This essay shall explore how "a number of important biological, learning, emotional and environmental factors combine in various ways to produce aggression in various situations." (Bernstein et al., 2003). Aggression is commonly defined as physical or verbal behaviour intended to physically or psychologically hurt someone. Psychologists through the ages have been baffled by the various factors which contribute to aggression. Psychologists such as Sigmund Freud believed that aggression is a natural impulse that every human being possesses and that in time of pent-up emotion a kind of self destruct mechanism releases these emotions in the form of aggressive behaviour. Charles Darwin agued that aggression like so many other forms of behaviour is associated with the instinctual drive for survival. Konrad Lorenz, a psychologist who studied animal behaviour, saw aggression as adaptive rather than self-destructive, but agreed with Darwin in saying that aggression is instinctual. Many psychologists have different views on aggression but it is true however, that the factors that contribute to aggression are those of biological, learning, emotional and environmental.…
