Aggressive behaviour is so common that it perhaps does not call for any detailed explanation. Briefly we may describe aggressive behaviour as any action of an individual that results in harm or injury to other people or objects.
Aggression may manifest itself in actual overt action or may be confined to the level of thought, intention, or verbal aggression. For example, we may feel like beating up somebody whom we have reason to dislike but may not actually carry it out.
Similarly, while we may not physically beat him up, we may use strong or harsh language in criticising or cursing him. Similarly aggression can also be in relation to an object. Sometimes we also use the term aggression to describe the style or manner of behaviour of a person. Thus a particular cricket player or tennis player is described as “aggressive”.
The aggressive player believes in taking the battle to the opponent’s ground. Paradoxically, we also hear of the terms like “aggressive crusade for peace.” Thus one can see the variety of situations in which the term aggression or its derivatives are employed. But behind all these variations, one can see certain common elements.
Firstly, aggression is accompanied by an arousal of strong emotions and this in turn heightens the emotional arousal.
Secondly, aggression whether it is used against a human object or non-human object, is accompanied by a variety of emotions like anger, hatred, and aversion. This aggression results in clouding or blurring one’s consciousness and renders the person insensitive to what is immediately happening around, and to some extent, a blocking of analytical reasoning, and other cognitive processes.
Yet another strange feature is that sometimes an aggressive individual displays his aggression against objects or includes other than the original targets. If we are angry with somebody, we become aggressive against somebody else. There is also a selectivity of perception and remembering. Aggressive individuals tend to ignore many elements and perceive only a few elements in the behaviour of others.
It may also be seen that in most instances of aggressive behaviour, the determining and controlling factors relate to the past and or fear about the future. On the whole, it may be said that while we are in a state of aggression, our feelings and emotions have a dominance over our reasoning and thinking and the affective processes take control relegating cognitive processes to the background.
There is a direct link between emotion and action and in many instances, the cerebral processes are short-circuited. It may also be mentioned that in some instances aggressive behaviour may be turned against oneself. We often beat our chest or tear our hair or get angry with ourselves and in certain extreme instances this can result even in suicide.
Along with the above features, one also sees a heightened state of excitement in the physical and physiological reactions. There is a heightening of the activities of the sympathetic system, increased motor activity, etc. There are gestures reddening of the eyes, and the voice gets raised.
The individual is on the whole restless and paces up and down. Very often, there is loud thinking or talking to oneself. The thought processes get bogged down, and the individual gets into a circular (often vicious) pattern of thinking. All these show that the individual is generally aroused, excited and energetically charged.
Aggression, can also vary in intensity. There can be very mild instances of aggression or very strong instances of aggression, and this variation can occur in the same person from one situation to another and among different people under similar situations. Aggression can be an individual phenomenon or collective phenomenon. For example, a mob is collectively aggressive and such behaviour is often termed as violence.