ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Functional Analysis and Treatment of Aggression Maintained

By Preferred Conversational Topics (Article Critique)



Functional Analysis and Treatment of Aggression Maintained

By Preferred Conversational Topics (Article Critique)

Introduction

The article “functional analysis and treatment of aggression maintained by preferred conversational topics” discusses about human aggressive behavior studied from diverse perspectives across diverse disciplines. Historically, philosophers, scientists, artists, and playwrights have made observations and assumptions regarding man's inhumanity to man. In the last century, psychological and social psychological researchers have examined aggression with a closer lens. The result is the observation that aggression occurs universally among men and women, children and adults. However, aggressive behavior remains pathologized in most research literature, and definitions used to explain aggression tend to view this behavior within a principled framework that condemns acts of violence. In the past 25 years, researchers have suggested that violent aggressive behavior is only one aspect of aggression. According to researchers, aggression can be defined as both constructive and destructive, instinctual and defensive, but ultimately related to the expression of the individual's own aim and purpose. This more elaborate definition of aggression enables a variety of behavioral responses to be defined as aggressive when direct, physical, or violent responses not used. In other words, aggressive behavior may serve the individual's need for expression without causing physical injury, but rather by inflicting or evoking psychological or emotional injury (Hagopian, 2004).

Discussion

Aggression is defined as behavior aimed at inflicting harm to a target in such a manner that the intent to harm is not recognized, a counter-attack is less likely, and if possible the aggressor will remain unidentified. According to this definition, the aggressor makes use of the social structure to harm the target. The primary feature of aggression is the covert nature of the act utilized to avoid the identification of the aggressor. Once termed, “passive-aggressive”, aggression is not passive; it requires an action or response to a maddening situation, albeit usually a discrete action. A passive response requires no action. However, an individual in a maddening situation may select a passive response and therefore, passivity or no action remains a viable response option, but one that cannot be considered aggressive. This confusion in the nomenclature of aggression literature has complicated research efforts aimed at further empirical analysis of the behavior. References to aggression as “passive-aggression” may have originated during the standardization of the diagnosis “passive-aggressive personality disorder” (PAPD) included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition. This diagnosis was not included in future versions of the DSM, but the term “passive-aggressive” remains an artifact of this period. Women were most frequently diagnosed with PAPD, and as a result, female aggressive behavior is often referred to as passive-aggressive behavior to this day (Goh, 2000).

In response to the stigma associated with PAPD, and the possibility of a gender bias in diagnosis, studies examining gender differences in aggression attempted to depathologize female aggressive behavior by exploring the methods, women use to express aggression. The literature investigating how men and women differ in ...