Aggression and Dominance
Assortments of experimental and observational studies suggest that when differences in aggression are found, they tend to be in the direction of male aggressiveness, including greater verbal aggression in males than in females. Indeed, when Hyde (1986b) meta-analyzed 143 studies of gender variation in aggression, she found males more aggressive than females, with the largest effect in studies of physical aggression. In addition, Hyde found that the method of the study had an impact on the result, with naturalistic observations resulting in larger gender differences than did experimental studies. Eagly and steffen (1986) meta-analyzed 63 studies of aggression; they also found male-female differences in aggression and reported that the effect was larger in young compared with adult samples: The impact of higher levels of the personality trait of aggression in young males has powerful consequences for their survival-young men between 18 and 24 are overwhelmingly more likely to die than their female peers, with the vast majority of deaths among young people due to automobile accidents, homicide, and suicide (see Figure 11.4).
Do men have a more dominant personality than women? If aggressive behaviors are defined as dominance, then of course the answer is yes. If, however, leadership qualities, or controlling behaviors, or behaviors that resist control are included in children has primarily been studied in these sing-gender groups. In these interactions it is found that boys engage in more behaviors that are commonly thought to establish dominance, including interrupting, commanding and threatening, resisting the requests of others, and so on. Alternatively, girls take turns in conversation, make requests more politely, and agree with one another more often. These findings have also been documented in cross-cultural studies (Whiting & Edwards, 1988). A simple trait focus on gender and aggression may be misguided (Richardson & Hammock, 2007).