Psychology and Aggression

• Published in: The Journal of conflict resolution 1959-09, Vol.3 (3), p.195-293
• Main Author: McNeil, Elton B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggression; Anger; Anxiety; Children; Conflict resolution; Frustration; Hostility; Human aggression; Human Nature; Parents; Psychological Theories; Social psychology; Suicide
• ISSN: 0022-0027; 1552-8766
• DOI: 10.1177/002200275900300301

Aggression is a fundamental aspect of human existence. Personal frustration is woven so tightly into the fabric of each life that aggressive feelings are an inevitable human experience. As man has expanded the scale on which he can express his destructiveness, he has multiplied the urgency of the need for a solution. The exp'al study of animals clearly has only limited application to human aggressiveness. Human hostility to be comprehended must take into account the nature of man, the forces that drive him to action, the needs he must gratify, the conflicts he encounters & the anxieties that beset him. The bulk of the exp'al & theoretical work of psychol'ts focuses on the intimate relationship of frustration & aggression. The individual's personal history reveals the development of adult control over primitive urges of anger & their channeling into constructive outlets. The child's early experiences with aggression are used by the fam as a lesson in civilized living. The interplay of punishment, guilt & adult approval makes up the forces with which the child must come to terms, & the outcome of this struggle determines the aggressive or passive orientation he will carry through life. In raw form, aggression produces man's greatest accomplishments as well as his most notable catastrophes. Soc & cultural attempts to regulate aggression have never succeeded in devising a completely dependable formula that does not involve soc sanction for victimizing others. Delinquency, crime & war remain as seemingly indestructible monuments to man's inability to map accurately the dimensions of aggression. There is promise in the behavioral sci's. This assessment of the current status of the psychol of aggression draws its evidence from 414 selected references & interprets the past, present, prospect of theory & res on this topic. AA.