OBEDIENCE AND AGGRESSION

Does Obedience cause aggression? Does aggression cause obedience? How does

these two concepts affect the U.S. military? I will attempt to answer these questions in

the following pages.

What is obedience and aggression? Obedience is the following of orders, desires,

and plans of someone, usually a person of authority. There are two forms of obedience,

compliance and acceptance. Compliance is when you follow an implied or explicate

request while privately disagreeing (Myers, D., 2010). Acceptance is when you actually

believe in what you are asked/ordered to do (Myers, D., 2010). “Aggression is the

delivery of an aversive stimulus from one person to another, with intent to harm and with

an expectation of causing such harm, when the other person is motivated to escape or

avoid the stimulus” (Geen, R., G., 2001). Where does aggression come from? It comes

from two sources, biological (nature) and external (nurture).

The biological nature arrives from your parents and all who came before them. It

is the result of our evolution. How much you have is determined by your hereditary,

chemical make up, and things you have taken into your body or experienced with your

mind. A male or female could have too much estrogen in their system, causing more

stereo-typical male responses. This could lead to more violent responses to threats (Wu,

M, 2009). Different drugs can cause violent reactions and exposure to violence itself can

cause Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

“Recent research shows that chronic stress of the traumatic type may

shrink the hippocampus, and actually kill neurons there, as well as

drastically slow down the growth of new neurons. In addition to this

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 startling finding, the ‘wiring’ of the brain’s neurochemical systems

become over sensitized, and this results in the symptoms commonly seen

in PTSD. The complex chemical-neurological reactivity affects parts of

the brain that are all about learning, memory, and fear conditioning. This

is why child PTSD victims (as well as adults), for example, may have

difficulty with learning as easily after the trauma. They also may have

fragmented memories of the trauma, or even new events, as well as

problems recalling facts. They may even have dissociative memory

problems, meaning they have gaps of moments or even days in their

memory (Krill, Jr., W.E., (2010).”

The external source of aggression comes from frustration. Frustration occurs

when a goal is thwarted by someone or something. The Frustration-Aggression theory

by John Dollard (developed in 1939) answers some the youth to adult aggressions

(Myers, D., 2010). If you are blocked from attaining a goal then you become frustrated.

Following the model, the frustrated person either institutes aggression or does something

else, such as withdrawal from the situation. The instituted aggression is either inward or

outward. If inward, the person is still withdrawn and gets an ulcer. Outward aggression

is either directed against the frustrator or some on else as displaced aggression (Myers,

D., 2010). The Social Learning version is slightly different. It looks at Aversive

Experiences that cause frustration. Pain, heat, and attacks can cause aversive

experiences. These result in an arousal of emotions. The person then looks (if time

permits) at the rewards/costs of the anticipated consequences we have learned of a given

action (Myers, D., 2010). Possible actions include but are not limited to: dependency,

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achievement, withdrawal and resignation, aggression, bodily symptoms, self-

anesthetization, with drugs and alcohol, and constructive problem solving. The social

learning theory of aggression emerged in the 1960s, largely as a result of the theorizing of

Albert Bandura and his associates (Geen, R., G., 2001).

Does obedience cause aggression? It depends. Lack of obedience can cause

aggression. Children who are not supervised or given proper channels for their energies

can become very aggressive (Rojas, M., 2010). Disobedience is a form of aggression.

Those rebelling from obedience are acting out and causing aggression to the group. This

can cause others to imitate the disobedience and increase the aggression. Others with in a

group can become disgruntle and use aggression to try to force those who are disobedient

to conform (Butler, P., 2010). But has obedience caused the aggression. It also depends

how the obedience is put forth. A person of authority who uses nothing but negative

reinforcement will eventually have a great deal of disobedience toward him. Negative

reinforcement can be considered aggressive behavior by those it impacts. Misuse of

obedience can cause frustration with the person of authority, leading to the frustration

models mentioned earlier in this paper. Some one who is just compliant with their group

could develop aggression towards the group or the person of authority, since they do not

believe in the goals or direction of the group. Can the act of compliance cause feelings of

frustration. Yes. Over time the person could develop frustration over their continued

following of the group (self loathing). Or, the compliant person could develop frustration

from their ineffective results in changing the direction of the group. Either way, the

compliance to obedience is not creating the aggression, but the person’s own conscious

decision to continue to comply. During World War II, the Danes and Huguenots (French

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Protestants) both were disobedient to the German commands to turn over Jews for

deportation. 90% of the Jews in Denmark were shipped to Sweden. The Huguenots

operated safe houses for Jews to escape out of the country (Tiller, J., 2010). Both groups

answered that they were being obedient to their values and national ideas. The

Huguenots obeyed their belief that the Jews were God’s chosen and had to be save while

the Danes saved the Jews of their country because they Danes. The Danes did not see

Jews living in Denmark as anything other than Danes who worshiped Yahweh (Tiller, J.,

2010). Both practiced disobedience to the ruling power but obeyed their own values. At

this point, I would have to say there is not a direct causation effect between Obedience

and aggression. Negative methods to gain obedience can cause aggression, but then

anything that is negatively used on people can cause frustration that will lead to some

form of aggression.

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the army expects reasoned obedience, not blind obedience