Aggression
In its most extreme forms, aggression is human tragedy unsurpassed. Hopes that the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust would produce a worldwide revulsion against the taking of another human's life, resulting in the end of genocidal practices and a reduction in homicide rates, have been dashed by the realities of increasing homicide and genocide in the last half of the twentieth century. The litany of genocidal events is both long and depressing, including major massacres in Uganda, Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and Herzegovina, among others. Homicide rates have risen in a number of industrialized countries since World War II, most notably in the United States.
We have seen slight declines in the homicide rate in the United States during the 1990s. But despite six consecutive years of decreases, the 1997 homicide rate was still 133 percent of the 1965 rate, and 166 percent of the 1955 rate. For these and related reasons, interest in understanding the causes of aggression remains high, and there have been major advances in the social psychology of aggression.
What Is Aggression?
Definitions have varied widely over time and across research domains. However, a consensus has emerged among most social psychologists studying human aggression about what constitutes "aggression" in general and what constitutes the major forms or "ideal types" of aggression.
This page contains 201 words.
Aggression article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 6,885 words
(approx. 23 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Aggression Article
