Aggression and culture

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Changes in dominant behavior or in social status causes changes in testosterone levels. Reports of changes in testeosterone of young men during athletic events, which involve face-to-face competition with a winner and a loser, reveal that testosterone rises shortly before their matches, as if in anticipation of the competition. Also, one to two hours after the competitive match, the testosterone levels of the winners are high relative to those levels of the losers [1]. It is also important to take into account the type of conflict that is occurring when assessing aggression. Is the conflict between groups, within a group, within a family? The sex of those involved in the conflict is also critical. Male-male, male-female and female-female encounters should all be clearly distinguished from one another. Same sex encounters are more frequent than inter-sex encounters and this could affect the level of aggression present [2].


Current

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If the definition of aggression is limited to physical strategies only, then it is true that in some cases, males are more aggressive than females. One explanation for this difference is that females are physically weaker than men so they need to develop other means to obtain successful results and defend themselves [2]. Females of different cultures have a variety of aggressive means through which they can get even with their husbands (e.g., locking them out of the house), all of which could be seen as forms of non-physical aggression. On Bellona Island, a culture that is based on male dominance and physical violence, women tend to get into conflicts with other women more frequently than with men. When they do get into conflicts with their husbands, they rarely use physical means. Instead, they make up songs that mock their husband, which spread across the island, humiliating their husband. If a woman wanted to kill a man, she would either convince her relatives to kill him or hire an assassin. These are both forms of indirect aggression since the aggressor (female) is trying to hurt another individual without putting herself in direct danger [2].

Aggression in children

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What triggers aggressive behavior in children?

The Bobo doll experiment was conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961. In this work, Bandura found that children exposed to aggressive adult model acted more aggressively than those who were exposed to a nonaggressive adult model. This experiment suggests that anyone who comes in contact with and interacts with children can have an impact on the way they react and handle situations.[3].


==References==

  1. ^ Booth,Alan and Allan Mazur.“Testosterone and dominance in men.”Behavioral and Brain Sciences.1998.
  2. ^ a b c Bjorkqvist,Kaj.“Sex differences in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression: a review of recent research.”Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.1994 Feb.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_n3-4_v30/ai_15383471 Cite error: The named reference "bjorkqvist" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Bobo doll experiment". Wikipedia