Psychology of Aggression

These theories claim the importance of learning by reinforcement. By learning the behaviour can be adapted to the desired form. The main advocate of this theory was in the first half of the last century was a psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner, who presented this approach firstly 1948 in his book Walden Two, then reviewed 1976 because of social changes. Nevertheless, there are some different approaches stating that the influence of upbringing and social learning should not be over emphasised. For example, according to Bandura, social learning is composed of three components: acquisition, instigation and regulation. (see Kool. 2007. p. 49) Acquisition of aggressive behaviour is related to biological factors and learning (observation, reinforcement) – in this case, aggression can be instigated by aversive stimulus, cultural beliefs etc. 

General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM)

This model involves all aspects and approaches which were mentioned above and involves also biological aspects such as genetic and hormonal influences – i.e. not only the psychological issues focusing on cognitive processes and socialisation. This model was developed by Anderson and his colleagues firstly 1997[1]. It explains how certain input variables come together to evoke aggressive behaviour. Furthermore, this model explains how  aggression can become a part of a person´s personality over time. In this study, the impact of media violence was investigated and claimed as the reason for raising social violence. In spite of results of this first research dealing with this issue, further investigations did not confirm the harmful impact of violence in media on children.

The GAAM assumes that the starting point of an aggressive interaction lies in individual dispositions, such as trait of character and external conditions, that meet in a particular situation and evoke an interaction of violence. 

The difference between drive and social learning theories are that drive theories try to explain emotional aggression whereas, social learning theories are focused on instrumental aggression.

Social identity theory (SIT)

This theory focuses on social identity as a result of awareness of one being a part of a certain group and is so similar to studies dealing with social behaviour. A human looks for his membership in a certain part of society, thus increases his distinctiveness towards other groups.[2]

In this regard, although we know that aggressive or nonaggressive behaviour is connected with our processing of information and self-control, the SIT theory explains the social aspect of cognition.