The good news is that there is overwhelming evidence that humans can, in the right circumstances and with appropriate training, be kinder and gentler by using their higher cognition. But, thus far, we seem to be loosing the battle against violence, as we will see in the next topic. By the time we are five years of age, we have learned to be kind and caring or aggressive. Of course, many such children become good citizens, so don't give up. But society, schools, parents, and the children could prevent much of the later aggression if they made the effort to detect the problems early and offered help.
Physical punishment teaches that violence is an acceptable way to solve problems .
Research has documented similar aggression from grandparents to parents to grandchildren. In addition, outside the family we learn more hostile ways of responding to frustration, such as in schools, on the play grounds, from friends, and especially from TV, movies and books. So, one doesn't have to have hostile parents or be subjected to noticeable frustration prior to becoming aggressive. One can just see aggression and then imitate it. That's why TV is so scary.