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Normal and Abnormal Aggressions: Definitions and Operational Approaches

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Book cover Neurobiological Bases of Abnormal Aggression and Violent Behaviour

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Abstract

Understanding the neural control of a behavior necessitates the clear delimitation of the behavior that is controlled. While definitions on aggression are in no short supply, these often lack aspects that are crucial for this book: the cross-species validity of definitions, their corroboration with methods of measurement, and the clear delimitation of normal and abnormal forms. To address these issues, here we circumscribe aggressive behavior in two meanings, namely, in theoretical and practical terms. First, we will review intensional definitions that specify the necessary and sufficient conditions to differentiate this behavior from others. This will be followed by extensional definitions that list its main forms and subcategories. While these theoretical constructs clearly demarcate aggressive behavior, they cannot be directly used in research because they do not provide means to measure it. These means are provided by more practical—operational—approaches, particularly by the methodologies that are employed in aggression research to quantify aggressiveness, which will be corroborated with theoretical approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=aggression

  2. 2.

    For arthropods see Kravitz and Huber (2003); for lower animals see van Staaden et al. (2011) and Evans (1973).

  3. 3.

    Negotiation and sharing are viable options when resources are sufficient for all. This is not always the case.

  4. 4.

    Albeit a similar model was developed earlier in this species, this model detaches in terms of the duration of postweaning social isolation and the age at which aggression was tested (see below).

  5. 5.

    A systematic overview of all the methodologies employed in human aggression research overpassess the scope of this section. We focus here on representative psychiatric instruments.

  6. 6.

    In the followings, we will refer to mental disorders as described in DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association 2000).

  7. 7.

    To avoid an overcrowded figure, we make use of examples.

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  1. Department of Behavioral Neurobiology, Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary

    József Haller

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Haller, J. (2014). Normal and Abnormal Aggressions: Definitions and Operational Approaches. In: Neurobiological Bases of Abnormal Aggression and Violent Behaviour. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1268-7_1

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