agression- nature or nurture?

so, do you guys think that nature or nurture is responsable for agression and/or violance? is it they way we are raised or are we genetically pre desposed bto be agressive. what are your thoughts?

 

Assertive nature becomes aggressive/defensive. First through observation then through education, nurture.

 

I think is down to nature the strongest will survive so no matter how advance our civilization will get there will always be aggression present, as with all instincts that affect character it can be nurture to + or - but never controlled completely.

 

great answers! are there anymore out there?

 

I'd say it was split down the middle. We are all born with a certain level of aggression that is innate within us, but certain environmental factors can make us more or less aggressive than others. For example, growing up in a violent household might make someone desensitised to violence and more of a violent person himself OR it could effect him to become less of a violent person to avoid other's going through his pain.

 

both, to varying degrees from person to person and situation to situation.

 

Both.

The potential for aggression is based on nature. The usage of violence is both nature and nurture. It's all about how you psychologically set up your own behaviour. Aggression and violence do have their place.

 

It is both. All humans have inherited a capacity for aggression but whether this capacity will ever come to fruition as violent behavior depends heavily on the cues provided by the environment. The process begins before birth when exposure to stress hormones in the womb can cause changes in brain structure that may result in higher levels of aggression throughout the person's life. Also whether or not aggression correlates with status in a society has a huge influence on whether or not our inborn capacity for aggression comes to fruition. So for example among the Yanomamo where violence tends to elevate a person's social status we find incredibly high murder rates, with over 40% of all adult males having killed at least one person.

 

The potential for agression seems to exist in everyone, but I'd say there are many variables. It seems there's more potential in some than others, and this combines with nurture to either produce more or less actual agressive behaviour.
But agression is a funny thing. It isn't just physical violence. Agressive investment bankers for example, who would totally shy away from any kind of actual violence, have certainly caused a lot of trouble it appears.
There are many forms of mental agression.

Anyway, the competitive type of ethos, whether we're talking about ancient Sparta or the boardroom of a modern bank, appear to be the kinds of environments where agression is a definite requirement. Environments which tend to both nurture and value agression. In fact, much of modern 'culture' represents little more than the glorification of various forms of agression and dominance. Society today actively nurtures agression on all levels.

 

I think we see more physical aggression among horticulturist and hunter gatherer tribes as opposed to modern societies. Hence higher murder rates among the tribes of Botswana and the Amazon than in downtown Detroit.

 

How about stuff like world wars one and two? I don't think many tribal cultures have created anything on that scale.

 

Yes but my point is that physical aggression, coalitional exploitation, and organized warfare are not inventions of modern societies. War takes place on a much more grand scale now because populations are bigger and technology has increased but we inherited the tendency for war from our ancestors. If such things were the product of modern societies then we should expect to see hunter gatherers and horticulturists living in peace, but they are really just as violent as we are. Sometimes more so, as with the Yanomamo. Over 40% of adult males in that society have killed another man, the percentage of adult males in the United States that have killed another man is much lower. The closer we are to living in an ancestral environment the more cues and motivations for violence we are presented with. In the United States violence and exploitation are suppressed by parents, schools, and police forces. Our level of material wealth makes it possible for us to succeed without violently exploiting others, but of course our evolved tendencies still come to fruition. Civilization is our attempt to override our biological motivations.

 

well said...