Contents
He who has suffered much knows much.
The Odyssey, book 15, line 436.
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character … It makes a person petty and vengeful.
William Somerset Maugham. «Moon and penny».
There are two points of view on the effect that suffering produces. According to the first, originating in ancient Greece and no doubt shared by many people around the world, suffering can be beneficial for a person. The difficulties that we experience, the sorrows and troubles that we experience, allegedly enrich us in a certain way and can even make us better than we were before. Others, such as those presented in W. S. Maugham’s 1919 novel The Moon and the Penny, are at least skeptical of such hopes and argue that suffering breeds hostility. In all likelihood, Maugham’s position can be considered more justified than the point of view of the ancient Greeks. I don’t really understand why so many people support the idea that suffering improves character. Perhaps we want compensation and we cherish the hope that something good will come out of the bad. It may have happened that adversity has improved someone’s personality, but this seems to happen infrequently. Scientific evidence is rapidly accumulating that shows that unpleasant events are more likely to promote hostility and aggressiveness than kindness and considerateness.
Negative affect as a source of emotional aggression
In writing on this subject, I define negative event-induced aggression as «aversively stimulated aggression» because it is determined by things the individual would normally want to avoid. Other psychologists use other terms, such as «irritable» aggression or «annoyance-motivated» aggression. While these terms are probably more familiar, I will use my own wording to emphasize two main points:
- stimulation of aggression is generated by an unpleasant state of affairs and
- a wide range of aversive influences can cause a similar effect (see: Berkowitz, 1982, 1983, 1989).
Without going into a deep analysis of all the studies devoted to this problem, I will present in this chapter only some of the results on which my formulation is based. We all know that people do not necessarily become angry and irritable when they feel bad. They can control themselves and suppress their aggressive urges. Our review will end with a brief discussion of one of the factors that can maintain such self-control and self-mastery. In Chapter 4, which will focus on the effects of cognitive processes on emotional aggression, these issues will be discussed in more detail.
Research on Pain-Related Aggression in Animals
The most widely known evidence that unpleasant events can trigger aggressive reactions comes from animal experiments by Nathan Azrin, Ronald Hutchinson, Roger Ulrich and their collaborators. In these multi-species studies, it was demonstrated that when individuals were placed in pairs in small cages and subjected to pain (hitting, electric shock), they often began to fight each other. Open aggression in such circumstances seems to be an innate reaction to distress, because it occurs regularly, does not require any previous learning, and is persistent even in the absence of explicit rewards. See →
Aversive events as a source of human aggression
Humans sometimes react to aversive events in exactly the same way as animals do. Moreover, the diversity of those unpleasant events that can provoke aggressive behavior in both people and representatives of other species of living beings is simply amazing. Consider, as an example, such a factor as high temperature. Have you ever had to stay for several hours in an overheated room that you, for one reason or another, could not leave? If so, according to a growing number of studies, there is a good chance that you, like a lot of other people, became irritable and maybe even outright hostile. See →
Negative affects, aggressive tendencies and anger
Now we move on to the central idea of the concept of emotional aggression I propose to consider: aggressive stimulation is activated by unpleasant feelings rather than by strong stressful stimuli. Some researchers have noted that environmental stressors can excite emotional aggression. Landau’s research cited above shows that national identity stresses can contribute to violent crime. See →
Anger often accompanies other negative emotions.
Even after reading the research results, the reader may still have serious doubts, especially in connection with my working hypothesis about the psychological equivalence of all negative affects (assuming constant intensity). Having read that virtually any kind of negative affect tends to activate aggressive impulses and rudimentary anger before the subject has had time to fully comprehend what is happening, some will say: “This cannot be. A person will not get angry or aggressive when they are sad or depressed.” And yet, contrary to what many people think, sadness and depression can certainly give rise to feelings of anger, hostile thoughts, and aggressive tendencies. See →
Impulsive Aggression: The Role of Aggressive Key Signals
So far, I have been discussing what is probably the main cause of emotional aggression: the internal stimulation generated by negative affect, which basically «triggers» aggressive reactions. As I suggested earlier, this urge may consist of both the desire to cause harm (harm) to someone, and the desire to perform aggression-related motor acts. However, emotionally generated internal stimulation is not the only source of impulsive aggression. External stimulation can also contribute to aggression. Have you ever scolded, insulted or even hit someone harder than you wanted? See →
Summary
Continuing the discussion of emotional aggression, the author devotes this chapter to the aggression-intensifying influences of negative affect. Studies in humans as well as in animals show that various aversive stimuli, including painful electric shocks, abnormally high temperatures, and putrid odors, can stimulate hostility and aggression. Aggression is not inevitable; the animal or person experiencing it may prefer flight to fight, and open (obvious) aggression may include a protective component. In many cases, however, both humans and animals exposed to aversive stimuli show a tendency to attack a suitable prey, especially if an alternative course of action is not possible. See →
Chapter 4
Theories of emotions. What defines an emotional state? Cognitive concepts of emotions. Experimental confirmation of the role of attributions in determining emotions. Evidence of non-cognitive influences on emotions. Consequences of expressive reactions. Body reactions and cognition: a model of an associative network. The meaning of thoughts. See →