information and perspectives that may be of value to us. Only with their input do we stand a chance of seeing this problem in all its complexity. Every perspective, prejudice, and opinion offers more information. Our different positions allow us to see the situation more fully as soon as we realize that we're all on the same side--that the problem is the problem.

Conclusion
Violence and aggression are a part of being human. By understanding where our desire to inflict pain comes from we are given insights into controlling our aggressive and violent tendencies. Though we will never be able to rid the world of atrocities such as rape, murder, or racism -- we can certainly try. Empathy and understanding are the key tools we have in the fight against unneeded violence.