Do Sex Differences Exist in Amount of Aggression or Type of Aggression, or Both - Essay Example

? Do sex differences exist in amount of aggression or type of aggression, or both? Introduction Biologically, there are two major sexes and these arethe male sex and female sex. Generally, the male and female sexes make up the human race or species. Males and females may be differentiated with several factors that constitute differences in their sexual make up. Whiles some of these difference are biological, others are psychological. Pastersky et al (2011) observe that the biological differences that distinguish males from females are actually inherent and transmitted to the sexes at a prenatal stage of their development. It is for this reason that doctors are able to tell the sex of a child even before he or she is born. Writing on the psychological differences of the two sexes, Hines (2010) also note that whereas some psychological differences between males and females are influenced by biological factors such as hormonal differences, there could actually also be some external factors including environmental changes, social upbringing and moral nurturing that could affect some of the psychological differences that exists between males and females. Whiles trying to outline some of the major biological and psychological differences that exists between males and females, Denisiuk (2010), stops over on aggression and describes it as a phenomenon that is influenced by both biological and psychological differences that exists between males and females. This paper therefore builds on this assertion by interrogating the differences that come to play as far as the amount of aggression and type of aggression that takes place among members of the two sexes are concerned. Amount of Aggression and Sex Difference The amount of aggression as used in this context may be referred to the degree of power that accompanies any form of aggression exhibited by a person. Generally, aggression is explained as defensive mechanism. It has also been explained to be an expression of one’s power over another person or another entity (Denisiuk, 2010). When viewed as either a form of power or defense, people who exhibit aggression would naturally do it in such a way that the level of production (amount of aggression exhibited) matches up or even more than the power possessed by the other entity. To this end, (Benenson, Carder and Geib-Cole (2008) observe that the amount of aggression exhibited by people is generally influenced by the amount of power possessed by the sufferer of the aggression. To this end, it may be said that the amount of aggression exhibited by males and females may not generally justifiable by an attempt to rank them in terms of amount (Baron-Cohen, 2002). That is, it cannot be said that in general, sex ‘A’ produces more amount of aggression than sex ‘B’. The determining factor would always be the kind of opposition faced Hess and Hagen (2009 p. 240). Despite this general conclusion drawn by Hess and Hagen (2009 p. 240), Hyde (2005) observe that the male sex exhibit some level of difference in the amount of aggression they exhibit over girls and this difference comes from the differences in their physical make up (p. 582). Building on his earlier point on the levels of aggression between males and females, (Baron-Cohen, 2002) continues to argue that Males have a kind of physical strength that females do not have. Due to this, even when the same amount of stimuli is applied for which males and females must respond with an amount of aggression, the tendency that males will produce greater amount of aggression than females is higher (Baron-Cohen, 2002). Surprisingly, Pastersky et al (2011) note that there can hardly be anything done about the fact that males will exhibit greater amount of aggression when faced with the need to do so than females because there is a biological attribute to the differences that could be traced to prenatal developments (p. 550). In their research, BjorkqvistLagerspetz, and Kaukiainen (1992) notice that when children (males and females) are growing and developing, there is the presence of different hormones in males as there are in females and that these hormones also come in different amounts. Referring to the hormone of testosterone, which is plentiful in males, Denisiuk (2010) writes that this is a hormone that is responsible for a lot of powerful structuring of the male sex. Because females lack the quantity of the hormone as there is in males, chances that the two sexes will exhibit the same amount of aggression towards a single entity is not feasible. For this reason, it is for instance on record that the world Olympic Games records for most sporting disciplines such as athletics, which demand high rate of physical work has males dominating in terms of time score than females (Denisiuk, 2010). Type of aggression and Sex Difference Aggression has a lot of influence on people of the two sexes and this is what types of aggression is all about. The influence of aggression on the two sexes is therefore responsible for determining why would males exhibit the kind of aggression they do and why females also exhibit the type of acts of aggression they do. Modern research by researcher such as Pastersky et al (2011) and Hess and Hagen (2009) show that, girls would generally exhibit acts of aggression as a means of self defense to oppositions they face. This means that until a female feels threatened by an event or a person or a situation around her, she would hardly be aggressive. This could be so because females are generally seen as having less physical body energy, which when not protected (this time round self protected through aggression) would be overcome by the world around them. On the part of males, the type of aggression is the one that is backed by authority. This is to say that males will exhibit aggression to express a rule of their authority over other people (Cashdan, 1998). Working on the emergence on gender differences, Jay et al. (2011), gave a scenario that of the male and female in a sexual relationship, the male may be seen as aggressive towards sex because he would want to show superiority over the female. In sum, the type of aggression exhibited by females is one that is characterized by the need to seek freedom whiles the type of aggression exhibited by males is generally harmful (Cashdan, 1998). . Conclusion To conclude, it would be said that sex difference exists in both amount of aggression and type of aggression between the two sexes. This conclusion comes with a number of implications in the care of children. First, it is important for parents, teachers, psychologists, counselors and other adults to understand the different ways in which male children and female children would exhibit aggression and why they exhibit the type of aggression they show. If such an understanding is developed, it would be easier addressing some of the basic challenges that children are likely to find themselves in; especially when they are at the adolescent stage. Some of these challenges and consequences that result from exhibition of aggression in adolescents include child delinquencies and social deviance (Rowe et al, 2004). REFERENCE LIST Benenson J. B, Carder H. P and Geib-Cole S. J (2008).The Development of Boys’ Preferential Pleasure in Physical Aggression.Aggressive Behavior. Volume 34, pages 154–166 (2008) Bjorkqvist K, Lagerspetz, K. M.J. and Kaukiainen A. (1992). Do Girls Manipulate and Boys Fight? Development Trends in Regard to Direct and Indirect Aggression.Aggressive Behavior . Volume 18, pages 117 -119 Cashdan E. (1998). Are men more competitive than women? British Journal of Social Psychology (1998).37, 213229 Denisiuk, J. S. (2010). Evolutionary Versus Social Structural Explanations for Sex Differences in Mate Preferences, Jealousy, and Aggression. Accessed May 3, 2012 from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/denisiuk.html Hess and Hagen (2009).Sex differences in indirect aggression Psychological evidence from young adults.Evolution and Human Behavior 27 (2006) 231–245 Hines, M. (2010).Sex-related variation in human behavior and the brain.Trends in Cognitive Sciences, October 2010, Vol. 14, No. 10 Hyde, J. S. (2005). The Gender Similarities Hypothesis.American Psychological Association. Vol. 60, No. 6, 581–592 Jay et al. (2011).The emergence of gender differences in physical aggression in the context of conflict between young peers.British Journal of Developmental Psychology (2011), 29, 158–175. Pastersky V. et al (2011). Prenatal hormones and childhood sex segregation: Playmate and play style preferences in girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Hormones and Behavior 59 (2011) 549–555 Rowe et al (2004). Testosterone, Antisocial Behavior, and Social Dominance in Boys: Pubertal Development and Biosocial Interaction. Society of Biological Psychiatry. 2004;55:546–552 Read More