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     REPLACING PASSIVE AND AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS WITH ASSERTIVENESS..Ch. 4

 REPLACING PASSIVENESS  AGGRESSIVENESS

Chapter 4

REPLACING PASSIVENESS AND
 AGGRESSIVENESS WITH ASSERTIVENESS

Outline of chapter

Session 4-1 AGGRESSION: BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
               Genes, heredity and aggression
               Bio-chemical deficiencies and aggression
               Biological effect of stress on aggression
               Instinctual needs as sources of aggression
Session 4-2  AGGRESSION FACTORS:
           MENTAL, FACTORS
               Learning conformity and aggression
               Learning versus developing aggression
               Learned cues triggering aggression
          VALUE/BELIEF FACTORS
               Aggression influenced by values
               Adolescent search for valued ego ideal
               Coping aggression-filled ego ideals
           EMOTIONAL FACTORS
               Aggression: weakness from a wounded ego
               Aggression: weakness from wounded narcissism

Session 4-3   AGGRESSION-IN: TURNED IN – TURNED OUT
          TURNED IN ON SELF
               Withdrawal and inhibition as turning-in
               Passive-aggressive as turning-in of hostility
               Learned helplessness and aggression-in
               Physical / emotional illness from aggression-in
               Suicide as aggression turned in on oneself
          TURNED ANTI-SOCIAL
               Aggression-out and wife-battering
               Child abuse from family aggression
               Arson
               Rape, Murder, War

Session 4-4  AGGRESSION TURNING INTO DEVIANT BEHAVIORS
               Substance abuse
               Pornography
               Family violence
               Alcohol-driven aggression
               Stealing

Session 4-5   DEALING WITH AGGRESSION
               Multiple factors
               Assertiveness Training
               (Robert Alberti, Michael Emmons)






Replacing passiveness
     and aggressiveness
               with assertiveness

PRIMARY TOPICS

* Aggression inherited?                * Suicide - murder
* Aggression learned?               * Alcohol, drugs -- Cues, triggers
* Aggression idealized?               * Pornography and sexual aggression
* Aggression provoked?               * Aggression affecting school
* Precursors of aggression          * Type A personality
* Learned helplessness               * Prevention - intervention
* Aggression in-out                    * Assertiveness Training
* Aggression and health     
     Robert Alberti and Michael Emmons are the featured originators of Assertiveness Training skills found in Your Perfect Right, (1971) 7th edition, 1994, Impact Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 1094, San Luis Obispo, CA. 93406.  One million copies in print. Permission granted to Wellness Publications to reprint materials in this chapter.


This chapter presents an overview of aggression. The material in this text is organized to help people maintain or regain control over aggressive behaviors that are hostile in origin. Psychology, personal well-being and counseling become easier if we know that aggression can help us win or make us become less productive, help us to be happy or make us extremely regretful. The outcome depends on what controls our inner emotions and how we learn to handle hostile aggression. Aggression can be our friend to help us when our heart is in the right place, However, if people's hearts are filled with past experiences of hate, if they continue to live with unresolved conflict, and do not learn currently taught skills to neutralize their hostility, then aggression becomes similar to the monster that Frankenstein created, which eats away the rationality in the one in whom it exists. The reduction of hostile aggression becomes one more key to happiness, health, longevity and a good world. Aggression is global, perhaps partly inherited, primarily learned, variable in intensity, constructive, destructive, stimulated and provoked.

Definition of aggression

In daily language we use the word “aggressive” to describe a person who may be successful in business, in sales, in sports and a variety of activities. Spoken this way, the word “aggressive” generally signifies a positive personality trait. However, in the field of psychology, the word “ aggression” is largely confined to hostile behavior that has harmful consequences. The adjective form “aggressive” generally signifies a positive activity, but the noun form of that word, “aggression,” is generally used to indicate something that has a negative outcome, like destructiveness, violence and crime.

Session 4-1     AGGRESSION: BIOLOGICAL FACTORS


    “Aggression is a form of social behavior within everyone's repertoire. Accordingly, attention needs to be focused on the features that serve to keep its manifestations within acceptable bounds.” Michael Rutter   7th Congress of the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Lausanne, Switzerland. Acta Paedopsychiatrica, March (Supplement) 6:11-25, 1985

Ashley Montagu, Ph.D., in “Chromosomes and  Crime” (1969), recounted some of the history of the search for a biological or hereditary cause for crime. Early in the 1800's Johann Kaspar Spurzheim and Franz Joseph Gall made observations between shapes of person's skulls and their crimes (called  phrenology), suspecting an internal brain deformity which might be a cause for character traits. In the late 1900's an Italian criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, observed the relation between  crimes and criminal's small ears, lobeless ears, receding chins, low foreheads and crooked noses. The first known record of crime associated with “bad blood” or “bad genes” was recorded by Richard L. Dugdale, a New York prison inspector, published in 1875 (cf. Montagu, 1969). In his record of the family of “The Jukes,” he retraced 7 generations of 540 blood relatives and 169 others who were either married-to or lived-with a blood relative. Dugdale was convinced that there was a hereditary factor in criminals. In 1912 Henry H. Goddard, the director of a school for mentally retarded in New Jersey published the history of two clans of “Kallikaks,” showing how many more criminals came out of an affair with a “feeble-minded” woman, than out of the a marriage with a “Quaker woman of good blood.” Neither of these studies prove that aggression is inherited any more than it is learned from examples of the previous generation. This information simply shows the large concern for the source of hostile aggression that creates so much harm.

Genes, heredity and aggression

Normally, a child is conceived when the female ovum (egg) is penetrated by one of about 100 to 300 million sperm. Half of those sperm are carrying an X sex chromosome which produces a female when it combines with a female's Y sex chromosome (MX>FY=m). The other half of the sperm are carrying a Y sex chromosome that produces a male child when it combines with the female X sex chromosome (MY>FX=f).
    

In 1965 genetic studies of mentally abnormal inmates in an Edinburgh, Scotland prison hospital, suggested a link between persons who were born with an extra Y chromosome (XYY) and their violent and criminal inclinations. After the murder of 8 nurses by Richard Speck in 1966, it was learned that he carried a XYY chromosome combination. Scores of studies such as these have been published. The studies are unable to conclude that the cause of crimes lies predominantly in the chromosomes. XYY and XXYY chromosome combinations may be part of a larger set of factors.
     Raymond C. Lake (1983) made comparisons of the activity of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the XYY and XXYY chromosomes in lab subjects and “normals.” He did not find the norepinephrine (NE) levels significantly higher in chromosomal-deviant persons. Lake concluded that there was no support for the idea that XYY chromosome combinations were abnormal. Lake's conclusion does not negate some of the studies; it only helps us understand that the XYY and XXYY factors may possibly be combining with other factors to generate criminal behaviors.

Bio-chemical deficiencies and aggression


"More persons become good through practice than by nature.”
     Democritus of Abdera, (5th-4th century BC)

 Testosterone deficiency has been seen in relation to aggression (somewhat contrary to what we might think). In 1988 Dr. Nabil Sourial and Dr. Fred Fenton, from the Montreal General Hospital Department of Psychiatry experimented with giving testosterone (male hormones) to a 31 year old XXYY who had been having aggressive fantasies and behaviors toward females. Treatment helped neutralize the aggression.
      Serotonin, a neuro-transmitter which performs the function of sending and/or controlling messages down nerve pathways, is found to be in deficient supply in certain  aggression-prone alcoholics (Branchey, et al., 1984). Research indicates that reduced metabolism (production) of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, is associated with such features as depression (Zukerman, 1986), impulsivity/aggression (Zemishlany, Siever, Coccaro, 1988) and suicide (Coccaro, 1989).

Biological effect of stress

In the 1970's and 1980's major research showed that biological processes can be affected by psychological processes. In other words, stress changes the production and distribution of many bio-chemical processes; one of them being prolactin. Whitaker M. Corenblum (1977) published an article in the British Medical Journal showing the evidence for suggesting that prolactin, a pituitary hormone, balanced (mediated) the serotonin response during times of stress. Prolactin research (Cohen-Cole, Cogen, Stevens, Kirk, Gaitan, Hain & Freeman, 1981) established a strong correlation between stress and trench mouth (ulcerative gingivitis). Prolactin levels were as high as the symptoms of depression. Prolactin is “a serotonin-releasing/uptake-inhibiting agent” (Coccaro, et al, 1989). Since prolactin controls the production of serotonin, in times of stress serotonin levels will likely be lower.
     Stress can change the body's chemistry, and increase the possibility of aggression. The conclusion is not to excuse oneself for one's aggression, but to resolve the stress or learn stress-controlling skills. If a person assumes that the source of problem is primarily in one's heredity, biology or bio-chemistry, then a person becomes fatalistic and unmotivated to change.
     Some alcoholics go into a rage when they are drunk and never remember it the next day. If you are an adult child of an alcoholic you may be dysfunctional because you absorbed that rage. Bottled aggression can be dealt with in a support counseling group.
Psychology generally views aggression as a byproduct of instincts, their conflicts, and interactions with learned behaviors and ideals. Freud helped us understand that aggression arose out a conflict between the psyche's needs for  libidinal nourishment (Warm Fuzzies) and one's excessive amount of narcissistic demands. In essence, aggression results from frustrated desires and/or lack of love. Rollo May, Ph.D., (1972) sees aggression as the ultimate outcome of a lack of power to meet one's personal needs (instincts). Paul Tillich, philosopher and theologian saw aggression coming out of  frustrations with “Love,” “Power” and “Justice.” The biologists have strong  support coming out of animal studies, that aggression is instinctual. There is a strong middle-ground in which theoretical positions overlap.

Aggression and hypoglycemia

 Hypoglycemia is a condition in which blood glucose levels surge to high levels with sugar and flour intake, then drop drastically after one-half to three and one-half hours. When the blood glucose is lower than 50-60 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood (normal is 100-120) the person becomes irritable and aggressive. This condition is also called hyperinsulinism, which describes the excessive production of insulin which lowers the blood sugar level. There is frequently a connection between extremely high or extremely low blood sugar levels and violent aggression. Persons diagnosed with “ violent antisocial personality disorder” have higher levels of blood glucose in the Glucose Tolerance Test than persons diagnosed with “intermittent explosive disorder” (Virkkunen, 1986, Helsinki). Violent male offenders (60 examined) who murdered or attempted to murder their female partners had higher blood sugar scores in the  Glucose Tolerance Test (Virkkunen, 1987, Finland). Hypoglycemia is not a disease carried by a germ.  Alcoholics, who are violent during intoxication, frequently have lowered blood sugar levels (Virkkunen, 1984, Helsinki, Finland; Elliott, 1987). Hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) are dysfunctional conditions, partly inherited, but generally controlled by diet. Persons who consume high amounts of sucrose (sugars) and alcohol generally stimulate their blood-sugar controlling organs ( pancreas), even overworking them into a diseased condition. Excessive stimulation upsets these controls and hostile violence is frequently the result.

Aggression, PMS, and testosterone

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) in women occurs just before menstruation. It is characterized by combinations of anxiety, irritability, muscular tension, aggression and/or depression. Home cures and health-food potions are constantly sold. Medical doctors can prescribe progesterone if severe enough. A study in Uppsala, Sweden (Hallman, Oreland, Edman & Schalling, 1987) compared the  monoamine oxidase (MAO) for mood levels in 40 women, with another 37 women not experiencing PMS. MAO are some of the body's emotionally stabilizing chemicals. The deficiency of MAO was correlated with PMS, and with indirect and verbal aggression scores on the Eysenck Personality Inventory. This underscores the fact that certain amounts or kinds of aggression may come from multiple factors including low MAO levels.

Ultimate responsibility of the ego     

The formula by which problems develop is extremely complex, containing many factors. A person may need to discover biological factors to neutralize his or her own aggression.
     The  ego remains the pivotal command-post of a person. A person's ego may not be as fully functional as that person would like, or as society would like to see it. Delinquency and/or violent offenses are “maladaptive aggressive responses” and are “to some degree, volitional (voluntary choice)” (Taylor, 1983). People choose their lifestyles from a wide assortment. Each person is responsible for himself or herself, and there are many unused resources in psychology, counseling, education and self-help groups to enable most persons to neutralize destructive and harmful aggression. It is this author's understanding that many persons do not change or improve their lives because they have not been taught how. The skills approach in this text, coupled with research from psychology on optimum behaviors, should enable a certain number of persons to break away from their past. They should be able to more successfully fulfil their dreams.

Session 4-2   AGGRESSION: MENTAL and VALUE FACTORS


THE MENTAL FACTORS OF AGGRESSION
There is a middle-ground between the personal freedom to express one's aggression, and the responsibility to others (culture) not to hurt them with one's aggression (James, 1983). Finding that middle-ground is a daily search. People get upset when others invade their domain either physically or psychologically. Some erupt violently because they saw their parents do that. Some remain silent because that is the lifestyle they observed most often. A few observed aggressive violence and reacted, learning to back off too much, and by excessive withdrawal, giving up their freedom and right to be heard. They suppress their feelings excessively and pay an emotional price. To simply copy the lifestyles of one's family or culture may not be productive or healthy for every circumstance.

Learning versus developing aggression

“Studies of childbearing practices have consistently shown that children brought up with  violence as a mode of regulating their conduct become aggressive as adults” (Green, 1982). This may appear to be a simple case of learning, but it is more serious than that. The mind is not simply hanging on to a memory. The psyche is affected. The psyche requires positive nourishment just like the body, the mind and the value system. When the person is treated violently the emotions of the psyche are stained, bent and disfigured. The psyche gets agitated because it is hurt. The psyche is the equipment which requires positive libidinal nourishment (Warm Fuzzies) to remain calm and grow. Excessively painful violence distorts the psychic equipment, sending it fleeing for help from the immature and neurotic defense mechanisms described in the previous chapter. Aggression is not simply learned in situations, but it develops in victims of harsh treatment and anger-driven abusiveness. In many instances aggression results from suffering from another's violence.

Learned cues triggering aggression

Internal  aggression and its expression needs a place in its formula for cues, those stimuli and/or switches which turn on hostile human behavior that we call aggression. Society continually seeks to know what cues trigger hostile aggression. Society want to learn how to prevent a Charles Manson type of person from killing others. Society wants to feel safe from them.
    

The publicity which some suicides receive, seems to act as a cue for others to commit suicide. Studies show strong correlations between suicide rates which increase after a highly publicized suicide (Stack, 1989). It should be obvious that the “cue” is not necessarily the cause of another person committing suicide. Persons who commit suicide may do so for many reasons. Often they are persons who have been deeply hurt by the loss of a loved romantic partner. The hurt mobilizes inner aggression, which has no place to go, but “in” and on self. Others commit suicide when they have been repeatedly disappointed, feel depressed, and have no faith or belief to sustain themselves. Cues to suicide may simply be triggering devices for emotional hurts and belief deficits which have existed for some time.
     Few people would guess that full-spectrum fluorescent lighting (greenhouse daylight) and the color of paint in schoolrooms has much to do with aggression, but after 6120 blood pressure measurements for Grades 2, 4, 5 and 6, the verdict was in. School A. only had new lights. School B. had new paint. School C. had both new light and new paint. School D. was the “control.” When the verdict was in “sadness” and “aggression” decreased most in the school where both the lighting and the paint had been changed (Wohlfarth & Gates, 1985, Canada). Add full-spectrum fluorescent lighting and appropriate color to the list of factors which have an influence on aggression.
     Considering these cues or influences, let it be understood that most of the basic research on aggression shows that persons who suffer most are the ones who were beaten, verbally abused, sexually molested and/or lived in extremely non-stroking environments. Changing a light bulb and wearing brighter clothes will not make their aggression go away. These persons need to make peace with their past offenders, either face to face, or internally. They need to neutralize the hostility of their inner emotional system.

BELIEFS AND VALUES AFFECTING  AGGRESSION  

Persons growing up among friends who believe in ventilating hostile aggression will probably learn to value hostile aggression, as a tool for getting what they want. In that sense their aggression is learned and valued for what it can get. People live by beliefs and values that are inner images called  ego ideals. The small infant spends much time with the mother, who becomes the infant's ego ideal until the time of the child's adolescent emergence into adulthood (Torres, 1988, Spanish). During  adolescence the person automatically and instinctually begins to formulate his or her own ego ideal(s). Discovering one's own ego ideal is a task of the ego (Treurniet, 1989). Everything in Body, Mind and Spirit, Superego, Ego and Id become integrated by the ego in the setting up the ego ideal. Some psychologists understand the ego ideal to be a part of superego functioning (Edwards, 1987). Obviously, the ego ideal can embody the same values as those pressed on the superego by society, but the ego ideal is generally understood to be uplifting, while the superego is generally understood to be more restrictive.

Adolescent search for valued ego ideal

           “Real traumas caused by physical aggression
             destroy minds and ego-ideals.”
                   Tilo Held, Revue Francaise de Psychanalyse, 1988, (French)

Adolescence is the time when young people begin to adopt their ego ideal(s) that may stay with them for a life-time. A teen-ager's ego ideal may be a parent, but more than likely it will be a teacher, an uncle, an aunt, a clergyman, a sport's star, etc. People copy the lifestyles of those whom they esteem. People live by their heros. In doing this they set up their own ego ideal.
     An  ego ideal is an image which forms inside the person's  value system. This occurs rather unconsciously, unless people are educating themselves. The ego ideal (what you want to be or become) can be placed under observation as in psychoanalysis, where the counselor supports a self-searching process of identifying the values which are affecting the person (Major, 1974). Everyone needs to be encouraged to zero in on their own personal ego ideal. Perhaps they need to construct one out of a collection of admired persons and their traits.

Aggression-filled ego ideals

Adolph Hitler became an ego ideal for Nazi youth in the 1930's. Hitler's inner personal ego ideal was distorted. Hitler grew up in a context of Jewish people also having a collective ego ideal to which they had been loyal for thousands of years (Kestenberg, 1987). Both groups were committed to their ego ideals, and both believed their ego ideals were the hope for the future of mankind. Distorted ego ideals are cruel.
     Joan of Arc (1412-1431) has also been an ego ideal. She sensed corruption in government. She believed she heard saints and angels voices, enlisted military support and became a French heroine for restoring justice (Duparc, 1989, French). In her, aggression was mobilized for a cause that appeared to be just.
     The  dilemma of every person is to decide which ego ideal to adopt. Each lifestyle which comes out of the values of an ego ideal has consequences. A person would like to have some assurance that his or her inner ego ideal will generate the rewards expected. Education, self-study, self-disclosure in support groups are part of the process of avoiding the pain of adopting certain problematic ego ideals. Unfortunately, there is still not an urgently felt need to help young persons discover the skills for happiness. Perhaps there is still too much resistance in the young person who finds rules and guidelines hard to tolerate.
Difficulty in establishing a valued ego ideal

Counselors in general, spend most of their time with persons who don't know how to handle being  harshly treated, and do not know how to respond appropriately. The child who lived with an alcoholic parent may have been traumatized so much that the person appears to not even have an ego ideal. Tilo Held (1989, France) maintains that certain persons have been so traumatized by aggression that psychoanalysis is not possible, because the ego ideals have been destroyed. Certain adolescents, who have experienced much maltreatment, will therefore have a difficult time adopting an ego ideal, or generating their own, and will unfortunately continue living an aggression-filled lifestyle.

Emotional factors in aggression

Sigmund Freud (1920) kept making refinements until he understood that people have two basic instincts,  eros the instinct for life, and  thanatos the instinct for death. The eros instinct functioned through libido, the love principle which had high amounts of sexual energy and motivation. The thanatos instinct functioned through  aggression and vented negative emotional forces on others. It inevitably produced death.  Libido generates creativity, and renewed life, while aggression is destructive. These instincts continue through life (Grotstein, 1982) but further amplifications exist. Gertrude and Rubin Blanck, in Stockholm, Sweden (1983) suggest that “the libido is considered an instinct to unite, and aggression is an instinct to separate rather than to destroy.”
     A review of French writings on aggression (Clancier, Faure & Pragier, 1984) reveals that all the writings they reviewed, acknowledge some type of “Eros-Thanatos dichotomy (split or separation).” The Eros instinct pulls toward life, health and happiness, while the Thanatos instinct pulls in the direction of deterioration, destruction and/or death. People unconsciously make decisions which pull in one direction or the other. Choices have consequences, and the more informed persons are, the greater their chance of making choices which are more Eros-oriented than Thanatos-oriented. helpful and harmful. Right in this moment, the person who is choosing to less aggression-oriented is making an Eros-oriented decision.

Aggression: from a wounded ego

The simplest thing that is common knowledge to both the professional opinions of psychologists and the less-educated hunches of student is that people have an instinctual need for Warm Fuzzies and Positive Strokes. The wounded  ego is a very dangerous ego. When the psyche is not fed positive  libidinal nourishment, the psyche becomes agitated due to the lack of fulfillment of its instinctual needs. Under deficiency conditions the psyche (ego) becomes hungry and aggressive. This may happen during times of repeated failures (Mikulincer, et. al, 1989). Under excess overload, the ego is frustrated and becomes aggression-filled. When the ego suffers from abuse and its positive nutritional supply is suddenly neutralized (even negativized), then the ego is again mobilized with aggression. If we use the word “enjoyment” instead of libido, Warm Fuzzies or  Positive Strokes, as Marco Marchesan (1980, Italian) does, “enjoyment physiologically excludes violence.” By a process of logical deduction, aggression should probably not exist in someone who receives and secures a sufficient supply of Positive Strokes for his or her emotions.

Aggression: from disappointed narcissism

Narcissism is self-love; a moderate supply is healthy. It preserves us from extinction. Excessive narcissism is egotism, greed and creates problems for others. People experience cruelty and disaster. That produces wounds in self-esteem. That may produce excessive and problematic narcissism. “Aggression is a reaction to narcissistic wounds” (Decia de Gindel & Garcia, 1987, Spanish). Excessive narcissism occurs when the libido reaches out for nourishment, gets hurt and retreats, storing (suppressing, see previous chapter) more and more hurts. Excessive narcissism uses aggression-filled behaviors to preserve the current supply of Positive Strokes and to satisfy a growing addictive tendency. When the psychological wounds of the past are deep, narcissism is quick to respond and can be vicious.
     An overly narcissistic person  yells and screams to get what s/he wants. An overly narcissistic person throws temper tantrums to intimidate and gain control. An overly narcissistic person browbeats a partner with “I am right and you are wrong” types of argumentation. The greater the amount of narcissism the greater the need to express it with verbal battering and physical abuse. Narcissism “contains both defensive and underlying pathological components” (Diderichsen, 1983, Denmark). David Biscardi and Thomas Schill (1985), from Southern Illinois University researched the correlation between narcissism and aggression. “Higher narcissism scores were positively associated with defensive categories that involved the expression of aggression outward.” Certain wounded creatures fight more viciously than those who have only been insulted.

Aggression: from feeling powerless

                 “Human nurturing is essential to sustain and
                promote optimal psychological maturation of
                any infant's ego functions and evolving object
               relations in the child's journey into love and reality.”
                   Dale Meers, Institute for Psychoanalysis, Baltimore, 1982

Aggression-filled persons have an extra strong need to control, arising out of their feelings of  powerlessness. “Aggressive children openly express anger and  challenge authority. They externalize their fears. (They) frustrate, (turn) defensive, then enact aggressive and/or passive-aggressive acts” (Beck, 1985). These behaviors are expressions of their need to be controlling, and are exaggerated due to an inner sense of weakness. A feeling of anxiety arises when threatened, somewhat in proportion to the sense of powerlessness in the situation. That anxiety, now exaggerated, incites a larger-than-necessary aggressive response.

The wounded psyche


Aggression originates mostly from a wounded or starved psyche. Research (Franken, 1995) showed that persons growing up with “arguing parents,” “violent parents,” “abusive parents,” had far lower grades than others. They had more “behavior problems.” They had far more “Days in the hospital,” more “counseling,” more “absenteeism,” and far more “stress factors” than those who did not suffer from living with the uncontrolled aggression of their parents.
     The opposite of that was equally true. “Cold parents” were also associated in this research finding with acting out “behavior problems.”  Unfortunately, those who have been wounded more by other’s aggression tend to suffer more problems themselves, and pass on their aggression.  Perhaps further training of the kind found in this textbook will help persons resolve aggression.

 Session 4-4   AGGRESSION TURNED-IN — or TURNED OUT

Aggression turned in on the self

Historically, psychologists saw melancholia ( depression) as an emotional illness which resulted when aggression turned in on the self (Miller, 1987). Freud did not use the term "aggression” in writing until 1905, and then it was cast into concepts of  oral aggression (anger enters the self), anal aggression (anger comes out of the self) and oedipal aggression (anger at dependency; seeks autonomy; needs to cut the apron strings). This somewhat oversimplified description lay the groundwork for current anger-in and anger-out theories of aggression. Amplifications include aggression-inhibition and aggression-expression, as well as inner-outer locus of control ideas. Even concepts like “intropunitive” and “extrapunitive”  take their place in aggression studies. Another parallel to the in-out lifestyle question is the concept of introversion-extraversion. Learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975) is aggression-in. It is all more complex than fight-flight ideas. Without diminishing the significance of each contribution, it is easy to see some common threads running through them. Each contributor lays a deeper foundation for the basic understanding of psychology; namely, that learning to deal with aggression, by other than blowing up or bottling it, is a major issue for peace and happiness in this world. A person needs to learn problem-solving skills, many of which will be described in the following chapters.

 Withdrawal; inhibition as turning-in

Psychology also uses the terms withdrawal and  inhibition of aggression. Withdrawal and inhibition occurs when a person identifies non-conquerable or unresolvable amounts accumulating inside themselves. Withdrawal and inhibition occurs when a person does not know skills to solve hostile aggression. Withdrawal when hostile differs from the kind of withdrawal which is seen in somewhat shy and mild-mannered persons, who may not be hostile but only feel somewhat out of place because of their Socio-Economic Status
(SES), their color or body style, etc. (Gibbs, 1987). Their withdrawal is sometimes considered more ideal, when compared to the verbally and physically aggressive persons who have considerable inner hostility. Withdrawal of aggression generates inner problems over a longer period of time, or when the aggression is large. It may show up as  self-pity (Grunert, 1988, German). The withdrawal of aggression as well as the inhibition of aggression may show up as a physical illness, due to its stress on the psychological and biological system. Withdrawal, without neutralizing aggression undermines  self-esteem and  ego strength.


Passive as turning-inward  

PREDICTORS
OF POSSIBLE SUICIDE

Summary of 10 suicidologists

1. Unbearable psychological pain
2. Interpersonal relations
3. Rejection-aggression
4. Inability to adjust
5. Indirect expressions
6. Identification-regression(leaving)
7. Ego
8. Cognitive constriction,  Antoon  Leenaars,  1989

Passive-aggressive is psychology's term for a personality type that is basically filled with a great deal of hostility from emotional deficiencies and abuses, but keeps it bottled up.  Passive-aggressive persons often have a bigger, and somewhat overly extended (plastic) smile. The passive-aggressive personality is laughing-on-the-outside and crying-on-the-inside (a song in the 50's). That does not mean that every smiling person is a passive-aggressive person. Passive-aggressives are not necessarily anti-social (Cole, 1984). The psychoanalytic school of psychology interprets boys becoming passive-aggressive personalities, when they cannot cut-the-apron-strings in a normal fashion, due to mother's inability to stand emotionally strong. In certain instances these passive-aggressive boys are locked into a dependent and frustrating unit with their mothers.  Molly Cole (1984) sees four steps in the creation of a passive-aggressive. (1) influence the person to do something “distasteful,” (2) set it up so the person can't “refuse” or back out, (3) laugh, joke about it, or manipulate the person in such a way the person will not be able to be “aware” of his or her anger or respond to inner hurt or embarrassment, (4) “challenge” the hurt person, which effectively forces the person to turn passive-aggressive (Cole, 1984). Again, remember that behaviors like passive-aggressive responses develop when the environment is repeatedly and excessively hostile, or unconsciously manipulative. Passive-aggressive personality types are found more frequently among “ assaultive” persons (Nolan, 1983), drug-dependent-abuser persons (Eshbaugh, 1982), agoraphobics (Quadrio, 1984), “27% of violent criminals” (Protter and Travin, 1982), alcoholics (Craig, Verinis & Wexler, 1985) and many more problems. Unresolved anger-in generates problems.

Learned helplessness: aggression-in  

 Learned helplessness was first identified as a theory to explain what happens when people emotionally retreat or disengage in the face of painful experience or fearful situation. The concept resulted from experimentation of escape-learning with dogs (Seligman, 1967, 1971, 1975). In some now-famous experiments Martin E.P. Seligman, University of Pennsylvania, placed a dog in one-half of a cage. If the dog crossed over into the other half, the dog received an electric shock. It did not take too many shocks to make the dog fearful of crossing over. The dog had no way of knowing when the electricity was turned off. The experimenter moved the dogs across the electric-shock line to show there was no shock. The memory was embedded so deeply that it required long-term desensitization before the fear was gone. Seligman and Maier also used different procedures on three groups of dogs and demonstrated that sufficient pre-conditioning would produce complete helpless withdrawal in the animals. The same thing happens to humans, and the lesson is two-fold. People with fears are often victims who need help. Secondly, the victim often cannot initiate his own healing. It requires healthier humans to reach out and help those victims regain their confidence.

            “Unconscious forces remain dominant if the
           ego attempts to deal with them by forceful
           repression.”  Rick Leskowitz, 1983, University of California
     

Learned helplessness could better be described as forced helplessness. “Oppressive attitudes generate learned helplessness” (Amanat, 1984). Susan J. Kelley (1986), Boston College of Nursing, links certain cases of learned helplessness with child sexual abuse. The child is exploited at a time when there is “an unequal relationship between a child and an adult.” Learned helplessness occurs in an environment where the child is vulnerable and manipulated. “The theory of learned helplessness is used to explain  battered women's coping responses to their partner's abusive behavior” (Walker and Browne, 1985). Lenore Walker (1983) believes “Victimology theory needs to be revised . . . women do not remain in battering relationships because of their psychological need to be a victim, but rather because of overt or subtle encouragement by a sexist society.” She sees forced helplessness as a result of our culture, made up of individual beliefs.
     Seligman strongly believes in rehabilitation. He set forth those ideas in his book Learned Optimism (1991) “Learned optimism,” for Seligman is a skill. Seligman  is in agreement with a large amount of Albert Ellis' ideas that our helplessness comes from experiences where we learned something that was not true then, nor is it rational or true now. Therefore, we need to become aware of these irrational beliefs, and replace them. The mind has the power to do this. A person may need counseling, group support and plenty of education but “learned helplessness” can be changed. (See Chapter 12 for more on Albert Ellis.)

 Illness from aggression-in

              “The key to resolving severe schizophrenic
             disorganization is to understand the role of
             aggression and to work through problems of
             rage, whether they are inherited or due to
             congenital situations of early experiences.”    
                            Human Spotnitz, 1989

Aggression-in depletes the nerve's message-sending chemicals.  Norepinephrine and  dopamine are chemical substances which transmit messages throughout the body and brain. These neuro-transmitters function in the synapse between nerve segments and brain components. When there is a high level of these neurotransmitters the messages flow freely and speedily (Von Euler, 1956). People tend to feel brighter or euphoric when the supply of the neurotransmitters is higher.  Neurotransmitters are stored in various body sites, probably during sleep (Hartmann, 1973). When the neuro-transmitters are used in the synaptic cleft (the gap between nerve segments) their chemical usefulness is consumed or used up. The supply becomes depleted and people experience that as depression. When aggression mobilizes an increased, even overloaded, flow of traffic in a person's neurological system, that can result in extreme fatigue. Add grief or a feeling of failure to this traffic in the nervous system and one can become mentally depressed, or feel that life is not worth living. There are some prevention measures.  
     Research on the correlation between aggression-in, inhibited aggression (or other similar terms), and depression is quite extensive. Here are some samples.
     Countless case-studies of persons suffering from more serious emotional disturbances such as  schizophrenia often have lengthy descriptions of aggression-in, or inhibited aggression in the face of traumatic or abusive treatment. However, certain genetic and environmental factors may also combine to create the schizophrenic condition. There is still some lack of complete understanding about the origins of the schizophrenic condition that forces us to be content with the understanding that aggression plays a role, but not necessarily the main role in this psychotic condition.

 Suicide as aggression turned in on oneself

            “Repression tended to turn aggression inward
            and projection and denial turned aggression outward.”
                    Alan Apter, et al., 1989

Suicide is an unfortunate decision by a person who wishes to escape from an overload of emotional hurt, feelings of failure, a sense of loneliness and hopelessness. Suicide can be a decision to try to make someone else feel guilty for their abusiveness or lack of concern. Teen-ager suicides in Montreal, Canada from 1978-1982, were studied (Posener, Lahaye & Cheifetz, 1989, Canada). Part of the study included the “notes” which were left by some of them, but those who left notes were not significantly different. The results support a basic generalization that persons who commit suicide have an (1) “ambivalent attachment to an object,” (2) a “loss of the object” (3) “internalization” of that pain, and (4) “aggression against the self.”
     For example, when a somewhat shaky romance breaks up between a teen-age boy and girl, the hurt can be very large. The pain of a broken romance is always severe, but especially in a teen-ager who may be suffering from other emotional hurts. The teen-ager may also be suffering from conflict at home or from a somewhat poor performance in school. All of these deficiencies to the ego's need for libidinal nourishment (Warm Fuzzies and Positive Strokes) can feel overwhelming.
     The teen-ager needs to realize that the devastating feelings of depression that bring on suicide thoughts occur in everyone at some time. Loss of a dearly loved person brings people to experience varying degrees of feelings that life-is-not-worth-living. Such desperation fantasies only occur at points of deepest emotional pain, when the person feels utterly crushed. When a person feels crushed, the person needs to talk with someone, anyone, and open up, confess these feelings, seek the love of family, friends, co-workers and perhaps counselors. The support of friends is the antidote, the medicine for part of the treatment for suicidal depression.

Physical illness from pent-up aggression


Psychology and medicine now know that stress contributes to physical illness. Hans Selye, M.D., former professor of the University of Montreal is the grandfather of the stress-physical illness connection. His book Stress of Life (McGraw-Hill, 1956) recounts years of research in stressing animals and seeing the development of physical illnesses in the process. Dr. Selye used many kinds of stressors, excessive light, excessive heat, excessive noise, excessive cold, etc. His use of a fire siren to produce stress fascinates readers most. His animals studies always included a control group, sometimes from the same breeding stock, which did not experience the stressor. After lengthy stress, medical investigation would discover tumors, lesions, inflammations and bio-chemical changes in the immune defense system. His studies demonstrated that when animals could not control the stress, then some organ in the body suffered physical exhaustion and the animal could even die. In the 1970's and 1980's hundreds of research projects demonstrated and detailed many of the bio-chemical changes that take place in people under stress. Steven E. Locke and Mady Hornig-Rohan (1983) list 1453 references to published research from 1976 to 1982, showing the connection between stress and ill ness. Aggression which arises from stress, or from inner hurt and anger, is a major illness-producing factor.
     Aggression is found in some  asthmatics. Forty patients who had not responded to other therapies underwent psychiatric examination and received anti-depressant medication. “Most showed suppressed depression and aggression. The majority improved markedly when the depression was relieved and/or the expression of anger was facilitated” (Mellett, 1978). Another study of 374 patients (Kinsman, et al, 1977) discovered high statistical correlations between asthma and “worry, loneliness and anger.” There may be other factors that combine to produce asthma, which are not yet seen.
      Cancer research looks at anger-in. or pent-up anger. Aggression affects the immune response against disease. Pettingale, Greer & Tee, (1977) measured “expression of anger” and serum immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM, IgE). Expression of anger was not related to IgG, IgM, or IgE, but to IgA. “IgA levels were found to be significantly higher in patients who habitually suppressed anger than in those who were able to express anger. . . Over the subsequent 2 years serum IgA levels remained consistently higher in all patients who suppressed anger.”
      Allergic sensitivity is related to certain foods, certain chemical inhalant substances, the person's unique body chemistry and more. While we understand that any overload of pollens and/or irritating aromas can weaken the immune defense system, it is difficult to believe that anger-in or inhibited anger can have the same effect or compound the effect of the other factors. Hansen (1981, German) believes that the mucous which accumulates in allergy reactions “result from suppressed aggressive expressions (rage, anger, attack).”
     Connections have been established between passive-aggressiveness (or anger-in, or anger inhibited) lifestyles, and  bulimia (Yates, et al, 1989), pathological gambling (Graham & Lowenfeld, 1986), psychiatric patients (Lecompte & Clara, 1987 Germany), and other illness problems. Be careful to understand that the passive-aggressive lifestyle, with anger in or inhibited anger, is only one factor of these illnesses, but generally a very prominent one.

Aggression and Type A personalities

                    A HOSTILE ATTITUDE RAISES MORTALITY
                    RISK BY  550 PERCENT   Redford B. Williams, Jr. M.D.
                    Duke University Medical Center, Durham,   NC,
                        Psychosomatic Medicine, February, 1989

Aggression intensity and negativity varies, but wherever it is, aggression seems to be unhealthy. Research since the early 60's has focused on two contrasting personality types called Type A and Type B personality types.  Type A personalities are very achievement-oriented, highly competitive, time-pressured, and relate to others in quite impatient and often more  hostile ways. Type A is more task-oriented. Type B personality strives less for achievement but achieves the same, is less competitive and more cautious to preserve and increase relationships. Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman (1974) evaluated their heart patients, beginning in the mid 1950's to determine psychological correlates of coronary heart disease (CHD). They saw CHD two and one-half times more prevalent in men than women, yet men and women ate about the same amount of similar foods. First, it appeared that there might be a difference due to female hormones, until the concept of stress was introduced.
     One of the early evaluations by Friedman and Rosenman took place among 40 accountants working on Income Tax returns early in the year. As the deadline approached blood cholesterol levels increased. After the passing of the deadline, subsequent summer months brought lower cholesterol levels. Stress had subsided. Type A subjects have higher rates of hypertension (high blood pressure) which is associated with higher levels of anger and general hostility (Diamond, 1982). They tend to deny irritation or anger (Strube, et al., 1984). Type A persons react to provocation more strongly (Glass, 1977). Type A persons release more of the neurotransmitters, epinephrine and norepinephrine, to send messages traveling faster inside their competitive systems. That stimulates the body to release more fat cells into the blood for processing into energy. This higher level of fat cell concentration in the blood stream contributes to CHD. The final effect of a Type A personality style is to raise the risk of mortality, and the CHD-prone person dies earlier, statistically speaking.

10 CONSEQUENCES OF PARENTAL
AGGRESSION ON CHILDREN

1. Identification with the aggression
2. Neurotic adaptation
3. Guilt
4. Folie a deux (emotional illness shared by two persons)
5. Depression
6. Apathy (no motivation)
7. Revenge (getting even)
8. Rebellion     Philip G. Ney
9. Searching     University of Calgary
10. Precocious (smart) development     Canada, 1987
     The aggressive reactions of the Type A person contribute more to  heart disease than the fast-paced  competitiveness (Chesney, 1984), or other lifestyle indulgences (Hicks, 1982). Type A persons have a strong need to master and control. However, when Type A heart attack victims were taught relaxation, coached to be friendlier and laugh at their mistakes, their risk of CHD decreased to half that of another group of Type A heart attack victims who had only been treated medically. Subduing Type A behavior has been proven possible. It requires the use of some skills which can be learned. That should be encouragement for curbing yelling, beatings, fist fights and temper tantrums.

AGGRESSION-OUT: ANTI-SOCIAL

Aggression-out is the opposite of aggression-in, or directed against oneself. Aggression-in can have an  intropunitive (internally self- punishing) effect on mental and physical health. Aggression sometimes implodes (aggression-in and mental illness). Sometimes aggression explodes; aggression-out, as in abuse). After reading the accumulated evidence on aggression you have probably begun think that some yelling and hitting is alright. No! The pendulum in your mind may have swung too far. We need to examine the dynamics of aggression-out. This takes us to the issue of where psychologists believe aggression comes from. In some initial writings early psychologists saw aggression emerge out of a frustrated need for nourishment for the libido, because a person was not feeling loved, not feeling successful, and feeling a craving for some substitute-like thrill experiences. In some sense the denial of nourishment to the psyche is frustrating. A person (his ego) gains his or her energy and power from positive experiences, and loses it from negative experiences, negative feelings and negative misperceptions. The pain which the ego experiences at the point where the level of libido is too low, turns into aggression.

11 Trait Profile of Men Who Batter Wives

1. Jealous
2. Controlling
3. Jekyll and Hyde mood change
4. Explosive temper
5. Legal problems
6. Blaming others
7. Verbal and physical abuse
8. History of  family violence
9. More violent when partner is around
10. Uses denial,  “I did not....”
11. Cycle of violence and “I'm sorry.”   Laura Wetzel, Mary A. Ross, 1983

     But why do some people decide to suppress their aggression and others express it to the point of violence. Konrad Lorenz (1950) proposed a model in which he sought to show that the instinct of aggression filled up like a reservoir. The reservoir accumulated negative feelings. Lorenz pictured this reservoir as having a release valve, a lever or handle of sorts, that would trigger under pressure, allowing the aggression to flow out and do what it was intended to do. The theory was given the un-ceremonious title of “flush-toilet” theory. The theory accomplished the task of showing that, (1) a build-up of aggression can occur; (2) aggression is accumulative; (3) aggression does get triggered with cues and precipitating causes; (4) aggression can come out in great surges; etc. However, the theory operates out of an assumption that aggression unconsciously builds up, and some cue pulls the chain (old model!). Critics of Lorenz quickly understood that. Research turned up new factors. There are cultural influences (Domino & Hannah, 1987). There are inter-generational clashes over values (Shaalan, 1985) which generate aggression like those which make some nations more and/or less aggression-filled. Parental beliefs about levels of aggression affect the size of aggression build-up and release (Mills and Rubin, 1990). Testosterone levels influences aggression levels in certain cases (Rejeski, et al., 1988). Aggression can be influenced by deficiencies in narcissism and deficiencies in ego development (Kull, 1985). Aggression does not appear to be as singularly instinctual as people once believed. Aggression comes from many sources and combinations of those sources.

Aggression-out in the home

When aggression turns outward and becomes noisy, loud and violent, it affects the emotions of everyone nearby. Even overhearing hostile  verbal clashes or seeing  violence in the home is believed to affect the child. If one parent becomes severely critical of (disparages) the other parent it is believed that the future emotional growth and identity development can suffer (Flaherty, 1986). Others believe the same thing. A negative home environment affects a child's (1) expression of aggression, (2) sexual development, and (3) future sexual and marital adjustment (Farr, Briones & Aguirre-Hauchbaum, 1986). Another study did not see as strong an association between overhearing aggression and child conduct, as between being the victim of that aggression and conduct problems.

Aggression-out and wife-battering

The  battering behavior occurs when a rage develops internally, and then explodes externally. Unconscious forces are at work here as elsewhere where aggression inflicts harm. If people do not learn what the unconscious forces are in themselves they will probably not be able to prevent themselves from battering and/or assaulting someone whom they set up to receive the assault. The batterer is generally an extremely insecure, jealous, manipulating and controlling person, and often explodes when alcohol has released his/her inhibitions.

Child abuse from family aggression

 Child abuse damages bodies, minds, spirits and emotions. Eleanor Galenson (1986) sees aggression accounting for 5 syndromes; (1) physical abuse, (2) early psychosis in children, (3) deviant female sexual development, (4) failure to thrive, (5) infantile autism. These are some of the results, but what are the factors that touch off the aggression? Aggression is generally one of several parental and  sibling lifestyle factors which interact to produce physical abuse upon children. In a comparison study of the family environment of both abused children and non-abused children Cynthia A. Davis and Daniel Graybill (1983) found that abusive families were (1) less supportive, (2) less free to express their desires, (3) less positive basis for interaction, (4) more independent, (5) more likely to express anger and aggression, (6) more rigid in rule making, (7) more hierarchical interpersonal structure, (8) parents were lower in Achievement Orientation, lower in Intellectual-Cultural Orientation, lower in Active-Recreational orientation, lower in Moral-Religious Emphasis. Not necessarily all these factors exist in each abusive situation. Yet, abuse seems to come out of a family lifestyle where Positive Strokes and Warm Fuzzies are less abundant.

 IMPACT  ON CHILDREN WHO SUFFERED SEXUAL ABUSE   

 1. Fear
 2. Anxiety
 3. Depression
 4. Anger and hostility
 5. Aggression
 6. Sexually inappropriate behavior
 7. Depression
 8. Self-destructive behavior (suicide)
 9. Feelings of isolation and stigma
10. Poor self-esteem
11. Difficulty in trusting others
12. Tendency toward revictimization
13. Substance abuse
14. Sexual maladjustment
          Angela Browne, David Finkelhor, U. of New Hampshire, 1986

Child sexual abuse and aggression

Child sexual abuse is not only the result of sexual obsession and/or addiction, but it is also an act of aggression by violating or manipulating an innocent person for one's excessively narcissistic (selfish) gains. The parent or other person who sexually abuses a child is committing incest. This is a crime. It is punished by a prison sentence almost everywhere. Just because some  pornographic magazines have stories which include descriptions of child sexual abuse, does not make sexual involvement with a child legal or permissible. The connection between emotional disorder and child sexual abuse is becoming clearer. Many sexually abused children are diagnosed later with  multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorders. Remember, these disorders exist in persons for other reasons as well.
     Let us examine the personality factors that make up the sexually-abusing person. Many adult sex offenders have themselves been victimized in their childhood by sex offenders. Steven Wolf (1988) describes the  sex offender as one with (1) character disorder, (2) large quantities of narcissism, (3) distorted perceptions, (4) tendencies to be ruminative (brooding), (5) chronically depressed, (6) sexually preoccupied. Aggression becomes a partner, possibly even a spark, stimulant or catalyst to sexual abuse. Abusive and aggression-filled parents produce abusive and aggression-filled children.
     The effects of child abuse and child sexual abuse is heavily researched and brings an even sadder picture of the outcome to the children. The picture may be incomplete. however,

(1) Exploited children commit more crime than non-exploited children (Burgess, et al, 1987).

(2) Sexually abused children commit more rape later in life (Langevin, et al, 1989).

(3) Half of a group of psychiatric inpatients had been sexually abused (Carmen, et al., 1984).

(4) Of 200 prostitutes, 120 had been physically and sexually abused (Silbert, 1982).

(5) Of 82 sex offenders, later seventy of those aggressors was related to sexual deviation in childhood (Prentky, et al., 1989).

     Those are horror stories which are generally not published in the newspaper. However, they are appropriately included here in a psychological study of lifestyles.

 Arson  as an act of aggression

               “Alcohol disinhibits the behavioral control of
                people who have aggressive disposition when sober.”
                Buikhuisen, Bontekoe, Van der Plas-Korenhoff, Van Buuren,  1984, Netherlands

Arson is setting fire to something which a person may not legally burn, whether it belongs to the person or someone else. Arsonists are less assertive in going after what is important to them. But after build-up of frustration the arsonist loses control of inner impulses. “ Revenge” is one of several motives for some persons to let their aggression turn on someone else. In one diagnostic survey only 10% were married, 77% had a history of hospitalization, 50% had a criminal record. Alcoholism, retardation and anti-social personality were other diagnoses. Aggression is a major element in fire setting. Not everyone who lets frustration build up inside themselves will become an arsonist. The outlet for the aggressive build-up varies with the individual personality make-up and the forces which are provoking the aggression inside.

 Rape, Murder, War  as aggression

      Murderers are more depressed, more anxious, more frustrated and more aggressive (Kundu, 1982, India) than persons convicted of property destruction. The major question is what forces interact to produce the size of and lack of control of this major build-up. William Holcomb and Nicholas Adams (1983), from the Missouri Department of Mental Health, examined 91 White males and 46 Black males charged with 1st-degree murder. Two variables were significant for both White and Black males; their inability to, (1) focus on  problem-solving, (2) and do some introspective self-focusing. The analysis by Holcomb and Adams supports the need for increased education in the art of self-awareness and problem-solving, both of which are promoted in this text. A review of the literature (Messner, 1988) discusses how the murderer's sub-culture “values” aggression, which may account for some violence.

Session 4-4   AGGRESSION:  SUBSTANCE ABUSE,
   PORNOGRAPHY AND MEDIA VIOLENCE

Alcohol-driven aggression  

Some persons become “mellow” when they consume an excessive amount of alcohol. Others get sleepy. Still other consumers of alcohol become mean and potentially violent. They commit crime, incest, rape, assault, wife abuse, child abuse and more, under the influence of alcohol. A review of 30 experimental studies (Bushman & Cooper, 1990) “indicates that alcohol does indeed cause aggression.”  “It was found that the partners of battered subjects read or viewed significantly greater amounts of pornographic materials than did the partners of the comparison group.”  Evelyn Sommers and James Check
York University, Canada, 1987
     In one laboratory experiment (Cherek, Steinberg & Manno, 1985) 11 men (aged 20-36) were given measured doses of absolute alcohol. The men were provoked by the subtraction of money rewards. The response to the provocation was to issue a loud noise (measurable) to the (unseen) person who was supposed to have subtracted the money. Aggression responses were higher even in persons with one or two doses. In another laboratory experiment 48 male drinkers were divided into three groups. One group was given a placebo. A second group stayed sober. The experimental group received 1.32 milliliters per kilogram (body weight) of 95% ethanol. “Subjects receiving alcohol were significantly more aggressive than the placebo or sober subjects” (Pihl and Zacchia, 1986).
     Does  alcohol really cause aggression or simply release previously accumulated aggression? Roland Gustafson (1988, Sweden) performed two experiments with beer and wine drinkers. The sober control group and the drinkers were given a self-rating aggression inventory. Gustafson found no (zero) differences in aggression between the sober group and the drinking group. In light of a score of studies on the role of expecting-alcohol-to-increase-aggression (Lang & Sibrel, 1989) perhaps these subjects did not “expect” to be more aggressive. Gustafson's conclusion seems to contradict other evidence until one asks the question about the personalities of the persons who were involved in the experiment.
     If a person has not accumulated unresolved conflicts, not lived with aggression-filled persons, and learned not to release aggression, there may be no aggression-type responses in that alcohol-consuming person. “Substance-abuse-related acts of violence are a combination of the physiological effects of the substances themselves, the underlying personality of the user, and the social setting that favors or disfavors aggression” (Miller & Potter-Efron, 1989). “Alcohol can be linked with aggression and crime, but it should not be assumed to be the direct cause of violent behavior” (Brain, 1986, Wales). Alcoholics in general have higher inhibition of aggression scores (von Knorring, et al, 1987, Sweden). This means alcoholics allow larger amounts of their hostility to remain unresolved and bottled up for longer periods of time. Then the slightest provocation can trigger a violent explosion. Alcohol simply releases the compressed accumulation. Pihl and Ross (1987) believe that the person under the influence of alcohol has an inclination “to engage in a lower level of processing of relevant (information) that would ordinarily serve to mitigate (dissolve) aggression.” That is somewhat like saying the mind is fogged up and so the person reverts to primitive behaviors.

Aggression compounded with pornography

                “The majority of fathers who abuse children have
                personality disorders.'' M.E. Garalda-Hualde, Mexico City, 1980

Pornographic publications are given their right to exist by the Constitution of the United States of America. In 1970 the Commission on Obscenity and  Pornography of the US Congress published a report on the effects of pornography. The Commission did not find sufficient evidence to connect pornography with problematic or criminal behavior. That aroused the attention of researchers. After 10 years a review of the literature on pornography Gray (1982) again reaffirmed that there was little evidence that exposure to hard core pornography produced aggression. However, Gray said, “Levels of aggression in already angered men are increased by exposure to pornography.” That is significant. A published laboratory study and research review supports this view (Malamuth and Ceniti, 1986; Donnerstein and Linz, 1986). After 15 years a review of 35 studies published between 1972 and 1985 indicated that 20 of the 35 studies showed a connection between “exposure to pornography” and increased “aggression” (Hui, 1986, Hong Kong). Three of the studies found evidence of a link between “exposure to pornography” and rape. Eleven of the studies found evidence to relate some instances of “exposure to pornography” to a greater acceptance of the victimization of women by men. The exposure affected “moral values and attitudes” which allowed that increased acceptance (Hui, 1986, Hong Kong). A published laboratory experiment supports this view (Demare, Briere & Lips, 1988, Canada). It appears that, like aggression and alcohol, aggression and pornography team up to produce at least some of the pain, violence and crime we see in our society. One may have personal freedom to engage in viewing hard core pornography, but its destructiveness lies deeper in the human psyche where frustration-aggression experiences combine to generate problems.

 Aggression and drug abuse

Drug users (PCP, heroin, cocaine, marijuana) have more hostility-aggression, and less aggressiveness. Chronic use of  marijuana among adolescents is associated with, (1) deviance or provocation by an authority, (2) self-destruction, (3) modification of anger or disturbing emotions, (4) reinforcement of fantasy, (5) withdrawal from competition/achievement conflicts. Among adults, chronic marijuana use is not a cause, but is used to sustain problematic character patterns (Hendin & Haas, 1985).  Heroin addicts have higher amounts of aggression in their personality (Shafiq, 1987, Pakistan). From a study of 85 Black unemployed adult drug abusers, using many measurement instruments, the factor of aggression “was a significant predictor of abuse/dependence on cigarettes, barbiturates, amphetamines and marijuana” (Muntaner, et al, 1990). Since these are cross-section factor-measurement studies and not laboratory or longitudinal studies which take years, the evidence does not give a solid cause-and-effect conclusion. Nevertheless, the sheer numbers of all three kinds of studies begins to build a strong case for the elimination of aggression from one's lifestyles.

Aggression and intellectual functioning

                  FROM A 22 YEAR STUDY OF 600 SUBJECTS,
                 THEIR PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN
                    “Aggression in childhood was shown to interfere with
                 the development of intellectual functioning and to be
                 predictive of poorer intellectual achievement as an adult.”
                 Rowell L. Huesmann, Leonard D. Aron, Patty W. Yarmel  
                     University of Illinois, 1987

Can you believe that an aggression-filled child will probably achieve less in school? Three studies indicate that is true. Seymour Feshbach and June Price (1984) examined the relationship of “cognitive competence” and aggression/delinquency in 1832 K-6th graders for 3 years. Aggression-filled students performed below their cognitive ability regardless of IQ. Ledingham and Schwartzman (1984) compared three groups of elementary students; (1) aggressives, (2) withdrawn, (3) aggressive-withdrawn. Group 3, aggressive-withdrawn, “had higher rates of school failure and special class placement.” Huesmann and Eron (1984) conducted a study of 600 children who were 8 years old and came back 22 years later to re-evaluate them. They maintain that “early  aggression was independently a good predictor of reduced intellectual achievement.”
      A low  IQ, by itself, is not related to adolescent conduct disorders. “The three most important factors in accounting for age-17  conduct disorder were cognitive functioning, parent psychology, and early aggression” (Schonfeld, et al, 1988, abstract). Homes need to operate with less aggression, so that the children in those homes are not educationally handicapped and not pre-programmed for many future aggression-related behaviors and problems.

Session 4-5   DEALING WITH ONE’S AGGRESSION

Essentially, most of mankind’s problems arise from a general lack of knowledge about the control of aggression.  Large segments of this textbook are deal with various skills, attitudes, values and behaviors needed to handle the emotional and physical pains that drive persons to become excessively aggression-oriented or passive.

Perspectives on aggression control

It might be well to recount the ways in which various psychologists look at the prevention and control of aggression so that the student may gain the broadest perspective and see where there is agreement.
     Paul Bohannan, University of Southern California (1982), after reviewing the literature on aggression control believes that corrections can be made by; 1. behavior control, 2. surgery or drugs, 3. altering the social system, 4. changing cultural values, 5. reconstructing the interpretation of experience.
     Robert A. Baron, Purdue University (1983) also reviewed techniques for controlling human aggression. He offers the following solutions to aggression control; 1. punishment, 2. catharsis, 3. exposure to non-aggressive models, 4. cognitive interventions, 5. induction of responses incompatible with anger or overt aggression, 6. training in basic social skills.
     Barry Glick and Arnold P. Goldstein, New York State Division of Youth (1987) offer  aggression replacement training (ART) ideas for aggression control; 1. structured learning training, 2. anger control training, 3. moral education. Their ART-trained students adolescents (60 assault and burglary) demonstrated superior behaviors in a follow-up study.
     Peggy Miller and Linda Sperry, University of Chicago (1987) present a case study which followed 3 daughters (ages 10-15 months) until age 21>. Aggression controlling factors highlighted were; 1.  socialization factors, 2. parental goals, 3. parental values.
     Philip C. Kendall and Lauren Braswell, Temple University (1986) offer 7 therapeutic interventions for therapists to use with aggressive children; 1.  modeling, 2.  imagery, 3.  relaxation, 4. self-statement modification, 5. modification of irrational expectations, 6. modification of  irrational beliefs, 7. problem-solving.
     Daniel G. Saunders, Family Services, Madison, Wisconsin (1984) describes Alternatives To Aggression (ATA); 1. assertiveness training, 2. systematic desensitization, 3.  cognitive restructuring, 4. exploration of the social and personal roots of aggression.

Communication skills to handle aggression:

It will take several chapters to describe how others have developed certain approaches to dealing with the hurts and human tragedies of life. In other places in this textbook you will find more adequate descriptions of the following skills to help deal with aggression.
     *  Sharing feelings (Sidney Jourard)
     *  Using I sentences instead of You sentences
     *  Active Listening (Thomas Gordon)
     *  Writing instead of fighting (Journaling, Ira Progoff)
     * Unconditional Positive Regard (Carl Roger)
     *  Self-Talk (Albert Ellis)
     *  Visualization and Imaging (Arnold Lazarus)
     * Relaxation (Herbert Benson)
     *  Cognitive Restructuring (Arron Beck)
     * Transactional  Analysis (Eric Berne)
     * Written Rational Self Analysis (Maxie Maultsby)
     * (and many persons who have done research)

Abandoning one's hostile subculture

One other way to deal with one’s own aggression, may be to abandon the people s/he associates with. One's sub-culture (peers, friends) has enormous power to perpetuate hostile aggression, even if a person wants to change. The college experience is one of the most liberating experiences. College provides a transition away from a potentially bondaging sub-culture, which may be harmless and/or inspiring at best, or violently aggressive at the worst. A study of 64 Polish and 83 Finnish subjects evaluated their approval-disapproval of aggression. Both samples agreed, lending credibility to the proposition that “an individual's beliefs and values . . . are produced by socialization experiences” (Fraczek, 1985, Poland). That is, if a person’s peer group attempts to solve problems by aggression, then participants in that group will learn that style. That is a trap one needs to spring out of. The Fraczek study did not suggest alternatives, but if one's choices are limited to remaining in a self-destructive aggression-filled environment, then abandoning it is still a potentially healthier option.
     Before exercising this option, a healthy-minded person will evaluate this option with the help of friends and professionals. To resolve conflict in a hostile/impatient/angry manner may only be repeating what one has learned, and not be solving any problem.

Looking for a unifying model

It is somewhat difficult to keep all of these  perspectives in balance and create a neat formula by which to remember how to deal with excessive passiveness or excessive aggression.  Psychology, and especially psychology students, need a mental structure to integrate the concepts and retain them in their memory.  Psychology needed a central image to pull it together.  Psychology needed a philosophic overarching concept that is singularly strong enough and flexible enough to encompass this giant concept of dealing with the aggression that comes out of hurt and disappointment or disagreement. In the early 1970's such an overarching philosophic look at the problem brought forth a concept and movement called Assertiveness Training. The training classes were conducted in appropriate settings where people needed to understand the "right" of speaking up, without shouting and yelling.
     The Assertiveness Training classes spoke to the needs of certain passively-oriented persons more than to the need to subdue hostility-oriented persons. The hostile ones probably needed a course in Hostility Reduction and Self-Control Training. The model for Assertiveness Training, about to be described, is quite practical, using many of the skills taught in this course. Robert Alberti, Ph.D. and Michael Emmons, Ph.D., in Your Perfect Right, teach people to stay in the middle zone in their communication, mostly assertive and  not harshly aggressive.
Assertiveness Training by Robert Alberti and Michael Emmons

The concept of assertiveness, in contrast to passiveness on the one hand, and hostile aggression on the other hand, brilliantly synthesized decades of theory and research about human passivity and human aggression. The idea that there was a middle-ground between excessive passivity and excessive hostility does not appear to be that profound at the present, but it made sense to psychologists  in the late 1960's and the early 1970's, who saw pathology at both ends of the spectrum.  Psychologists saw mentally ill persons who  were also excessively withdrawing. But, on the other hand, Psychologists also saw mentally ill persons who had a history of acting out raw hostility, until it developed into extremely destructive and violent acts of arson and rape-murder. Assertiveness as a middle-ground made so much sense because it reflected those extremist-type polarities  which are seen throughout most of our human existence.
      Assertiveness Training has some roots in the work of Joseph Wolpe (1958). Assertiveness Training helps to handle hostile aggression impulses. Assertiveness Training got its strongest promotion beginning in 1970 with the publication of Your Perfect Right by  Robert E. Alberti, Ph.D. and Michael L.  Emmons, Ph.D.  By 1994, that book was in its 7th printing with a million copies in print. The book is frequently given to clients in therapy. Alberti and Emmons established a simple three-part formula. Taking cues from aggression-in and aggression-out concepts, and other earlier ideas, Alberti and Emmons set forth three basic behaviors.

(See next page for the Alberti and Emmons model.)

SENDER’S EXPERIENCES  ------------------------------------------------------------

NON-ASSERTIVE              ASSERTIVE                 AGGRESSIVE
BEHAVIOR                            BEHAVIOR                    BEHAVIOR

Self-denying                        Self-enhancing          Self-enhancing
                                                                                         at expense of others
Inhibited                               Expressive

Allows others                        Chooses for self     Chooses for others
   to choose

Does not                              May achieve                     Achieves desired
achieve goals                     desired goal                       goal by hurting
     others


RECEIVERS EXPERIENCES-------------------------------------------------------



Guilty                                     Self-enhancing                     Self-denying
Angry

Depreciates                         Expressive                           Hurt, defensive,
sender     humiliated

Achieves desired               May achieve                        Does not achieve
goal at sender’s                  desired goal                         desired goal

(In Alberti and Emmons, the Assertive Behavior column is on the right.
Permission granted to make this change for this textbook.)

     Behavior on the left is more passive, while behavior on the right is more cruelly destructive. Non-assertive behavior produces inner emotional problems. Aggressive behavior produces problems for others. On the left a person would be more self-denying, more inhibited, more anxious and allow others to choose. On the right a person's behavior would be more self-enhancing (selfish), more expressive (even volatile), and more achieving by harsh and cruel treatment of others. The more optimum behavior is called “assertive,” meaning that the person might be just as expressive, and just as achieving, but not at the expense of others.
     This model became extremely popular, because it left room for some movement from left to right, and right to left, depending on the situation. In the assertive mode a person stands up for himself/herself, being “expressive,” “honest,” “direct and firm,” “relationship enhancing,” “respectful of the rights of others,” etc. Other titles followed, such as Creative Aggression: The Art of Assertive Living (George Bach and Herb Goldberg, 1974). In 1975, Herbert Fensterheim and his wife, Jean Baer published the book, Don't Say Yes When You Want To Say No.  Another book, Responsible Assertive Behavior by Arthur J. Lange and Patricia Jakubowski (1976), promoted assertiveness.
     Essentially, assertiveness is a model which invites persons to say what they need to say, without dumping gross amounts of hostility with it.

AGGRESSION: The neighbor's dog has used your lawn for his bathroom for several weeks. One day you become so angry you pick up some of the more moist remnants of the dogs squatings with a piece of paper and hurl them against your neighbor's house.

ASSERTION: The neighbor's dog has used your lawn for his bathroom for several weeks. One day you go over to the neighbor's house. You talk calmly to the neighbor. You say that you are becoming upset with the dog's use of your lawn. You politely ask the neighbor to keep the dog on a leash when the dog is turned loose for a morning call-of nature.

     In Assertiveness Training the person learns the importance of believing in fairness and good relations. The success of Assertiveness Training lies in several additional factors, but the most important is to believe in maintaining a relationship. That means suppressing volatile hostility, and replacing it with behavior and words which claim what you want.

Assertiveness counter-acting poor-me and violence

People flip-flop from excessive passivity to explosive violence too easily.  People flip-flop from speaking up too strongly, to backing off too silently.  Both ends of the spectrum produce problems if a person stays in one position or the other too long.
     A person may do some ASSERTIVENESS today, and tomorrow become quite PASSIVE.  Then, on another occasion, a person may feel quite responsible to turn up the AGGRESSION, and blow a little (small amount) of steam.  Each expression may be quite appropriate in its own right. People do shift back and forth, and the healthier ones may shift more often, but with less swing from left to right, or right