arly years of a child's life, parents control the child's experiences of frustration, gratification, determine whether the child is reinforced for aggressive or non-aggressive behavior. Parents serve as models for their child to imitate. The parent who uses physical aggression in punishing his child is serving as an aggressive model. The child, through imitation, may be acquiring aggressive response patterns although he is seemingly being taught that aggression is bad. It is not surprising then that it has been found that the severity of parental punishment for aggression is associated with the child's own display of aggression. Children many times pick up their aggressive behavior in school, on the playground, from friends, and especially from television, movies and books. It has been demonstrated that we can learn to be aggressive by merely viewing a short film that shows aggressiveness as an acceptable response. Such shows for children include Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Batman just to name a few. One can just see aggression and then imitate it. By the time we are just five years of age we have either learned to be kind and caring or aggressive. A factor that can lead to an aggressive child is having a parent who uses loud outbursts or violence to control the child. The child sees this as "normal" behavior and learns that this type of behavior is acceptable, when in today's society it is unacceptable behavior. The best way to predict if a child will be an aggressor is to observe his early behavior. Behavioral theorists emphasize that behavior is a result of a process of learning from observing. What actions pay off and what works. This theory simplifies human behavior by neglecting the biological aspects and other significant factors influencing our behavior. Genetic and biological theories of aggression both have strong points as well as weak points. Causation is not well established in genetic theories. If it i...
