Sports And Aggressiveness
Sport and aggressive behavior, Do sports create aggressive behavior, or
simply
attract people who are already aggressive? Aggression and sport have
gone
together as long as sports have been around, be it the players
themselves, to
the parents, coaches, or spectators, they just seem to be an
inseparable part of
each other. The term violence is defined as physical
assault based on total
disregard for the well being of self and others, or
the intent to injure another
person ( 2. Coakley). Intimidation usually does
not cause physical harm, but
often is designed to produce psychological
consequences, enabling one person to
physically over power or dominate
another. These statements as defined by the
author, Jay J. Coakley, is what
people today have made a must part on sport.
Pleasure and participation
sports absolutely cannot be grouped with power and
performance sports when in
relation to aggression.Pleasure sports are simply
played for pleasure. Score
is usually not kept. The athletes participating are
usually on occasion doing
it for fun and exercise. A majority of athletes who
have been playing sports
since they were little, have probably been pounded into
their heads that to
be successful in sport, you need to be aggressive, and at
some times,
unnecessary. Also that to get what you want, you have to go at it
with all
force. Not that this is wrong but, this attitude in today's society has
been
a major problem factor to the athletes when they get older, to get
into
trouble with the law. Those long-term effects of so called discipline,
patterns
develops these destructive behaviors. (9. Montague) Although some
people are
still in belief that aggressive behaviors in all forms, are
grounded into
instincts, but they also relate these actions to sports. Their
parents played,
who were known for their aggressive behavior, so the child
feels that they have
to live up to that expectation.( 6. Storr) Athletes do
have to be aggressive to
a point, so that the team can form a strategy to
win. There is also a limit to
aggression when it turns into violence. People
might say that it's not
aggression or violence, it's just adrenaline pumping.
Adrenaline isn't even
similar to violence. Aggression, maybe, but nothing
that would be harmful to
anyone else. This might be a factor to why contact
sports are so popular. For
example, football, hockey, rugby, wrestling, and
boxing. Contrary to predictions
of instinct theory, several studies show that
contact sports exist and thrive in
the 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 aren't a positive way
to teach these things. Being physically tough
helps, but it also needs to be
left on the field when the game is over. This
can also lead to the abuse of
family, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, and
any other person who gets in their
"way", because athletes use these sports
as a way to get their
aggression and angers out. ( 10. Hauser, Powers, Noam )
Other's might argue that
it's skill, and not in the least way violent.
Although we really can't give a
straight and to the point answer to the
question "Is aggression an
Instinct?" We can say that in man, as in other
animals, there exists a
physiological mechanism, when stimulated, it rises
both subjective feelings of
anger 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 at
the psychological level. The way
in which humans adapt to and control their
feelings of rage. ( 5. Toch) The
mechanisms in which these body changes, the
functions that come about is
still completely misunderstood. ( 5. Toch)
Experiments from animal's show
that it appears that there is a small area from
the base of the brain in
which the feeling of anger starts. This, from which is
sent to the nervous
impulses that cause the blood pressure to rise. This area is
called the
hypothalamus. Its function is to coordinate responses like anger. (
3
Diamond) The relationship between anger, rage, and violence, and
psychopathology
that is abnormal, or unnatural in human behavior and
experience. People
demonstrate their anger reactions in different ways.
Similar to most human
behavior, violence has a meaning that it only seems
"senseless" or
"meaningless" to the extent that we are unable to understand
it. Most
violence starts the fiery human emotions of anger and rage. Not all
violent
behavior has its origins in anger and rage; some of it is learned, as
mentioned
before. Some violence is driven primarily by as Friedrich Nietzsche
referred as
"the will to power". In other words, rage. ( 3. Diamond) Rage is
an
instinctual and defensive reaction to severe stress, or physical threat.
This is
an automatic reflex that people share with animals. This response to
serious
threat is referred to by Walter Cannon as the "fight or
flight"
response. It's the first defense for the survival of the species. Any
other
threat to the continued physical existence, a person would have the
instinct to
try to leave, or if they can't, then physically defend them by
attacking the
source of the threat. ( 7 . Hawkins, Fredman ) Relating to the
fact that men are
more aggressive than women are, studies shown in several
cases those
testosterone levels in young men especially are. The high levels
of endogenous
testosterone seem to encourage behavior apparently intended to
dominate, to
enhance one's status over other people. ( 9. Montague) Sometimes
aggressive
behavior is aggressive, it's apparent intent being to inflict harm
on another
person, but often dominance is expressed nonaggressively.
Measurement of
testosterone at a single point in time presumably indicator of
a man's basal
testosterone level, predicts many of these dominant behaviors.
Numerous animal
experiments, this one particular to rodents, show that
raising testosterone
increases aggressiveness. This is in relation to the
dominance and antisocial
behavior related to the individuals. An individual
can be said to act dominantly
if it's apparent intent is to achieve or
maintain high status, to obtain power
influence, or valued prerogatives.
Rodents do typically dominate aggressively,
but it isn't true of humans. Much
of interpersonal behavior is overtly or subtly
concerned with managing
dominance and subordination without causing physical
harm. It is harder to
identify instances of aggression of a dominating motives,
things related to
religious sacrifices. It is understood that motivations are
different from
different situations for dominance and aggression. ( 1. Felson,
Tedeschi)
Clinical science assumes that all men are capable of bloody
destructiveness.
It maintains that image with most people who do away with their
hatreds and,
and although There are some instances where this effort fails. Some
people
are so shy about their aggressiveness that when they are provoked in
the
least little way, they become so violent that they are unbearable. Even a
slight
review of violent conduct suggests that violence isn't blind, and
random.
Members of fighting gangs are frequently nonviolent when
separated from their
members. Many extremely dangerous people seem to
specialize in certain areas of
victims. This is in relation to taking the
aggressiveness off the field. There
is sometimes a relationship between being
violent and being socially improper.
Violence usually takes place in
certain circles, certain settings, and on
certain occasions. If violence is
really blind and random, it's hard to
understand why we should find so much
in specific situations. Does a man assault
his wife rather than the athlete
who messed up simply because she's available?
Violence can't be
associated with angry explosions. There is shape and form to
violence.
Patterns of destructiveness show consistently, and they relay from
person to
person. As for each of us, violence seems to be tied to a restricted
range of
life situations. It seems to reflect purpose, and implies the presence
of
hidden meanings. So, how do we satisfy it? How is it provoked? How do
violent
people function? (4. Stepansky) The level of testosterone circulating
in the
bloodstream may affect dominating or aggressive behavior by activating
receptors
in organs or the nervous system. Focusing on young males who have
passed through
puberty. There are associated reports that show a relatively
high level of
testosterone with dominant, aggressive, or antisocial actors
including several
studies of men in jail. The scientists found that no
significant testosterone
difference between those who fought in prison, and
those who did not, between
the ages of 18 to 35. However, prisoners with a
prior record of violence and
aggression related crimes, they had a
significantly higher testosterone level
than those without a history. In the
age group of 18to 45, sorted into the same
groups, those with chronic
aggressive behavior, those socially dominant without
physical aggressiveness,
and those who were neither aggressive or dominant,
their testosterone levels
were not significantly different between the
aggressive and dominant groups,
but they also had significantly higher
testosterone 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 a
significant correlation
between testosterone and coach ratings of player's
aggressiveness in respond
to threat. Another study was done on four male
physicians. Ranging from ages
to 23 to 38, they were confined on a boat for a
two week holidaycruise. The
testosterone level to be correlated with the
physician's assertiveness and
dominant behavior, as ranked by three women on the
boat. Overall, there is
considerable evidence from a variety of settings that in
men, circulating
testosterone is correlated with dominant or aggressive
behavior, and
antisocial norm breaking. Correlation doesn't imply any reason,
and the
question is still being pondered, "Is high testosterone a cause of
dominant
and antisocial behavior?" ( 9. Montague) There has also been
argument whether
or not that women can be as aggressive and dominant as men.
Despite
considerable speculation that testosterone is associated with aggression
or
status in women, the literature is few and far between. Scientists
report
that testosterone 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 aggressive
patients compared to less aggressive ones, but they
also differed in diagnois,
and making the comparison suspect. ( 5. Toch) The
issue of sex differences has
been addressed by asking how men and women
respond to an identical competitive
situation. Testosterone was given by
saliva to young men and women before,
during, and after competing with a same
sex partner in a video game. The
hormonal response to the competition was
different in each sex. Males showed the
usual pre - contest rise in
testosterone, but females did not. Males did not
show the usual result that
testosterone levels of winners is higher than that of
losers, apparently
because the video game produced no mood difference between
male winners and
losers. A mood difference was produced between female winners
and losers, but
the female showed no specific response to the competition. These
results show
that the outcome of the competition on testosterone specific to
men. (7.
Hawkins, Fredman) From laboratory results and athletic studies,
the
testosterone level rises in men awaiting a contest, regardless of the
eventual
outcome contest. Generalizing to the street, hormone levels should
be elevated
in young men who are constantly against assaults on their
reputations. Of
course, testosterone level is also affected by the outcome of
the contest, so
persistent losers might be hormonally depressed, but most
men, those with mixed
outcome or better, should have elevated testosterone
level. ( 3. Diamond)
Leaving behind the historic roots of the South,
there may be a general
hypersensitivity to insult in any subculture that is,
or once was organized
around young men who are constantly constrained by
traditional community agents
of social control, as after occurs in frontier
countries, gangs, among
bohemians, and after social breakdown or natural
diseases. When young men place
special emphasis on protecting their images
and reputations, and they are not
restrained from doing so, dominance
contests become necessary, the hallmark of
male to male interaction. ( 5.
Toch) To interpret racial differences in
testosterone, a comparison of black
and white boys ages 6 to 18 years, mostly
preteens, 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
behavior
suggests that if testosterone levels among young men in the inner
city are
highlighted by their constant defensive posture against challenge
and these high
hormone levels in turn encourage further dominance contests.
Feedback between
challenge and testosterone may create a various circle,
sometimes with lethal
effects.(7. Hawkins, Fredman) During puberty, the
effects of testosterone on
behavior appear to work primarily through long
term reorganizations of the body
and neurohormanal system, and only secondary
through short term activation. By
the end of puberty, usually around 16
years, the body is nearly at it's adult
form so behavior is affected
primarily by the level of testosterone circulating
in the blood stream, which
can activate steroid receptors. (10. Hauser, Powers,
Noam) There is a
string correlation and experimental evidence that testosterone
levels respond
in predictable ways both before and after competitions for
status. First,
testosterone rises shortly before a competitive event, as if
anticipating the
challenge. Second, after the conclusion of competition,
testosterone levels
in winners rises relative to that of losers. Testosterone
also rises after
status evaluations, and it falls after status demotions, These
effects
require the presence of appropriate mood changes. Limited evidence
suggests
that this pattern of testosterone responses is specific to men. (
4.
Stepansky) As these studies have suggested, aggression in sport is
there, but
the men mainly showcase it. Aggressive people are attracted to
contact violent
sport competitions, to where they can fit in while being
violent. On the other
hand, 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 case
of it. Things of this nature have been going
on for centuries, every since the
beginning of sport, unfortunately, if these
behaviors aren't controlled, the
young children might be the ones to suffer
by an outcome that nobody wants to
see, doing away with sports in
general.
Bibliography
Violent Men; an inquiry into the pychology
of violence, Hans Toch 1969 6.
Human Aggression, Anthony Storr 19681.
Aggression and Violence, social
interactionists perspectives. , Richard B.
Felson and James T. Tedeschi 1993 2.
Sport in Society, Issues and
Controversies 6th edition, Jay J. Coakley 1998 3.
Anger, Madness, and the
Daimaonic; the pyschologists genesis of Violence, evil
and creativitiy.
Stephen A. Diamond 1996 4. A History of Aggression Freud, Paul
E.
Stepansky 7. The Creation of Deviance, Interpersonal and
organized
determinants, Richard Hawkins, Gary Fredman, 1975 8. Power and
Innocence, Rollo
May 1972 9. Man and Aggression, Ashley Montague 1968 10.
Adolescents and their
Families Paths of Ego Development, Stuart T.
Hauser, Sally I. Powers, Gil G.
Noam 1991