Social Psychology: Family Violence and Aggression Discussion

This discussion post delves into the complex issue of family violence and aggression, drawing on social psychology theories to understand its causes and manifestations. The author identifies spousal abuse as a prevalent form of family violence, framing the discussion around the frustration-aggression theory. This theory suggests that frustration leads to aggression, which can manifest in both verbal and physical forms. The post explores the societal and familial contexts that contribute to these behaviors, emphasizing the importance of understanding behavioral norms to foster peaceful coexistence. The author analyzes the impact of aggression on family dynamics, highlighting the need for awareness and interventions to mitigate violence. References to relevant scholarly sources, including works by Bjorkqvist & Osterman, Hogg, Liu et al., and Motz, are included to support the analysis. The post aims to encourage a deeper understanding of the psychological factors underpinning family violence and potential strategies for reducing its prevalence.

Running head: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Family Violence or Aggression
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1Family Violence or Aggression
Social Psychology of Aggression and Violence
A behavior that is generally intended to psychologically or physically cause harm to
another person is knows as Aggression. The act of aggression happens to be an intentional act
which can be both verbal and physical (Bjorkqvist & Osterman, 2018.) The behavior that
involves causing intended hurt in a form of physical force is known ad violence. The
consequences of this can vary from causing minor damage to killing someone (Motz, 2016.)
Violence is proportional to aggression because most of the violent acts are caused by
aggression which is again caused by frustration.
Aggression and Violence within Family and Society
In order to develop a peaceful co-existence inside a family, both the family and life in
society needs an adequate knowledge of a behavioral order. The behaviors of human beings
tend to be very complicated in nature and they are multi sided. Whereas. If the roles are
performed that goes along with every individual’s status and obeying norms of family and the
society most the an individual can be sure about the family and social system will work
accordingly for him. However, not every individual tend to follow most of these norms and
rules neither in the family nor in the society and end up causing violence towards the other
member of family especially women.
The violence caused against women are not only present in any society specifically
but also in majority of the family either in physical form or verbal abuse. The acts that sum
up into the category of violence differ in their attitude and appearance from different society
to culture. Everywhere there are people who behaves in a way drawing themselves towards
penal repression. An area of family violence chosen for this discussion is beating the spouses
by husband and abusing them inside the family (Liu et al. 2015) Domestic violence has

2Family Violence or Aggression
always been one of a major concern of the society. In this discussion, the above stated issue
will be discussed in regards to the frustration-aggression theory.
Frustration-Aggression Theory
The Frustration-Aggression Theory is an aggression theory that was proposed in 1939
by John Dolland, Leonard Doob, Neal Miller, Robert Sears and Orval Mowrer. It was further
developed in 1941 by Neal Miller and again in 1969 by Leonard Berkwotiz. The theory has
derived many of the basic postulates from the Freudian Theory of Violence. This theory
elaborates the process how frustration is connected to aggression (Hogg, 2016.) Aggression
consists of both verbal and physical behavior that is intended towards someone to hurt them.
It is related closely with increased restless and tension movements or anger feelings leading
to hostile and destructiveness attacks. People tend to become frustrated whenever they cannot
reach their own goals and out of that they tend striking out others in ways from violence to
tongue lashing. They consider the verbs such as destroy, torment, damage, retaliate, humiliate
and intimate as aggressive nature. Thus, aggression is regarded as response coming out of
frustration directed to injury infliction.

3Family Violence or Aggression
References
Björkqvist, K., & Österman, K. (2018). Sex differences in aggression. In The Routledge
International Handbook of Human Aggression (pp. 19-30). Routledge.
Hogg, M. A. (2016). Social identity theory. In Understanding peace and conflict through
social identity theory (pp. 3-17). Springer, Cham.
Liu, Y., Wang, M., Chang, C. H., Shi, J., Zhou, L., & Shao, R. (2015). Work–family conflict,
emotional exhaustion, and displaced aggression toward others: The moderating roles
of workplace interpersonal conflict and perceived managerial family support. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 793.
Motz, A. (2016). The psychology of female violence: Crimes against the body. Routledge.