3 Important Psych Men: Agression

Thomas Hobbes believed that life is a state of nature. People will join societies to gain security from others. People are self interested creatures who seek their own well being even if it leads to an aggressive behavior. Violence is produced by superficial features of interactions within society. Human nature without an absolute sovereign to control our desires will give rise to people living in a state of war. Hobbes defines aggression as a human’s basic lack of trust being selfish and self preserving no matter what the cost maybe to others. His theory is criticized as being very cynical in perspective.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau says that behavior is not determined by instinct, it’s malleable. Traits are determined by the society that people live in not by human nature. Rousseau stated that all people want is to live in harmony and that when people try to live within a society it can cause people to turn into beasts. Rousseau’s theory on aggression is viewed as being too naïve.

Freud said that people are born with instinct toward life called Eros and that people have a powerful instinct toward death called Thantos. Freud believed that human nature had natural levels of aggression that can only be repressed but not eliminated. He discussed that aggression can become useful when channeled in the correct manner. People basically want to cooperate which gives rise to them reasoning things out and that gives rise for them to take collective action towards problems. He said that aggressive energy must come out sometime and if it continues to build up it can produce illness. He proposed the hydraulic theory that states if aggressive energy is not released it will eventually produce some sort of explosion.

It seems that social psychologists would most likely agree with Freud’s point of view about aggression. Hobbes theory is too cynical, Rousseau’s theory is too naïve, but Freud’s theory seems to hit the nail on the head. Much psychological assistance and redirection for individuals includes utilizing the theory of the hydraulic pressure of aggression and a healthy management of that aggression.