ABSTRACT
One of the negative dimensions of human behaviour and experience is aggression. Thomas Hobbes, political philosopher, bemoaned that the state of nature of man, characterised by the state of war, is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Social psychologists define human aggression as any intentional behaviour that causes harm to another person who wants to avoid the harm. In psychological aggression, there is the intention to humiliate, criticise, blame, dominate, isolate, intimidate and threaten one’s partner. The notion of the evolutionary origin of aggression is based on the premise that aggression is an adaptive feature for humans. Aggression is controlled in large part by the limbic system which includes the hypothalamus and amygdala, and low levels of serotonin are linked to increased aggression. The social learning theory suggests that aggression is caused not only by inherited factors but also environmental factors through the process of observational learning or modelling. Freud locates aggression in one part of the psyche (the unconscious) and rational thought in another (the conscious mind). Social cognitive theorists believe aggression is learnt rather than innate, and their emphasis is on perception, thoughts and the role of learning and situation in understanding aggressive behaviour. Ethology of aggression: Aggression was an innate adaptive response for survival to see off predators and to get resources. The avoidance of anger or getting angry is also rewarded as Allah, the Almighty, has promised to the righteous a great reward. The Prophet (https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429354762/7fb59413-c59c-4354-a39b-75035eb649db/content/inline1_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>) said, “If a man gets angry and says, ‘I seek refuge with Allah,’ his anger will go away” (Suyuti).
