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Psychological Research on Causes and Remedies of Violence

 

 

By Ms. Sheila Fling

 

In the brochure announcing this conference and in his inaugural address to the conference, His Holiness Acharya Mahapragya noted that psychologists explain the causes of violence in terms of circumstances and environmental factors outside the person. He emphasized that one must consider inner factors such as emotional agitation within the person as a cause of violence. Indeed most psychologists view both of these as important. Social and political psychologists, for example, tend to focus on external factors; and personality, abnormal, health, and clinical psychologists are more likely to study internal factors.

At the conference this week we have heard about both external and internal sources of violence, for example, in socio-economic and political systems that maintain the vast discrepancy between the few rich and the many poor of the world and that do violence not only to people but also to the environment. At the individual level, we have been challenged to consider factors like prejudice, self-righteousness, greed, and ambition as sources of violence from within ourselves.

We have also heard this week about remedies for violence via external and internal approaches that may be seen to parallel the external and internal causes of violence. We have been challenged to social and political action at the level of external behaviour, and we have been inspired to individual transformation at the level of inner consciousness.

In the absence of other psychologists presenting papers at this conference, I feel responsible to try to present a glimpse of a few of the approaches that psychologists take to the causes and remedies of violence from both the external and internal angles. Examples from my students and my research and from my classes and workshops will illustrate such psychological approaches. Because the causes of violence are surely multiple and complex, both external and internal, I like to call them contributing factors.

Among probable external contributing factors is the modeling (imitation learning) of aggression and violence in movies, television, video games, newspapers, and books, including 'comic' books. Both adults and children are exposed to so many images of violence everyday that some psychologists theorize they become desensitized to its horror and may be more inclined to behave violently themselves. Much well-controlled psychological research gives evidence of children's modeling of aggression on television (Friedrich-Cofer & Huston, 1986).

The research my students and I have done looked at this external modeling factor and also at an internal one. For example (Fling, Smith, Rodriguez, Atkins, & Nixon, 1992), we found a correlation between amount of time spent playing video games and amount of aggression as reported by sixth grade children, but the more self-esteem (an internal factor) they had, the less aggression they reported. Another study (Fling, Smith, Thornton, & Rodriguez, 1992) was on how 4- and 5-year old children's aggression in free play might increase after playing a violent video game compared to a non-violent one. It is important to note that not all children became more aggressive after playing violent video games. This suggests that internal factors such as self- esteem and empathy for others help prevent modeling of external aggression.

Another area psychologists explore is sexual aggression. Our research (Fling & Flood, 1995) again studied both external and internal factors in this form of violence. For example, it showed a correlation between the amount of alcohol college men report drinkmg, which could be considered an external factor, and the amount of sexual harassment and date rape they have done. However, it also showed that sexist beliefs and attitudes (an internal factor) also contribute to such violence.

Turning now to psychological approaches to remedy violence, much of my research and teaching has focused on meditation, certainly a major internal approach and one this conference has emphasized. Because one is sometimes tempted to claim one form of meditation is the best (as some claim one religion is the best and then start wars in the name of It1), I'll mention first our research that showed that different types of meditation are suited for different types of personalities (Fling, 1985). In another study (Fling, Thomas, & Gallaher, 1981) we used two of these types of meditation (a focused 'mantra' type and an 'open', unfocused type) twice a week for six weeks as well as a 'quiet sitting' control group and a waiting list control group. Anxiety decreased in all but the waiting list group. Even the 'quiet sitters' with no special meditation instruction benefited. Other benefits were also measured.

The decrease in anxiety from meditation is especially important. As Dr. Robert Holmes discussed in his paper at this conference, fear may be at the root of much, if not all, violence. He commented that we need a psychology of fear and to distinguish between constructive and destructive fear. Psychologists are working on this, having found fear to be associated with the deep, limbic part of the brain, with usefulness for survival and self-protection but also with great destructive potential, not only when fear results in greed and aggression toward others but also when it does violence to one's own health. A certain amount of stress or anxiety seems beneficial for challenge, excitement, and motivation for work and recreation, but too much is harmful to self and others. For example, research on Type A personality, which is so vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes, shows that it is especially characterized by hostility.

Psychologists have been working many years on ways to teach people to manage stress for optimal stimulation and for reduction of its destructive effects. Much of my work, for example, has been research on and teaching of meditation and other forms of relaxation as well as exercise, nutrition, time management, etc. to manage stress, which often also then reduces violence against others and self. For example, we have researched relaxation methods with aggressive hyperactive children (Fling & Black, 1984-86) and with aggressive hospitalized adolescents (Bender & Fling, 1985).

Another area related to violence is anger management, which we've researched in American fifth and eighth graders compared to Japanese children (Fling, Anderson, & Raffeld, 1996 a, b). We study ways of handling anger such as physical or verbal aggression directed at the provoker or some other person or an object or turned inward on oneself, communicating one's needs and negotiating compromise, changing one's thoughts (and consequently one's feelings) via understanding and empathy, 'letting go' of one's own gratification, and forgiveness.

As psychologists, we do a lot of skills training because research has shown that it is often easier to change behaviour with a subsequent change in attitudes than it is to change attitudes with a hope of subsequent behaviour change. In workshops, for example, one would practise to build new habits by role playing ways to handle anger-provoking situations by the more constructive methods listed above rather than resorting to violence.

Parents are given parent-child interaction training in which the parent practices communication methods to show empathy and respect for the child, which models this for the child as well as giving the child more security (less fear) and so reduces the child's aggression as well as the parent's. The parents are also trained behaviourally in ways to effectively shape the childis behaviour without resorting to violence.

Domestic violence is also decreased by behavioral training of married couples in communication skills, conflict prevention and resolution. Wife batterers and criminals are taught cognitive restructuring methods to change their irrational beliefs and thus decrease their fear and anger and are also trained in constructive ways to meet their genuine needs.

Violence that stems from prejudice against those of a race, class, sex, or sexual orientation different from one's own is also a matter of psychologists' research and training. As discussed above and illustrated in our sexual violence research cited above, hatred and violence may arise from fear, the fear of the unknown, of that which is different from oneself, and/or the fear that one is not 'ok' and thus must prove 'superiority' to some other group by violence against it. Psychologists seek to counter this by cognitive restructuring of beliefs and attitudes about oneself and the 'other'. Transpersonal psychologists, who deal with the spiritual dimension of the human being, emphasize the oneness behind the apparent multiplicity of life, that we are all part of one whole, and that there can be unity within diversity if we celebrate our differences. My hope is that these examples will give a taste of the kind of work psychologists are doing to understand and remedy the causes of violence.

 

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Author :  Ms. Sheila Fling, is Professor of Psychology at Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos USA. She has taught meditation and published research in this area as well as in others such as conflict resolution, anger management and aggression.

Article Source : Anuvibha Reporter ( Special Issue : Dec. 2000 )
Ahimsa, Peacemaking, Conflict Prevention and Management Proceedings and Presentations
Fourth International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action ( IV ICPNA )
New Delhi : Nov. 10-14, 1999

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