Blogpost # 8: The Ugly Truth

Aggression and Violence have been causing our society a huge problem for a very long time. Because these two things have been teaching our kids and adults to hurt each other and ruin the lives of innocent people. Our researchers are doing their best to find the reason, what makes an individual to behave in an aggressive manner. And our law enforcement authorities have been working nonstop to prevent anyone from doing such violent acts to others. When you compare these two you’ll see that they have the same meaning and the same effect but I found out that there are differences between aggression and violence.

I've read an article entitled “Aggression and Violence: The Neurobiology of Experience” by Bruce D. Perry MD., Ph. D. from the site www.teacher.scholastic.com

In this article it said that Violence consist of many types and can be trigger by many kind of means. One is the physical violence; it occurs when you inflict harm by the use of your body, this includes punching, kicking, and slapping etc. This can be triggered when reacting into a threat or defensive; predatory or by instinct, and when you have a strong dislike to someone, guilt or regret about something you have done.  This aggression is impulsive means that something that you can do without giving it a proper thought or planning. A person may also act violent if he/she is suffering from psychosis or other mental illnesses such as; dementia, schizophrenia, or traumatic head injury due to some accident.

A person can also be violent when under the influence of alcohol because it affects some region of the brain. One is the Cerebral Cortex. Alcohol slows down the processing of information of our senses and the process of our thoughts that makes us to be angry easily. Second is the Hypothalamus and Pituitary these two is responsible for the control of sexual arousal and performance. Alcohol increases the urge of having sex. Violent acts may be the result of personal or belief systems.

Some because of having an abusive parents or a religion that encourage its members to do harmful acts like bombing and kidnapping to terrorize the community. Violence can be sexualized raping innocent kids or directed at a specific victim or at a specific group.

“Aggression is not violence. An aggressive person may not be violent. Aggression is a behavior characterized by verbal or physical attack, yet it may be appropriate and self-protective or destructive and violent,” says Bruce Perry

Aggression is a behavior that can be found in all human beings and shown in a negative (harmful) way in terms of language and when you’re interacting physically to other person or on their personal stuff like damage to objects and property, assault on self and others and violent threats to others. Based on the article, all behavior that can cause harm to others can be include or called as aggression.

According to an article written by Heather Whipps entitled “The Evolution of Human Aggression” from the site www.livescience.com in a conference held at the University of Utah they’ve aim to discuss how human evolution helped shaping various ways of displaying aggression in our modern society.

"Humans are unique in the complexity of their social relationships and their highly developed social intelligence. Revenge and spite are quintessential social emotions and so are not likely to be found in many, if any, other species," says Professor Cashdan

A professor of anthropology named Elizabeth Cashdan explained that violence, reconciliation, and cooperation are all part of human nature. Evolution is one reason why humans exhibit aggression because its a primal emotion like any other. And just like in the world of animals, having an aggressive behavior is a part of their lives in order for them to survive their environment and humans is definitely one of the most violent species.

An example was given by Professor Cashdan and according to her “some male insects are more likely to guard their mates when there are fewer females in the population, hence fewer other mating opportunities. Natural selection didn't just shape a fixed behavior, it shaped the norm of reaction — the nature of the response." And we can conclude that aggression is developed through a set of condition that lures humans into violence.

"Everyone has experienced anger at one point in their lives and some of us — males mostly, going by statistics — have channeled that anger into violence, perhaps by throwing a punch during a hockey game or after too many beers at the bar," says Heather Whipps

The evolution of aggression among humans is bound by conditions that trigger them to do something that will benefit them. And in our society today, violence comes when our instincts tells us that there is no other way to get what we want if we don’t grasp the opportunity of doing it. That is where situations like picking a fight to a student whom you think is much more stronger than you comes in thinking that the only reason for you to prove and have your place in the society is by beating him in a way that you know will be an advantage to your side.

Its funny that the aggression we really hate is the thing that makes our race alive. Its helps us to cope with our new environment. Evolution shapes us to be like this. Now, we owe our life to aggression. Many people says that bullying will never end. Yes, that's possible. But, i know it can be prevented. We can make the cases of bullying to drop as long as we work together, as long as we have respect to each other. I know, I believe bullying will end.