NHL player Todd Bertuzzi’s blindsided punch breaking vertebra of competitor Steve Moore
Local youth ice hockey coach conducting a drill where players practiced fighting
A female college soccer player's aggressive actions against BYU opponents
What Is Aggression?
Definition: Any form of behavior directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment (Baron & Richardson, 1994).
Criteria for Aggression
Aggression is a behavior.
Aggression involves intent.
Aggression involves harm or injury (physical or psychological).
Aggression is directed toward a living organism motivated to avoid that harm.
Types of Aggression
Hostile or reactive aggression: The primary goal is to inflict injury or psychological harm on another.
Instrumental aggression: Aggression occurs in the quest of some nonaggressive goal.
Distinction Between Instrumental and Hostile Aggression
Instrumental and hostile aggression are not a simple dichotomy.
Most instrumental aggressive acts occur with some type of hostile process.
Aggression might involve elements of both hostile and instrumental aggression at times.
Antisocial Behavior
Antisocial behavior includes actions such as vandalism, unwanted sexual advances, humiliating someone, or yelling insults.
Transgressive behavior includes aggression as well as cheating, antisocial behavior, and fair play towards one’s opponent of teammates.
These may or may not involve aggression but certainly have important consequences for both participants and society.
Causes of Aggression
Instinct theory
Frustration-aggression theory
Social learning theory
Revised frustration-aggression theory
Instinct Theory
People have an instinct to be aggressive, which builds up until it must be expressed (directly or via catharsis).
There is no support for this theory.
Frustration–Aggression Theory
Aggression is the direct result of a frustration that occurs because of goal blockage or failure.
There is no support for this hypothesis and is generally dismissed today.
Social Learning Theory
Aggression is learned through observing others (modeling) and then having similar behavior reinforced.
There is support for this theory.
Revised Frustration–Aggression Theory
Combines elements of frustration–aggression theory with social learning theory.
Frustration does not always lead to aggression.
It increases the likelihood of aggression by increasing arousal, anger, and other thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Increased arousal and anger result in aggression only when socially learned cues signal the appropriateness of aggression in the situation.
There is considerable support for this theory.
General Aggression Model
Aggression occurs as a result of a complex process mediated by one’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions and resulting from the interaction of numerous personal and situational factors.
There is support for this model.
Inputs:
Person factors (e.g., traits, long-term goals, and beliefs)
Situation factors (e.g., frustrating conditions, available incentives, pain, provocation, and aggressive cues in environment)
Routes:
Internal state (e.g., hostile thoughts, increased arousal, and mood)
Outcomes:
Thoughtful aggressive action
Impulsive aggressive action
Spectators and Aggression
Seven categories of spectator violence have been identified:
Assault
Fighting
Verbal abuse
Pitch or field invasion
Discharge of a missile (throwing something onto the field)
Vandalism
Terrorism
No single factor can explain fan or crowd violence.
Spectator aggression is associated with the following:
Younger, disadvantaged male spectators
Losing, especially when fans high team identification
Rivalries, especially those with violent oriented titles and logos
Small-scale, on-the-field aggressive acts
Personal variables like aroused conditions
Alcohol use
Crowded conditions, when fans have high team identification;
(In some cases) fan enjoyment and an affirmation of their social identity
Verbal Aggression and Abusive Leadership
Verbal aggression and abusive coaching have negative effects on the behaviors of players.
Peer Aggression
Peer aggression, especially peer-to-peer physical harm, occurs often in sport and needs to be studied.
Game Reasoning and Aggression
Many athletes view aggression as inappropriate in general but appropriate in the sport environment; this is called bracketed morality.
Moral Disengagement and Aggression
Athletes justify their aggression by displacing responsibility to others (e.g., officials) or cognitively restructuring the violent action so that it is not viewed as immoral. This helps explain why people commit aggressive acts even when they know they are wrong.
Moral disengagement is a significant predictor of aggression in children and youth; effects are larger for adolescents than for children.
Moral disengagement has been associated with coach justification of aggression.
Athletic Injuries and Aggression
Evidence shows that aggressive play is related to athletic injuries.
Fifty-nine percent of injuries in junior B hockey players resulted from opponents’ aggressive acts.
Fifteen percent of all injuries that occurred were penalty-related, and many of these were for acts such as tripping.
Forty percent of spinal cord injuries in Canadian hockey players aged 16 to 20 years were the result of checking from behind, a form of aggression.
Physical and Neural Bases of Aggression
Ambient temperature is related to athlete aggression; aggression increases as the temperature increases, most likely because athletes become more irritable when temperature increases.
Executive function scores were associated with increased aggression in male athletes.
This association most likely exists because prefrontal lobe deficits in the male athletes caused impulse control problems and difficulties in anticipating the consequences of aggressive behavior.
Athletic Performance and Aggression
No clear pattern has been found.
Professionals must decide if they value enhanced performance at the cost of increased aggression.
Team Moral Atmosphere and Aggression
Team norms also contribute to the moral atmosphere that influences aggression in athletes as well as coach and peer influences.
Coaches and teammates play an especially important role in creating a team moral atmosphere that influences aggression in athletes.
Sport-Specific Aggression Determinants
Someone has committed aggression against them.
The opposition has annoyed them.
The teams compete with each other frequently.
They are highly ego-oriented and have a low level of moral development.
They want to show how tough they are.
They see it as part of their role.
They feel group pressures to be aggressive.
Gender and Cultural Differences
Gender differences: Males exhibit high frequencies of aggression when compared to females.
Cultural differences: Aggressions in Chinese athletes and Western populations were very similar. Chinese athletes ruminated more about the aggression, suggesting that members of a collectivist culture are less likely to accept aggression as a means of goal achievement.
Alcohol-Related Aggression and Sport
Athletes report higher rates of alcohol-related aggression and antisocial behavior than nonathletes do.
Discussing the negative effects of excessive drinking on athletic performance and working to modify the social environment of athletes may be the best ways to curb alcohol-related aggression.
Applying Knowledge to Professional Practice
Meta-analysis shows martial arts participation reduced externalizing behaviors (aggression, anger, and violence) in youth in 12 martial arts studies.
Sport can elicit aggression but can also help athletes learn to control aggressive responses.
Understand when aggression is most likely to occur:
When people are frustrated and aroused (often when losing or when they perceive unfair officiating, are embarrassed, are physically in pain, or are playing below capabilities).
Losing by a large margin, losing to an opponent one is outplaying, and playing poorly are especially important situations related to aggression.
Help participants control their aggression.
Modify and control aggression via stress or emotion management training.
Distinguish between aggression and assertive or intense play.
Teach nonviolent conflict resolution skills.
Teach appropriate behavior; help athletes understand that aggression is not legitimate!
Help players develop empathy.
Control spectator aggression.
Develop strict policies on alcohol control.
Immediately penalize spectators for aggressive acts.
Hire officials who don’t tolerate aggression.
Inform coaches that aggression won’t be tolerated.
Work with media to avoid glorifying aggressive acts.
Keep winning in perspective.
Playing Tough and Clean: Hockey Intervention
Session 1
The notion of aggression as macho or cool is de-emphasized, and empathy and compassion for opponents are emphasized.
Distinction made between aggressive (dirty) and assertive (clean) play.
Session 2
The role of emotions in hockey and how one’s emotions are related to aggression are discussed.
The importance of controlling emotions via deep breathing is emphasized.
Session 3
Convey a four-step plan for controlling emotions.
Respond positively to emotions, identify emotional hot buttons, develop a new response to emotional hot buttons, and develop a practice strategy to practice on-ice emotional control.
The 3-R (respond, relax, refocus) emotional management routine is taught to the players.
Sessions 4, 5, and 6
Arousal and stress management techniques such as goal setting and imagery are taught, practiced, and self-monitored by players.
Sessions 7, 8, and 9
Players practice skills and use them in games.
Self-regulation is emphasized, goals are set, and emotions are self -monitored.
Game video is reviewed and discussed.
ISSP Position Stand on Aggression and Violence in Sport
Recommendation 1: Management should make fundamental penalty revisions so that rule-violating behavior results in punishments that have greater punitive value than potential reinforcement.
Recommendation 2: Management must ensure proper coaching of teams, particularly at junior levels, that emphasizes a fair-play code of conduct among participants.
Recommendation 3: Management should ban the use of alcoholic beverages at sport events.
Recommendation 4: Management must make sure facilities are adequate regarding catering and spacing needs and the provision of modern amenities.
Recommendation 5: The media must place in proper perspective the isolated incidents of aggression that occur in sport rather than make them highlights.
Recommendation 6: The media should promote a campaign to decrease violence and hostile aggression in sport, which involves the participation of athletes, coaches, management, officials, and spectators.
Recommendation 7: Coaches, managers, athletes, media, officials, and authority figures (i.e., police) should take part in workshops on aggression to ensure they understand the problem and ways it can be controlled.
Recommendation 8: Coaches, managers, officials, and the media should encourage athletes to engage in prosocial behavior and should punish those who perform hostile acts.
Recommendation 9: Athletes should take part in programs aimed at helping them reduce behavioral tendencies toward aggression. The tightening of rules, imposing of harsher penalties, and changing of reinforcement patterns are only parts of the answer to inhibiting aggression in sport. Ultimately, the athlete must assume responsibility.