Articles

AGGRESSIVE BODY LANGUAGE

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Aggression starts very early in life. Playground brawls are common, and children often play-fight, simulating their favorite action heroes or cartoon characters. Play-fighting, while it may make many adults uncomfortable, has a variety of benefits to the child:

• It helps children control their impulses, teaching them how far and how hard to hit and push
• It teaches the difference between unacceptable and acceptable aggression, and
• It decreases hurtful physical aggression, teaching children not only how to create the rules, but also how to play by them

Aggressive behavior and body language is different for adults, though. Adult aggressive body language can be true or fake, because adults have learned to master decision making, and can consciously choose how to behave in different situations.

Before we discuss true and fake aggression, however, let us unpack shortly what aggression is!

Intro to Aggression

There are as many descriptions for aggression as there are levels of it. It can be described as any of the following:

• Anger or apathy leading to violent of hostile behavior
• Readiness to confront or attack
• Attacking without provocation
• Forcefulness, or in fact
• The entire range of behaviors that result in psychological or physical harm of yourself, others, or objects around you

Aggression can take a variety of forms, mental and emotional, verbal and physical. There are also a variety of purposes for aggression:

• As an assertion of dominance
• An expression of anger or hostility
• As a means to intimidate or threaten
• A reaction to pain or a response to fear
• To compete with others, express possession, or to achieve a goal

With so many purposes, it then stands to reason that aggression can either be true, or fake, depending on your motivations.

So, what is true aggression behavior?

True Aggressive Behavior

Truly aggressive behavior, whether it is directed outwardly or towards yourself, is a real thing. In order to understand true aggression, let us look briefly at some of the causes:

• Exactly by what mechanism this happens is still unknown, but aggression can be genetic
• Disorders such as bipolar, ADHD and schizophrenia
• Brain behavior connections, where anger-inciting incidents elicit aggressive behavior
• Modeling, where aggression was a common expression of distress, or an excepted response to being slighted or misunderstood. Children especially will mimic this behavior until it is internalized

Signs of this aggression give the best insight to what it actually is:

• Social withdrawal, depression or poor communication
• Delusions, Hallucinations and alterations in mental status
• Threatening behavior, personality fluctuations and being a danger to yourself as well as others, among a series of other signs

There are many body movements that signal aggression too. Your face shows aggression, frowns and snarls typical of this behavior. Your face can go red, or you can clench your fists and spread your legs for stability.

You can also invade someone’s space, offering fake friendship, entering their comfort zone without invitation, or touching them without permission.

There are various insulting gestures too, different in each country, as well as mock attaching gestures. Banging tables and doors are also aggressive, as well as making sudden movements in an attempt to gauge the other person’s reactions.

These are all signs of true aggression. What then is fake aggression?

 Fake Aggressive Behavior

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

It is easy to fake aggression, for the most part. People who are muscular, for example, know that they just have to clench their fists and puff their chests to intimidate lesser mortals. Also, people who have louder, gregarious voices simply need to raise their voices, albeit slightly, to appear aggressive.

Another form of fake aggression is actually a psychologically accepted condition. Passive-aggression isn’t unusual, but passive-aggressive people tend to go unnoticed, hiding their hostility with an apparently pleasing outer demeanor.

How?

• They often say yes with absolutely no intention of doing what they said they would. This is because they often want to be seen as people-pleases.
• In an effort to appear absentminded as opposed to disagreeable, they often forget things, for example, claiming to have forgotten the deadline for a project instead of declining the work outright.
• They hide their resentment with fake smiles, never expressing anger or displeasure openly. Years of built-up resentment is often hidden beneath these fake smiles.

You need to be careful, therefore, of people who fake aggression. They are usually ticking time bombs, just waiting to explode!

 Short Examples

An example of true aggression, or openly aggressive behavior is violence. This is a direct form of aggression, leaving nothing to the imagination. The aggressive party not only clenches their fists, but use them to strike you. They not only bang their hands on tables, but lift the table and throw it at you.

Examples where this direct form occurs are:

• Domestic violence situations
• Two men fighting over a girl at a bar
• A man defending himself during a mugging or some other attack

Passive or fake aggression can be expressed by lying about another person in an attempt to disrupt their life. This is often very dangerous, because the person doing it, the passive-aggressive party, is usually not even around you at this time, making it difficult for you to defend yourself or to attack them right back!

Conclusion

Aggressive behavior and the resultant body language can have severe consequences. From fines to jail time, to relationship issues and disruptions to your physical and emotional well-being.

Understanding the body language of aggression isn’t enough to mitigate the effects of this. You need to strive to understand the causes of aggression. If it is caused by mental health issues, or increased stress, then you need to deal with these. You can also learn non-aggressive ways to interact with other people.

It is also easy to appear aggressive, even when you are not. Avoid using overly large or exaggerated gestures, and keep your face in check, if you do not want to give the wrong impression. These signs of aggression though are helpful when you need to determine, quickly, if somebody is being aggressive with you!

 References

Kendra Cherry, What Factors Lead To Aggression, (May 10, 2017)

Amy Morin, What Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, (Sep 04, 2015)

Ayra Moore, Aggressive Behavior in Adults, (Dec 02, 2014)

© 2019 LPS Training Services All Rights Reserved.