Aggressiveness

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Aggression is sometimes used to intimidate and coerce during extremely rigorous physical training. Here a drill instructor screams at soldiers during an exercise.

Aggression is a very general term covering a wide range of behaviours that involve

• The practice or habit of launching attacks.
• Hostile or destructive behavior or actions.

In psychology, aggression encompasses many different types of behaviour, some of which are not clearly related to each other. Consequently, aggression has been a difficult term to provide one concise definition for.

Moyer (1968) presented an early, and highly influential, classification of seven different forms of aggression.

1. Predatory aggression: attack on prey by a predator.
2. Inter-male aggression: competition between males of the same species over access to females, dominance, status etc. Inter-female aggression also occurs
3. Fear-induced aggression: aggression associated with attempts to flee from a threat
4. Irritable aggression: aggression directed towards an available target induced by some sort of frustration (e.g. schedule-induced aggression)
5. Territorial aggression: defence of a fixed space against intruders, typically conspecifics.
6. Maternal aggression: a female's aggression to protect her offspring from a threat. Paternal aggression also exists.
7. Instrumental aggression: aggression directed towards obtaining some goal, maybe a learned response to a situation

Other types of aggression identified include:

• Alternate aggression
• Altruistic aggression
• Anticipatory aggression
• Displaced aggression
• Indirect aggression
• Induced aggression
• Passive-aggression
• Relational aggression
• Weaning aggression

Identification of aggressive behaviour

Not all aggression is direct or readily identifiable. Some aggression may occur in the context of what appear to be a friendship. Such Relational aggression may involve domination, even sadism as the more powerful friend torments the weaker through threats of exclusion. Indirect aggression or passive-aggression involves such actions as spreading rumors about others, even lies; as may social aggression which attacks self esteem or social status.

Theories of Aggression

Biological basis of aggressive behaviour

Exposure to elevated androgen concentrations in the womb has been link to increased aggressiveness in adulthood in both lab mice (vom Saal & Bronson, 1980; Ryan & Vandenbergh, 2002) and humans (Reinisch, 1977; Reinisch, 1981; Berenbaum & Reinisch, 1997).

Enhanced levels of aggression in male mice and monkeys have been associated with the hormone monoamine oxidase A, MAO-A. However, studies in macaque and humans showed that its negative effects can usually be mitigated by parenting.

• Biological basis of aggression
• Genetics and aggression

Aggression and motivation

Aggression is one of the most important and most controversial kinds of motivation. Its use as a category in the psychology of motivation has often been criticised, because it is clear that it encompasses a vast range of phenomena, from modern war to squabbles between individuals. It is far from clear that these have anything in common other than the risk that someone gets hurt.

Aggression and anxiety

• Aggression and anxiety

Aggression and fear

• Aggression and fear

Aggression and frustration

• Frustration-aggression hypothesis
• Relative Deprivation Theory of aggression
• Cue-arousal Theory of aggression

Aggression and pain

• Aggression and pain

Aggression and arousal

• Excitation-transfer Theory of aggression

=Psychodynamic theories of aggression

Social psychology theories of aggression

• Aggression and groups
• Aggression and deindividuation
• Social Learning Theory of aggression
• Aggression and television
• Media violence research

Aggression and environmental factors

A number of environmental variables have been shown to be linked with increased aggression:

• Aggression and economic conditions
• Aggression and over-crowding
• Aggression and heat
• Aggression and noise

Gender and aggression

• Gender and aggression
• Aggression in women
• Maternal aggression

Aggression and child development

• Aggression in children

Aggression and personality

The tendency to act aggressively has been researched in terms of personality variables

• Aggression and personality

Aggression in animals

Main article: Aggression in animals

See also

• Bullying
• Conflict theory
• Hostility
• Killology
• Konrad Lorenz
• Male-male aggression, as component of sexual selection
• Resource holding potential
• Testosterone poisoning
• Violence

Key texts

Books

• Dollard,J., Doob, Leonard.W., Miller,N.E., Mowrer,O.H., and Sears, Robert R. Frustration and Aggression. New Haven:Yale University Press, 1939.
• Campbell, Anne. Men, Women and Aggression. New York: Basic Books, 1993, p. 8.
• Lorenz, K. (1966) On Aggression.(Marjorie Kerr Wilson, Trans.) New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.,
• Kania, J. (1988) Aggression: Conflict in Animals and Humans Reconsidered. London: Longman.
• Zillman, D. (1979) Hostility and Aggression, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Papers

• Anderson, C.A. and Bushman. B. 1. (1997) External validity of 'trivial' experiments: The case of laboratory aggression, Review of General Psychology, 1, 19-41.
• Anderson, C.A. and Bushman, R. ]. (2002) Human aggression, Annual Review of Psychology 119, 53,27-51.
• Lore, R. and Schultz. L. A. (1993) Control of human aggression: a comparative perspective, American Psychologist, 48. 16-25.

• Moyer, KE. 1968. Kinds of aggression and their physiological basis. Communications in Behavioral Biology 2A:65-87.

Additional material

Papers

• Google Scholar
• Baron, R. A. (1983) The control of human aggression: an optimistic perspective, Journal of Social and Clinical 1. 97-119.

• Berenbaum, S.A. & Reinisch, J.M. (1997) Early androgen effects on aggression in children and adults with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Psychoneuroendocrinology 22:505--515.

• Rachel Simmons, Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, Harcourt, 2002, hardcover, 296 pages, ISBN 0151006040
• Reinisch, J.M (1977) Prenatal exposure of human foetuses to synthetic progestin and estrogen affects personality. Nature 266:561--562.
• Reinisch, J.M (1981) Prenatal exposure to synthetic progestins increases potential for aggression in humans. Science 211:1171--1173.
• Ryan B.C. & Vandenbergh J.G. (2002) Intrauterine position effects. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 26:665-678.

Anderson, C. A., Anderson, K. B. and Denser, IN. Ii. (1996) Examining an affective aggression framework: Weapon and temperature effects on aggressive thoughts. affect, and attitudes, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 366-76. Baton, R.A. and Bell, P.A. (1975) Aggression and heat: mediating effects of prior provocation and exposure to an aggressive model, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 31: 825-32.

Buss, A. (1963) Physical aggression in relation to different frustrations. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 1-7. Berkowitz, L. (1978) Whatever happened to the frustration-aggression hypothesis? American Behavioural Scientist 21: 691-708. Berkowitz, L. (1983) Aversively stimulated aggression, American Psychologist, 38, 11 3 5-41. Berkowitz, L. (1984) Some effects of thoughts on anti- and prosocial influences of media events: a cognitive-neoassociation analysis, Psychological Bulletin. 95, 410-27. Berkowitz, I.. (1989) Frustration-aggression hypothesis: examination and reformulation, Psychological Bulletin, 106. 59-71. Berkowitz, L. (1990) On the formation and regulation of anger and aggression: a cog nitive neoassociationistic analysis, American Psychologist, 45, 494-503. Berkowitz. L. (1993x) Pain and aggression: Some findings and implications. Motivation rued Emotion, 17.277-93. Berkowitz. L. (1993b) Aggression: Its Causes, Consequences, and Control. New York: McGrawHill. Berkowitz. L. (1998) Aggressive personalities, in D. F. Barone. M. Hersen mid V.B. Van Hasselt (eds) Advanced Personality. New York: Plenum Press.

Bushman, B. J., Baumeister, R. F. and Stack, A. D. (1999) Catharsis. aggression. and persuasive influence: self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecies? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76. 367-76.

• Bandura, Albert, Ross, D., and Ross, S.A. Transmission of Aggression Through Imitation of Aggressive Models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 63, 575-582, 1961.
• Bandura, Albert and Walters, R. H. Social Learning and Personality Development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963.
• Bandura. A. (1973) Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bandura, A., Ross. 1). and Ross, S. A. (1961) Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 63. 575-82.

• Bandura, Albert. The Social Learning Theory of Aggression. In R. A. Falk and S. S. Kim, (Eds.), The War System: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1980, p.146.
• Draper, P. The Learning Environment for Aggression and Anti-social Behavior Among the !Kung. In A. Montagu (Ed.), Learning Non-aggression: The Experience of Non-literate Societies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978, p.36.

Eton, L.D., Huesmann, L.R., Lefkowitz, M.N. and Walder, L.O. (1972) Does television violence cause aggression? American Psychologist 27: 253-63. Drabman, R.S. (1977) Desensitisation to betrayals of real-life aggression as a function of exposure to television violence, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35: 450-8. Bushman, B. J. and Huesmann, L. R. (2001) Effects of televised violence on aggression. in Singer, 1). and J. Singer (eds) Handbook of Children and the Media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Freedman. J. L. (1986) Television violence and aggression: A rejoinder, Psychological Bulletin, 100, 372-8. Freidrich-Cofer, L. and Huston, A. C. (1986) Television violence and aggression: The debate continues. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 1-20. Huesmann, L. R., Lagerspetz, IC. and Bron, L. D. (1984) Intervening variables in the TV violence-aggression relation: Evidence from two countries. Developmental psychology. 20, 746-75. Wood, W., Wong, P. Y. and Chachere, J. G. (1.991) Effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unconstrained social interaction, Psychological Bulletin, 109, 371-8 3.

Hovland, C.I. and Sears, R. (1940) Minor studies in aggression, VI Correlation of lynchings with economic indices, Journal of Psychology 9: 301-10. Prentice-Dunn, S, and Rogers, R.W. (1982) Effects of public and private self-awareness on deindividuation and aggression, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43: 503-13.

Cashdan, E. (2(103) Hormones and competitive aggression in women. Aggressive Behavior. 29(2), 107-1S. Harris M. B. and Knight-Bohnhoff. K. ( 1996) Gender and aggression: [l. Personal aggressiveness, Sex Roles. 35(1-2). 27-42. Knight. G. P. Fabes. R. A. and Higgins, D. A. (1.996) Concerns about drawing causal inferences from meta-analyses: An example in the study of gender differences in aggression, Psychologicall Bulletin, 119(3), 41021. Vierikko, E., Pulkkinen, L., Kaprio. J. et al. (2003) Sex differences in genetic and environmental effects on aggression, Aggressive Behavior, 29(2), 55-68. White. T.W. (2001) Aggression and gender. in J. Worell (ed.) Encyclopedia of Gender and Women. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Eron, L. D. (1982) Parent-child interaction. television violence, and aggression of children, American Psychologist, 37, 197-211. Eron, L. D., Walder, L. 0. and Lefkowitz. M. M. (1971) The Learning of Aggression in Children. Boston: Little, Brown. Singer, J. L. and Singer, D, G. (1981) Television, Imagination, and Aggression: A Study of Preschoolers. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Filley, C. M.. Price, B. H., Nell, V et al. (2001) Toward an understanding of violence: Neurobehavioral aspects of unwarranted physical aggression, .Neuropsychiatry, :14(7), 1-14. McCord, W.. McCord, J. and Howard. A. (1961) Familial correlates of in nondelin quent male children, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62, 79-9 3. Mover, K (1 9 76) 'The Psychobiology of Aggression. Now York: Harper & Row. Mover, K (1983) Violence, in Kadish,S.L The Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. Vol. 4. New York: Free Press,

Salinger, K. (1995) A behavior-analytic view of anger and aggression, in H. Kassinove (ed.) Anger Disorders: Definition, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis.

External links

[Theories of Aggression] [Can the Source of Aggression be found in the Brain?]

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