.On Monday 23rd yesterday, my heart felt sad when I saw the news on a private television station, where two groups of teenagers who were still wearing white and blue uniforms were involved in a scuffle on a street in the capital city of Jakarta. Yes, those are our junior high school students who are attacking each other, aka brawls. The incident immediately reminded me of 1 year ago, where our society was shocked by the deviant actions committed by our teenagers, in Bandung with their motorbike genk, in Pati with their Nero genk, and in other places that were not exposed to the media. . That is one side of youth life in our beloved country, which is said to be the nation's next generation. For our society, acts of violence both individually and in mass may have become daily news. As we all know for now, several televisions (both national and local) have even made special programs that broadcast news about acts of violence.
Violent acts can occur anywhere, such as on the streets, in schools, in housing complexes, even in rural areas. These actions can be in the form of verbal violence (scolding) or physical violence (hitting, punching, etc.). Among teenagers, actions that are commonly known as student brawls are things that we have seen too often, and even tend to be taken for granted. The perpetrators of this action have even begun to be carried out by students at the junior / junior high school level. This is very concerning for us all
Violent acts that are often carried out by adolescents are actually acts of aggression from individuals or groups. According to Scheneiders (1955), aggression itself is an overflow of emotions as a reaction to individual failure, which is shown in the form of damage to people or objects with intentional elements expressed in words (verbal) and non-verbal behavior. Aggressive according to Murry (in Halll and Lindzey, 1993) is defined as a way to fight very strongly, fight, injure, attack, kill, or punish others. Or in short, aggression is an act intended to injure another person or damage the property of others.
Aggressive behavior according to David O. Sars (1985) is any behavior that aims to hurt others, it can also be aimed at feelings of wanting to hurt others in a person. Meanwhile, according to Abidin (2005) aggressive has several characteristics. The first characteristic, aggressiveness is behavior that is harmful, hurtful, and injures others. The second characteristic, aggressiveness is a behavior that is done by someone with the intention of hurting, hurting, and endangering others or in other words it is done on purpose. The third characteristic, aggression is not only done to hurt the victim physically, but also psychologically (psychologically), for example through activities that insult or blame. From some of the definitions that have been put forward, we can conclude that aggressive behavior is an act of violence both verbally and physically that is deliberately committed by individuals or groups against other people or other objects with the aim of hurting physically or psychologically. The question then is what factors can trigger this aggressive behavior? Why do trivial cases in the social life of everyday people suddenly turn into big disasters that result in the loss of human lives? Why? To answer these questions, it helps us to first understand what causes aggression behavior.
According to Davidoff, the aggressive behavior of adolescents is influenced by several factors: 1. Biological factors There are several biological factors that influence aggressive behavior, namely: a. Genes appear to influence the formation of the brain's neural systems that regulate aggressive behavior. From the research done on animals, from the most difficult to the most provoked to anger, heredity seems to make males of all kinds more irritable than females. b. Brain systems that are not involved in aggression can actually amplify or inhibit the neural circuits that control aggression. In simple animals anger can be inhibited or increased by stimulating the limbic system (areas that give rise to pleasure in humans) so that a reciprocal relationship between pleasure and cruelty appears. Prescott (Davidoff, 1991) states that people who are pleasure-oriented will have little aggression while people who have never experienced pleasure, joy or relaxation tend to commit cruelty and destruction (aggression). Prescott believes that the strong desire to destroy is caused by an inability to enjoy something caused by brain injury from lack of stimulation as a baby. c. Blood chemistry. Blood chemistry (especially sex hormones, which are partly hereditary) can also influence aggressive behavior. In an experiment scientists injected the hormone testosterone into mice and several other animals (testosterone is the main androgen hormone that gives male sex characteristics) so the mice fought more and more intensely. When testosterone is reduced the animal becomes soft. The fact shows that male bulls who have been castrated (cut off their genitals) will become tame. Meanwhile, in women who are experiencing menstruation, the levels of female hormones, namely estrogen and progesterone, decrease in number as a result, many women report that their feelings are irritable, restless, tense and hostile. In addition, many women who violate the law (commit acts of aggression) during this menstrual cycle.
2. Environmental factors Which influence adolescent aggressive behavior, namely: a. Poverty Adolescents who grow up in an environment of poverty, then their aggressive behavior naturally experiences strengthening. The very sad thing is that the ongoing economic and monetary crises have led to the swelling of poverty that is getting out of control. This means that the potential for aggression to explode is even greater. Yes, although we have to admit that this poverty factor does not always make a person behave aggressively, with the evidence that many people in rural areas, although living in poverty, do not make them behave aggressively, because they have accepted their condition as is. b. Anoniomity Too much sensory and cognitive stimulation makes the world very impersonal, meaning that one person no longer knows each other. Furthermore, each individual tends to be anonymous (not having self-identification). If a person feels anonymous he tends to behave at will, because he feels unhappy with the norms of society and lacks sympathy with others. c. Hot air temperature If you pay close attention to the brawls that occur in Jakarta, they often occur during the day in the hot sun, but during the rainy season there are relatively no such events. Likewise with demonstrations that culminate in clashes with security officers which usually occur in hot and hot weather, but when it rains the action also becomes lonely.
This is consistent with the view that high environmental temperatures have an impact on social behavior in the form of increased aggressiveness. In 1968 the US Riot Comision reported that in the summer, a series of riots and mass aggressiveness occurred in the United States more than any other season (Fisher et al, in Sarlito, Environmental Psychology, 1992 3. The generation gap The existence of differences or gaps between the generations of children and their parents can be seen in the form of communication relationships that are increasingly minimal and often disconnected. Failure to communicate between parents and children is believed to be one of the causes of aggression in children. 4. Anger Anger is an emotion that has the characteristics of high parasympathetic nervous system activity and a very strong feeling of dislike which is usually caused by an error that may or may not be obvious (Davidoff, An Introduction to Psychology, 1991). At the time of amrah there is a feeling of wanting to attack, punch, destroy or throw something and usually violent thoughts arise. When this is channeled, aggressive behavior occurs. 5. The role of learning models of violence Model heroes in movies often get rewarded after they commit acts of violence. This can make the audience more and more reinforced that it is a fun thing and can be used as a value system for themselves. By witnessing these violent scenes, there is a process of learning the role of violence models and this becomes very effective in creating aggressive behavior.
6. Frustration Frustration occurs when someone is blocked by something in achieving a certain goal, need, desire, hope or action. Aggression is a way of responding to frustration. Poor adolescents who are naughty are the result of frustration associated with the amount of time unemployed, mediocre finances and the existence of needs that must be met immediately but are very difficult to achieve [ai. As a result, they become irritable and behave aggressively. 7. The disciplinary process is wrong Authoritarian disciplinary education with harsh application, especially carried out by providing physical punishment, can cause various bad effects for adolescents (Sukadji, Family and Educational Success, 1988). Such disciplinary education will make adolescents a coward, unfriendly to others, hate those who give punishment, lose spontaneity and lose initiative and ultimately take out their anger in the form of aggression on others. Since humans are born into this world, they will pass several periods of life until they reach the burrow. Childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and then becoming parents, are nothing more than a natural process in a continuous life from the stages of growth that a human being must go through. Each growth period has its own characteristics, each of which has advantages and disadvantages. Likewise with adolescence. Adolescence is often seen as the most vulnerable period in this life process. Adolescence often causes concern for parents. Adolescence is often discussed in many seminars. Even though for the teenager himself, this period is the most enjoyable period in his life. Therefore, knowing the causal factors as described above is expected to be beneficial for parents, educators and especially teenagers themselves in behaving and educating the next generation to be better so that acts of violence both in the form of verbal aggression and physical aggression can be minimized or even eliminated.
Khalil Gibran said that a child is like an arrow. The question is, have these arrows got the freedom to direct where they are aiming? Or is it for the sake of prestige, or something else that arrow will be taken and stuck in the target? Youth is a generation of a civilization. Therefore it has a strategic role in development planning and even in the direction and actors of the development itself. However, the mistreatment of adolescents, whether naughty or not by parents and policy makers, will actually have an even worse impact on the nation's civilization. The final question is have we taken the right steps to direct his actions to something more positive? Bibliography David, Jonathan Social Psychology, Jakarta: Erlangga, 2005. Koeswara, E, Human Aggression. Bandung: PT Erasco. 1998. Sarlito Wirawan Sarwono, Adolescent Psychology, Jakarta: PT. RajaGrafindo Persada, 2004. Sumadi Suryabrata, Educational Psychology, Jakarta: PT. RajaGrafindo Persada, 2004. http: // www. E- psychology. Com / epsi / individual details. Asp? Id = 380
nice :)