Few would disagree that human aggression is a very pressing social problem that leads to violent criminal acts and that it is important to understand the causes of aggression before we can intervene to reduce it. How would a social psychologist approach this phenomenon? How would a social psychologist's approach differ from the approach of a personality psychologist or sociologist?

The Social Psychologist defines aggression based on intents. They see aggression as a behavior that is intended to harm another individual who does not intend to be harmed.

According to social psychologists, Violence is a subset of aggression. It is an aggression that has extreme physical harm as its intent. Aggression does not have to be physical, it can be a verbal or social aggression intended to shatter someone's physical relationships. Social psychologists consider aggression to be basically about self-concern. They see violence as a response to "threat to self". Aggression is a product of the nature of a man and the social situation he surrounds himself with. Aggression varies with personalities, but it can either be reduced or escalated through the influence of our social circles.

The sociologist or personality psychologist believes that it is not the individual that perpetuate violence that is solely errant but the society that produces him is responsible for the violent behavior. This is justified by the reason why some communities and nations are more violent and aggressive than others.

First, like a personality psychologist, a social psychologist would focus on the individual, instead of on larger structural variables like socioeconomic status or the availability of handguns. Unlike a personality psychologist, however, a social psychologist would be more likely to focus on specific social situations or on people's construals of those specific situations. Social psychologist put far less emphasis on enduring personality characteristics or traits and are more interested in how people are like one another in those situations. This approach also differs from a sociologist's approach. Sociologists, unlike social psychologists, tend to focus not on the individual but on larger segments of society. Still, like social psychologists and unlike personality psychologists, sociologists would consider how people in different groups are different from one another when it comes to aggressive behaviors.