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Theories of male and female aggression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1999

Kirsti M. J. Lagerspetz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Turku, FIN-20014 Turku, Finlandkirsti.lagerspetz@utu.fi

Abstract

Sociobiology has ignored the results of psychology, which is the discipline between biology and society. Campbell's target article fills some of the gaps beautifully, but the fact that women's direct and physical aggression has increased during the past 20 years, undermines Campbell's evolutionary explanation of female aggression. The two classical types of theoretical explanations of aggression are that (1) aggression is a drive and (2) aggression is instrumental behavior. Expressive aggression, assumed to be typical of women, is no more drive aggression than is men's aggression.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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