Ways of Reducing Aggression

Surgery on the amydala reduces aggression in violent people

Castration  reduces aggressive behaviour in violent men

Drugs  chemicals in the form of drugs reduce aggression

Although these methods (surgery, castration and drugs) are sucessful in reducing aggression, they are very drastic and they have ethical concerns

We do not fully understand the part of the brain and the processes involved in aggression, so it is hard to create a treatment for problems

Drugs:  slow and lower the body's response to stimuli            cause drowsiness                    inhibit concentration              cause memory loss         loss of apetite

All these factors can cause someone to lose their job, have poor health or make their social relationships to crumble - could be worse than their original condition

Sport gives an opportunity for sublimation- channelling aggression into something acceptable

Freud said that competitve sport was carthatic: released pent up anger

He said displacement stops us destroying ourselves - this is transfering our aggression unto someone/thing else

But to avoid aggression on other people, it should be directed at objects- punching a cushion etc.

Little evidence supported Freud

Research shows that displacement gives the opposite effects (Berkowitz 1968)

Other research contradicts the benefit of sport on aggression. R.Arms and others (1979) compared the effects of watching high contact sport like wrestling and ice hockey with swimming events. Participants who watched wrestling and ice hockey had increased feeling of hostility while people who watched swimming didn't. Competitive sport isn't necessarily carthartic. 

But it seems that aggression can be reduced by directing it to a 'safe' object

The social learning theory and Bandura's research shows if we see a model being punished but aggressive behanviour, we are less likely to show aggression

Seeing non-aggressive role models can also reduce aggression

Baron (1977) gave ptc opportunity to shock someone. The person recieving the shock was a confederate who was pretending to be shocked. The experimental group who had seen a  non-aggressive model, while the control group had not. Baron found that the group who saw a non-aggressive role model had given fewer shocks than the group who hadn't seen a model.

This supports the idea that seeing a non-aggressive role model can reduce aggression.

The role of punishment is hard because the adult who uses an aggressive way of punishment (hitting) is modelling aggression, which shows the child what to do to get your own way, which the child may later imitate.

Aggressive role models cannot be removed from society. The media have to blamed for showing aggressive role model but they also show non-aggressive role models. 

John Murray (1980) looked into the behaviour of children after watching som TV programmes that promoted helpfulness and sharing. Results showed that helpfulness andd sharing in children increased.

Social learning can be successful in reducing aggression even though people still choose aggressive role models to imitate.