Blog
Save
Email
Print
ShareIn psychology and other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior that is intended to cause harm or pain.
See also:
Aggression can be either physical or verbal, and behavior is classified as aggression even if it does not actually succeed in causing harm or pain.
Behavior that accidentally causes harm or pain is not aggression.
Property damage and other destructive behavior may also fall under the definition of aggression.
Aggression is not the same thing as assertiveness. Aggression is a perplexing phenomenon.
Why are people motivated to hurt each other? How does violence help organisms to survive and reproduce? After two centuries of theories and technological advances, psychologists and other scientists have been able to look deeply into aggression's biological and evolutionary roots, as well as its consequences in society. The area from which all emotion originates is the brain.
While scientists continue to test various areas of the brain for their effects on aggression, two areas that directly regulate or affect aggression have been found.
The amygdala has been shown to be an area that causes aggression.
Stimulation of the amygdala results in augmented aggressive behavior, while lesions of this area greatly reduce one's competitive drive and aggression.
Another area, the hypothalamus, is believed to serve a regulatory role in aggression.
The hypothalamus has been shown to cause aggressive behavior when electrically stimulated but more importantly has receptors that help determine aggression levels based on their interactions with the neurotransmitters serotonin and vasopressin.
For more information about the topic Aggression, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Anger — Anger is a term for the emotional aspect of aggression, as a basic aspect of the stress response in animals in which a perceived aggravating stimulus ... > read more
Mental confusion — Severe confusion of a degree considered pathological usually refers to loss of orientation (ability to place oneself correctly in the world by time, ... > read more
Anxiety — Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to create the ... > read more
Happiness — Happiness is a prolonged or lasting emotional or affective state that feels good or pleasing. Overlapping states or experiences associated with ... > read more
Emotion — Emotion, in its most general definition, is a neural impulse that moves an organism to action, prompting automatic reactive behavior that has been ... > read more
Passive-aggressive behavior — Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational ... > read more
Narcotic — A narcotic is an addictive drug that reduces pain, induces sleep and may alter mood or behaviour. In US legal context, narcotic refers to opium, ... > read moreEditor's Note: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Recommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
more 