Sport and aggressive behavior, Do sports create aggressive behavior, or simplyattract people who are already aggressive? Aggression and sport have gonetogether as long as sports have been around, be it the players themselves, tothe parents, coaches, or spectators, they just seem to be an inseparable part ofeach other. The term violence is defined as physical assault based on totaldisregard for the well being of self and others, or the intent to injure anotherperson ( 2. Coakley).
Intimidation usually does not cause physical harm, butoften is designed to produce psychological consequences, enabling one person tophysically over power or dominate another. These statements as defined by theauthor, Jay J. Coakley, is what people today have made a must part on sport. Pleasure and participation sports absolutely cannot be grouped with power andperformance sports when in relation to aggression. Pleasure sports are simplyplayed for pleasure.
Score is usually not kept. The athletes participating areusually on occasion doing it for fun and exercise. A majority of athletes whohave been playing sports since they were little, have probably been pounded intotheir heads that to be successful in sport, you need to be aggressive, and atsome times, unnecessary. Also that to get what you want, you have to go at itwith all force. Not that this is wrong but, this attitude in todays societyhas been a major problem factor to the athletes when they get older, to get intotrouble with the law. Those long-term effects of so called discipline, patternsdevelops these destructive behaviors.
(9. Montague) Although some people arestill in belief that aggressive behaviors in all forms, are grounded intoinstincts, but they also relate these actions to sports. Their parents played,who were known for their aggressive behavior, so the child feels that they haveto live up to that expectation. ( 6. Storr) Athletes do have to be aggressive toa point, so that the team can form a strategy to win. There is also a limit toaggression when it turns into violence.
People might say that its notaggression or violence, its just adrenaline pumping. Adrenaline isnt evensimilar to violence. Aggression, maybe, but nothing that would be harmful toanyone else. This might be a factor to why contact sports are so popular. Forexample, football, hockey, rugby, wrestling, and boxing.
Contrary to predictionsof instinct theory, several studies show that contact sports exist and thrive inthe same societies that have high rates of aggression and violence. Unfortunately, another belief is that contact sports teach discipline,self-respect, and self-defense. (8. May ) Contact sports arent a positive wayto teach these things. Being physically tough helps, but it also needs to beleft on the field when the game is over. This can also lead to the abuse offamily, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, and any other person who gets in theirway, because athletes use these sports as a way to get their aggressionand angers out.
( 10. Hauser, Powers, Noam ) Others might argue that itsskill, and not in the least way violent. Although we really cant give astraight and to the point answer to the question Is aggression anInstinct? We can say that in man, as in other animals, there exists aphysiological mechanism, when stimulated, it rises both subjective feelings ofanger and to physical changes, which relate to fighting. This is easily set off,and like other emotional responses, it is very stereotyped, and instinctive. Just like one person is like a very angry person; they resemble one another atthe psychological level.
The way in which humans adapt to and control theirfeelings of rage. ( 5. Toch) The mechanisms in which these body changes, thefunctions that come about is still completely misunderstood. ( 5.
Toch)Experiments from animals show that it appears that there is a small area fromthe base of the brain in which the feeling of anger starts. This, from which issent to the nervous impulses that cause the blood pressure to rise. This area iscalled the hypothalamus. Its function is to coordinate responses like anger. ( 3Diamond) The relationship between anger, rage, and violence, and psychopathologythat is abnormal, or unnatural in human behavior and experience. Peopledemonstrate their anger reactions in different ways.
Similar to most humanbehavior, violence has a meaning that it only seems senseless ormeaningless to the extent that we are unable to understand it. Mostviolence starts the fiery human emotions of anger and rage. Not all violentbehavior has its origins in anger and rage; some of it is learned, as mentionedbefore. Some violence is driven primarily by as Friedrich Nietzsche referred asthe will to power.
In other words, rage. ( 3. Diamond) Rage is aninstinctual and defensive reaction to severe stress, or physical threat. This isan automatic reflex that people share with animals. This response to seriousthreat is referred to by Walter Cannon as the fight or flight response.
Its the first defense for the survival of the species. Any other threat tothe continued physical existence, a person would have the instinct to try toleave, or if they cant, then physically defend them by attacking the sourceof the threat. ( 7 . Hawkins, Fredman ) Relating to the fact that men are moreaggressive than women are, studies shown in several cases those testosteronelevels in young men especially are. The high levels of endogenous testosteroneseem to encourage behavior apparently intended to dominate, to enhance onesstatus over other people.
( 9. Montague) Sometimes aggressive behavior isaggressive, its apparent intent being to inflict harm on another person, butoften dominance is expressed nonaggressively. Measurement of testosterone at asingle point in time presumably indicator of a mans basal testosterone level,predicts many of these dominant behaviors. Numerous animal experiments, this oneparticular to rodents, show that raising testosterone increases aggressiveness.
This is in relation to the dominance and antisocial behavior related to theindividuals. An individual can be said to act dominantly if its apparentintent is to achieve or maintain high status, to obtain power influence, orvalued prerogatives. Rodents do typically dominate aggressively, but it isnttrue of humans. Much of interpersonal behavior is overtly or subtly concernedwith managing dominance and subordination without causing physical harm.
It isharder to identify instances of aggression of a dominating motives, thingsrelated to religious sacrifices. It is understood that motivations are differentfrom different situations for dominance and aggression. ( 1. Felson, Tedeschi)Clinical science assumes that all men are capable of bloody destructiveness. Itmaintains that image with most people who do away with their hatreds and, andalthough There are some instances where this effort fails. Some people are soshy about their aggressiveness that when they are provoked in the least littleway, they become so violent that they are unbearable.
Even a slight review ofviolent conduct suggests that violence isnt blind, and random. Members offighting gangs are frequently nonviolent when separated from their members. Manyextremely dangerous people seem to specialize in certain areas of victims. Thisis in relation to taking the aggressiveness off the field. There is sometimes arelationship between being violent and being socially improper.
Violence usuallytakes place in certain circles, certain settings, and on certain occasions. Ifviolence is really blind and random, its hard to understand why we shouldfind so much in specific situations. Does a man assault his wife rather than theathlete who messed up simply because shes available? Violence cant beassociated with angry explosions. There is shape and form to violence.
Patternsof destructiveness show consistently, and they relay from person to person. Asfor each of us, violence seems to be tied to a restricted range of lifesituations. It seems to reflect purpose, and implies the presence of hiddenmeanings. So, how do we satisfy it? How is it provoked? How do violent peoplefunction? (4.
Stepansky) The level of testosterone circulating in thebloodstream may affect dominating or aggressive behavior by activating receptorsin organs or the nervous system. Focusing on young males who have passed throughpuberty. There are associated reports that show a relatively high level oftestosterone with dominant, aggressive, or antisocial actors including severalstudies of men in jail. The scientists found that no significant testosteronedifference between those who fought in prison, and those who did not, betweenthe ages of 18 to 35.
However, prisoners with a prior record of violence andaggression related crimes, they had a significantly higher testosterone levelthan those without a history. In the age group of 18to 45, sorted into the samegroups, those with chronic aggressive behavior, those socially dominant withoutphysical aggressiveness, and those who were neither aggressive or dominant,their testosterone levels were not significantly different between theaggressive and dominant groups, but they also had significantly highertestosterone than the group that was either aggressive or dominant. (7. Hawkins,Fredman) A similar study was tested on college hockey players. ( 1.
Felson ,Tedeschi) They studied 14 male college players ages 18 to 23, and found asignificant correlation between testosterone and coach ratings of playersaggressiveness in respond to threat. Another study was done on four malephysicians. Ranging from ages to 23 to 38, they were confined on a boat for atwo week holidaycruise. The testosterone level to be correlated with thephysicians assertiveness and dominant behavior, as ranked by three women onthe boat. Overall, there is considerable evidence from a variety of settingsthat in men, circulating testosterone is correlated with dominant or aggressivebehavior, and antisocial norm breaking. Correlation doesnt imply any reason,and the question is still being pondered, Is high testosterone a cause ofdominant and antisocial behavior? ( 9.
Montague) There has also been argumentwhether or not that women can be as aggressive and dominant as men. Despiteconsiderable speculation that testosterone is associated with aggression orstatus in women, the literature is few and far between. Scientists report thattestosterone levels in 55 women increased the status of their occupations. Another study was done with women who were patients in a neurological clinic,found significantly higher testosterone levels among relatively aggressivepatients compared to less aggressive ones, but they also differed in diagnois,and making the comparison suspect. ( 5. Toch) The issue of sex differences hasbeen addressed by asking how men and women respond to an identical competitivesituation.
Testosterone was given by saliva to young men and women before,during, and after competing with a same sex partner in a video game. Thehormonal response to the competition was different in each sex. Males showed theusual pre contest rise in testosterone, but females did not. Males did notshow the usual result that testosterone levels of winners is higher than that oflosers, apparently because the video game produced no mood difference betweenmale winners and losers. A mood difference was produced between female winnersand losers, but the female showed no specific response to the competition. Theseresults show that the outcome of the competition on testosterone specific tomen.
(7. Hawkins, Fredman) From laboratory results and athletic studies, thetestosterone level rises in men awaiting a contest, regardless of the eventualoutcome contest. Generalizing to the street, hormone levels should be elevatedin young men who are constantly against assaults on their reputations. Ofcourse, testosterone level is also affected by the outcome of the contest, sopersistent losers might be hormonally depressed, but most men, those with mixedoutcome or better, should have elevated testosterone level.
( 3. Diamond)Leaving behind the historic roots of the South, there may be a generalhypersensitivity to insult in any subculture that is, or once was organizedaround young men who are constantly constrained by traditional community agentsof social control, as after occurs in frontier countries, gangs, amongbohemians, and after social breakdown or natural diseases. When young men placespecial emphasis on protecting their images and reputations, and they are notrestrained from doing so, dominance contests become necessary, the hallmark ofmale to male interaction. ( 5. Toch) To interpret racial differences intestosterone, a comparison of black and white boys ages 6 to 18 years, mostlypreteens, showed no significant race different in testosterone. By adulthood,black males do have significantly higher testosterone levels than white males,possibly reflecting the higher defensive demands on black men during adulthood.
( 10. Hauser, Powers, Noam) The reciprocal linkage between hormones and behaviorsuggests that if testosterone levels among young men in the inner city arehighlighted by their constant defensive posture against challenge and these highhormone levels in turn encourage further dominance contests. Feedback betweenchallenge and testosterone may create a various circle, sometimes with lethaleffects. (7.
Hawkins, Fredman) During puberty, the effects of testosterone onbehavior appear to work primarily through long term reorganizations of the bodyand neurohormanal system, and only secondary through short term activation. Bythe end of puberty, usually around 16 years, the body is nearly at its adultform so behavior is affected primarily by the level of testosterone circulatingin the blood stream, which can activate steroid receptors. (10. Hauser, Powers,Noam) There is a string correlation and experimental evidence that testosteronelevels respond in predictable ways both before and after competitions forstatus.
First, testosterone rises shortly before a competitive event, as ifanticipating the challenge. Second, after the conclusion of competition,testosterone levels in winners rises relative to that of losers. Testosteronealso rises after status evaluations, and it falls after status demotions, Theseeffects require the presence of appropriate mood changes. Limited evidencesuggests that this pattern of testosterone responses is specific to men. ( 4.
Stepansky) As these studies have suggested, aggression in sport is there, butthe men mainly showcase it. Aggressive people are attracted to contact violentsport competitions, to where they can fit in while being violent. On the otherhand, sports can create aggressive behaviors that could lead to worse things. Women can and will showcase this, but as said before, men show a stronger caseof it. Things of this nature have been going on for centuries, every since thebeginning of sport, unfortunately, if these behaviors arent controlled, theyoung children might be the ones to suffer by an outcome that nobody wants tosee, doing away with sports in general.
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Hauser, Sally I. Powers, Gil G.Noam 1991Sports and Games
