Modifying Aggressive Behaviors

The Behavior of Aggression

The behavior of interest for this reason is aggression. Aggression is defined as hostile or aggressive behavior directed toward other people for a variety of reasons. Aggression is thought to be an intrinsic habit in most cases, although it may also be a learnt behavior in others. Aggression as a bad behavior can be modified by reward in either case. The biggest reason why this behavior needs to stop is the bad influence it has on those around us as well as the aggressive individuals themselves. Chances are that, to the extreme, aggression at one point in time has resulted in fatalities and people who show aggression in most instances are not by any chance like in the society. The importance of changing this behavior is that it will ultimately result to better individuals and communities within the society.

Causes of Aggression

As per Liu (2004), currently causes of aggression, which are the triggers in our case, include a whole variety of influences. Specifically, research has attributed aggression to events and occurrences such as social learning, family violence, modeling, child abuse, neglect, TV violence, functional and structural brain abnormalities, and hormones (Liu, 2004). Clearly, all influences triggering aggression are negative in nature. They thus need some form of either reinforcement of punishment.

Behavior Modification Techniques

Depending on factors such as causation of an aggressive behavior and the characteristics of the person projecting an aggressive behavior, behavior modification for an aggressive behavior can be based on either reinforcement or punishment. Some of the reinforcements that can be used to change an aggressive behavior include offering rewards for improved attitudes and offering guidance and counseling to people suffering aggression as an abnormality. In the first instance, we may opt to reinforce good behaviors that lead individuals away from aggressive behaviors. For instance, adults who have been put on probation for an aggressive behavior can be rewarded for showing improved control over their aggressive behavior by having their probation officers reduce the days they are to be under probation. By doing so, positive behaviors contrary to the aggressive behavior will be positively reinforced while reducing the likelihood of aggressive behaviors. In the second reinforcement option, which is offering guidance and counseling, individuals who have learned and acquired an aggressive behavior can be counseled as a way of reinforcing behaviors that discourage their aggressive behaviors. Reinforcement, in this case, would best work if aggression were rather innate.

Other than reinforcement, punishment can be used to modify aggression as a behavior, especially when this specific behavior is learned and not innate. Clearly, punishment would not work on individuals who, for instance, have functional and structural brain abnormalities or family violence, but it can be used on individuals who acquired aggression through ways such as TV violence, modeling, and social learning. A good example of punishment that can be used to deter learned aggression may include detention for young adults who show an aggressive behavior and jail terms in the extreme for young adults and old adults who show an aggressive behavior that proves rather harmful to the people around them.

Timeline and Factors to Consider

When it comes to changing behaviors, on average, it should take about two months to show improvement in behavior modification. Depending on factors such as causation and the degree of aggression, in some instances, changing an aggressive behavior may take longer than usual, which in this case would be a period more than two months. When using punishment to change aggressive behaviors, some of the most important factors to consider have something to do with the causation of the behaviors and the kind of responses we expect from these individuals. As initially highlighted, these factors may include the causation of an aggressive behavior, the degree of an aggressive behavior, and the period the aggressive behavior has lasted. For example, punishment can be used on a behavior recently learned and had not yet reached its climax. Thus, punishment is not entirely suitable in all instances, and in place of punishment, we may opt to use alternatives such as rewarding and counseling initially touched on.

Reference

Liu, J. (2004). CONCEPT ANALYSIS: AGGRESSION. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 25(7), 693–714. http://doi.org/10.1080/01612840490486755