Sex/Gender Differences in Aggression

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Distinctive Physiological traits and behaviors coupled with the distinctive and unique biological formation basically associated and partaken in males and females of a certain autonomous species is what sex can be said to be (Helgeson 36).

Aggression on the hand is the behavior which is in most cases conceived so as to cause pain, harm, and damage between subjects who are of the same species. Males are generally regarded to be aggressive than females. The most supportive case is that most murders recorded in the world are known to have been committed by males.

Males also tend to express their aggression more physically than females. Males are more confronters than females as females are said to be more tolerable. Though they are relatively less aggressive, their aggression is most indirectly relieved through such psychological aggressions like rejection.

The gender differentiae theory, point out the major differences in aggression when gender is the determinant factor. The theory point out that in human beings men are more likely to partake in physical confrontations as opposed to women. When it comes to verbal aggression, men and women in most cases engage equally. Men and women have a tendency to express aggression differently from one another (Worell 453).

Women are said to perceive their aggression as brought in most cases by loss of self control and too much stress while men view aggressive events as necessitated positive events in taming and regulating those who question, undermine, and challenge their integrity or their valued self-esteem. Women feel remorseful and guilt conscience when involved in acts of aggression than their male counterparts.

The alternative aggression theory, points out that woman engage in indirect aggression more than men. These are gossiping, spreading of malicious character damaging rumors, backbiting and revelation of other people’s secrets without their consent or knowledge. A research was conducted in a college environment to find out: between adolescent boys and girls who engage in indirect aggression more, and the effects of age on aggression?

It was noted that when a certain girl’s request for a date was turned down by her male college mate she would result in gossiping and spreading of false rumors about the male college mate. However, males who were turned down on a date request would immediately get angry and some even became abusive then kept quiet and did not even want their peers to know and that was the end of the matter.

The case was also studied in a group situation. When two teenage girls were interested in the same man there was considerable animosity, although not like the kind of animosity that existed between two teen young boys who were interested in the same girl, the latter being high.

No teen boy wanted to concede defeat and sometimes there were exchange of blows and verbal abuse. When the study above was repeated for middle aged adults between age 25 and 40 years, it was observed that the hostility was less but competitiveness in men was still fierce.

When the case involved much older adults the level of aggressiveness had dropped in both male and female although the male were quite competitive with one another as similarly observed in the other studies.

When the two interested parties met, men were observed to get physical but the issue ended there after and later the same men would be seen laughing together sharing a drink or two. Women hostility toward fellow women was seen to increase compared to woman hostility toward men. However, the women involved would not settle the matter there and then. Backbiting and gossips were rampant. The woman who lost would go around gossiping about the man more than the woman because of jealous but hating the woman the more.

Four reasons were found to be the major cause for women to engage in indirect aggression. The first reason was found to be the acceptance of aggression by many societies’ cultures. The other reason is that, during their growth and development years, girls tend to receive negative and rebuking feedbacks concerning direct, physical aggression. For girls, indirect non physical aggression is therefore socially and conventionally accepted.

Social structure of play groups during childhood differ, compact, small and close relation ties are for girls while boys tend to form larger, less binding, and non committal groups. Therefore, the greater close ties in female social trends tend to favor passing and sharing of personal and confidential information in the process of the interaction.

Relativity in physical strengths differences also play a major role in the aggression behavioral, boys expect more success than girls in physical confrontations. Girls also naturally in most cases mature faster than boys thus it is speculated this leads to confidence and greater reliance early in life on the indirect aggression (Morgan 78).

The research concluded that hostility in male and female decrease with age. Female hostility toward fellow female was more compared to that directed toward male. Where physical aggression was involved 80 percent of the involved were male as compared to female 20 percent. Where indirect aggression like false rumors was observed 70percent of the involved were women as compared to 30 percent male. Where verbal abuse was involved it was observed that both men and women were almost at par.

After duration of time majority of males used to remember the physical aggression and likewise where rejection and emotional manipulation was involved the women never forgot. Aggression toward both sexes increase from childhood up to teenage level then decrease in the subsequent years.

However, male aggression toward male counterparts remained the very high no matter the age bracket especially where a woman was involved. More than a thousand people from different areas, were involved in the research, thus the result portrayed universalism.

The human emotionality theory propagates that women and men tend to be very different especially in terms of emotions, they think differently hence tend to react to various issues differently, thus different aggression reactions. Men are described and portrayed to be very linear- they take the shortest way or route to solving their problems what is called hitting the nail on the head.

On the other hand, women are said to think more conventionally, globally and take time first to consider and contemplate the bigger picture. This makes men to be more temperament and aggressive while women tend to be more reserved and less physically aggressive (Turner 45).

Biologically, gender difference in the use of aggression especially that which is direct start appearing in human beings at the tender age of two years and increase all through a child’s life and adolescence. The society also determines the way aggression is precipitated and handled. Psychologically in instances of war boys tend to be recruited in large numbers to fight in the war.

Those that are exposed to war situations tend to lose their human feelings of compassion and mercy and in turn tend to be more aggressive and unbearable. Women in war situations are raped and sexually abused. This creates deep animosity and contempt for men. The raped woman is psychologically disoriented and tends to think of all men as evil.

This creates fierce aggression towards other male and due to the emotional trauma, the woman in context tend to be cautious of men even a simple touch by a man startles her. Men on the other hand tend to develop deep and greater hate to all that catch the eye, in a way situation.

Men tend to forget and get past emotional aggression more easily than physical aggression. This is the opposite of a woman as women tend to get past and forget physical transgressions than emotional transgressions.

In case of sexual infidelity men get more violent when they catch their partners in the act of physical sexual intercourse as opposed to when they find their partner has been emotionally involved with another person.

However, women act totally the opposite. She gets more hurt and result to aggressive acts when she realizes her partner has been emotionally connected to another person besides her rather than when she finds her partner in bed with another person. These differences are accounted by the gender differences where men are more physically aggressive while women are more emotionally aggressive.

Same gender aggression has been said to be higher than involving opposite sex aggression. The stronger and mightier males tend to physically dominate their weaker counterparts. Female tend to isolate one another and engage in indirect aggression like gossips.

The unusual finding is that nowadays women tend to have more male friends than female friends; they view fellow women as jealous, nagging, and not straight forward. Unlike females men tend to keep long friendships, childhood friends are maintained up to adulthood in men than in women.

This is so as men tend to be more physically aggressive than indirectly while women are the opposite. This trait helps men to solve personal differences more often than women who keep personal differences to themselves only to release them through indirect methods like mockery, which in turn lead to the breaking of friendships.

Due to the higher rate of maturity in women, a woman of the same age with a man is able to handle more stress and confronting issues than the man. This enables women to cope well with men older than them unlike men who when with women older than them look a bit inexperienced and immature. Females are also more accommodative than males.

This is seen where many men especially in Africa and Arab world marry more than one wife and exist in harmony. It is very hard to find a woman with more than one husband living and co-existing under the same roof.

This is also clearly demonstrated in animals where you find in a pack of lions, there is only one male and numerous lionesses. Males tend to aggressively chase and sometimes kill their other male counterparts. Aggression based on gender can thus be seen to be dependant on many issues; some innate and others are societal instigated (Nichols, Graber., Brooks., & Botvin, 107).

Both sexes are different in a number of ways which in turn shape their aggressive nature. Although not expressed in the same manner, both males and females are very aggressive; aggressive towards members of the opposite sex and aggressive to the same sex members. Aggression can however be expressed in many ways as discussed above.

Works Cited

Helgeson, Vicki. The Psychology of Gender. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005.

Morgan, James. Focus on Aggression Research. Hauppauge: Nova Publishers, 2004.

Nichols, Tracy., Graber, Julia., Brooks, Jeanne., & Botvin, Gilbert. Sex Differences in Overt Aggression and Delinquency among Urban Minority Middle School Students. New York: Comell University Press, 2006.

Turner, Patricia. Sex Gender and Identity. Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 1995.

Worell, Judith. Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender, Volume 1. New York: Elsevier, 2001.

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Sex/Gender Differences in Aggression

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