Introduction
In today’s world aggression is overwhelmingly present in the life of every one of us. Many times we do not feel its presence due to its form. Likewise in today’s media world, aggression is very much present. In fact, many authors go on so far to say that it has became an integral part of the human life since the beginning of the twentieth century (Akert et al., 4).
If we are to define aggression in psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, we will refer to a certain behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause pain or harm (Akert et al., 6).
This definition is taken from one of the best books in the field of social psychology, and yet it fails to explain two key terms; what does it mean by “harm” and “pain”? When we hear that someone behaved aggressively, there is one picture in our head: person had just either beaten up someone or vulgarly offended. But forms of agression varies and some of them are more subtle. Many times we think that we cause harm and pain only when we attack physically people or when they became the object of our offensive verbal expressions. The essay that we are going to analyse here, “Perfect Aggression”, has as primary intention to show that aggression is more than that. in the lines and pages to come we will try to critically evaluate its objective and the target audience it wants to address. The power of the media has well been noted and spoken about. The printing press was one of the major innovations of the ninetieth century.
In the pages to come we will analyse the topic & genre that the essay addresses, the target market, and previous publications, a sort of literary review.
Topic and genre
The topic is one of extremely importance. Aggression is an act that opens the door to a multitude of other problems on the personal or societal level. It is the trampoline that makes a person “jump” to other actions, most of them being classified as criminal actions. But aggression is also considered to be an action that influences other people. There have been many studies regarding the effects that the wide demonstration and reporting of violence and aggression in the media has had on the public audience that follows those media. As a genre, aggression within the media is categorized as violence, being that physical or verbal.
Within this genre there are subcategories, or sub genres, of individual or family crimes, offensive behavior against somebody, physical attack on another, etc. the newspapers are full of these kind of reporting. The kind of essay we are analyzing here is not a report on an act of violence, or an act of aggression in general. It can be categorized more as itself a kind of demonstrative analysis of the subject. True, its topic is aggression, violence, but the aim of the article is not to report a particular event. Rather it aims at sending out a message to a specific target audience (we will talk in a minute for them) prior the act of aggression happens. It has the purpose of trying to inform the audience about the forms of aggression in order for them to be aware of. This is done being conscious of the “power” of the media over the issue.
For decades now the media has been accused of helping the “spreading out” of aggression. There are studies that show that behaviors like aggression can be learned by watching and imitating the behavior of others. A considerable amount of evidence suggests that watching violence on television increases the likelihood of short term aggression, especially, in children (Akert et al, 16). Individuals may differ in how they respond to violence. The greatest impact is on those who are already prone to violent behavior. Adults may be influenced by violence in media as well. A long-term study of over 700 families found “a significant association” between the amount of time spent watching violent television as a teenager and the likelihood of committing acts of aggression later in life. The results remained the same in spite of factors such as family income, parental education and neighborhood violence (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2005).
Nevertheless, although exposure to violence in media is associated with likelihood of short-term increases in aggression, none of these studies provide evidence for a definitive causal mechanism. Instead, violence in media may be one of many factors, or it may play a maintenance role since violent media tend to be selected by people who are prone to violence. The “Perfect Aggression” essay aims at using this influencing power of media. But this time, to influence people not to commit aggression, to be aware of it. By informing people of what aggression can also be you have given them the chance and possibility of not committing that act again.
Target audience and analysis of effects
The primary group to be targeted by this sort of essay is that of young couples. Also this essay targets young men and women that are in the process of an intimate relationship with a partner but also that have close friendly relationships with others. The allegory of John and Alice is the kernel of all the writing and it fully demonstrates what I am talking about. It is not by case that the characters are a young couple like many out there these days. Let us briefly state the allegory and make an analysis of it:
“Alice and John – one of these unhappy for many years’ relationship where breakfast will not be complete before a sullen John will criticize Alice, and then a hurt Alice will become silent. Anger, bitterness and hurt are their frequent companions. Neither Alice nor John realizes the destructive role that anger plays in their relationship. Neither recognizes the extent to which they depend on anger in their lives. They have been ‘taught’ that it is healthy to express anger. They assume that other people must be good at ‘working through’ their angry differences, even though they have never been able to do so. No one has explained to them what anger really is, how it works, and how destructive it is.”
As we can see by the piece of the essay above, it is clear that the target are young couples, or young people that have intimate relationships with a partner. The Newsweek magazine is classified as that sort of magazine that is read by this category of people.
This is why this essay would perfectly match an opinion column, or opinion article, at this magazine. It is not just to tell people, or to this target group in particular to be careful on using violence, physical or verbal, on each other. This target group was chosen as the focus of the essay because it perfectly represents the problem of aggression in gender. Between a couple the gender form of aggression takes its most highest form of representation. If we do a search of the subject we would see that gender aggression is a well studied topic in today’s world. Gender is a factor that plays a role in both human and animal aggression. Several studies has shown that males are generally more physically aggressive than females (Coie & Dodge 1997). Other studies even go further in giving statistical evidence that men commit the vast majority of murders (Buss 2005).
This is one of the most robust and reliable behavioural sex differences, and it has been found across many different age groups and cultures. There is also some evidence showing that males are more predisposed to aggressive behaviour and, what is more important, they are more likely to express their aggression physically than females (Bjorkqvist et al. 1994). However, when considering indirect forms of aggression, such as the influence of power or change in environment which can change one’s mood as well as relational aggression and social rejection, you might be surprised. This is because females and males have equal tendency toward aggressive behaviour (Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little, 2008). And what you can understand from the abstract of the essay given above (and by reading the entire essay of course) is that the problem is not one-sided from one gender to the other. Yes, it is true that it starts usually from males toward females, but the last does not stay passive without participating in this “game of mutual aggression”, because ultimately this is what it becomes. Consider the following passage from the essay which is also the concluding of the example taken:
“Anger in marriages and relationships is all too common. We can no longer afford the fiction that the biggest anger problem is that people don’t express anger in a healthy way. The biggest anger problem is that there is too much of it and it is expressed all the time.”
It is very unfortunate that anger and its expression has become a daily part of the lives of young couples. And the real problem according to me is that it has become “normal” to express it openly. In fact, there are even psychologists who encourage you to express it openly because this will ultimately “help” improve the relationship of the couple. What all these people do not understand is that by making the expression of anger, i.e. aggression, a part of your daily life, you “normalize” its effects. Now, it becomes “normal” to be aggressive to the partner. But this would lead to even more expression of aggression and would ultimately open the door to more and more violence. The problem is that the form and type of violence will change. To express anger is one thing, but to use violence, be that even verbal violence, over the partner openly is completely another thing. At the end it finishes by harming the relationship.
The essay’s message is to make this category of people, this target group of youngsters, recognize the negative effects of aggression and, also, recognize that the open expression of anger and the “living with it” is not an act that will make things better. On the contrary it will open the door to more and more aggression that will lead to violence, first verbal and then physical and psychological.
Conclusions
For example, if this essay were to appear in Newsweek, it would appeal to the attention of its readers that are in the process of being young couples or have began to have close relationships with a partner. As a weekly magazine, Newsweek was designed to deliver not only information to its audience, but also an insight on the issues that they are being informed of. The essay would be a perfect opinion column for all the family crimes or, better, gender violence within young people, especially young couples. It would inform them regarding the effects of aggression and anger and would give them the insight of understanding that aggression has so many forms. Forms, that maybe we practice in our daily lives and do not consider them as such. The expression of anger between a couple, as in Alice and John, is a good example for this.
The essay recalls the attention of the reader to understand that it is not the fact that anger should, or should not, be expressed, but the fact that this is considered to be within the boundaries of “normality” by many couples out there. In fact, this is the first step toward an even more aggressive type of behavior that will lead to major problems within the relationship.
This essay, as an opinion column, is an attempt to emancipate the above mentioned target group of people.
References
Akert, M. Robin, Aronson, E., and Wilson, D.T. “Social Psychology”, 5th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. 2005.
Buss, D. M. The murderer next door: Why the mind Is designed to kill. New York: Penguin Press. 2005.
Coie, J. D. & Dodge, K. A. Aggression and antisocial behavior. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds). Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 3: Social, emotional and personality development. 1997.
Bjorkqvist,Kaj.“Sex differences in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression: a review of recent research.”Sex Roles: Web.