Psychology: How to Reduce Aggression Among Prisoners

Aggression is one of the most common causes of violent crimes. That is one of the reasons for the prevalence of aggressive behavior among prisoners, especially those of the male gender (Ga & Ib, 2015). As a result, social psychologists, in collaboration with the prison systems, are looking for ways of reducing aggression among male prisoners as one of the ways of improving the prison environment and rehabilitating them. There is certain aggression reducing strategies that can be used based on various theories of aggression-concepts such as instinct theory or instinct theory of motivation, which is usually associated with ethologist Konrad Lorenz. The concept states that instinctive behavior is made up of three elements that include emotion, perception, and behavior. These three elements make the innate biological tendencies that organisms are born with to enable them to survive (Bjorkly, 2006). Another concept is the drive theory, by Yale researchers John Donald, Neal E. Miller, Leonard W. Doob, Mowrer O.H., and Robert R. Sears. According to drive theory, certain actions are motivated by internal tension that develops as a result of certain unattended or unmet needs (Bjorkly, 2006). Lastly, there is the social learning theory by renowned psychologist Albert Bandura. According to Bandura, aggression, just like other human behaviors, is a product of continuous mutual interaction between environmental, cognitive, and behavioral influences (Bandura, 1978). Therefore, this paper is going to discuss aggression, reducing strategies for male prisoners based on the theories of instinct, drive, and social learning.

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Instinct Theory

The biological tendencies that help animals survive can sometimes be the source of aggressive behavior. Dr. Ayse Dilek Ogretir Ozcelik from the Gazi University revisited aggression theories and specifically focused on instinctivism. Lorenz argued that aggression need not necessarily be a reaction to external stimulus. Sometimes, aggression can be an explosion of accumulated energy that can occur without outside influence (Ozcelik, 2017). That means that aggression is a product of instinct being fueled by an ever-growing energy lacking disputation. Based on the instinct theory, the aggressive behavior among incarcerated prisoners can be as a result of their confinement. Prisoners, just like other animals and humans, will not passively wait for proper stimulus to release their pent-up energy. They will instead find a way to release that energy and, in some cases, even create a stimulus for its release. Based on the insights from instinctive theory, it would seem appropriate to provide a source of energy dissipation as one of the strategies for reducing aggressive behavior among incarcerated male prisoners.

Therefore, this paper would recommend catharsis as one of the ways of reducing aggressive behavior among male prisoners. Inmates spend a considerable amount of their time doing little activities and confined in small spaces. It is, therefore, appropriate for the prisoners to be given away to release the pent-up energy. While most prisons have courts, libraries, and gyms, access to these facilities is limited, and prisoners can only access them during specific times of the day. Incorporating other measures such as watching television in their cells can improve the process of catharsis. It is important to note that while watching television can help alleviate the aggressive behavior; it will need to be supplemented with other measures such as sporting activities. Giving inmates enough room to engage in exercise activities such as jogging is part of catharsis.

Drive Theories

Drive theory is one of the concepts that can be used to develop non-aggressive behavior among male prisoners while incarcerated and even after their release. Unlike instinct theory, drive theory perceives aggressive behavior as a response. Aggressive behavior emanates from the aggressive drive (Bjorkly, 2006). However, just like the instinctive theory, aggressive behavior is a result of a build-up of energy. The difference is that the build-up energy comes from the build-up of an ongoing goal response. Aggression is, therefore, considered as a response to the individual's unmet needs. Therefore, one of the strategies to reduce aggression among male inmates is to provide them with a means to achieve their goals.

Technical skills training can be used as a technique for reducing aggressive behavior. Based on the drive theory, people may exhibit aggressive behavior when their drive towards their goals is impeded by certain factors that may or may not be within their control. Social skills training provides the inmates with a means for achieving their goals hence preventing or reducing the frustrations that they feel. An incarcerated inmate may just be looking to have some entertainment, but lacks a means of achieving that goal. Giving them a means of achieving that goal, such as television, will reduce the frustration levels among inmates. On the other hand, technical skills training will make increase their viability in the job market hence providing them with a rather clear path to achieving their goals. However, there is also another way to help the group reduce aggression.

The prison institutions can come up with social skills training to help the male inmates deal with the tension that builds when their needs are not met. The training should focus on non-aggressive models of relieving the tension. Such that, instead of punching something or breaking something, the inmate can be taught to elicit inappropriate responses such as humor. Inappropriate responses occur when an individual feels empathy, entertained, amused, or in some cases, sexually aroused by their victim (McDonald, & Wooten, 1988). Periodically exposing inmates to humor, might reduce their aggressive behavior (Baron, 1976). Therefore, social skills training, along with inappropriate responses, are some of the strategies of reducing aggressive behavior.

Social Learning Theory

Based on the social learning theory, aggressive behavior can be learned. According to Bandura, people are not born with a preformed collection of aggressive behavior. They need to learn them instead (Bandura, 1978). That would mean that the violent actions, including cognitive dissonance by the male inmates, are things that they have learned throughout their lifetime. Therefore, the strategy that seeks to reduce and eliminate aggressive behavior among the male inmates should seek to help the inmates unlearn such violent responses and instead opt for less aggressive models and positive self-evaluations.

Negative self-evaluations lead to negative responses to some of the problems that inmates encounter. When the inmates have negative self-evaluations, one of the responses that they display is violence. Bandura's social learning theory indicates that these behaviors can be unlearned. One of the causes of negative self-evaluation is the lack of confidence in their problem-solving skills and abilities (Eskin, 2012). The social learning theory can also be used to teach them cognitive consonance, which can enable them to have consistent thoughts and responses to various environmental stimuli hence preventing them from having irrational reactions.

Conclusion

The aggression theories of instinct, drive, and social learning provides insights into the main causes of aggressive behavior. Techniques such as watching television, technical skills training, social skills training, non-aggressive models, eliciting inappropriate responses, and learning consonance can be used to remove aggressive behavior among the male prisoner inmates. Some of these techniques provide the inmates with a non-aggressive means of releasing tension or pent-up energy, while others are about giving the inmates non-aggressive responses to external stimuli.

References

Bandura, A. (1978). Social learning theory of aggression. Journal of communication, 28(3), 12-29.

Baron, R. A. (1976). The Control of Human Aggression: An Incompatible Response Strategy.

Bjorkly, S. (2006). Psychological theories of aggression: principles and application to practice. In Violence in Mental Health Settings (pp. 27-46). Springer, New York, NY.

Eskin, M. (2012). Problem-solving therapy in the clinical practice. Newnes.

Ga, A. R., & Ib, I. H. (2015). An assessment of aggressive behaviour between prison inmates and non-prison inmates in makurdi metropolis, Nigeria. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 190, 502-509.

Ozcelik, A. D. O. (2017). Aggression Theories Revisited: Lorenz's Neoinstinctivism, Wilson's Socio-Biology, and Skinner's Behavioral Theories. Journal of Asian Scientific Research, 7(2), 38.

McDonald, P. J., & Wooten, S. A. (1988). The influence of incompatible responses on the reduction of aggression: An alternative explanation. The Journal of social psychology, 128(3), 401-406.