Striving, Playing and Learning
On aggression and the dynamics of learning in the play and struggle called 'life'
By Popko P. van der Molen & Johan M.G. van der Dennen
Presented at the 1978 Congress of the "Ethologische Gesellschaft" at Basel and at the First Congress of the European Section of the International Society for the Research on Aggression (I.S.R.A.) at Strassburg, sept. 1981.
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Summary
A novel model on the dynamics of learning is presented which bears particular significance to the notion of (violent) aggressiveness. It suggests, among other things, that aggressive behavior cannot be properly understood whithout considering the basic dynamics of learning involved, without recognizing the shifting balance between 'striving and playing' and without recognizing the prevailing balance between social skills and 'unskills'. If any of these aspects are not considered, 'Aggression' or 'aggressiveness' will tend to be viewed as a separate phenomenon in its own right - which is unfortunately a widespread habit, not only in daily life, but also among the very investigators of the subject. The very use of labels such as 'Aggressiveness' and 'violence' keeps our attention trapped and hampers awareness of the underlying dynamic behavioral processes . In the first half of this paper some well-known models of aggression are critically reviewed and some of the basic concepts are subsequently integrated with theories of learning and with the 'reversal' hypothesis of antagonistic motivations, which replaces the optimum-arousal theory. An additional hypothesis on the long-term regulation of attention then completes the emerging model of learning. A model which stresses the antagonism between the possible growth of stereotyped and inflexible emergency reactions, and the long-term growth of varieties of subtle and flexible coping-response patterns (skills). The proposed model conflicts with many classical learning-conditioning concepts in that it predicts that the prevailing emotional (telic/paratelic, or centripetal/centrifugal) balance determines whether certain aversive and/or ambivalent stimuli result in the long run in attraction or in repulsion.
