Abstrakt: | Aggression and violence in human relations is perhaps the most painful and
burning problem within the fast-changing Polish society. Among the activities
undertaken towards some restriction of violence, the diagnosis and the knowledge
about the reasons and conditions of aggressive behaviors become more and more
necessary. The present paper presents selected results of research carried out among
primary school pupils in the region of Silesia. The questionnaire research was organized
in the years 1996—1997 by a group of sociologists and psychologists and it was
the first research work on the subject organized upon such extensive grounds in the
region since 1989. It covered 859 pupils living in the Silesian agglomeration. It was
realized in the cities where the ration of the threat with juvenile delinquency was
greatest. They were: Katowice, Gliwice, Bytom, Zabrze, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Sosnowiec
and Ruda Śląska. Only some of the results of the research have been presented
within the scope of the present work. They mainly refer to the semantic use of the
word “aggression”, the definition of the environment in which a young man most
frequently encounters violence and aggression, the occurrence of different forms of
deviation and dysfunctional behaviors at school, informal youth groups and their
specificities.
The very word “aggression” has a characteristic connotation in the world of the
group upon which the research was carried out. It is most frequently identified with
physical violence (57% of the questioned). The use of physical strength in relations with
others is perceived here as a way of assuring oneself various advantages and domination
over others or as a result of boredom, desire to discharge tensions and frustration. Only
one out of three questioned linked aggression with verbal behaviors such as: invectives,
threats, quarrels, verbal blackmail, etc. It is possible to hypothesize here that the actual
use and the sense of the word “aggression” is correlated with the characteristic features
of the micro-worlds in which an individual functions. Verbal vulgarities, invectives
become the norm of the mutual relations to such an extent that they need not be
associated with aggression, purposeful harassment, or actual repulsion felt towards
another person.In the consciousness of the questioned youth there functions a certain social image
of boys and girls of the same age who behave aggressively more frequently than others.
They are first of all boys, rejected persons (perceived as the disliked ones) and poor
pupils achieving worse educational results. The level of wealth is not the factor
differentiating the tendencies to being an aggressive person among others of the same
age. One cannot claim, on the basis of the questionnaires, that the pupils coming from
poor families are more aggressive than their richer colleagues.
Violence and aggression become in the eyes of the questioned pupils something
common. Almost 79% of them have come across acts of violence in their environment.
The areas most strongly marked by violence are considered to be: football stadiums,
city streets, films and computer games, schools, rock concerts. Violence is decidedly
more frequently observable at schools and among the youth of the same age than at
home, within the family. As many as 93% of them tend to perceive their homes as the
place free from violence and aggression.
Every fifth of the questioned experienced aggression among those of the same age.
The victims of the aggression usually chose the strategy of “keeping silent” about the
event. The arguments for that were shame, disbelief in effectiveness of the intervention,
fear of revenge. Perhaps aggression, and in particular the fact of becoming its
victim, leads to the diminishing of the attractiveness of the actor in the eyes of the
others, and thus silence may in such situations constitute a way to “preserve ones face”,
the position with the group, etc.
As regards the world of institutions, in which it is relatively easy to come across
aggression, the youth very frequently pointed to the institution of school. School, as
the research shows, has a chance to become one of the least friendly fragments of the
social space of a child. Elements conductive to that are: anonymity, the formation of
youth groups within it, of “packs” and “gangs” with aggressive attitudes towards the
surrounding, vandalism and other forms of pathological behaviors, as well as violence
in the teacher-pupil relations (both verbal, but in some cases also physical). These are,
in short, the basic characteristic features of the problem of aggression in the social
consciousness of primary school pupils discussed in the paper. |