An Individual Commit An Act Of Violence - 1733 Words

When we see an individual commit an act of violence in our society, we often try to find out what led them to do it. We look for information regarding their personal history, whether or not there is something going on in their life that is causing them stress or if they grew up in a troubled family. When we see violence in our youth we often lay blame on the types of media that is being shown to kids at such a young age, particularly violent video games, television shows, and movies. Also, we like to look at their parents to see how they are raising the children and how their parents treat/interact with each other in front of them. All of these instances are ways a child may learn particular actions that they may begin to see as the â€Å"norm†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦In addition, the perpetrator must believe that the behavior will harm the target, and that the target is motivated to avoid the behavior† (Anderson Bushman, 2002, p. 28). Over thousands and thousands of years, natural selection played its role by which the animals that did not possess this trait often had a lesser chance of reaching reproductive success, while the ones who did possess this trait, reproduced and passed on their genes. From an evolutionary standpoint, there are many theories as to the origins of aggression. One of the leading theories is that aggression was a key factor in acquiring and maintaining resources, such as potential mates, fresh water, food, fertile land, and weapons. This was a problem especially for males during the time, since other males were in search of the same resources in order to reproductively succeed. The possession of resources gave males the one up over ones that may not have the proper resources. Females would see these resources and know that the male would be able to provide for her and future offspring (Buss, 2015). The males who were aggressive and able to maintain these resources would be more likely to mate and pass on their genes and traits, such as aggression. We see early stages of individual aggression in children in our society today, such as bullying in schools in order to acquire the possessions of another child. Or how