Wybrane sposoby kontrolowania agresji dzieci i młodzieży

The permanent increase in aggression in children, youth and adults accounts for the urgent need of searching for the most effective ways of controlling and reducing this dangerous phenomenon. This article presents a selection of methods, based on the ground of applied psychology and aimed at dealing with the problem mentioned above. The author describes the mechanism, called ‘katharsis’, which serves a purpose of relieving accumulated, negative emotions, emphasizing the fact that giving vent to one’s anger does not always lead to expected results. The same refers to punishing aggressive behaviour. The immediate results of this process are usually superficial and do not always mean a stable change in character. Finally, the punishment – to be effective requires certain condiotions to be fulfilled, which is very often neglected. The work contains a set of already tested, interventional programs, intended to correct improper behaviour of children and youth. The particular purposes are: teaching empathy, training the ability of coping with conflicts, modelling on pro- social behaviours, building basic values, opposing mobbing at schools, dealing with negative emotions and creating an internal interventional program at schools. The range of psychological offers, aimed at reducing aggression is wide. They are all worth popularizing, although it is good to remember that it is always better to prevent evil, than deal with its cosequences.