Dr.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY
2021-2022

PSYCHOLOGY

TOPIC- AGGRESSION IN TEENAGERS

SUBMITTED TO – SUBMITTED BY –
DR. ISHA YADAV Tushar Verma
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Enrollment No.-210101158
(PSYCHOLOGY) B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University 1st Semester, Section ‘B’

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TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO-
1. ACKNOWLEDGMENT----------------------------------------------------------------------------------3

2. PREFACE----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY------------------------------------------------------------------------5

4. CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION------------------------------------------------------------------------6

5. CHAPTER 2- TYPES OF AGGRESSION-------------------------------------------------------------8

6. CHAPTER 3- FACTOR THAT LEADS TO AGGRESSION--------------------------------------10

7. CHAPTER 4- WAYS TO REDUCE AGGRESSION------------------------------------------------12

8. CONCLUSION-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14

9. REFRENCES-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------15

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Ms. Isha Yadav who gave me the
golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic “Aggression in Teenagers”, She has been
constantly supporting me, guiding me and helping me with all my queries and difficulties regarding this
project since its fledging stage. Without her help this project would have been a Herculean task.

This topic also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things I am
really thankful to them.

Secondly, I would also like to thank my batch mates and seniors who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame and make this project even better.

I would like thank the librarians of Dr. Madhu Limaye library for helping me find the correct resources for
my research and for helping me enrich my knowledge.

I know that despite my sincerest efforts some discrepancies might have crept in, I hope and believe that I
would be pardoned for the same.

Thank You

Tushar verma

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 PREFACE

In our society or at the global level we always want a peaceful atmosphere and also wish to keep ourselves
away from violence and for this we make our behaviour very polite, genuine towards others but some time
when we response towards other in aggressive behaviour it results in violence.

According to human right watch report India witnessed more violence in 2020 and especially during the
corona virus nationwide lockdown. India reported 29130 violent acts of murder in the year 2020 data from
NCRB. The more imp and the act of violence which became the headline of many newspapers like the Delhi
riot case which sparked as the atrocities against the Kashmiri Muslims. And as I write this research paper the
Maharashtra government is the Maharashtra bandh due to the Lakhimpur kheri violence.

Here through this paper researcher explained the human behaviour aggression, types of aggression and
circumstances and factor that leads aggression in teenagers which will clear whether aggression is result of
biological factors or it occurs due to some current position that a teenager faced at a particular time, or due
to some psychological effect.

Further this paper also explains the human behaviour of aggression in teenagers and how it leads to the
criminal activities and how it hampers their living society, acts and their responses through some examples
in India and at the global levels. It also indicates seriousness of this issue and giving the reasons why it
should be taken into hand in hand by every individual.

Further, researcher has also explained the ideas through which we can help to control this behaviour
aggression.

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 Research Methodology
Statement of Problem
In society where every people wish and deserve to be lived peacefully becomes victim of violence which is
the result of any teenager, individual or any group’s aggression to achieve something or harm that person in
response of person’s any particular act this behaviour of human is causing harm to society very much. The
biggest problem is nothing can be happened in most of these type cases before the commission of act
because no one can arrest because he was aggress towards any person except terrorists’ activity. Therefore,
there is need to first understand the aggression what is reason behind this human behaviour then try to solve
it.

Aims and objectives-

1-to analyse the terms of aggression.
2-to analyse the factors that leads to aggression.
3-to analyse how aggression affects teenagers.
4-to analyse how we can reduce aggression from the teenager behaviour.

Research Questions-
1-What is aggression and how it affects the human behaviour?
2-How many types of aggression are there and their brief explanation?
3-What factors leads to aggression in teenagers?
4-How can we reduce aggression?

Source-
Sources adopted for this project has been DOCTRINAL, various books newspaper articles and magazines
etc. have been referred for this purpose. Web sources have been referred for the research. The data employed
here is secondary data and due accreditation for the same.

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 CHAPTER 1
Aggression – an introduction
Aggression is a term which we often hear in our daily lives. Aggression is a human behaviour normally
which is used to justify the characters of the individual. In simpler terms the more the person is aggressive
the more of the bad character he is considered on the other hand for example the person is polite and talks to
you in a humble manner is considered polite and if the person responds in rude or an aggressive manner is
considered as aggressive person. The thing to keep in mind is that this definition of aggression is particularly
a definition given by the society.
But this is the not correct definition in terms of official definition to pin down aggressions correct definition
is very hard the reason is aggression has a very vast area whenever it tries to compile in a universal
definition some aspects overlap each other same problems also come to face at time of classification of
aggression nevertheless it has defined by some literature as –

“The angry feeling or behaviour that make you attack other people” is the normal definition given by

google.

“Behaviour that is intended to harm another individual who does not wish to be harmed.”1

“A behaviour that is indented to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm.”2

“Any behaviour directed toward another individual that is carried with the proximate cause of harm and

believes that behaviour will harm the target”. 3

While Sigmund Freud defined it as- “Aggression refers to action or behaviour intended to cause harm to

person towards whom it is directed.”

Despite so many definitions a universal definition which can cover every aspect of aggression has not
founded. The reason is what may looking aggress act may be not aggress from other view, for instance, a
football line-backer who accidentally breaks the arm of another player or a driver who accidentally hits a
pedestrian would not by our definition be displaying aggression because although harm was done, there was
no intent to harm. A salesperson who attempts to make a sale through repeated phone calls is not aggressive
because he is not intending any harm. (We should say this behaviour is “assertive” rather than aggressive.)
And not all intentional behaviours that hurt others are aggressive behaviours. A dentist might intentionally
give a patient a painful injection of a painkiller, but the goal is to prevent further pain during the procedure.

1
Baron and Richardson in 1994
2
(Bushman and Huesmann 2010; DeWall, Anderson, &Bushman, 2012).
3
(Anderson &Bushman 2002)
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Sometimes aggressors remain to achieve some goal not to hurt people for example a person who enters into
house in night his main goal was stealing the money but resulted in murdering someone of that house.
Further there can be difference regarding the intention of the act. For example, the U.S government
recognises the act of making nuclear weapon by the North Korea government as the aggressive act as a
threat towards the U.S but in the other hand the North Korea seems this act the self-defence. While on the
other hand in the game of football the injured player sees the attack as the aggressive behaviour, while the
intent of the other player might not be to inflict harm.
These examples show the ambiguity in opinion regarding about aggression but after a deep perception of
these definitions we can interpret the definition as any behaviour with the full intention to harm other person
and his act does not fall in normal circumstances response.

Aggression can be in many form-

by bullying someone
by hitting someone
by insulting someone
yelling between arguments

All these types of aggression result in harm to the other person and the harm suffered can be of many types
like-

Physically
Verbally
Emotionally
Mentally

Physical harm as we know can be bodily injury, injury that is totally visible to others for example punching
someone in face or wound of the gunshot.

Verbal harm occurs when there is the injury which no one can see only listen for example to abuse
someone, yelling at anyone and saying bad things to the person in public to defame his reputation.

Emotionally or Mentally harm can be results from physically harm as well as from verbally for example
spreading rumour about anyone in public can be result in mentally harm for that person, same happen when
anyone punches to person in public or beating by someone in brutal manner or being slapped by a younger
one from family results in emotionally or mentally harm along with physical injury. Like verbal harm
emotional or mental harm is also not visible but this also cannot be heard by anyone what could be done is
feel that too by victim.

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 CHAPTER 2

Types of Aggression-
To make the better understanding of the term aggression, it is divided into two categories. But through the
definition provided above we still cannot fully understand the categorization of aggression and it overlaps
many times and so the scientist has categorized into two categories.

At starting the aggression was categorized only in two category that were-

1-Hostile Aggression

2-Instrumental Aggression

But some researcher4 has founded that there is more category of aggression need to classified otherwise a
clear overlapping less aggression definition will not be achieved.

Hostile Aggression- Hostile which means “Hot” is a type of aggression which is committed in retaliation to
some external stimuli like insult or perceived threat. It is an impulsive act done to harm the other person at
the heat of the moment. For example, a man seeing his wife cheating on him and punches the person in fit of
rage, a fan breaking the glass after his favourite team loses the match. Primarily in this type of aggression
aggressor’s main aim is to hurt the other person or it can be said that to release the anger onto some object or
person. It is also called by many names like “Provocative”, “Impulsive” and “Reactive” aggression.

Instrumental Aggression- It is a “Cold” type of aggression which means that in this case the action of
aggression is not instantly when exposed to some external stimuli. Instrumental aggression refers to an
aggressive behaviour intended to achieve some goal. It is made against another person in whom the
aggression is used as a means of securing some reward or to achieve an external goal such as a victory.
When one receives a reward because of deviant aggressive act, s/he will be conditioned towards committing
that act again when motivated to obtain that previously possessed reward. For example, a terrorist who
attacks to gain something, a bully hit someone to steal a candy and a hired assassin.

These two are the oldest classification that has made regarding aggression but now multiple classifications
have made.

4
(Anderson & Carnagey, 2004; Anderson & Huesmann, 2003; Anderson & Bushman, 2001)
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 Direct & Indirect Aggression- Direct aggression includes behaviours such as verbal or physical assault
and threats of harm. For example, punching a person in retaliation to the curse words said by the person.

Indirect aggression, on the other hand, involves circuitous approaches and includes behaviours such as
gossiping and social exclusion5. For example, cursing someone over the phone.

Accidental Aggression- Aggression refers to unwanted or rude behaviour but it does not always mean that
it was done on purpose. Sometimes the mere act of carelessness, laziness or mere act of not paying attention.
It is not done on purpose.

Here’s a perfect example. Let’s say you’re walking through the grocery store with your cart, and you
accidentally bump the back of the person’s foot when they’re walking in front of you. You didn’t mean to be
aggressive there, but it happened. As for the other person, they shouldn’t get angry with you or start yelling
at you. They could, however, turn around and politely ask you to watch where you’re walking.

Expressive Aggression-With accidental aggression, there’s no intent to harm the other person, and there’s
no sense of satisfaction or enjoyment in the act. Expressive aggression is a little different. While there’s still
no intent to harm anyone else, there is a sense of enjoyment from the act that piques our interest.

A good example of expressive aggression is with children. They’re inquisitive individuals, they love to play,
they’re always trying new things, and are always learning. With that being said, they don’t always make the
best decisions and don’t always know how their actions are perceived by others.

5
Campbell, 1999
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 CHAPTER-3
Factors lead to Aggression in Teenagers-

Most psychologists today believe that aggression, like many other forms of motivation, is elicited by a wide
range of external events and stimuli. In other words, it is often “pulled” from without rather than “pushed” or
driven from within by irresistible. Aggression influenced by many ways in this chapter we will discuss each
influence profoundly,

Biological factor- Aggression is mostly controlled by the amygdala an almond shape like set of
neurons located in the deep brain’s medial temporal lobe. Which has shown its part in controlling all
human emotions, perception and response to aggression. Under biological factors there are also so
many factors which lead to aggression.
❖ Hormones- Finally, some research findings suggest that sex hormones, especially the male
hormone testosterone, may play a role in aggression. Drugs that reduce testosterone levels in
violent human males seem to reduce their aggression; and among prisoners, testosterone
levels tend to be higher among those who have committed unprovoked violent crimes than
among those who have committed nonviolent crimes6.
❖ Genetically influenced- Aggression behaviour can translate in one generation to next
generation through DNA for example – having similarity in behaviour of father and son7.

Psychological factors- On the other hand the other factors that lead to aggression teenagers are the
psychological factors like the sociological factors i.e., that we all know that the age in which the
teenager belong is the age of observing the environment and learning from it many at times it has
been noted that the teenagers living around the bad environment where there are regular incidents of
violence these situations subconsciously effect the learning of the teenager. For example, if the
teenager sees as an actor as his ideal in that case, he tries to copy his every movement, dressing style,
and the way he acts but in opposite case if he makes a violent person as his idol the chances of being
him aggressive are higher.

6
Dabbs, 1992; Dabbs et al., 1995
7
Jones 2005
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There are also some other factors that lead to aggression among teenagers other than biological and
psychological factors, and the next factors is solely dependent of the presence of external stimuli and the
theory of Behavioural perspective (Ivan Pavlov, J.B Watson, B.F Skinner) works on the classical
conditioning which emphasis how behaviour pattern is learned/unlearned through stimuli in teenager
environment.

Violence- A personality trait which a teenager shows in his destructive behaviours (aggression) has
mostly its roots in the field of interpersonal relations. There are many a times a teenager is exposed
to violence within their homes itself then a teenager thinks the violence as a good act. Participants
who had been abused or neglected were 38% more likely than the matched controls to have been
arrested for a violent crime (Widom, 1992). The abused or neglected participants were also 53%
more likely to have been arrested as a juvenile. Physical abuse was more likely to lead to subsequent
arrest for a violent crime than was sexual abuse or neglect (Widom, 1992).

Aggressive Activities (Aggressive Games/Movies)- The relationship between violent video games
and adolescent aggression has become a hot issue in psychological research. Violent video games
may be considered in the context of war play and other forms of aggressive play by youth.
Aggressive play differs from real aggression by the fact that it does not include an attempt to injure
someone. Although opponents of aggressive play argue that such play fosters real-life violence,
proponents argue that it is a natural, even inevitable, aspect of boys’ play and provides an
opportunity to try to come to terms with war, violence, and death. This may not fully affect the
behaviour but to some extent it makes the teenager aggressive wants to get more kills in game
getting bored with same level of game and to jump to difficult level which is the indication of the
increase in aggressive behaviour. Some cases showing incidents of aggression due to video games.

In a piece of tragic news which came to light from the city of Mangalore yesterday a 12-year-old boy was found
dead allegedly due to the popular mobile game, PUBG. According to reports in various media portals, the 12-
year used to play the game with a 17-year-old whom he met online. The duo met in person to play the game as
the deceased felt that the 17-year-old was cheating and that's why he used to win every game. When the duo met
to play in person on Sunday night, the 17-year lost and they had a fight. The accused told police that the deceased
first pushed him and threw a stone at him to which he retaliated by throwing an even bigger stone.8

8
https://thebridge.in/esports/12-year-old-boy-dead-fight-over-pubg-mobile-20586
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 CHAPTER-4
How to reduce aggression in teenager? –

Further through this research paper we got to know the whole scenario of aggression in teenager, what
factors lead to aggression in teenagers? And this problem is affecting the society at large but one question is
yet to be answered how to solve the pertaining issue of aggression in adolescents.

Recidivism – a person's relapse into criminal behaviour – among juveniles has come down drastically from
9.2% in 2013 to 5.4% in 2014. Of the total 48,230 juveniles arrested for various crimes in 2014, only 2,609
were repeat offenders, the lowest since 2007, the comparison of latest NCRB data with previous ones shows.

By seeing this data, it is now of utmost important to resolve the issue of aggression among youths.

The first thing to reduce the aggression is to focus on the question what makes a child aggressive? There can
be many things like due to the hurting of the pride, someone yelled at him in front of an audience as we see
children nowadays are more critical to their reputation among their peer mates. So, it becomes important to
deal with them in non-aggressive manner.

As we know biological, psychological, violence, aggressive video games are some factors that make a
teenager aggressive. So, by treating them with respect to appropriate factor that make them aggressive we
may be able to reduce the aggression in youth. Let’s examine it one by one.

As we know that the amygdala helps us perceive and respond to danger, and this may lead us to aggress,
other parts of the brain serve to control and inhibit our aggressive tendencies. One mechanism that helps us
control our negative emotions and aggression is a neural connection between the amygdala and regions of
the prefrontal cortex (Gibson, 2002). The prefrontal cortex is in effect a control centre for aggression: when
it is more highly activated, we are more able to control our aggressive impulses. The research has found that
the cerebral cortex is less active in inmates charged with murder and are in death row. So, the treatment of
CBT (Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy) can help patients deal with the emotional and behavioural effects
of damage to the prefrontal cortex. Specifically, CBT helps patients learn how to address the negative beliefs
that might affect behaviour.

As Ivan Pavlov, J.B Watson, B.F Skinner suggest the method of Classical conditioning using this method we
might help to reduce aggression as in psychological factors the youth learn from the environment, he/she is
in. The classical conditioning works on the mechanism of S-R Paradigm (Stimulus Response Paradigm)
that the human behaviour is learned. For example, the youth has been subjected to violent environment and
is showing aggressive outbursts then the psychologists may keep him in a positive environment where there
is no shred of violence.

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Same the S-R Paradigm also applies to the factor of aggressive activities like playing violent games/violent
movies. The youth might show aggressive outbursts because he might be subjected to violence for a longer
period of time then by changing his activity i.e., by making him play puzzle games, or the games involving
the healthy emotions, making him watch non action movies the child outbursts may be reduced.

If you are angry with any person on his act then to reduce anger you should start looking thing from their
point of view or you can ask them to explain their point and belief or reasoning behind it and understand
them it helps to control anger. If you not cannot talk with him understand it through scenario in which
imagine yourself in place of that person understand his motive behind his act it will also help you to control
your anger.

Education, it can be worked as a biggest instrument to reduce aggression behaviour of an individual because
education increases a person’s intellectuality that makes him humble and genuine in nature as it is fact that
in most crime that we have discussed above culprit were generally illiterate. As the same sort of report was
published in Washington where alliance for excellent education finds published a report and stated that the
nation could save as much as $18.5 billion in annual crime costs if the high school male graduation rate
increased by only 5 percentage points. Further, according to report of national crime record bureau poor
background children commit more crime than well fixed background children. This clearly giving the
indication that these poor background family are not managed to provide their children education, therefore
these children result in committing of criminal act.

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 Conclusion-
Although the fact that there are so many different forms that aggression and violence may make
comprehensive classification of these phenomena a difficult task, many years of research have provided us
with empirically supported taxonomies. Aggression is most often defined as behaviour carried out with the
intent to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm. Violence is an extreme form of
aggression that has severe harm (usually physical injury or death) as its goal. The most common response
modes for aggression are physical, verbal, and relational in nature. Aggression can be classified in many
ways. It can be hostile, instrumental, accidental and expressive in nature.

Based on the research conducted, some conclusions can be made on the basis of violent video games,
aggressive behaviour, and the brain. Such as, exposure to violent video games is negatively related to
prosocial behaviour, there is a positive relationship between time spent playing video games and
aggression, violent video games increase the body's physiological functions, and visuospatial cognition is
positively related to violent video games.

This problem is currently affecting society and has researchers questioning the science part too.
However, it is quite clear from the sources collected that violent video games do have an impact on
children, adolescents, and teenagers, regardless of causing aggressive behaviour or not.

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