Aggression

Aggression
WHAT IS AGGRESSION?
 Textbook defines it as ‘behaviour that is intended to harm another individual’
 HOWEVER, there are numerous examples of behaviours that exhibit aggression: murdering for money, verbally and physically assaulting someone, accidentally injuring someone, working persistently to sell a product, and many, many more
 Almost every definition that psychologists have tried to come up with for ‘aggression’ can contradict a perfect example of something that is aggressive
Important words to know...
 Violence – extreme acts of aggression
 Anger – strong feelings of displeasure in response to a perceived injury
 Hostility – a negative, antagonistic attitude toward another person or group
 Instrumental Aggression – inflicting harm, in order to obtain something of value (i.e. hiring a hit man)
 Emotional Aggression – inflicting harm for its own sake (i.e. a fight at a hockey game)
Is There Cultural Variation in Aggression?
 Aggression varies greatly across cultures
 A study done in 2002 show that the countries with the most murders were the Russian Federation, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Ukraine. The United States were very high on the list, while Canada was quite low
 Subcultures exist within countries, and these subcultures are often aggressive towards each other based on attributes like age, race, gender, religion, social status, wealth etc.
 Teenagers aged 14-24 were found to be involved in the most crime, and Aboriginal peoples had the highest percent of race involved in crime
Does Gender Play A Role in Aggression?
 Universally, men are more violent than women
 Females feel the same amount of anger as males, however they are much less likely to act upon that anger
 Important to note that most of these gender-related studies have been done only on PHYSICAL aggression
 Boys are OVERTLY aggressive, while girls are indirectly, or relationally aggressive
 “Boys may use their fists to fight, but at least it’s