'Group Aggression: The More The Merrier'

The 1999 dramatic american film “Fight Club” is about a depressed insomniac man who seeks people to cry with from support groups. He meets a weird soap salesman named Tyler Durden and the narrator quickly finds himself living in a run down house after his flawless apartment is literally annihilated. These two dull men form an underground club with strict rules to abide by and fight other men who are also bored with their lives. Collective Behavior is an expression that is used when a group of people come together to break the chains of social conformity and achieve personal gratification in doing so. Collective behavior is portrayed in the movie “Fight Club” with the main character (the Narrator)and Tyler Durden both create an “organization” that it’s main intentions were destroying value systems, institution and consumerism.

The general aggression model (GAM) is the most contemporary theory of aggression as of 2015. The GAM, as discussed by Anderson and Bushman (2002), focuses on addressing and discovering the biological, environmental, psychological, and social factors that influence aggression. This aggression model “accounts for both short- and long-term effects of an extensive range of variables of aggression (Warburton & Anderson, 2015, p.375)” due to its biosocial-cognitive approach. Benjamin (2016) describes the opportunity for appraisal presented within this theory. GAM articulates the influences on a person’s immediate appraisal of the situation. “This immediate appraisal occurs automatically, and includes an interpretation of the situation and an

Social Psychological Theories of Aggression Social learning theorists propose that behaviour, such as aggression is learnt through observation, imitation and behaviour shaping. This behaviour is learnt automatically through observation of male and female role models, for example parents, peers and media characters. Whether or not this behaviour is imitated depends on the type of reinforcement that the role model receives. Vicarious reinforcement involves the outcome of a role models behaviour, for example if a child observes a parent acting aggressively and receiving positive rewards for they are more like to be imitate this behaviour in the future, than they would be if the role model

This is modeled by the fact that people being in groups, causes them to act and think differently than they would have if they had been alone. In her essay, Tavris uses many examples of this: In the case of Kitty Genovese or the late Rodney King who was beat to death by police officers. People have a tendency to act differently in groups, others suffer due to people not wanting to “rock the boat” or they do not want to “embarrass themselves or others if they are wrong” (19). Tavris offers a solution to the way people act in groups, “By understanding the impulse to diffuse responsibility, perhaps as individuals we will be more likely to act. By understanding the social pressures that reward group-think, loyalty and obedience, we can foster those that reward whistle blowing and moral courage. And, as a society, we can reinforce the belief that they also sing who stand and watch” (19). If civilization can solve the dilemma of people acting differently when they are in groups with others, the world could be a much improved place.

People do bad things in a group setting for numerous reasons falling under the category of social influencing. In many cases people tend to succumb to “deindividuation” in which they let go of their individual morals and mimic group behavior.

Incivility refers to actions that are rude or offensive and includes belittling, bullying, and violence. These behaviors may lead to disharmony, disruption of learning, termination of work, and unsafe environments. Suggested causes include the stress of working in life-and-death situations, long hours, and fatigue (Rose, 2015).

I think you did a great job on your post. I too found it surprising that bullies are not very heavily involved in gangs. Bullies are mean and carry some of the same attitudes and similar characteristics as gangs therefore it made sense to me that they would be. However it does make sense that a person that is being bullied would join a gain for protection as well as to eliminate the bullying. As far as gang banging after prison, it is surprising right? You would think after spending years behind bars sometimes for something pertaining to the gang that a person would decide to leave the gang life behind. However, that is not the case many gang members gang bang before, during, and after their prison sentence. Nice post overall!

When it comes to aggression in sports there are many different factors that play a role in causing it. Athletes may get themselves involved many situations because of on the field aggression, and bring their problems home and take it out on their wife. Another reason that athletes are involved with aggression is because the use of alcohol and drugs. Last but not least, some of these pro athletes are used to being physical all the time and they sometimes forget how strong they are and something that is meant to be unintentional can turn into something serious, fast. I will now explain deeper the reasons that I believe each of these contribute to. Aggression of the field

The Group Violence Reduction Strategy is a prevention program based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The program is aimed at preventing “persistent, citywide patterns of violence” ( ) such as homicide. The program targets groups of serious/violent offenders, gang members and groups of high risk offenders and tries to deter them from committing more crime.

McNamara (2012) stated that prevention is one approach to handling incivility. She suggested that there should be a comprehensive and methodical approach when it comes to preventing incivility. She suggested improvements for all personnel within the hospital. McNamara (2012) suggested that nurses should aim to improve their conflict resolution skills. She also suggested that nursing managers should provide access to workshops and classes that help their nurses with improvement of conflict resolution skills. Her last suggestion was that hospital officials should display the real picture and position of nurses and hospitals to the community. McNamara (2012) also stated that there must be a clear, written standard for behavior, stating what is

The term groupthink in this report is defined as, the social psychological phenomenon that results in groups during pressure situations. This social psychology theory is broken down into eight signs. Illusion of invulnerability, Collective rationalization, Belief in inherent morality, Stereotyped views of out-groups, Direct pressure on dissenters, Self-censorship, Illusion of unanimity, Self-appointed “mindguards”. According to research conducted by Irving Janis, there are three conditions to groupthink. The first, "high group cohesiveness" which is the direction for a group to be in unity while working towards a goal, or to satisfy the emotional needs of its members. Secondly, the structural faults such as insulation of the group, lack

Since the beginning of time, in Genesis, Cain showed aggression toward his brother Able. Aggression takes many forms, because of jealousy, insecurity, anxiety, revenge, antisocial personality, alcohol, and drugs. Even though all individuals are uniquely different, they all experience frustrations, but for different reasons. For example, almost everyone becomes frustrated with a computer, some literally destroy the inept machine, but not everyone takes out their aggression on the equipment. Not all aggression is violent. Psychologically mature people generally have better self-control over their frustrations and do not let them escalate. Some people are immature or antisocial and are unable to handle the normal frustrations of everyday life. Many individuals who display antisocial behavior also tend to show no remorse after doing anything wrong like, Lizzy Borden in 1892 (Bible)(brainposts.blogspot.com).

When out with a group of friends, it’s easy to let yourself be encouraged to do things that you wouldn’t do on your own. It’s normal to feel safe when you’re around people you trust, but when the people you trust are up to bad things, how easy is it for you dive into bad behavior alongside them? My hypothesis is that people are more likely to break the rules or a law in a group than by themselves because they feel more empowered and safe in a group. That leads to people doing things that they wouldn’t normally do on their own.

In everyday life, people are members of a group. These groups are made up of two or more people who interact with each other, possess similar characteristics, and have a sense of collective unity and can manifest themselves in a workplace, online, and sometimes within our own homes, (Kendall, 2015). As an individual interacts with group members, the behavior, or range of overt physical and emotional responses toward a stimulus or situation, of the individual is subject to be altered, (Bergner, 2011). Within a group, group members desire for any individual that is also a member of the group to behave as other group members do. When individuals’ behavior is incongruent with other members of a group they belong to,

In Chapter 1, aggression is identified as a social issue in connections amongst individuals and between groups, resulting from the joint influence of the individual attributes of the actors and the situational and societal conditions in which their behavior takes place. (Krahe 2013) In other words, it can be any type of physical or verbal behavior intended toward the goal of harming or destroying an individual. And for that reason, aggression is defined by healthline as “Behavior that can cause physical or emotional harm to others, ranging from verbal abuse to physical abuse.” (Gabbey and Jewell 2016) Thus supporting the definitions in the book.