who uses physical aggression in punishing his child is serving as an aggressive model. The child, through imitation, may be acquiring aggressive response patterns. If children see fighting and violent behavior, they learn that violence is an acceptable and normal behavior (Osifsky, 2001). 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. Behavioral theorists emphasize the behavior is a result of a process of learning from observing. By the time we are just five years of age we have either learned to be kind and caring or aggressive. The most common factor that leads to an aggressive child is having a parent who uses aggression to control their child. The best way to predict if a child will be an aggressor is to observe his early behavior. Biological theories of aggression have strong points as well as weak points. Causation is not well established in biological theories. If it is found that one gene exists in aggressive individuals and not in non-aggressive individuals: it is not determined if the genetic information causes aggression or if aggression causes a change in genetic information. Biological theories are strong in that the choice of treatment is obvious and it has been shown to be effective. These theories also put the responsibility within the individual. The bottom line of biological theorists is that a person's environment does not solely affect his aggressiveness. A we...
