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The Social Psychology of Aggression and Violence

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International Handbook of Violence Research

Abstract

Most of the research in social psychology on harm doing behavior is conceived as aggression. There is no separate basic research area on violence, although sometimes high levels of aggression or inflicting physical harm are referred to as violence. The same causal factors that instigate aggressive behavior are assumed to also generate violent behavior. Examination of recent textbooks in social psychology indicate that they all have a chapter on aggression, but violence is only mentioned as a descriptive term referring to content of television programs or violent crimes. Applied researchers do of course study spouse and child abuse, sexual coercion, the effects of depictions of violence in the mass media, assaults and homicides, and (less often) terrorism, but no cohesive scientific theory of violence has been offered.

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  1. James T. Tedeschi
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Wilhelm Heitmeyer John Hagan

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Tedeschi, J.T. (2003). The Social Psychology of Aggression and Violence. In: Heitmeyer, W., Hagan, J. (eds) International Handbook of Violence Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48039-3_24

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