AGGRESSION

Aggression
Sara McNaughtan
Salt Lake Community College

Aggression

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Aggression is something that is felt by everyone at some point the way in which the
aggression is caused and handled varies though from theory to theory, the Frustration-Aggression
hypothesis states that frustration is what causes aggression to take place in some circumstances I
saw this theory being applied while doing my real life aggression research I also experienced
some delegitimization as well along with noticing aggressive cues are triggers of aggression.
Lastly living in Arizona it was very apparent that hot temperature plays a role in how much
outdoor aggression there is here. Over the course of a week I looked at or visited five places

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where people congregate, the gym, the Republican National Convention, twitter and online video
games, and an outdoor concert.
First I decided to be more observant to the aggression that is shown at the gym I work at,
everyday I feel as if I handle more than person that seems to be a little too over the top for how
mild the issue really is. After taking a step back and looking at what was happening to cause the
aggressive behavior towards me I starting seeing evidence of the Frustration-Aggression
hypothesis. I work for Orange Theory Fitness, it is workout based off of heart rate interval
training, the members where heart rate monitors in order to track the workout and results. These
monitors will occasionally die during class or not connect to well to the person. When this
happens results are skewed, this causes for members to get frustrated because they pay for the
gym and monitor. Spending money on something and then having it sometimes not work creates
a feeling of frustration and in turn when we do not know how to handle that feeling it comes out
in aggression towards me even though it is not my fault. I watched this pattern happen
throughout my shift, the more issues someone had the more frustrated they got and then the more
aggressive they were towards me after the class. Noticing this connection allowed me to handle
the situation much more effectively because I understood that what was causing a member to act
out in that way. Thankfully this type of aggression witnessed is much easier to diffuse than that
of delegitimization.
When the Republican National Convention took place things were quite divided, those
that are in extreme favor of Trump express intergroup aggression. These supports of Trump have
formed an angry and aggressive congregation that exhibit delegitimization which is cognitively
placing an outgroup into an extremely negative social category, that excludes them from
acceptable norms (Franzoi pg481). Those that are in support of removing Muslims, and making

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Mexico build a wall are dangerous, making one or more groups negative makes it easier for
aggression to take over. The worst part is that I think most of this anger comes from supporters
feeling afraid and when we are scared we need to find a scapegoat to take the blame. The
Republican party has taken the fear of terrorism and given it a specific face and this has caused
for delegitizimation to run wild we now have a group that not included in social norms and it has
become easy to dismiss harm that comes to them. The mind set turns into these groups deserving
what is coming to them. This type of aggression can become very dangerous, I would say that
this plays hand in hand with aggression cues being the aggressive trigger.
Twitter and online gaming are two examples of groups of people being able to show
anger without it being real but when you start looking at things like online gaming and social
media there are aggressive cues left and right, depending on who you follow online you are able
to see radical posts and tweets sent out of anger that action of some sort needs to be taken, this
cue can lead to that one person who is slightly unstable to take action for no other reason than
because of what he subjected to through online sources. The same concept goes for online
gaming everyone yelling at each other saying violent and hateful things does not realize that
words are powerful and even though you are hidden behind a screen does not mean that someone
wont take the violent cues being given and act on them. With all information good and bad
readily and easily accessible it is not a surprise that people can be found showing aggression
towards something based off of little information but instead it is triggered the correct way
through online interaction. Aggression cues are enough to make someone have an outburst that I
may not have happened otherwise I would say the same goes for hot temperature agression.
An average day right now in Phoenix is well over 100 degrees and an average night is
still well over 90. Even though the heat causes most to melt it does not stop the fun summer

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activity of concerts, my husband and I recently went to a small local concert and this is the first I
have attended in Arizona. The first thing I realized while there was the fact that not only was it
still way to hot to be close to that many people, but the misters that were on were not helpful
thanks to the hot breeze that was blowing all the mist away. I personally was more defensive and
aggressive towards the strangers around me and they were not doing anything just participating
in what a normal concert crowd does. I noticed that I was not the only one that seemed easily
annoyed people would get bumped and then shove people back. The closeness made the heat
worse which meant when a person brushed against you it felt more intrusive than it really was.
This was the first time I felt strong first hand affects while trying to just be an observer.
Taking place in this observational study showed me that aggression can be a
subconscious act and that in order to change aggressive behavior each individual needs to have
self control and have the knowledge to recognize what is causing aggression to take place. The
key to a more peaceful world in uncomfortable situations is for more self awareness and
education on how to do so. When you try and look for aggression it suddenly pops up
everywhere, and that is a little scary to think about. Now with more insight I hope to have more
cognitive awareness.

References
Franzoi, Stephen, 7th Edition