Biological Theory Of Aggression

Introduction of Defining Aggression

Aggression is defined today as anti-social behaviour towards the point of harming or damaging another person (Baron and Richardson, 1994). There are two forms of aggression hostile and instrumental aggression. Hostile aggression is an act to intentionally injure someone whereas instrumental aggression is to get rewarded. Aggression comes in many forms of physical, verbal, emotional and mental abuse. Aggression can serve a number of various purposes i.e. express anger or hostility, intimidate or threaten, dominance, fear, pain and competing with others. When defining aggression that individual person must recognise the difference between behaviour and intentions. Aggressive acts shown in social norms within

Evidence shows that ( Hutchings & Mednick, 1975) supporting the biological theory that the roles of the genetic pool have an explanation for aggressive behaviour. Hutchings & Mednicks found that a majority of adopted boys from Denmark had biological parents that held criminal records. They took 14,000 samples of adoptions in Denmark for their findings it explained that there is a genetic impact on aggressive behaviour with the biological parents being criminals.

However, Hutchings & Mednicks evidence can be criticised for containing a methodological flaw. They used samples of 14,000 adoptions who were criminals themselves and the evidence can be criticised as unfairness because the findings can’t be generalised to non-criminals.

Genetic theory of aggression it states that a large number of criminals with aggressive behaviour carry XYY chromosomes, whereas a normal man has XY chromosomes as (Jacob.et.al, 1965) states that extra Y chromosomes may be why men are more aggressive, this could be the possibility of why Peter could behave this way as it could be genetic as his father is also abusive.

However, it also shows that men who have XYY chromosomes tend to commit non-violent crimes but not to commit violent crimes as the hypotheses predicted. (Epps, 1995).

et. al., 1976) who had observed 1300 children who went trick-or-treating on Halloween in the United States and through his findings the children who didn't wear masks didn't steal sweets and the ones who did wear masks or was in a large group were more likely to steal sweets. Criticisms ***

Frustration-Aggression is when an incident or event indicates the cause of frustration which leads to some form of aggression it can be internal or external (Dollard. et. al., 19 ). Internal is when frustration arises when an individual has certain challenges and has a personal goal or desire. External frustration is when an individual has a situation outside their personal self, like dealing with difficult tasks or road traffic which can cause an arise in aggressive behaviour (Miller, 1941). This could maybe why Peter is acting out in his behaviour due to his home