What Is Aggressive Behavior?
Aggression, according to social psychology, describes any behavior or act aimed at harming a person or animal or damaging physical property. You’ll often come across “aggression and violence” sandwiched together as one inseparable term. It’s true that aggression and violence often coincide, but they are, in fact, two different things.
Violence refers to extreme physical aggression intended to cause serious harm. To put it another way, aggression doesn’t always involve violence, but violence always involves aggression.
Aggressive behavior doesn’t just violate social boundaries. It can also affect relationships and even have professional or legal consequences.
Types Of Aggression
Aggression is usually divided into two categories.
Instrumental Aggression
This type of aggression, also known as cognitive aggression, involves planning and intent, typically to achieve a specific desire or goal.
All aggression involves a degree of intent to harm someone that doesn’t want to be harmed. But acts of instrumental aggression generally involve more calculation and purpose, without any loss of control.
Examples of impulsive aggression:
You’ve just applied for a promotion at work when you overhear your supervisor encouraging another co-worker to apply for the role, saying they’d be a great fit. You want that position, so you tell a few people you’ve noticed that co-worker drinking in their office, hoping the rumor reaches your supervisor.
Impulsive Aggression
This type of aggression, also known as emotional or affective aggression, tends to stem directly from emotions you experience in the moment. It might instead feel uncontrollable or seem to come from nowhere.
If you can’t access the person or thing upsetting you, then you might redirect this aggression toward something or someone you can access — including yourself.
Examples of impulsive aggression:
A classmate grabs the exact book you needed for your research from the library cart. When they leave to use the restroom, you go over to grab the book — and hit the power button on their computer so that they lose their work.
Recognizing Signs Of Aggression
Aggression does often involve physical or verbal harm, but it can also involve coercion or manipulation:
- Physical aggression
- Verbal aggression
- Relational aggression
- Hostile aggression
- Passive aggression
Treatment For Aggressive Behavior
The best treatment for aggressive behavior depends on the underlying cause, but a therapist can always offer more guidance with identifying triggers and contributing factors.
Therapy offers a safe, judgment-free space to:
- Share experiences that lead to anger and aggressive behavior
- Explore childhood trauma that might contribute to aggressive behavior
- Develop new methods of coping with difficult or overwhelming emotions
- Practice alternate ways to navigate frustrating situations
- Learn to replace aggressive communication with assertive communication
