What is the cause of aggression
...e created a new social environment, it has also given room for aggression to evolve dramatically. Aggression in animals rarely occurs in pure form; it is only one of two components of an adaptive system. This is most clearly seen in territorial behavior, although it is also true of most other types of hostile behavior… Put very briefly, animals of territorial species, once they have settled on a territory, attack intruders, but an animal that is still searching for a suitable territory or finds itself outside its home range withdraws when it meets an already established owner. In terms of function, once you have taken possession of a territory, it pays to drive off competitors; but when you are still looking for a territory (or meet your neighbor at your common boundary); your chances of success are improved by avoiding such established owners. The ruthless fighter who ‘knows no fear’ does not get very far. For an understanding of what follows, this fact, that hostile clashes are controlled by what we would call the ‘attack- avoidance system’, is essential” (Tinbergen, 1968). In man “The upsetting balance between aggression and fear (and this is what causes war) is due to at least three consequences of cultural evolution. It is an old cultural phenomenon that warriors are both brainwashed and bullied into all-out fighting. They are brainwashed into believing that fleeing- originally, as we have seen, an adaptive type of behavior- is despicable, ‘cowardly’… Another cultural excess is our ability to make and use killing tools, especially long ranged weapons. These make killing easy, not only because a spear or a club inflicts, with the same effort, so much more damage than a fist, but also, and mainly, because the use of long-range weapons prevents the victim from reaching his attacker with appeasement, reassurance, and distress signals. Very few aircrews who are willing, indeed eager, to drop their bombs ‘on target’ would be willing to strangle, stab, or burn children or, for that matter, adults with their own hands; they would stop short of killing, in response to the appeasement and distress signals of their opponents” ( Tinbergen, 1968). One may notice that this statement is not absolutely true; there are many instances-especially from civil wars and genocides- of people perfectly capable of burning, or otherwise killing, babies with their bare hands. However, in most cases, for the majority of human beings, the statement is valid (Tinbergen, 1968). Aggressive instinct is, in the main, an accepted notion in psychoanalysis. The various arguments for an instinct of aggression, self-destruction, or destruction may be summarized briefly. Aggression is pervasive and universal, and much aggression cannot be explained on a reactive basis; psychotic acts of murder, suicide, or long awaited revenge. The reoccurrence of sadism indicate the presence of an innate pleasure inflicting pain on others or the self. There is an unlearned physiological pattern for rage, the “predecessor” of attack. Aggression occurs so early in development that it must be innate. Dennen states that “aggression is unquestionably a pervasive and universal response, but so is walking. No one regards walking as an instinct, despite its pervasiveness; a behavior’s being widespread is not a sufficient reason for labeling it instinctual. Unfortunately, there appears to be an implicit equating of rational with learned and of irrational with unlearned or instinctual; while this assumption is never stated clearly in psychoanalytic literature, it would seem to underlie much of the theoretical reasoning about sexual aggressive instincts. The appearance of aggression very early in the developmental sequence has been used as an argument for regarding aggression as an instinct. But attacking behavior occurs no earlier than talking or walking; like them, it requires some maturation, and, like them, aggressive response must be learned (Dennen). Aggressive behavior if found thorough the animal kingdom in many different forms. It can be understood through evolutionary perspective as a set of evolved responses to certain recurring evolutionary problems, fending off danger, protecting offspring, and actively competing for resources (Archer, 1988). This view of aggression can be extended to humans. Very few cases of violent behavior by humans are pathological in a medical sense (Daly and Wilson, 1994). Instead, the pattern of human aggressive and vi...