Marcella Ferchette/ Shyla Diamond/ Wilver Barrios

Social Psychology

Professor Sujatha Chandarlapaty

Spring 2020

Role of Alcohol and Drugs in Aggression

 Index

 Shyla Diamond: Collection of data and analysis of data

 Wilver Barrios: Introduction, research methods, and other information

 Marcella Ferchette: Summarize conclusions, recommendations, and iron out project

totality.

 Page 3: Project Hypothesis

 Page 4: Introduction 

 Page 5: Mental Illness and Graph

 Research

 Narration of analysis

 Conclusion and recommendations

 Project Hypothesis

For this project, we will be talking about the roles of alcohol and drugs in aggression.

This refers to the effects of alcohol and drugs towards our behavior and what makes an

individual aggressive when consuming these substances. I will be researching on the internet to

further understand the cause of the aggressive behavior when consuming alcohol and when

consuming drugs. We will also do some research through online articles.We will have an

understanding of why we behave this way and what other behaviors can get triggered by

substances. We will include the effects of specific kinds of drugs and alcohol since they are the

source of different kinds of behaviors. There will be collection of data and analysation of it as

well. We will include graphs for visual examples and to further understand the types of crimes or

effects aggression can lead to.

Drugs and alcohol have been an influence towards our behavior for many years now.

Usually when an individual consumes large amounts of a substance or small amounts depending

on the drug or alcohol, it triggers our brain mechanism making us act more hostile and

aggressive towards others or even things. Aggression is a complex behavior that is specific

towards certain situations and demands. It cannot be reduced either, once there is a substance in

one's system, it stays for a few hours or until you sleep it off. These psychoactive substances are

linked to these expressive behaviors in a complex way. The major problem is that we do not

know what kind of behavior these substances may lead an individual to. Alcohol can make them

more violent towards others. This behavior will then lead to sexual abuse, murder, and assaults.

By the alcohol affecting the endocrine system, individuals tend to lose sleep, and it affects the

collection of glands that produce hormones. These hormones regulate sexual function,
metabolism, growth and development, tissue function, reproduction, and mood swings, among

many other things. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the effects of alcohol are very

hard to predict. Keep in mind that the amount of how much one drinks, our age, how often one

drinks, and health status are all major things to consider due to the fact that they will affect us all

differently according to those points we just mentioned. It all varies from person to person. 

When a person consumes alcohol or substances, they usually assume that the effects of

them will be positive. They assume that they will feel better and their problems and physical or

even emotional pain will go away as well. Some of this is true and some of it is not. Yes the

problems will go away but that is because in their mind, they forget about them in that moment

when under the influence or substance. But the truth about drugs and alcohol is that they are

unpredictable. When one consumes them, they run the risk of expressing different behaviors

such as aggressiveness, assault, and even murder sometimes. 

This is common since the use of alcohol and drugs weaken one’s self-control. 

A factor we tend to not think about is that individuals often suppress emotions, negative

feelings, frustration, and even stress. When doing this, we fall into depression and we get a sense

that we are just stuck inside a hole. “A study released in 2010 found that individuals that

suppress negative behaviors or feelings such as anger or frustration are prone to drink to the

point of intoxication.” (Vertava Health, 2021) This is one of many factors that leads to substance

abuse and alcohol drinking. The use of substances and alcohol leads to aggressive behavior. 
 This chart shows the use of drugs and alcohol for the intensity of mental illnesses. We

can see that alcohol plays the biggest role for serious mental illnesses. It also shows that more

than 5% of people consume more alcohol even when there is no mental illness present. This

explains why alcohol is one of the highest leading substances when it comes to aggressive

behavior. 

There are other drugs such as marijuana that people take for their well being, they say

they consume it because it relaxes them and relieves their stress levels. Marijuana serves as an

antidepressant for most individuals. The downs side is that it is only temporary and once it wears

off you are back to where you first were before taking it. Sometimes one feels worse than before

and they feel the need to consume it everyday and once they don’t, those individuals start going
through the phase of withdrawal. “Among marijuana users with a history of aggression, the

withdrawal was associated with 60% higher odds of past year relationship aggression.” (Tyler

and Hulszier, 1998) Symptoms of withdrawal include sleep difficulties, irritability, loss of focus,

increased feeling of depression, mood changes or mood swings, and many other symptoms. Most

of these symptoms lead to more serious effects for individuals. When one becomes restless and

can not sleep they become irritated when socializing with others, they either gain weight due to

the loss of sleep, their mood changes, and all of these lead to depression. The most major one is

that it may also lead to aggressiveness in a person. 

 Introduction

In early adulthood, some individuals stop thinking regarding their personal lifestyle will

affect their health next. As an adult, many young people are building a unhealthy lifestyle, such

as In early adulthood, some individuals stop thinking about their personal lifestyle that will affect

their health in the future. When growing up, many young people develop unhealthy lifestyles,

such as not eating breakfast, not eating regularly, consume ready meals serving as a daily main

meal, smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, no exercising, sleep in time a little every night.

Style this bad personal life can be the effect on health conditions. Some hidden dangers in the

prime of ability and health in early adulthood. When the early adults can use their physical

resources for a lot of fun, plus again the fact that they recover easily from physical stress and

injury make them impose his body is too far away.

Abuse of this person's body negatively impacts may not be felt right away in early

adulthood, but maybe will appear later in adulthood or at the end of adulthood. An unhealthy

lifestyle that is widely applied by people this early adulthood can also form an addiction. One of

them is dependent on drugs and alcohol. Addiction (addiction) is a physical dependence on a

drug. Psychological dependence (psychological dependence) is the need to use drugs to solve the

problem and stress. Psychoactive drugs, that is all drugs that affect the system nerves to change

things, change perceptions and change mood; have a strong role in physical good dependence

and psychological. Alcoholism is a chronic disease characterized by a tendency to drink more

than planned, failure to attempt to stop drinking and to continue drinking despite the adverse

social and occupational consequences. Nearly 8% of adults in the United States have a problem

with alcohol use. Men are four times more likely to be alcoholics than women.
 It is estimated that the population in the US has consumed more than 85% of the time

alcohol at least once in their lifetime and about 51% of all adults in the US are moderately

regular alcohol users today. Alcohol abuse is more common in societies with low incomes and a

lack of education. At least about 200,000 alcohol-related deaths each year. The age group with

the highest percentage of alcohol use was between 20 and 35 years, whereas men were

significantly more likely to use alcohol than women. The use of alcohol from a racial perspective

is more common among whites than blacks. Symptoms of alcoholism that are evident in physical

form are dependence on alcohol and the inability to quit even if it is severe physical and

psychological consequences. Some alcoholics can endure at superficial levels but eventually, the

addiction causes impaired performance professional and improve the strained relationships.

Physical signs of alcohol abuse, namely: weight loss, pain in the stomach, numbness in hands

and feet, talk rambled, transient momentary unsteadiness was drunk. In people who suffer

alcohol dependence, namely: sweating, shaking, nausea, vomiting, confusion, and circumstances

extremes namely convulsions, as well hallucinations.

Mental signs include increased alcohol abuse, among others: irritability, anger,

restlessness, shy away from activities that didn't give a chance to drinking, difficulty in making

the decision, oversleeping, excessive displays of crying, and emotional. Adults compared to

youth, in more age group sheight indicates one's vulnerability lower for abuse alcohol consumed

a lot, sometimes the drinker becomes sleepy and fell asleep. A high level of poisoning can make

drinkers become coma and died. Each of these results differs according to how is the person's

body digesting alcohol, his body weight, the amount of alcohol consumed, and did previous

drinking activities have been tolerated. Alcohol abuse has many signs and symptoms of

alcoholism in perpetrators, but people not feeling pushed (or pushed) to a drink. Alcohol
dependence happens when people who are addicted to alcohol have progressed to the stage of

dependence, have an inability to control drink it, and have developed alcohol tolerance. Based on

a false admission an alcoholic that he is not strong work when not drinking an intoxicating drink,

just to warm the body and add vitality. This matter proves that the elements contained in the

drink alcoholism can cause dependence on the drinker. The four stages of alcoholism: The first

stage, drinking as an escape. Drinking alcohol is used to escape from reality, alcohol helps

people "escapeself” from stress, fear, and concern. Someone's on stage early alcohol addiction

had increase tolerance to alcohol, and may not appear drunk. The very early alcohol stage is

characterized by sipping a drink, sneak a drink and refusal to discuss alcoholic drinks. In the

second stage, drinking becomes a need. Someone will be pushed to drink by inner desire which

is irresistible. At this stage, an addict might have a period of abstinence, but he always will drink

back. This person too probably in denial about the problem through rationalization. A strong

desire to drink started making people depend on alcohol. At this stage, people might experience

blackouts and can display aggressive behavior. The third stage, drinking without control.

At two stages at the start, though drink often but still can maintain control, however on

this third stage the addict is no longer have power over need alcohol. This is stage one the easiest

to recognize by friends or family. His work neglected and started problems with the law. The

fourth stage, drinking because of dependency. His days have always been starting with drinking,

but that too characterized by tremors, binges, and spit frequently. Physical signs of chronic

alcoholism are starting to appear at this stage, such as brain damage, low judgment, lost memory,

and concentration problems. Someone who is in this stage has a very high risk for liver disease,

heart disease, cancer mouth or esophagus.

 Based on the data above, a diagnosis of dependence can be made if there are three or

more of the following symptoms experienced in the previous 1 year: There is a strong desire or

an urgent urge to using psychoactive substances. Difficulty controlling behavior using

substances, especially from the onset, attempted discontinuation, or at the level that is being

used. Circumstances physiological withdrawal at substance withdrawal or Reduction, as

evidenced by withdrawal symptoms in people or people who usually use the same substance or

class of substances with the aim of eliminating or avoiding withdrawal symptoms. Evidence of

tolerance, in the form of increased doses of psychoactive substances required to have the same

effect, is usually obtained at lower doses (concrete examples can be found in individuals with

alcohol dependence and their daily doses of opiates can reach levels that can render helpless or

lethal for novice users). Getting more and more negligent enjoying pleasures or other interests

due to the use of a psychoactive substance, an increase in the amount of time it takes to obtain or

use the substance or to recover as a result. Continue to use the substance even though he is aware

of its adverse health consequences, such as impaired liver function due to drinking excess

alcohol, a depressant state due to heavy substance use, or cognitive impairment associated with

the substance. Use efforts should be made to ensure that serious, or reliable, substance users are

alerted or reliable users of the substance are aware of the nature and magnitude of the harm.
Research
 As you can see from the results up above many of the responses are either very close

together are far apart and that’s because people view alcohol and drugs in a totally different

perspective. We will start with the first question; many say it starts to become a problem when

you feel as if you have done it but others say when it becomes a daily thing. There is a difference

between having a drink such as a glass of wine or a beer at the dinner table rather than drinking

to get drunk and many do not understand that. It is not a problem if you have one drink a day

because you just came home from a rough day at work and want to take the edge off, but you are

not drinking to get drunk. Drugs may be a different story although many people smoke every day

to stay calm and productive, marijuana is a common drug that many people use in today’s

society but is it bad for us? Some say yes others say no but what about other drugs? When other

drugs become a daily thing and you feel as if you must take it on a daily basis than yes it has

become a problem. Going onto the next question may say they feel more aggressive when the

drink and why is that? It may because drinking or using may let you express your feelings in a

different way, or let all the feeling you have been pushing down for so long come out finally and

that might lead to anger, sadness, etc. There is many reasons have to why drinking or using may

cause some to be more aggressive. It is different for everyone and how It effects the brain and

what you are feeling inside. Some other questions relating to this is “are you an aggressive

person as is”, “why does drinking or using make you aggressive”, “have you ever hurt someone
while is intoxicated”, “have you ever wanted to hurt yourself while intoxicated”, and these

questions all lead back to the original question and from the interview responses it all just

depends on the person. It may also do with what is happening in someone’s life, what they have

gone through, why they drink or do drugs, so answers will always vary depending on the person

and their lifestyle.

In the interviews I also asked why do you think people drink or use and a lot of the

answers came back the same “to get away from reality” and why is that? The chemicals in both

alcohol and drugs makes our brains think a different way if we are drunk or high. Some may say

it makes them relaxed, happy other may say it makes the anxious, worried or anger, and sad and

that will lead back to how the person’s life is. Many people drink or use because they can’t

handle the reality of life sometime and the only escape is to get high or to get drunk and it’s sad

because so many people do that these days and it leads them to be alcoholics or addicts. In some

of the other questions it asks d you prefer to drink or do drugs alone or with people and many

answers came back as either both or alone. Why do you feel as if people drink or do drugs alone?

It can be for several reason, but some of the main ones is some people may be sad or even

depressed so they don’t want to be around people, but they also don’t want t be alone so they use

drinking or using to cover up that pain. Another reason maybe they feel at piece when they are

alone and high and or drunk. Overall, drinking or using drugs is going to be different or

everyone.

It’s going to make certain people feel different ways, say may be happy and content

others may feel sad, anger, depressed, get aggressive, it effects everyone’s brain differently and

you have to understand that someone’s routine activity, lifestyle may also have a huge impact on

someone’s drinking, smoking, using problems. The effects of alcohol and or drugs could be
severe, mild, or light depending on why someone drinks or using, the reasoning behind how

many times they do it/how often, how they react, etc.

Narration of Analysis

There are differences in aggressive behavior of alcoholics, these differences can be seen

from the purpose of consuming alcoholic drinks, the intensity of consumption of alcoholic

drinks, educational level of informants, age of informants, family background of informants. The

purpose of consuming alcoholic drinks for each informant is different Consuming alcoholic

drinks aims to forget the problems faced. This is in accordance with Wilis' statement, which

states that frustration is one of the factors of aggressive behavior, namely a situation where a

person is unable to meet his expectations, besides consuming alcoholic drinks is also included. a

factor of someone who will carry out his aggressive behavior. Consuming alcoholic drinks due to

the demands of friends, more looking for fun with friends, and increasing social relationships.

that drinking-drinking behavior is used to reduce frustration and demands from friends in the

environment. Consuming alcoholic drinks because they have felt this addiction was shown by the

informants that they could not sleep if they did not consume alcoholic drinks.

Consuming alcoholic beverages will give individual a lack of emotional control. Age is

one of the factors for an individual to become an alcoholic drink addict. The majority of alcohol

dependence begins before young adulthood, which is less than 40 years. This is consistent with

all informants who have experienced addiction due to consuming alcoholic beverages. The more

mature a person can certainly manage better emotional management. From the research results

informants who are less than 30 years old show more aggressive behavior than informants who

are over 30 years old. On average they use alcoholic drinks because they feel frustrated and want
to run away from the problem at hand, frustration makes them take it out on alcohol, that

frustration is one of the factors of aggressive behavior, namely a situation where someone is not

able to live up to his expectations.

The feeling of not being able to face problems makes them run away by consuming

alcoholic beverages. Alcoholic drinks are also a factor in someone who will engage in aggressive

behavior. An environment that supports the existence of alcoholic drinks which is one of the

factors for a person to consume alcoholic drinks. The environment plays a big role in influencing

a person. The environment that is defined as the environment includes the residence of a person

who consumes a lot of alcohol which causes a person to have the desire to consume it. The

environment will also influence the behavior of each informant. Informants of one group who

often consume alcoholic drinks together, they show mutual respect for each other such as

advising each other, controlling emotions and seeking mutual pleasure when consuming

alcoholic drinks. informants who are not the group who frequently consume alcoholic drinks

with other informants show more aggressive behavior than that group. The behaviors that appear

when consuming alcoholic beverages are hitting, speaking harshly and chasing the person who

makes you angry.

Consuming alcoholic beverages can be affected by the family environment in which one

of the families consumes alcoholic beverages. One of the family members who consume

alcoholic beverages can influence and become an example of other family members to consume

alcoholic drinks, this is because of the family members' curiosity about alcoholic drinks. A

family that has one member who consumes alcoholic beverages will result in the other members

becoming addicts to alcoholic beverages. One of the factors of alcoholism is also influenced by

family factors, if one parent is an alcoholic, then the child has a great chance of becoming an
alcoholic, this will lead to more aggressive behavior, but the results of the study indicate that an

informant who does not have family members who consume alcohol become fond of consuming

alcoholic beverages. The informants imitated the behavior of consuming alcoholic drinks from

their neighborhood where many members of the community consumed alcoholic drinks.

Informants who do not have members who consume alcoholic beverages are more likely to show

irritable behavior, beat friends who make them angry, advise friends, speak harshly and advise

friends who make trouble. The behavior of informants who did not have one of the members

consuming alcoholic drinks was found to be more aggressive, this is because the informants were

affected because of their environment and their frustration. something problematic that made him

escape his frustration with alcoholic beverages. Family members who consume alcoholic

beverages are less influential in influencing informants to become alcoholic drink addicts.

this thing will cause more aggressive behavior, but the research results suggest that

informants who do not have family members who consume alcoholic beverages become fond of

consuming alcoholic beverages. Informants imitate behavior consume alcoholic beverages from

the environment where they live many community members consume alcoholic beverages.

Informants who don't have members who consume more alcoholic beverages exhibit more that

behavior irritable, hitting a friend who makes him angry, advising a friend, saying harshly, and

advising friends who make trouble. The innocent behavior of the informant one member who

drank alcoholic beverages was found to be more aggressive, this is because informants are

affected because of their environment and will feel frustrated something problematic that made

him escape his frustration at drinking alcoholic. Family members who consume less alcoholic

beverages influencing informants to become alcoholic drink addicts. The informants who live in

the village are of course the community with intermediate levels down. Informants have various
jobs. Informants who become students should have a higher level of control over their emotions,

But this does not happen. Informants take action that is more aggressive in comparison to other

informants. Informants who should be able to regulate their emotions from the results research

found that informants consume alcoholic beverages due to taste frustrated with the problems

experienced. Informants want to run away from problems faced with alcoholic beverages.

informants who have felt anger and hatred will easily offend others and will engage in that

behavior-specific purpose due to frustration and depression. The behavior the informant did was

to hit a friend who made him angry, chasing people who make angry and speak harshly, it is

consistent with aggressive behavior physical aggression, and verbal aggression. Physical

aggression is a behavior that is meant to hurting people physically, for example hitting, kicking

while verbal aggression is behavior that is intended to be threatening, cursing.

 Conclusion and Recommendations

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that alcoholics are prone to aggressive

behavior, the types of aggressive behavior commonly found in whoever hitting friends, chasing

and threatening, yelling, and speaking harshly, dependence, and escape from problems.

Informants who consume alcoholic beverages with the aim of escaping the problem have more

aggressive behavior such as: speaking harshly, hitting friends who make them angry, and chasing

others who make them uncomfortable. Based on the research results, it can be seen that the

intensity of consumption of alcoholic drinks affects aggressive behavior. The more often

individuals consume alcoholic drinks, the more aggressive behavior is shown. Based on the age

of consuming alcoholic drinks, if the individuals who consume alcoholic beverages are less than

30 years old, they will show more aggressive behavior. The role of the family, individuals who

do not have family members who are addicted to alcoholic drinks show more aggressive

behavior than individuals who have family members who are addicted to alcoholic drinks. This

can be interpreted as a member family who is addicted to alcoholic drinks do not affect the

aggressive behavior raised by the individual. When you do not consume alcoholic drinks, the

individual will change to

individuals who are closed, are indifferent to others, and less confident in socializing. The

higher the interaction between individuals who together frequently consume alcoholic drinks,
reduce the risk of physically aggressive behavior. The advice given by researchers to informants

is that informants should better.

An alcoholic who does not consume alcoholic drinks becomes quiet in the social

environment, becomes indifferent to the environment around him, harboring feelings that are

felt, and lack self-confidence in their social environment. This is consistent with the statement,

which states that antisocial behavior in adolescence or adulthood can increase the risk of

alcoholism. One of the driving forces for individuals to consume alcoholic beverages is due to

social barriers in their environment. Individuals consider that consuming alcoholic drinks makes

them more confident and able to face problems that exist in their environment.

It is important to drink alcoholic beverages gradually because alcoholic drinks have more

negative impacts than positive effects. The surrounding community must support by making

strict rules about alcoholic drinks and for parents to provide understanding and understanding for

their children about the dangers of alcoholic drinks.

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