ABSTRACT
The experience of unpleasant or aversive events is an integral component of human life. Much of human motivation and action is designed specifically for avoiding aversive experiences (and seeking pleasant experiences) either in the immediate or distant future. Yet, despite these efforts, we often fail to deter or avoid the onset of an aversive event. At a broad level, work that seeks to understand the effects of these events serves as an important contributor to the study of aggression. As has been noted elsewhere in this volume (see Chapter 5), a useful tool for understanding aggressive and violent behavior is through risk and resilience models of aggression (Anderson et al., 2007; Gentile & Bushman, 2012). Many risk factors for aggression are not inherently aversive (e.g., playing a violent video game, the activation of goals that might be attained via aggressive acts, the depletion of cognitive resources, the learning of aggressive scripts). Yet, many aggression risk factors are inherently aversive, and therefore a full picture of aggression requires a thorough examination of the role of aversive experience in understanding aggressive acts.
