Aggression: Biological, Psychological and Cultural Explanations Essay

Aggression: Biological, Psychological and Cultural Explanations Most people will agree that aggression can become dangerous and that it is a serious problem. The source of different acts of aggression is trying to be understood from medical, psychological and cultural perspectives. Some scientists try to treat the abnormal aggressive behavior with medication, while others go deeper and try to find out why they have abnormal behavior. Some answers are biological, like genes and hormones, other answers are psychological, like rejection as a cause of aggression, and still others are cultural, blaming aggression on violence in the media. Some men who are aggressive are being treated by scientists who are using SPECT, Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography, to identify regions of the brain that are causing the problems with aggression. (1) SPECT creates a color picture of the blood flow and activity in the brain and variation in color reveals abnormalities and damaged regions. (1) Unusual increased or decreased activity that are key in causing aggression are often found in three areas of the brains. (1) Aggressive thoughts reside in the left temporal lobe; the anterior cingulate gyrus controls repeated thoughts and amount of attention given to something; and the prefrontal cortex controls impulse. (1) Usually aggressive men have too much or too little activity in the left temporal lobe, too much activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus and too little activity in the prefrontal cortex so that they cannot control themselves. (1) By identifying which region or regions are abnormal scientists can prescribe the bes t drug treatment for that specific person. Drugs help balance the activity in their brains, but why are they im... ...s. (12) Rejection was found to be a direct cause of aggression. So, both the presence of weapons and the feeling of being rejected aid in increased, abnormal aggressive behavior. We have begun to look at different explanations of the why's and how's of aggression. Different biological, social and psychological reasons are presented and are equally supported and rejected. One thing that can be determined by acknowledging the different possible causes of aggression is that there is not one thing that causes aggression, because everyone acts differently to different problems. Not everyone who is rejected acts out aggressively, so maybe some of the people who do act aggressively have other problems that are biological in nature. Aggression is a bio-psycho-social issue that is being addressed, and needs to be addressed in the future, from all different perspectives.