1. The concept of aggression, aggressiveness and aggressive behavior in psychology

Aggression is a stable characteristic of a subject, which reflects his tendency to behave, the purpose of which is to cause harm to the world around him or to express anger, anger directed at external objects. Psychologists say that aggressiveness was not inherent in humanity from the very beginning, and children learn a model of aggressive behavior from the first days of their lives.

Aggressiveness from Latin means to attack and characterizes a personality trait that gives preference to the use of violent methods in achieving one’s goals.

Causes of aggressiveness

Personal characteristics that influence the development of a person’s aggressiveness are as follows:

- tendency to impulsiveness;

- thoughtfulness, absent-mindedness;

- emotional sensitivity, as well as a feeling of vulnerability, dissatisfaction, discomfort;

— hostile attribution, which refers to the assessment and interpretation of intentions and actions as aggressive.

Aggression in people is observed in a number of nervous and mental disorders.

The reasons for a person’s aggressiveness are: various kinds of conflicts, intimate problems, abuse of alcohol, psychotropic drugs, narcotic drugs, unsettled personal life, personal problems, feelings of loneliness, mental trauma, strict upbringing, watching thrillers, overwork, and refusal to rest.

The term “aggressive” in relation to athletes began to be used as a characteristic that means persistence in overcoming obstacles, as well as activity in achieving set goals.

Processing the results of the Bassa-Darki aggressiveness test

Keys

Scale Direct statements Converse statements Coefficient
Physical aggression 1, 25, 33, 48, 55, 62, 68 9, 17, 41 10
Indirect aggression 2, 18, 34, 42, 56, 63 10, 26, 49 11
Irritation 3, 19, 27, 43, 50, 57, 64, 72 11, 35, 69 9
Negativism 4, 12, 20, 23, 36 20
Resentment 5, 13, 21, 29, 37, 51, 58 44 12
Suspicion 6, 14, 22, 30, 38, 45, 52, 59 65, 70 10
Verbal aggression 7, 15, 28, 31, 46, 53, 60, 71, 73 39, 66, 74, 75 7
Guilt 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 47, 54, 61, 67 11

The sum of points multiplied by a special coefficient allows you to obtain indicators convenient for comparison on different scales.

To determine the level of aggressiveness, an aggressiveness index is calculated, which includes physical aggression, indirect aggression and verbal aggression:

(Physical aggression + Indirect aggression + Verbal aggression) / 3 = aggressiveness index (IA).

Resentment and suspicion make up the hostility index:

(Resentment + Suspicion)/2 = hostility index (HI).

Signs of Aggression

Aggression is expressed in such traits as conflict, dominance, and lack of social cooperation.

Signs of a person’s aggressiveness manifest themselves in a painful relationship between the perception of one’s own self and the people around them.

Signs of aggressiveness in children are their physical actions: slamming doors, trying to hit others, tearing, biting, spoiling things out of anger, breaking dishes.

Types of aggressive reactions Bass-Durkey questionnaire:

- physical aggression, marked by the use of physical force against other persons;

- indirect aggression, characterized by being directed in a roundabout way at other persons or not directed at anyone;

- irritation, marked by a willingness to express negative feelings with slight excitement (rudeness, hot temper);

- negativism, marked by an oppositional behavior (from passive resistance to active struggle);

- resentment, marked by envy, as well as hatred of others for fictitious and real actions;

- suspicion, which is characterized by distrust and caution towards people who allegedly plan and cause harm;

- a feeling of guilt, expressed in the subject’s possible conviction that he is a bad person who commits bad actions, and therefore experiences remorse;

- verbal aggression, which is expressed in negative feelings (squealing, screaming, threats, curses).

METHODS FOR DIAGNOSTICS OF AGGRESSIVENESS.

METHODS FOR DIAGNOSTICS OF AGGRESSIVENESS.

1. Questionnaire “Basa-Darki”

(Buss-Durkey Inventory) was developed by A. Buss and A. Durkey in 1957 and is intended for the diagnosis of aggressive and hostile reactions.

The questionnaire consists of 75 statements, each of which relates to one of eight indices of forms of aggressive or hostile reactions. Based on the number of matches of answers with the key, indices of various forms of aggressiveness and hostile reactions are calculated, as well as a general index of aggressiveness and an index of hostility.

The technique is intended for examining subjects aged 14 years and older.

When creating their questionnaire differentiating manifestations of aggression and hostility, A. Bass and A. Darki identified the following types of reactions:

physical aggression - the use of physical force against another person;

indirect - aggression directed in a roundabout way at another person or not directed at anyone.

irritation - readiness to express negative feelings at the slightest excitement (hot temper, rudeness).

negativism is an oppositional manner of behavior from passive resistance to active struggle against established customs and laws.

resentment - envy and hatred of others for real and fictitious actions.

Suspiciousness - ranging from distrust and wariness of people to the belief that other people are planning to harm you.

Verbal aggression is the expression of negative feelings, both through the form and content of verbal responses.

Guilt - expresses the subject's possible belief that he is a bad person, that he is doing evil, as well as the remorse of conscience he feels.

Instructions : The test consists of a number of statements relating to certain life situations. You need to answer yes or no. Try to answer truthfully and sincerely.

The authors of this test (1) believe that aggressiveness has quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Like any property, it has varying degrees of expression: from almost complete absence to its extreme value. Each personality must have a certain degree of aggressiveness. Otherwise, it will be a passive and conformist person. Excessive development of aggressiveness determines the entire appearance of the personality, which can become conflicting, incapable of conscious cooperation, etc.

Based on this, the authors divide aggressive manifestations into two types:

motivational aggression as self-worth;

instrumental - as a means.

Having determined the level of such destructive tendencies. It is possible to more likely predict the possibility of aggressive behavior.

A. Bass separated the concepts of aggression and hostility and defined the latter as “... a reaction that develops negative feelings and negative assessments of people and events.”

2 METHOD FOR DIAGNOSTICS OF A. ASSINGER’S AGGRESSIVENESS

(ASSESSMENT OF AGGRESSIVENESS IN RELATIONSHIP)

A. Assinger's test allows you to determine whether a person is fairly correct in his relationships with his colleagues, and whether it is easy for them to communicate with him. To make the answers more objective, you can conduct a mutual assessment when colleagues answer each other’s questions. This will help you understand how accurate their self-esteem is. There are 20 questions in total.

Projective methods

Projective methods are especially useful for studying aggression and hostility because they do not reveal to the subjects the researcher's interest. The most commonly used projective methods are the Rorschach Inkblot Test.

and
Thematic Apperception Test.
These tests are used in both research and clinical contexts to study a variety of behaviors and motives.
The thematic apperception test consists of a series of pictures about which the subject writes or tells stories: what is happening and what preceded the events in the picture. In the Rorschach test, the researcher shows the subject a series of cards with ink blots and asks him to say what they look like or what they remind him of. To diagnose the level of aggressiveness, this technique uses a system developed by Elizar. In this system, responses are classified into six categories that reflect aspects of anger or hostility: negative attitudes or emotions; descriptions of angry or aggressive behavior; objects used for aggressive purposes, descriptions of hostility, symbolic associations with aggression or anger; ambivalence; Neutral responses that say nothing about anger or hostility. The Rosenzweig Frustration Drawing Test
is a semi-projective technique designed to assess typical reactions to everyday frustrating events. The subjects are shown a comic book. Where in each picture a certain character utters words from which it follows that the hero is faced with a frustrating situation. The subject must enter the answer of the frustrated hero.

Non-existent animal

Projective methodology for personality research; proposed by M.3. Drukarevic. The subject is asked to invent and draw a non-existent animal, as well as give it a previously non-existent name. From the available literature it is clear that the examination procedure is not standardized (sheets of drawing paper of different sizes are used, in some cases the drawing is done with colored pencils, in others - in one color, etc.). There is no generally accepted system for assessing drawings. The theoretical premises underlying the creation of the technique coincide with those of other projective techniques. Like many other drawing tests, the test is aimed at diagnosing personal characteristics, sometimes its creative potential.

This is one of the most popular drawing techniques. It is widely used by domestic psychologists when examining children and adults, sick and healthy, most often as an orienting technique, that is, one whose data allows us to put forward some hypotheses about personality characteristics.

The method of personality research using the “Nonexistent Animal” projective test is based on the theory of psychomotor connection. To register the state of the psyche, a study of motor skills is used (in particular, the motor skills of the drawing dominant right hand, recorded in the form of a graphic trace of movement, drawing). According to I.M. Sechenov, any idea that arises in the psyche, any tendency associated with this idea, ends with movement (literally, “Every thought ends in movement”).

If a real movement or intention is not carried out for some reason, then in the corresponding muscle groups a certain tension of energy is summed up, necessary to carry out a response movement (to an idea - a thought). For example, images and thoughts-perceptions that cause fear stimulate tension in the leg muscle groups and in the muscles of the arms, which would be necessary in the event of a response to fear by flight or defense with the hands - to hit, to shield. The tendency of movement has a direction in space: moving away, approaching, tilting, straightening, rising, falling. When making a drawing, a sheet of paper (or a painting) represents a model of space and, in addition to the state of the muscles, fixes the relationship to space, i.e. emerging trend.

Space, in turn, is associated with the emotional coloring of the experience and the time period: present, past, future. It is also connected with the effectiveness or ideal-mental plan of the psyche. The space located behind and to the left of the subject is associated with the past period and inactivity (the absence of an active connection between thought-idea, planning and its implementation). The right side, the space in front and above are associated with the future period and effectiveness. On the sheet (model of space), the left side and bottom are associated with negatively colored and depressive emotions, with uncertainty and passivity. The right side (corresponding to the dominant right hand) – with positively colored emotions, energy, activity, specificity of action.

In addition to the general laws of psychomotor connection and attitude to space, when interpreting the test material, theoretical norms for operating with symbols and symbolic geometric elements and figures are used.

Aggressiveness

The degree of aggressiveness is expressed by the number, location and nature of the corners in the drawing, regardless of their connection with a particular detail of the image. Particularly significant in this regard are direct symbols of aggression - claws, teeth, beaks. You should also pay attention to the emphasis on sexual characteristics - the udder, nipples, breasts with a humanoid figure, etc. The figure of a circle (especially one empty) symbolizes and expresses a tendency towards secrecy, isolation, closedness of one’s inner world, reluctance to give information about oneself to others, and finally, reluctance to be tested. Such figures usually provide very limited data for analysis.

Pay attention to cases of mounting mechanical parts into the body of an “animal” - placing the animal on a pedestal, tractor or tank tracks, tripod; attaching a propeller or propeller to the head; mounting an electric lamp into the eye, and into the body and limbs of the animal - handles, keys and antennas. This is observed more often in patients with schizophrenia and deep schizoids.

Hand test

The hand test is a projective technique aimed at studying aggressive attitudes. Developed by B. Breiklin, Z. Piotrovsky, E. Wagner. The stimulus material consists of 9 images of hands and one blank card, when shown, they are asked to imagine a hand and describe its imaginary actions. The images are shown sequentially. The subject is given instructions to answer the question about what action, in his opinion, the drawn hand performs (or to say what a person with such a hand is capable of performing). It is allowed to indicate several action options for each card.

The answers fall into 11 categories:

1. Aggression - the hand is perceived as dominant, causing damage, actively grasping an object.

2. Directions - the hand that leads, guides, hinders, dominates other people.

3. Fear - the hand appears in responses as a victim of aggressive manifestations of another person or seeks to protect someone from physical influence, and is also perceived as causing damage to itself.

4. Affection - the hand expresses love, positive emotional attitudes towards other people.

5. Communication - responses in which the hand communicates, contacts or seeks to establish contacts.

6. Dependency - the hand expresses submission to others.

7. Exhibitionism - the hand exposes itself in different ways.

8. Mutilation - the hand is deformed, sick, incapable of any action.

9. Active impersonality - responses in which the hand shows a tendency to take action, the completion of which does not require the presence of another person or people, but the hand must change its physical location and make an effort.

10. Passive impersonality is also a manifestation of a tendency to action, the completion of which does not require the presence of another person, but at the same time the hand does not change its physical position.

11. Description - answers in which the hand is only described, there is no tendency to action.

The quantitative indicator of open aggressive behavior is calculated using the formula (aggression + instructions) - (fear + affection + communication + dependence). To clarify the motives for aggressive behavior, the resulting profile should be analyzed.

Types of motivation

External motivation (extrinsic) - motivation that is not related to the content of a certain activity, but is conditioned by circumstances external to the subject.

Internal motivation (intrinsic) is motivation associated not with external circumstances, but with the very content of the activity.

Positive and negative motivation . Motivation based on positive incentives is called positive. Motivation based on negative incentives is called negative.

Example: the construction “if I clean up the table, I will get candy” or “if I don’t play around, I will get candy” is a positive motivation. The construction “if I clean up the table, then I won’t be punished” or “if I don’t play around, then I won’t be punished” is a negative motivation.

Sustainable and unstable motivation . Motivation that is based on human needs is considered sustainable, since it does not require additional reinforcement.

There are two main types of motivation: “from” and “to”, or the “carrot and stick method”.

The motive of self-affirmation is the desire to establish oneself in society; associated with self-esteem, ambition, self-love. A person tries to prove to others that he is worth something, strives to obtain a certain status in society, wants to be respected and appreciated. Sometimes the desire for self-affirmation is referred to as prestige motivation (the desire to obtain or maintain a high social status).

Thus, the desire for self-affirmation, for increasing one’s formal and informal status, for a positive assessment of one’s personality is a significant motivational factor that encourages a person to work intensively and develop.

The motive for identification with another person is the desire to be like a hero, an idol, an authoritative figure (father, teacher, etc.). This motive encourages you to work and develop. It is especially relevant for teenagers who try to copy the behavior of other people.

The desire to be like an idol is an essential motive of behavior, under the influence of which a person develops and improves. Identification with another person leads to an increase in the individual’s energy potential due to the symbolic “borrowing” of energy from the idol (object of identification): strength, inspiration, and the desire to work and act as the hero (idol, father, etc.) did. By identifying with the hero, the teenager becomes bolder. Having a model, an idol with whom young people would strive to identify themselves and whom they would try to copy, from whom they would learn to live and work, is an important condition for an effective socialization process.

The motive of power is the individual’s desire to influence people. Power motivation (the need for power), under some circumstances, can be a significant driving force of human action. This is the desire to take a leadership position in a group (collective), an attempt to lead people, determine and regulate their activities.

The motive of power occupies an important place in the hierarchy of motives. The actions of many people (for example, managers of various ranks) are motivated by the motive of power. The desire to dominate and lead other people is a motive that encourages them to overcome significant difficulties and make enormous efforts in the process of activity. A person works hard not for the sake of self-development or satisfaction of his cognitive needs, but in order to gain influence on individuals or a team.

A manager may be motivated to act not by the desire to benefit society as a whole or an individual team, not by a sense of responsibility, that is, not by social motives, but by the motive of power. In this case, all his actions are aimed at gaining or maintaining power and pose a threat to both the cause and the structure that he heads.

Procedural-substantive motives are an incentive to activity by the process and content of the activity, and not by external factors. A person likes to perform this activity, to demonstrate his intellectual or physical activity. He is interested in the content of what he is doing. The action of other social and personal motives (power, self-affirmation, etc.) can enhance motivation, but they are not directly related to the content and process of activity, but are only external to it, therefore these motives are often called external, or extrinsic. In the case of the action of procedural-substantive motives, a person likes and encourages the process and content of a certain activity to be active. For example, a person goes in for sports because he simply likes to demonstrate his physical and intellectual activity (ingenuity and unconventional actions in sports are also significant factors for success). An individual is encouraged to play sports by procedural-substantive motives when the process and content of the game cause satisfaction, and not by factors that are not related to sports activities (money, self-affirmation, power, etc.).

The meaning of activity during the actualization of procedural and content motives lies in the activity itself (the process and content of activity are the factor that encourages a person to show physical and intellectual activity).

Extrinsic (external) motives are a group of motives when the motivating factors lie outside the activity. In the case of extrinsic motives, activity is encouraged not by the content or process of the activity, but by factors that are not directly related to it (for example, prestige or material factors). Let's consider some types of extrinsic motives:

motive of duty and responsibility to society, group, individuals;

motives of self-determination and self-improvement;

the desire to gain the approval of other people;

the desire to obtain a high social status (prestigious motivation). In the absence of interest in the activity (procedural-content motivation), there is a desire for those external attributes that the activity can bring - excellent grades, getting a diploma, fame in the future;

motives for avoiding troubles and punishment (negative motivation) - motivations caused by the awareness of some troubles, inconveniences that may arise in case of failure to perform an activity.

If, in the process of activity, extrinsic motives are not supported by procedural-substantive ones, that is, interest in the content and process of the activity, then they will not provide the maximum effect. In the case of extrinsic motives, it is not the activity itself that is attractive, but only what is associated with it (for example, prestige, fame, material well-being), and this is often not enough to motivate activity.

The motive of self-development is the desire for self-development, self-improvement. This is an important motive that encourages an individual to work hard and develop. According to Abraham Maslow, this is the desire to fully realize one’s abilities and the desire to feel competent. As a rule, moving forward always requires a certain amount of courage. A person often holds on to the past, to his achievements, peace and stability. Fear of risk and the threat of losing everything holds him back on the path of self-development.

Thus, a person often seems to be “torn between the desire to move forward and the desire for self-preservation and security.” On the one hand, he strives for something new, and on the other, fear of danger and something unknown, the desire to avoid risk restrains his movement forward. Maslow argued that development occurs when the next step forward objectively brings more joy, more inner satisfaction than previous acquisitions and victories, which have become something ordinary and even boring.

Self-development and movement forward are often accompanied by intrapersonal conflict, but do not constitute violence against oneself. Moving forward is anticipation, anticipation of new pleasant sensations and impressions.

When it is possible to actualize a person’s motive for self-development, the strength of his motivation for activity increases. Talented coaches, teachers, and managers know how to use the motive of self-development, pointing out to their students (athletes, subordinates) the opportunity to develop and improve.

The motive for achievement is the desire to achieve high results and mastery in activities; it manifests itself in the choice of difficult tasks and the desire to complete them. Success in any activity depends not only on abilities, skills, knowledge, but also on motivation to achieve. A person with a high level of achievement motivation, striving to obtain significant results, works persistently to achieve his goals.

Achievement motivation (and behavior that is aimed at high results) even for the same person is not always the same and depends on the situation and subject of activity. Some people choose complex problems in mathematics, while others, on the contrary, limiting themselves to modest goals in the exact sciences, choose complex topics in literature, striving to achieve high results in this area. What determines the level of motivation in each specific activity? Scientists identify four factors:

the importance of achieving success;

hope for success;

subjectively assessed probability of achieving success;

subjective standards of achievement.

Prosocial (socially significant) motives are motives associated with awareness of the social significance of an activity, with a sense of duty, responsibility to a group or society. In the case of prosocial motives, the individual identifies with the group. A person not only considers himself a member of a certain social group, not only identifies with it, but also lives by its problems, interests and goals.

A person who is driven to action by prosocial motives is characterized by normativity, loyalty to group standards, recognition and protection of group values, and the desire to realize group goals. Responsible people, as a rule, are more active and perform their professional duties more often and more conscientiously. They believe that the common cause depends on their work and efforts. It is quite important for a manager to update the corporate spirit among his subordinates, since without identification with the group (company), namely, with its values, interests, and goals, it is impossible to achieve success. A public figure (politician) who identifies more than others with his country and lives by its problems and interests will be more active in his activities and will do everything possible for the prosperity of the state.

Thus, prosocial motives associated with identification with the group, a sense of duty and responsibility are important in motivating a person to act. The actualization of these motives in the subject of activity can cause his activity in achieving socially significant goals.

Affiliation motive _

- affiliation) - the desire to establish or maintain relationships with other people, the desire for contact and communication with them. The essence of affiliation is the intrinsic value of communication. Affiliative communication is communication that brings satisfaction, captures, and pleases a person.

An individual, however, can also communicate because he is trying to settle his affairs and establish useful contacts with the necessary people. In this case, communication is motivated by other motives, is a means of satisfying other needs of the individual, and has nothing in common with affiliative motivation. The purpose of affiliative communication may be the search for love (or, in any case, sympathy) on the part of the communication partner.

Negative motivation is impulses caused by the awareness of possible troubles, inconveniences, and punishments that may follow in case of failure to perform an activity. For example, a schoolchild may be motivated to study by the demands and threats of his parents, or by the fear of receiving unsatisfactory grades. Studying under the influence of such a motive takes on the character of a protective action and is compulsory.

In the case of negative motivation, a person is encouraged to act by fear of possible troubles or punishment and the desire to avoid them. He reasons like this: “If I don’t do this, then trouble awaits me.” This is what drives action under the influence of negative motivation.

The forms of negative sanctions that can be applied and that can actualize negative motivation are varied:

verbal (verbal) punishment (condemnation, reprimand, etc.);

material sanctions (fine, deprivation of privileges, scholarships);

social isolation (neglect, ignorance, rejection by the group, social ostracism);

deprivation of liberty;

physical punishment.

The main disadvantage of negative sanctions is the short duration of their influence: they stimulate activity (or deter undesirable actions) only for the period of their action. Negative motivation has a stronger influence on a person, the greater his confidence in the inevitability of punishment.

Thus, negative motivation, including punishment, is a fairly strong motivational factor that can motivate a person to activity, but is not without many disadvantages and undesirable consequences.

Emotions and will.

. Feelings and emotions are those experiences that a person experiences throughout his life in relation to the processes in which he participates (labor cognitive activity), towards himself and other people. Feelings and emotions are close in their concepts, but still they are different phenomena. Emotion is a person’s reaction at a specific moment

, this is an experience about the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of a need.
As a rule, first impressions of certain situations form emotions as an instant reaction to what is happening or to certain external circumstances. It could be surprise, joy, fear, etc. A feeling is more complex than an emotion. This is a constant, rarely changing feeling of a person in relation to various moments of his life
: relationships with other people, work, hobbies, etc. The feeling is stable, it can exist for months and years. The following classification of feelings is accepted:

· moral (ethical feelings) – reflect a person’s attitude towards the actions and views of others, as well as towards their own. Depending on the violation or fulfillment of the moral principles accepted in society, the shade of experiencing such feelings will change;

· intellectual feelings - they are generated by the cognitive process and mental activity of a person. This is a reflection of a person’s attitude to his own thoughts, his intellectual level, and the process of cognition as a whole. Examples of such feelings are curiosity, confidence, doubt, surprise, etc.;

· aesthetic feelings are a reflection of a person’s experiences in relation to all manifestations of the surrounding world; their connection with the world of art is of great importance. Aesthetic feelings make it possible to experience beauty and harmony in objects and phenomena, in interpersonal relationships.

Emotions and feelings constitute a special, very important aspect of a person’s inner life. We are all in a certain emotional state at every moment, experiencing certain feelings. Human emotional manifestations are very diverse: joy, grief, fear, anger, surprise, sadness, anxiety, admiration, contempt, etc. The world of emotional experiences permeates all aspects of life: relationships with other people, activities, communication and cognition. One of the spheres of human activity - art - is directly addressed to human emotions and feelings.

Emotions represent the subject’s biased attitude towards the environment and what happens to him. The mechanism by which emotions arise is closely related to the needs and motives of a person. Conditions, objects and phenomena that contribute to the satisfaction of needs and the achievement of goals evoke positive emotions: pleasure, joy, interest, excitement. On the contrary, situations perceived by the subject as preventing the realization of needs and goals cause negative emotions and experiences: displeasure, grief, sadness, fear, sadness, anxiety, etc.

emotions are a special class of mental processes and states associated with needs and motives and reflecting in the form of experiences the significance of phenomena and situations affecting the subject.

When talking about a person’s experiences, as a rule, two terms are used—“feelings” and “emotions.” In everyday speech, the concepts of “feelings” and “emotions” are practically the same. Some psychologists are also inclined to identify them. At the same time, there is a point of view according to which feelings and emotions are different and in many ways opposite subjective states in relation to each other. For example, the Swiss psychologist E. Claparède wrote: “Feelings in our behavior are useful, while emotions are not appropriate.”

According to the traditions of Russian psychology, it is customary to distinguish feelings as a special subclass of emotional processes. Unlike emotions, which reflect short-term experiences, feelings are long-term and can last a lifetime. For example, you can get pleasure (satisfaction) from a completed task, that is, experience a positive emotion, or you can be satisfied with your profession, have a positive attitude towards it, that is, experience a feeling of satisfaction.

Feelings arise as a generalization of many emotions aimed at a specific object. Feelings are expressed through emotions depending on the situation in which the object of their expression is located. For example, a mother, loving her child, experiences different emotions towards him in different situations: she can be angry with him, feel proud of him, tenderness for him, etc. This example shows that:

firstly, emotions and feelings are not the same thing;

secondly, there is no direct correspondence between feelings and emotions: the same emotion can express different feelings and the same feeling can be expressed in different emotions.

.

In psychology, there are several theories that explain why emotions arise. In his book “The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,” published in 1872, Charles Darwin showed the evolutionary path of the development of emotions. Comparing emotional manifestations in humans and animals, he concluded that human expressive movements associated with emotions are evolutionarily significant and represent vestiges (remnants) of previously expedient reactions developed during the struggle for existence.

The American psychologist W. James and the Danish anatomist K. G. Lange put forward a peripheral theory of emotion, based on the paradoxical idea that emotions are the result of physiological changes in various systems. According to them, we don’t laugh because it’s funny to us, but because we laugh because we laugh. The meaning of this phrase is that an arbitrary change in facial expressions and posture leads to the involuntary appearance of the corresponding emotion - for example, the image of anger leads to the fact that a person begins to really experience this feeling.

Despite the fact that it cannot be denied that there is a conditioned reflex connection between the experience of emotion and its external and internal manifestation, the content of emotion is not limited to physiological changes in the body. Proof of this is provided by experiments in which all physiological manifestations were blocked, and yet subjective experiences were preserved. Physiological changes occur during many emotions as a secondary adaptive phenomenon - for example, to mobilize the body's reserve capabilities when faced with danger and the fear it generates. W. Cannon and F. Bard were among the first to show the limitations of the James-Lange theory, proposing their theory of emotions, which was called thalamic. According to this theory, autonomic changes and muscle reactions of the body are a consequence of the experience of emotions. The main brain substrate of emotions is the thalamus, which is connected to both the cerebral cortex and the autonomic nervous system.

P.K. Anokhin considered emotions as a product of evolution, as an adaptive factor in the life of the animal world. From his point of view, emotions are important for consolidating and stabilizing the rational behavior of animals and humans. Positive emotions that arise when achieving a goal are remembered and, in the appropriate situation, can be retrieved from memory to obtain the same useful result. Negative emotions protect you from making mistakes again.

An interesting hypothesis about the reasons for the appearance of emotions was put forward by P.V. Simonov. He argues that emotions arise as a result of a lack or excess of information necessary to satisfy a need. The degree of emotional stress is determined by the strength of the need and the amount of information deficit necessary to achieve the goal. In a normal situation, a person orients his behavior towards signals of highly probable events, i.e. to what was more common in the past. Thanks to this, his behavior in most cases is adequate and leads to achieving the goal. In conditions of complete certainty, a goal can be achieved without the help of emotions: having found itself at a goal, the achievement of which was certainly not in doubt, a person may not experience either joy or triumph. However, in unclear situations, in the absence of accurate information for organizing behavior to satisfy a need, other tactics of responding to signals are necessary. If there is a lack of information necessary to achieve a goal, according to P.V. Simonov, negative emotions arise. For example, the emotion of fear develops when there is a lack of information necessary for protection.

Emotions help to increase the sensitivity of analyzers, which in turn leads to a response to an expanded range of external signals and improves the retrieval of information from memory. As a result, when solving a problem, unlikely or random associations can be used that would not be considered in a calm state. This increases the chances of achieving the goal. Although responding to an expanded range of signals whose usefulness is not yet known is redundant, it prevents missing a truly important signal that, if ignored, could cost one's life.

The above theories of emotions explain only individual cases of their occurrence. This confirms the idea that it is fundamentally impossible to explain the mechanism of such a complex phenomenon as emotions from the perspective of one theory.

Functions, types and forms of emotions.

The significance of emotions in a person’s life is expressed in their functions. In psychology, it is customary to distinguish a number of functions.

Reflective-evaluative function. Emotions evaluate the significance of objects and situations for achieving goals and meeting the needs of the subject; are the system of signals through which the subject learns about the significance of current, past and future events.

Incentive function. An impulse to action follows from an assessment of what is happening. According to S.L. Rubinstein, “...an emotion itself contains an attraction, desire, aspiration directed towards or away from an object.”

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Aggression in men

Passive aggressiveness in men is characterized by procrastination and indecisiveness before making important decisions. Such men are not responsible, are extremely dismissive of deadlines and do not keep promises. This type is looking for any excuse for a quarrel with family, while keeping a distance and not allowing them into personal space. The reason is the fear of dependence, so a man, coping with fear on his own, tries to manage and command others. Such a man does not admit his mistakes, but blames only the circumstances around him, demanding to find the culprits.

The reason for this behavior is the social and family atmosphere, where they remain silent about their desires and needs, considering this a manifestation of selfishness. On a subconscious level, such upbringing instills the idea that wanting something for oneself is wrong and unacceptable in principle.

Passive aggressiveness in men can be corrected only by a calm, gentle attitude and gradual pushing towards the desired model of behavior.

Aggressiveness in men differs in its attitudes from female aggressiveness. Men often resort to an open form of aggressiveness. They are not bothered by anxiety or guilt; it is important for them to achieve their goal, so aggressiveness acts as a kind of behavior model.

Increased aggressiveness in men is marked by a lack of culture of behavior, a demonstration of confidence, strength, and independence.

Aggression associated with sexual arousal is an attack or series of violent acts between sexual partners. Aggression is the opposite of love-erotic relationships. Individuals experience erotic pleasure from sexual aggressiveness (masochism, sadism, sadomasochism).

Psychological concepts provide the following explanation for the appearance of sexual aggressiveness: it arises as a result of experienced frustration, i.e., disappointed expectations in obtaining satisfaction. This does not apply only to intimate desires or needs. Aggression is explained by its compensatory nature. For example, repetition or continuation of violence experienced, or experiencing violence that is practiced in other areas.

Research in this area confirms that gross sexual violence, as well as beating of women by men, often occurs among those strata where women are discriminated against and oppressed and are in a dependent position. At the same time, the majority of clients of prostitutes who are fond of sadomasochism are men from the upper classes, who thus realize staged aggression.

Text of the method for diagnosing aggressiveness by A. Bass and A. Darka

Instructions : put

“+” next to those provisions with which you agree,

“-” – next to those with which you disagree.

QUESTION
At times I cannot control the urge to harm others.
Sometimes I gossip about people I don't like.
I get irritated easily, but calm down quickly.
If I am not asked in a good way, I will not fulfill the request.
I don't always get what I'm supposed to.
I know that people talk about me behind my back.
If I don't approve of my friends, I let them feel it.
If I happened to deceive someone, I felt a painful remorse.
It seems to me that I am not capable of hitting a person.
I never get irritated enough to throw things.
I am always forgiving of other people's shortcomings.
If I don't like a rule, I want to break it.
Others know how to almost always take advantage of favorable circumstances.
I am wary of people who treat me a little more friendly than I expected.
I often disagree with people.
Sometimes thoughts come into my mind that I am ashamed of.
If someone hits me first, I won't hit back.
When I get annoyed, I slam the door.
I'm much more irritable than I think.
If someone pretends to be a boss, I always act against him.
I'm a little saddened by my fate.
I think a lot of people don't like me.
I can't resist arguing if people don't agree with me.
People who shirk work should feel guilty.
Anyone who insults me or my family is asking for a fight.
I'm not capable of rude jokes.
I get angry when people make fun of me.
When people pretend to be bosses, I do everything so that they do not become arrogant.
Almost every week I see someone I don't like.
Quite a lot of people are jealous of me.
I demand that people respect my rights.
It depresses me that I don't do enough for my parents.
People who constantly harass you deserve to have their noses punched.
I am sometimes gloomy from anger.
If I am treated worse than I deserve, I am not upset.
If someone makes me angry, I don't pay attention.
Although I don't show it, sometimes I get jealous.
Sometimes I feel like they are laughing at me.
39 Even if I'm angry, I don't use “strong language.”
40 I want my sins to be forgiven.
41 I rarely fight back, even if someone hits me.
42 When things don't go my way, I sometimes get offended.
43 Sometimes people irritate me with their presence.
44 There are no people I truly hate.
45 My principle: “Never trust strangers.”
46 If someone annoys me, I'm ready to say everything I think about him.
47 I do a lot of things that I later regret.
48 If I get angry, I might hit someone.
49 Since I was ten years old, I have never shown an outburst of anger.
50 I often feel like a powder keg ready to explode.
51 If everyone knew how I felt, I would be considered a difficult person to get along with.
52 I always think about what secret reasons make people do something nice for me.
53 When people yell at me, I start yelling back.
54 Failures make me sad.
55 I fight no less and no more often than others.
56 I can't remember a time when I was so angry that I grabbed something that came to hand and broke it.
57 Sometimes I feel like I'm ready to start a fight.
58 Sometimes I feel like life is treating me unfairly.
59 I used to think that most people were telling the truth, but now I don't believe it.
60 I only swear out of anger.
61 When I do wrong, my conscience torments me.
62 If I need to use physical force to protect my rights, I use it.
63 Sometimes I express my anger by pounding the table with my fist.
64 I can be rude to people I don't like.
65 I have no enemies who would like to harm me.
66 I don't know how to put a person in his place, even if he deserves it.
67 I often think that I have lived wrong.
68 I know people who can bring me to a fight.
69 I don't get upset over little things.
70 It rarely occurs to me that people are trying to make me angry or insult me.
71 I often just threaten people, although I have no intention of carrying out the threats.
72 Lately I've become a bore.
73 When arguing, I often raise my voice.
74 I try to hide my bad attitude towards people.
75 I would rather agree with something than argue.

Aggression in women

Women use psychological implicit aggression; they worry about the resistance that the victim may provide. Aggression in women is observed during outbursts of anger to relieve nervous and mental tension.

Increased aggressiveness is observed in older women and is explained by manifestations of dementia in the absence of other negative character traits and reasons for such behavior. Increased aggressiveness in women is characterized by a change in character traits in a negative direction.

Aggression in women is provoked by the following factors:

- hormonal, congenital deficiency, provoked by pathology in early development;

- negative emotional experiences from childhood (abuse, sexual violence);

— mental pathologies (schizophrenia);

- hostile relationships with the mother, as well as childhood mental trauma.

The nature and essence of the concepts of “aggression” and “aggressiveness”. To help educational psychologists

Anna Zhbanova

The nature and essence of the concepts of “aggression” and “aggressiveness”. To help educational psychologists

The first step to understand the essence of aggression is to find a clear and precise formulation of this term. Generally speaking, aggression as any form of behavior that is intended to cause physical or psychological harm to someone. Although more and more researchers are using this definition, it is not generally accepted, and today the term " aggression "

has many different meanings both in scientific works and in everyday speech.

Aggression as strong activity and a desire for self-affirmation. Aggression to acts of hostility, attack, destruction, i.e. actions that harm another person or object. At the same time, many authors differentiate the concept of aggression as a specific form of behavior and aggressiveness as a mental property of an individual. Aggression is interpreted as a process that has a specific function and organization; aggressiveness is considered as a certain structure, which is a component of a more complex structure of a person’s mental properties. The most common definition of aggression is behavior that causes harm. Moreover, the damage can be either direct (attack) or indirect (spread of defamatory rumors)

.
“destructiveness”
,
“assertiveness”
,
“attack”
,
“violence”
,
“destructiveness”
,
“cruelty”
as synonyms for the concept of aggression .
According to its form, aggression is divided into physical (beating, wounding)
and verbal (insult, refusal to communicate, direct and indirect.

Aggressive actions can be either voluntary or involuntary. Unacceptable, unintentional aggressive behavior can be either accidental or unconscious. Aggressive action is intentional behavior aimed at causing physical or psychological harm. Such aggression can be controlled by the individual, and the tendency towards it can be reduced thanks to social measures and psychological and pedagogical work with the population .

In the psychoanalytic approach, aggression is seen as a product of the fight instinct. The first studies of aggression belong to Z. Freud, who suggested the existence of not only the instinct of life, eros, but also the instinct of death, destruction. Aggressive energy is continuously generated by the individual and seeks a way out over time. If a lot of time has passed since the last open manifestation of aggression , no stimulus is required at all, an explosion of aggression occurs spontaneously. In the ethological approach, the position of innate aggression finds its development. K. Lorenz studied the innate principles that restrain aggression , which included kinship, love and friendship. According to instinctivist theories, aggression is an integral part of human nature . In psychoanalysis and ethology, situational variables are not given much importance. The emphasis is on the individual's characteristic level of aggressiveness . In the sociobiological approach, the main emphasis in studying the nature of aggression is associated with the influence of genes, since they provide adaptive behavior. Genes are “adapted”

to such an extent that they contribute to the success of reproduction, thereby ensuring their preservation in future generations.
Thus, individuals are likely to promote the survival of those who share similar genes (i.e., relatives, through altruism and self-sacrifice, and will behave aggressively towards those who are different or unrelated to them, i.e., who is least likely to have common genes.The
situational theory of aggression includes the approach of J. Dollard, who considered aggression as a consequence of frustration, aversive (extremely unpleasant)

stimulation.
According to this theory, an individual who has experienced frustration has an urge to aggression . In cases where individuals do not show aggression towards completely different people, the aggressor's of victim is largely determined by three factors:
1. The strength of the impulse to aggression .

2. The strength of factors inhibiting this behavior.

3. Stimulus similarity of each potential victim with the frustrating factor.

Social learning theory aggression A. Bandura postulates that aggressive behavior is a complex system of skills that requires long-term and comprehensive learning. Reward and punishment are regulators of aggressive behavior and are responsible for strengthening or restraining destructive tendencies. Bandura identified three types of rewards and punishments:

1. Reinforcement of one’s own behavior by others.

2. Attitude towards yourself.

3. Observing the reward and punishment of another person.

Aggression takes many different forms. According to formal characteristics in psychology, the following forms of aggressive actions :

• Negative – positive (destructive – constructive)

.

• Explicit and latent (externally observable aggression - hidden aggression )

.

• Direct – indirect (directly directed at an object – offset at other objects)

.

• Hostile – instrumental (with the aim of causing harm, pain to another person – for other purposes)

.

• Ego – syntonic (accepted by the personality)

– ego – dystonic (alien to
the “I”
, condemned by the personality itself.

Aggression can be directed:

• On surrounding people outside the family (for example, doctors, teachers or peers )

.

• Only against close people (without showing aggression outside the family , for example, against a grandmother).

• On animals (birds, cats, insects)

.

• On oneself (one's body or personality, for example in the form of hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting).

• To external physical objects (for example, in the form of eating inedible things, destroying objects, damaging property).

• On symbolic and fantasy objects (in the form of serial aggressive drawings , collecting weapons, passion for computer games with aggressive content ).

To work with aggressive behavior, the most important thing is to differentiate all forms of aggressive behavior into two groups:

1. Unsocialized forms of aggressive behavior (are not hostile in nature and do not have the goal of causing harm to another person).

2. Socialized forms of aggressive behavior (directed by hostility, with the goal of causing damage or pain to another person).

The psychological purpose of aggression can be to cause one’s own suffering (harm)

victim (hostile
aggression , and the use of aggression as a way to achieve another goal (manipulative or instrumental
aggression ) . The most common goals
of aggressive behavior not associated with a mental disorder, in the transition from hostility to manipulativeness, can be:
• Causing pain to the victim, her suffering;

• Revenge for suffering suffered;

• Causing damage;

• Dominance, power under another person;

• Obtaining material benefits (for example, money)

;

• Affective release, resolution of internal conflict;

• Self-affirmation (increasing self-esteem)

;

• Protection from real or imagined threats, from suffering;

• Upholding autonomy and freedom;

• Gaining authority in a peer group;

• Removing obstacles to meeting needs;

The psychological goal is determined in the process of behavioral analysis, which includes the following points:

aggressive behavior first occurred ;

• Situations in which aggressive behavior is currently manifested;

• People in whose presence aggressive behavior ;

• Subsequent events (state, thoughts, actions)

;

• Reaction of others;

• Attitude to the aggressive behavior of the individual himself.

Most often, aggression is caused by words and actions, that is, it has a social context. Negative emotions caused by insult or interference lead to aggressive intentions . The higher the level of frustration, i.e. the experience of failure, resentment, the more unexpected this obstacle, the stronger the aggression of the victim . Frustration can cause two mutually exclusive emotions - fear or anger and, accordingly, two types of reaction - flight (evasion)

or attack.
The choice of response strategy depends on personal characteristics, the person’s condition, as well as external stimulation of a particular type of behavior. Verbal aggression is more common than physical aggression. The more unfair the other's wrongdoing seems, the higher the likelihood of an aggressive reaction . Aggression as a consequence of submission to authority is also not a consequence of hostile emotions towards the victim. Thus, moderately difficult environmental conditions usually cause irritability, and under conditions of negative influences there is a decrease in arousal, activity and aggressiveness .
A. A. Rean proposes to separate the concept of aggression

and
"
aggressiveness " .
Defining these terms, he draws attention to the fact that “ aggression is intentional actions aimed at causing harm to another person, a group of people, or an animal.” Aggressiveness is a personality trait, “... expressed in readiness for
aggression .
Thus, we can conclude: if aggression is an action , then aggressiveness is the readiness to commit such actions.
Modern research in this area examines aggression and aggressiveness from various positions :

1. Theory of instinct (S. Freud, K. Lorenz)

assumes
aggressive behavior as an integral property of all living beings, realized in the struggle for life.
2. Drive theory implies that an external stimulus is necessary for aggressive behavior to occur.

3. The theory of displaced aggression states that to implement aggression , a deliberately harmless object is chosen, which always expands the scope of aggression .

4. Cognitive (cognitive)

The theory suggests the presence of a kind of cognitive-affective flywheel. In this case, the nature of a person's interpretation of someone's actions has a decisive influence on his emotions and behavior.

5. Social learning theory (A. Bandura)

consider
aggressive behavior as a set of previously learned behavior patterns.
Thus, we can conclude that there are different points of view on the concept of aggression

, but all researchers agree that

aggression is intentional actions aimed at causing harm to another person, a group of people or an animal, and

aggression is a personality trait expressed in readiness for
aggressive actions .

Aggression in children

Causes of children's aggressiveness: condemnation and rejection by adults; destructive emotions of the inner world that the child is not able to cope with on his own. And misunderstanding and ignorance of the causes of aggression in children leads to open hostility in adults.

How to relieve aggression in children?

When working with aggressive children, a teacher or psychologist should be sensitive to internal problems. Aggression in children is relieved by positive attention from an adult to the child’s inner world.

Only positive attention and acceptance of an aggressive personality on the part of a psychologist, educator, parent, otherwise all correctional work will be reduced to zero and the child will most likely lose confidence in the psychologist and show resistance in further work.

It is important for everyone working with this category of children to take into account a non-judgmental position. This means not making evaluative comments of this type: “you can’t behave like that,” “it’s not nice to talk like that.” These comments will only push your children away from you and will not contribute to establishing contact.

Decoding answers

How many points did you score?

  • Zero. This result indicates that you are an absolutely peace-loving person and an emotionally stable person. It is difficult to unbalance you, and even if someone succeeds, you can easily cope with your emotions.
  • One. This result indicates that you have practically no aggression. You are good at coping with difficulties and have learned to control your internal state.
  • Two. This response indicates that there is some level of aggression, but it is within acceptable limits. Perhaps right now you are in a bad mood or have had a difficult day.
  • Three. This number of points indicates an average level of aggression and warns that it’s time for you to calm down a little. how to relax and bring your nervous system back to normal in 5 minutes .
  • Four. This is already an alarm bell. You are a rather aggressive and pessimistic person. Make sure you don't suffer from anxiety disorders or social phobia .
  • Five. This is the highest level of aggression, which is difficult to cope with on your own. In this case, the best solution would be to contact a specialist. Your anger can be directed not only at people around you, but also at yourself. In the second case, the person experiences thoughts of suicide or panic attacks .

Human aggression. Volume 3. Aggressive people. Formation and typesAlbert Nalchadzhyan, 2013

§ 4. Conditions and reasons for children’s aggressiveness

There is a whole group of conditions and causes of aggressiveness in children. It is useful to briefly familiarize yourself with them. The general conditions for the development of children's aggressiveness and cruelty are unfavorable family conditions. These are, firstly, situations of an incomplete family in which one of the parents is missing, most often the father. Modern research shows that most future rapists grow up in single-parent families. Families whose members are alienated from each other also contribute to the development of aggressiveness in children. This means that there are conflicts between parents, they are not interested in the lives and concerns of their children, they are authoritarian, cruel, and often punish children using physical methods. Aggressive children slowly develop the ability to empathize, which creates the preconditions for the development of cruelty and the ability to commit violence[2]. Such children have delayed moral development.

However, some factors contributing to the development of childhood aggressiveness require special consideration. This is what we will do in this and the next paragraphs.

A. The role of heredity

Like any other mental phenomenon and form of behavior, aggression also has its hereditary roots. Speaking about the biological basis of aggression, we have already seen that there are brain centers for aggressive behavior. They are found in both animals and children[3].

Due to heredity, there are differences in the level of aggressiveness between men and women. These differences are due, of course, not only to heredity, but also to the specificity of socialization and differences in their social roles. Hereditary and social factors, interacting, lead to the fact that already in childhood there are differences in the level and forms of aggressiveness between girls and boys. And in hereditary pathological cases, an individual can become overly aggressive. We already know this from previous volumes of this work.

B. Stress and frustration

We already know that frustration and stress are the main causes of aggressive behavior in people. This statement is especially true regarding children: any deprivation and creation of a state of psychophysiological tension in children causes them to become aggressive, and, and this can be said without exaggeration, from the day they are born.

It is possible, as Alan Fromm does, to divide all frustrations of children into two types. The first type is due to the fact that young children are still weak and do not have the skills and abilities necessary for adaptation. As a result, they inevitably become dependent on other family members. Refusal to satisfy their needs, and even more so the psychological rejection of children, is a very serious frustration for them. We must provide help to the child when he needs it, but not impose such help when he does not need it, since in this way we can limit his freedom and, thereby, frustrate him.

The second type of frustration experienced by children occurs when adults, teaching them new habits, force them to make rapid progress for which they are not yet capable, not prepared by their previous development. Making unsuccessful attempts in this direction, children will inevitably become frustrated: in such situations they have the idea that they cannot be independent. Therefore, it is recommended to teach children the skills of walking, using the toilet, and using various objects slowly. “Hurry slowly!” - this call is useful not only for adults, but also for children. If a child needs it, he will turn to his parent for help.

During the development of children, frustrations are experienced in a wide variety of forms. Thus, the indifference of parents to the child, and even more so their contemptuous, arrogant attitude, is one of the main frustrators that causes anger and aggressive actions. The following typical situation, described by many child psychologists, is well known: a new child is born into the family and completely absorbs the attention of the parents. The eldest child, for whom parents have less and less time, feels abandoned, deprived of the attention and affection of the closest people in the world - mother and father. And so, in order to attract their attention to himself, he begins to commit aggressive actions that are generally prohibited in the family. In such cases, the danger is that the child considers the helpless baby to be the cause of his suffering and may commit aggressive actions towards the newborn[4].

Aggression can be expressed in the form of critical remarks, for example, statements that a brother or sister is ugly, no one needs, they came here in vain, etc. But physical aggression is not excluded. There are cases of attacks and physical harm to newborns. Older children do not hide their dissatisfaction with the arrival of a new child in the family, especially if they are not afraid of their parents. So, a five-year-old boy says to his mother: “Why was this little brother born? It would be better if he didn’t exist.” In such cases, parents must be extremely careful, since an aggressive child may try to carry out his intentions to “eliminate” a rival or rival.

In a family, unloved children are the most aggressive. They are always unhappy, stressed and, as a result, always prone to aggressive discharge. In a certain sense, this is self-defensive aggression: by attacking others, the child psychologically protects himself. Here a well-known logic of action is latently formed in children, often expressed in adults by the words: “Attack is the best defense.” It is clear that this logic is not always valid. But she is a good example of what can be called psycho-logic.

Why does the lack of love for a child cause his aggression? The answer to this question can be derived from the theory of empathy we have developed, in which such forms of behavior are psychologically justified using the following statements: a) emotionality is contagious and is transmitted from one communication partner to another, also generating almost identical emotions in him; it is true that differences in emotional experience give rise to differences; b) the emotional state is perceived through direct contact; c) there is a certain understanding of the state of the other: even when communicating with a child, cognitive factors play a significant role.

Even if it is reserved, parents must demonstrate their love, otherwise the child will have to demand their love in aggressive forms. Kindness and love soften the aggressiveness of frustrated people; Parental love is the best cure for over-aggression. True, the other extreme is hardly useful - excessive expression, expressiveness of love.

Social and psychological isolation is fraught with grave consequences for people of all age groups, but it is especially dangerous in the first years of life. It can take various forms, and the child can be in a situation of psychological isolation even when there are many adults and children around him. When, for example, a child lives in a family, but his mother is aggressive, neurotic, always in a hurry and subjects him to physical punishment, the child is essentially emotionally isolated.

In socio-psychological terms, children without parents living in government institutions (orphanages, orphanages, etc.) are isolated, where even intensive communication with nannies and mentors cannot compensate for the absence of a mother and father.

As psychological studies have shown, for the healthy development and maturation of personality, it is necessary that the child receive physical affection in childhood from the mother or from the woman who replaces her. When this is not the case, there are violations of empathy, a tendency to violence, and an inability to love with real, non-selfish love. Similar results were obtained in studies by M. and G. Harlow[5], J. Bowlby[6], R. Spitz[7] and other authors. It is also interesting to study people who claim that there is no love at all, or at least between representatives of the two sexes.

Conflict between parents and, as a result, a general unfavorable situation in the family is the next most important cause of frustration and aggressiveness in children. When such conflicts are repeated and become systematic, the child experiences chronic frustration. Children from such families become angry and envious towards other children living in favorable family conditions. The psychology of children from conflict families is a large complex problem that is of direct interest for the psychology of human aggressiveness. Therefore, in the next paragraph we will discuss this problem in a little more detail.

Erik Erikson expressed interesting thoughts on this issue. He believed that often in a family the mutual normal regulation of the behavior of its members is disrupted, as a result of which each of them finds substitute areas of autonomy and control (as well as self-control), in which the participation of other family members is excluded. For parents it is social activity outside the family, for children it is their own body. Therefore, in families with broken relationships in children, there is an increase in autoeroticism, compensating for lost reciprocity. However, seemingly autonomous autoerotic actions that bring satisfaction are accompanied by hostile fantasies that depict pictures of control over others, with sadistic or masochistic themes predominantly emphasized. Such a hostile orientation against oneself or others turns the corresponding organ into a weapon of aggression. Before this, E. Erikson believes, the organ has a naive, prehostile function of approaching things, searching for relationships with objects. This is what ad-gression means before it turns into aggression[8].

Therefore, parents must develop together with their children. It is not only parents who control children's behavior: children, in turn, exert a controlling influence on their parents. Mutual education takes place.

Sometimes only children become aggressive. The question arises: what factors frustrate them, what are the reasons for the aggressiveness of the only child in the family, who is not at all deprived of the attention and love of his parents? Surprisingly, it is the parents’ excessive attention that makes such a child aggressive. These are spoiled children who are not punished when they behave aggressively. Such children often perceive their lack of punishment and impunity as encouragement and gradually become more and more aggressive. Not to mention that there are parents who directly encourage aggressive behavior in their children. As they say, you don’t have to look far for examples: a child got into a fight with another child from his yard, mercilessly beat the younger one, and his parent not only does not punish him, but encourages him with the words: “Well done! That’s how brave my boy is!”

But in such cases it is quite possible that the child’s aggression was not defensive at all. He himself could be the first attacker, an aggressor who, without experiencing frustration, subjected another to violence. Encouraging such offensive, non-defensive aggression is fraught with serious negative consequences for the most aggressive child. Vedas, he can get a rebuff and suffer himself, not to mention the formation of an aggressive character in him. Another reason for a child’s aggressiveness in the family is the following: he has brothers and sisters, but he does not enjoy authority in their microenvironment. This is socio-psychological deprivation, deprivation of very important social values. Not knowing better ways, he seeks to take revenge on others and improve the situation of his life through aggressive actions. But such behavior usually leads to the opposite results, worsening the child’s life situation. In particular, the sociometric status of such children in a given microenvironment becomes even lower. Trying to take a worthy place in it, the child finds no other means except aggression. When his activity is further suppressed for such behavior, his aggressiveness accordingly increases even more: he may have outbursts of anger, become restless and neurotic, lose self-control, etc.

When parents, under the threat of punishment, suppress the aggression of such a child, out of fear, he may become quiet and “good” in appearance. But the paradox is that fear makes the child even more aggressive. Feeling weak in front of his parents, he directs his aggression against the weak. In such cases, psychologists say that the aggressive child has found a “scapegoat” for himself. This expression, as we know, originated in ancient Judea: the chief rabbi, in front of the assembled people, transferred the sins of the people onto a goat, which was then driven into the wild to die. It was believed that in this way the animal takes on the sins of the people and cleanses them. This, of course, is a cowardly form of behavior, emanating from the moral ideas of a timid person. Lacking the moral courage to take responsibility for their own sins, which would promote self-improvement, they subjected an innocent animal to aggression.

Teachers often act as frustrations for children. In general, we should talk in more detail about children’s frustrations at school. But here we will limit ourselves to an example that personally shows the attitude of many children towards school and teachers. Many years ago, one of the Russian newspapers published a short feuilleton by Yu. Kuznetsov entitled “Well, education, wait a minute...”. For us, its beginning is interesting: “One Swedish boy’s father once told him about an article in the newspaper, which reported that a schoolteacher, who was spending his vacation in the forests in the north, was attacked by an elk. The beast furiously and for a long time pursued the education worker, using its horns and, accordingly, hooves. The son listened to all this with intense attention and only asked:

“How did the moose know that it was a teacher?”

It seems clear: the child was glad that the moose recognized the main frustrator of the schoolchildren and punished him.

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