Aggression is a critical part of animal existence, which is an inherent driving force to humans, as well. The source of aggression within humans forms a long list, but before trying to understand its source one must understand a working definition of aggression. Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as any action of an animal that serves to injure an opponent or prey animal or to cause an opponent to retreat. David G. Myers states that aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy. There are many types of aggressive behaviors, which can be differentiated from the factual act to the hidden motives. For example, an aggressive behavior can be negative or positive, accidental or intended, and physical or mental. Aggression can takes many forms, the act of hitting a wall to release aggression has some of the same roots as playing football and enjoying hitting the quarterback. Aggression is also a relative construct. What might seem like a terribly aggressive act to one person, most often the victim, might seem like an induced response to the perpetrator. Psychologist Arlene Stillwell performed an experiment where she assigned ordinary college students at random to play the role of a victim or a perpetrator in a small incident. Then she asked the students to describe the situation that had just transpired. What she found was that both victims and perpetrators altered the truth equally to present their sides in a better light. Victims would dwell on their lasting traumas from the incident while the perpetrator might make the act seem like a one-time action provoked by insurmountable circumstances. The resulting implication is that aggression is in the eye of the beholder. (Baumiester,1997) Due to its relative nature, aggression is extremely hard to isolate and study. Some acts are very easy to categorize as aggressive, a first degree murder or first degree rape, but is negligent manslaughter aggressive? The mere ...
