Page 309 - The Social Animal

Human Aggression 291

been developed with young children in mind but are adaptable to
adults, as well.

Punishment To the average citizen, an obvious way of reducing
aggression is to punish it. If one man robs, batters, or kills another,
the simple solution is to put him in prison or, in extreme cases, to kill
him. If a young girl aggresses against her parents, siblings, or peers,
we can spank her, scream at her, remove her privileges, or make her
feel guilty. The assumption here is that this punishment “will teach
them a lesson,” that they will “think twice” before they perform that
activity again, and that the more severe the punishment, the better.
But it is not that simple. Severe punishment has been shown to be
effective temporarily, but unless used with extreme caution, it can
have the opposite effect in the long run. Observations of parents and
children in the real world have demonstrated time and again that
parents who use severe punishment tend to produce children who are
extremely aggressive or who, as adults, favor violent means of obtain-
ing personal and political ends. 100 This aggression usually takes place
outside the home, where the child is distant from the punishing
agent. But these naturalistic studies are inconclusive.They don’t nec-
essarily prove that punishment for aggression, in itself, produces ag-
gressive children. Parents who resort to harsh punishment probably
do a lot of other things as well—that is, they are probably harsh and
aggressive people. Accordingly, it may be that the children are sim-
ply copying the aggressive behavior of their parents. Indeed, it has
been shown that, if children are physically punished by an adult who
has previously treated them in a warm and nurturing manner, they
tend to comply with the adult’s wishes when the adult is absent from
the scene. On the other hand, children who are physically punished
by an impersonal, cold adult are far less likely to comply with the
adult’s wishes once the adult has left the room. Thus, there is some
reason to believe that punishment can be useful if it is applied judi-
ciously in the context of a warm relationship.
One other factor of great significance to the efficacy of punish-
ment is its severity or restrictiveness. A severe or restrictive punish-
ment can be extremely frustrating; because frustration is one of the
primary causes of aggression, it would seem wise to avoid using frus-
trating tactics when trying to curb aggression. This point was
demonstrated very nicely in a study by Robert Hamblin and his