Have you noticed that you are more susceptible in summer? Are the people around you more upset and is there a more stressful environment? Perhaps some factors specific to the summer season influence.
If you imagine an aggressive situation, you probably unconsciously place certain inciting elements on the stage. Stop for a moment and think, recreate the scenario in your mind. Surely you have involved the violent dispute surrounded by people, noise and heat, and it is more likely that the scene you have chosen is a disco, a prison yard or the subway line, rather than a university classroom, an office or a beach . This is because there are certain stimulants in the first situations that facilitate an irascible character, and more passive or controlled attitudes in the second case..
Heat, noise and lack of personal space increase levels of stress, anxiety and anger, hence aggressive reactions. While quiet situations, with a mild temperature and with fewer people, relaxes the body and facilitates impulse control.
Throughout the year we can find ourselves in different circumstances that alter us more than normal, but precisely in summer more conditions are met that promote a susceptible, stressful, active and irascible state which makes the increase in violent attitudes more than likely. High temperatures occur throughout the day and often even at night, the number of people who hang out around us is greater than in winter, and we tend to expose ourselves to more noise by trying to be more in the street, sleep with windows open or listening to loud music more often. All this causes a state of greater alteration.
Anderson has done different studies to see what effect heat has on aggressive behaviors.
In one of his investigations in American cities, he verified how the disturbances increased in proportion to the degrees of temperature. On another occasion, he observed how crimes that involved violence, murder or rape were more prone in the summer than those that did not contain aggressive attacks..
Other studies on the influence of heat on human behavior, showed that when developing a task that requires concentration, stress increases and one is more vulnerable to negative effects, which means lower performance in the academic and work environment and consequently, it triggers more stress and resentment, as a "vicious cycle", causing continuous reluctance and worse results..
On the other hand, authors such as Bell and Baron, assure that the negative effect of heat is greater the more novel it is Physiologically speaking, that is, in the face of occasional sudden changes in temperature such as when going out in the sun on a summer day, or at the beginning of the season. Exceeding a temperature limit and after continuous exposure, the organism tends to get used to it and the negative effects do not develop unless there is a provocation, and even then the tendency will be more to flee than to attack..
Another trigger for aggressiveness is noise. According to Glass and Singer, noise affects us to the extent that it is controllable and predictable. We can adapt well to noise if it falls within certain parameters and we can control it, for example, traffic noises that we hear through the window of the house. However, noise has a cumulative effect, and continuously causes tolerance to frustration and activation of aggressiveness.. Noise causes us to be energized and more active, which tends to lead to more emotional than reasonable reactions. and among them, irritation and violent responses to provocations.
Other authors have observed that people who have motives to attack or are attacked, react more violently and intensely if exposed to irritating or out-of-control noise. On the other hand, if in the same situation the person does not receive exposure to noise or these are of low intensity and can be controlled by the subject, the responses are more peaceful..
Lack of personal space, or overcrowding, is another cause of aggressiveness. Authors such as Berkovitz who have studied territorial behavior and aggressiveness, affirm that situations with density of people or the delimitation of space, generate stress and more irascible reactions.
Overcrowding breaks our natural balance and there is an immediate tendency to restore this balance, if the situation does not facilitate this return to harmony, the responses will be increasingly uncontrolled. This need to return to personal space will be greater if a task interrupts us or blocks an objective, such as a crowd of people at the entrance to a concert..
As with noise, if we are continuously in crowded contexts or these occur over long periods and not in a specific way, greater hostility will be generated..
It is also true that in this case, men are more affected than women.
If these three factors occur more frequently in the summer season, with special emphasis on the heat, it is normal that we find ourselves more upset and willing to react more impetuously.
Faced with heat and stress, we have to try to practice relaxation techniques, escape a bit from the routine and relax body and mind, to feel more peaceful and not allow ourselves to be overcome by a state of alteration.
Yet No Comments