Suppression of the aggressive impulse: conceptual difficulties in anti-violence programs

Abstract

School anti-violence programs are united in their radical condemnation of aggression, generally equated with violence. The programs advocate its elimination by priming children's emotional and cognitive controls. What goes unrecognized is the embeddedness of aggression in human beings, as well as its positive psychological and moral functions. In attempting to eradicate aggression, schools increase the risk of student disaffection while stifling the goods associated with it: status, power, dominance, agency, mastery, pride, social-affiliation, social-approval, loyalty, self-respect, and self-confidence. It is argued that the distribution of power and authority to students as plausible substitutes for aggression, would enable them to express aggression in a legitimate manner and simultaneously encourage their attachment to school. A vibrant anti-violence program that attracts children will find a way for caring, amiability, sympathy, and kindness to live in tandem with competition, power, assertiveness, and anger tamed by institutional constraints.

Keywords:

• children
• schools
• aggression
• anti-violence
• authority

Notes

1. I understand aggression to mean, under most circumstances, the intent to inflict harm. It can be verbal, psychological, or physical. Violence, a form of aggression, involves the use of physical force (Dodge, Coie, and Lynam 2006).

2. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Indicators of School Crime and Safety (2009), in 2007 over 30% of all teachers found student misbehavior interfered with their teaching, over 30% of all students claimed they were victims of bullying, and over 30% of Black and Hispanic students reported gangs in their school.

3. Erika Kitzmiller took on responsibility for collecting information on anti-violence programs.

4. Brain Power; Coping Power; Early Risers: Skills for Success; Incredible Years Training for Children; LIFT; Olweus Bullying Prevention Program; PeaceBuilders; Positive Action; Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS); RCCP; Responding In Peaceful and Positive (RIPP) ways; Second Step; Too Good for Violence.