human aggression

460 Pages·2010·1.65 MB·English

HUMAN AGGRESSION:
A MULTIFACETED PHENOMENON

by

J. Martin Ramirez

INDEX

FOREWORD
by Prof. John Archer, President of I.S.R.A.

INTRODUCTION

I. CONCEPT OF AGGRESSION

1. The nature of violence.
J. Martin Ramirez In Violence: Some Alternatives , Centreur, pp. 87-112 (1994)

2. Aggression: causes and functions.
J. Martin Ramirez, Hiroshima Forum for Psychology 17: 21-37 (1996)

3. Towards control and eventual prevention of any violence: Comments on Dr.
Ramirez's Paper
Yoshimasa Habu Dr. Habu’s comments., Hiroshima Forum for Psychology 17: 38-
42 (1996)

4. For the victim, whether aggression is intended doesn't really matter… and other
matters.
J. Martin Ramirez, Reply to Dr. Habu. Hiroshima Forum for Psychology 17: 43-47
(1996)

II. KINDS OF HUMAN AGGRESSION

5 . Towards a Conceptualization and Classification of Animal Aggression
J. Martin Ramirez, Hiroshima Forum for Psychology 1981, 8: 11~21

6. Some Inconsistencies between his present behavioral and previous physiological
analyses of aggression : Comments on Dr. Ramirez's Paper
1
Akira Shishimi, Hiroshima Forum for Psychology 1981, 8, 22.

7. Reply to the Comments of Dr. Shishimi
J. Martin Ramirez, Hiroshima Forum for Psychology 1981, 8: 23-26.

8. Aggression’s typologies.
J. Martin Ramirez,, J. M. Andreu, International Review of Social Psychology (in press)

9. A new tridimensional construct of aggression using structural equations modelling
J. M. Andreu, J. Martin Ramirez,

III. VIOLENCE, WAR AND PEACE: THE SEVILLE STATEMENT ON
VIOLENCE

10. The Seville Statement on Violence,
D. Adams, S.A. Barnett, N.P. Bechtereva, B.F. Carter, J.M.R. Delgado, J.L. Díaz, A.
Eliasz, S. Genovés, B.E. Ginsburg, J. Gröbel, S.K. Ghosh, R.A. Hinde, R.E. Leakey,
T.H. Malasi, J. Martín Ramírez, F. Mayor Zaragoza, D.L. Mendoza, A. Nandy, J.P.
Scott, & R. Wahlstrom, Cahiers du Mouvement Universel de la Responsabilité
Scientifique, 5: 51-59 (1986).

11. The nature of violence and war.
J. Martín Ramírez, R. Hinde & J. Groebel, Essays on Violence, Seville: Publicaciones
Universidad de Sevilla, 1987, 13-16

12. Psychobiology of peace.
J. Martín Ramírez, In: J. Martín Ramírez, R. Hinde & J. Groebel, Essays on Violence,
Seville: Publicaciones Universidad de Sevilla, 1987, 134-155

13. The educational task of overcoming violence.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: J. Martin Ramirez, Violence. Some Alternatives. Madrid:
Centreur, 1994, 113-146

14. Psychobiological control of hostility.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: J. Rotblat & M. Konuma (eds). Towards a Nuclear Weapon-free
World, Singapur: World Scientific (1997). pp 646-648

15. War is biologically avoidable.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: Joseph Rotblat (ed). Long Roads to Peace Singapur: World
Scientific 2001. pp 375-379

16. Human and cultural nature of war.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: J. Roblatt, R.A. Hinde (eds) Eliminating the Causes of War.
Cambridge (in press).

17. The Jerusalem Statement on Science for Peace
2
Y. Becker, J. Vary, J.M. Ramirez. In: Y. Becker & Vladimir Kouzminov (eds.)
Science for Peace Venice: UNESCO 1997, pp 13-16

18. Peace is scientifically possible: from The Seville Statement on Violence to the
UNESCO Culture of Peace.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: Y. Becker & Vladimir Kouzminov (eds.) Science for Peace
Venice: UNESCO 1997, pp 21-31

19. A first step toward peace is to know that biology does not condemnt humanity to
war
J. Martin Ramirez, Journal on the Psychology of International Relations
(in press)

20. Developing in peace: poverty, migration and violence.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: J. Rotblat (ed) Security, Cooperation and Disarmament: the
Unfinished Agenda for the 1990s, Singapur: World Scientific 1998, pp 547-561

21. Peacekeeping in Europe: some comments in the light of the Balkans conflict.
J. Martin Ramirez, Pugwash Meeting on NATO, Castellón 1-4 July 1999

IV. PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF HUMAN AGGRESSION

22. Animal models in the research of human aggression.
J. Martin Ramirez. Aggression and Violent Behavior 5 (3): 281-290 (2000)

23. Hormones and Aggression in Childhood and Adolescence.
J. Martin Ramirez. Aggression and Violent Behavior, in press

V. CULTURAL AND GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AGGRESSION AND ANGER

A) Interpersonal aggression

24. Gender differences in social interactions of children: a naturalistic approach
D.L. Mendoza, J. Martin Ramirez, Bulletin Psychonomic Society 22 (6): 553-556
(1984)

25. Aggression and cohesion in Spanish and Mexican children
J. Martin Ramirez, D.L. Mendoza. In J. Martín Ramírez & P.F. Brain (eds),
Aggression: Functions and Causes, Publicaciones Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla
1985, 152-163

26. Direct and indirect aggression in women: a comparison between South Africa and
Spain.
3
W.H. Theron, D.D. Matthee, Henry R. Steel & J. Martin Ramirez. In: J. Martin
Ramirez & Deborah R. Richardson (eds.) Cross-cultural Approaches to Aggression
and Reconciliation. Huntington: NovaScience, (2001) pp. 99-109

1. Cultural and sex differences in aggression: a comparison between Japanese and
Spanish students using two different inventories.
J. Martin Ramirez, J.M. Andreu & T. Fujihara, Aggressive Behavior, (2001) 27: 313-
322

B) Justification of interpersonal aggression

2. Similarities in attitudes toward interpersonal aggression in Finland, Poland, and
Spain,
J. Martin Ramirez. Journal of Social Psychology, 13:737-739 (1991).

29. Acceptability of aggression in four Spanish regions and a comparison with other
European countries,
J. Martin Ramirez, Aggressive Behavior, 19: 185-197 (1993)

30. Taijinteki kougeki koudou ni taisuru taidono hikaku bunkateki kenkyu.
(Cross-cultural study of attitudes toward interpersonal aggression).
J. Martin Ramirez & T. Fujihara, Kwansei Gakuin Daigaku Syakaigakubu Kiyou. 78:
97-103 (1997) (in Japanese language)

31. Justification of interpersonal aggression in Japanese, American and Spanish
students,
T. Fujihara, T. Kohyama, J.M. Andreu, J.M. Ramirez, Aggressive Behavior, (1999)
25: 185-195

32. Moral approval of aggressive acts by urban students (A cross-national study in
four continents).
J. Martin Ramirez, In: J. Martin Ramirez & Deborah R. Richardson (eds.) Cross-
cultural Approaches to Aggression and Reconciliation. Huntington: NovaScience,
(2001) pp. 61-71

C) Anger

33. Cultural and gender differences in anger and aggression: a comparison between
Japanese, Dutch and Spanish students,
J. Martin Ramirez, T. Fujihara & S. van Goozen. Journal of Social Psychology 141 (1):
119-121 (2001)

34. Anger proneness in Japanese and Spanish students.
4
J. Martin Ramirez, T. Fujihara & S. van Goozen & C. Santisteban, C. In: J. Martin
Ramirez & Deborah R. Richardson (eds.) Cross-cultural Approaches to Aggression
and Reconciliation. Huntington: NovaScience, (2001) pp. 87-97

35. Differences between experiences of anger and readiness to angry action: A study
of Japanese and Spanish students.
J. Martin Ramirez, C. Santisteban, T. Fujihara, & S. Van Goozen. Aggressive
Behavior, (2002) Vol 28(6): 429-438

36. Individual differences in anger reaction to noise
J. Martin Ramirez, J. M. Alvarado & C. Santisteban (submitted)

C) Aggression and Pleasure
37. Pleasure, the common currency of emotions.
J. Martin Ramirez, M. Cabanac. In: Ekman, P. (Ed.). Emotions Inside Out, Annals
of New York Academy of Sciences, (in press)

38. Can impulsive aggression provide pleasure? A study with people of different ages.
J. Martin Ramirez, M.C. Bonniot-Cabanac, M. Cabanac, Aggressive Behavior, (in
press)

VI. TERRORISM

A) General comments

39. Psychological perspectives of terrorism.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: J. Groebel & J. Goldstein (eds), Terrorism, Publicaciones
Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 1989, 11-14

40. Reflections on terrorism and its semantic. Examples from Spain and South Africa.
J. Martin Ramirez & C. Lindhard. In: The Developmental Origins of Aggressive
Behavior, Montreal, 28-31 July 2002, p. 102

41. Terrorism: a problem of borders.
J. Martin Ramirez, In. Science, Sustainability Security, La Jolla, (in press)

B) Terrorism in Spain

42. The Basque conflict.
J. Martin Ramirez, B. Sullivan. In: J. Boucher, D. Landis & K. Arnold (eds), Ethnic
conflict: International perspectives, SAGE, Newbury Park 1987, 119-138

5
43.Terrorism in Spain: the case of E.T.A.,
J. Martin Ramirez. In: J. Groebel & J. Goldstein (eds), Terrorism, Publicaciones
Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 1989, 153-161

VIII. ESTRES

44. The PTSD: An unhealthy effect of war.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: Joseph Rotblat (ed). Lond Roads to Peace. Singapur: World
Scientific 2001. pp 390-396

45. Urban stress in the metropolis: psychobiological consequences.
J. Martin Ramirez, In: E.Y. Galantay (ed.), The metropolis in transition, Paragon
House, New York, 1987, 123-132

46. Reduction of stress by relaxation techniques: their possible use in the reduction of
aggression
J.M. Poveda, E., Iciarte, E. Toro-Lira, R. Rodriguez, R., J. Poveda, and J.M. Ramirez. In:
M. Martinez (ed.) Prevention and control of aggression and the impact on its victims,
London: Kluwer Academic, (2001) pp. 189-194
6
FOREWORD

It is an honour to write the prologue to this book, containing selections from the writings of
Martin Ramirez over the Last twenty-five years. Martin is a well-known, well-travelled,
and well-respected researcher and writer about aggression. Although he started out as a
neuroscientist and biomedical researcher, his intellectual voyage over the last thirty years
has taken him far away from this starting point. The wide-ranging topics in the chapters of
this book indicate the diversity of his interests, which are all variations on the basic theme
of violence and human nature. It is particularly important in these days of academic
specialisation for there to be researchers such as Martin who can form a broad view of the
subject.
The chapters in this book are arranged thematically rather than chronologically, although
the order of their original publication is clear from their dates. Throughout, Martin has been
concerned with the prevention of violence and the issue of war and peace, which
unfortunately is always topical. Two earlier sections are concerned with the concept of
aggression, what the term means and where its boundaries are, and the classification of
aggression. These are still important topics, especially as researchers have now included
covert forms of harming others within the definition of aggression. The substantial middle
section concerns Martin’s writings about war and peace, beginning with the influential
Seville Statement on Violence, of which Martin was one of a number of distinguished
authors. Essentially, this was written to counter a seemingly popular academic view of war,
which was rooted in psychoanalysis and Lorenzian ethology, and which emphasised its
inevitability. Such a view actually discourages the study of the causes of war, and therefore
shuts off the ways in which researchers might contribute to preventing it.
Martin has also contributed to the analysis of aggression at an individual level, particularly
sex differences and variations across cultures, which are two interests we share. Attitudes to
aggression, and how these vary across cultures, are particularly important, either because
they play a part in causing aggression at an individual level, or because they provide ways
of justifying and excusing it, and therefore making it more of an acceptable option. Martin
has recently been examining aggression and pleasure, a neglected topic, but one that I think
needs more study, especially among young men who acquire a taste for violence. Finally,
there are chapters on the consequences of aggression, in terms of the stress it produces.
These remind us why we are concerned about violence in the first place, because of its
contribution to the toll of human misery from the dawn of history to the present day.
Aggression researchers such as Martin and myself hope we can contribute in our own ways
to the reduction of human violence and its impact. But our influence will always be limited
without the political will to use the vast amount of research evidence that is already
available to inform policy.
I congratulate Martin on having reached the advanced age of sixty, and reassure him that I
am not far behind. I hope that we will continue to read his contributions to the study of
aggression for many years to come.

John Archer
Professor of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England
President of ISRA
7
INTRODUCTION

This volume is a selection of nearly fifty papers of mine devoted to the issue of
human aggression, which were originally published in several scientific journals
and books during the last quarter of century. Most of them were in English, with the
exception of a few ones, which appeared in several Japanese journals. The book,
which was conceived to celebrate my 60th birthday aniversary, provides me with
the opportunity to display a panorama of the research work my coworkers and I
have undertaken regarding human aggression during the last 30 years.

The history included in this book, therefore, is in some respect a chronicle of my
many years of research on aggression. Although I have three graduate degrees
and two doctoral dissertations, my first degree in fact is in biomedical science. After
finishing my Ph.D. in Neuroscience, on innervation of brain vessels, in Berlin, I
started to train as a physiological psychologist dealing with the issue of aggression
and its relationship with the brain, using microelectrodes in electrical and chemical
techniques. Working first in Bochum, then in Stanford, I finally returned back to my
own country, Spain, with some sporadical short research stays in other laboratories
abroad: Sydney, Hawai, Warsaw, Pretoria, and now Quebec. For a variety of
reasons I gradually shifted my emphasis more to comparative psychology,
extending the number of animal species studied to hamsters, cats, and primates.

In more recent years I have focused my interest on human aggression, the topic of
this book. This was a return to the central theme which had attracted me so many
years, since I was an undergraduate student: a better comprehension of the
human nature. This explains my selection of studies: Medicine, Philosophy and
Arts, and Jura, which could be considered as a sort of anthropological meditation.
And since I also think that nihil humanum alienum puto, it seems to me quite easy
to justify why nothing is alien to my interest, and specially what has become the
main subject of my research: aggression ad violence, given that unfortunatelly it
plays an prominent role in our dayly landscape and even, if I may confess it, in the
struggle of my own life.

Throughout these years, I have found useful information for my work emanating
from many different disciplines and many different theoretical orientations. Each
day I agree more clearly with the tenets of a holistic approach, encompassing
psychobiology, social psychology and even anthropology, as the characteristic
approach of a neuroscientist has to be one who understands that the study of the
human being needs to be a joint product of many different disciplines. Although I
have my own theoretical predispositions, Y have found the theories of others to be
a useful challenge in my attempts to organize my own thinking in relation to a
particular problem. And I have also found the field and laboratory work of others to
be valuable to my efforts for Y value data substance about equally than any
particular theoretical orientation.

8
The reader will realize that this book is a repraisal of my earlier statements about
these matters. It offers a selective presentation of the multifaceted concept of
human aggression. Necessarily many important points of view and empirical
research studies have not been mentioned. My attention, however, has not been
random, but has been guided by an ecocultural framework that was made explicit
at the outset. Central to this framework has been the view that individual human
beings develop and exhibit behaviors that are adaptive to the ecological and
sociopolitical contexts in which they and their group find themselves. If one wants
to understand adequately the human being, we have to frame him within his
environment, which is the rest of the nature.

I have also taken the position that human aggression, like any other psychological
processes, shows shared, species-wide characteristics. Even more, it is essentially
an interdisciplinary topic, drawing not only on psychology, but also on other social,
biological, and ecological sciences. These common psychological qualities are
nurtured, and shaped by enculturation and socialization, sometimes further
affected by acculturation, and ultimately expressed as overt human behaviors.
While set in motion by these transmission processes relatively early in life,
behaviors continue to be guided in later life by direct influence from ecological,
cultural, and sociopolitical factors. In short, in its broadest sense, culture can be
considered to be a major source of human behavioral diversity producing variations
on underlying themes. It is the common qualities that make comparisons possible,
and the variations that make comparisons interesting.

I am aware that nobody can know everything about everything. We have moved far
from the time when common knowledge could be expected, at least among a
certain intelectual elite of ‘Leonardos da Vinci’. Today, on the contrary, ignorance is
present even among the most selected audience. And these limitations do not in
themelves produce any reaction. I remember hearing a preacher’s praise to “that
great dreamer of freedom called STEVE BIRO” (sic), and repeated it several times.
“It was a lapsus linguae,” was the justifying comment of my Southafrican wife, who
always thinks in positive (every Southafrican knows his real name was BIKO, and
no BIRO), whereas I dared to suggest rather malevolously that he probably did not
even know who STEVE BIKO really was. This general consideration is also
applicable to our present topic. It is very difficult to embrace the topic of
aggression, given its enormity and multifaceted character. No wonder, then, that
the literature on aggression is full of conflicting results and interpretations, for its
very definition is far from being universally accepted. This explains why it has
caused endless confussion, and why the two first parts of the book are focused to
the concept and kinds of human aggression.

The 3rd part is dedicated to a series of publications related to the Seville Statement
on Violence, which was elaborated by a group of scholars from all the continents.
Being concerned about old myths that were trying to justify violence and war as
something intrinsic and inherent to human nature and therefore inevitable, we
started to work on the statemen in 1982, during the 4th Biennal World ISRA
Conference, in Mexico City. Besides giving a more exact knowledge of what
9
science knows about humand mind, and more specifically about how aggression
works, the hope was that by the rejection of these myths would also help people to
believe that they could take positive action for peace. The scientific statement was
finished in May 1986, during an ex professo meeting in Seville. Three years later,
in 1989, at the 25th session of the General Conference of Unesco in Paris, its
dissemination was decided. It started with the organization of an international
interdisciplinary seminar at Yamousutro, in Ivory Coast, as a contribution to further
reflection on the subject. Since then it has been endorsed by a large number of
scientific organizations. We scientists are aware that the SSV has not said the final
word on the subject, given that science, far from being definitive or all
encompassing, may be subject to change in the future; but we also believe it was
an important first step towards the right direction.

The 4th part stresses the importance of biology in the study of aggression. It
includes two review papers focusing on the importance of animal models for the
study of the biological bases of the human behavior, and on the role of hormones
in the aggression of children and adolescents. The biology and behavior of animals
can help us in the knowledge of humans, not only given the important number of
parallels that can be discerned, but also because most of the experimental
approaches used to study the biological nature of aggresion require certain
manipulations which are not possible in human beings. This explains why, being a
medical doctor interested in human beings, I dedicated two decades of my life to
animal research, mainly in Germany, United States. and Spain. The second review
does a survey on recent psychobiosocial studies associating hormones and
aggression in children and adolescents, with a special focus on puberty, given the
rapid changes in both hormones and behavior occurring during that developmental
period. Despite the progress of the last few years, the links between hormones and
childhood violence is not consistently reported; it remains woefully understudied,
but with a very promising future.

The 5th part deals with a topic that has occupied most of my two last decades of
research on aggression: a cross-cultural approach of different psychological
processes underlying feelings and expressions of aggressivity. Although the
influence of the psychosocial environment on behavior cannot be disentangled
from the biological one, cross-cultural studies, with their revelation of similarities
and differences among national or cultural groups, can help us to understand
which biosocial processes are involved in aggression. Empirical studies in cross-
cultural psychology, showing ample evidence of both pan-human psychological
qualities, and variation in the development and overt display of these qualities
across cultures, allow us to take some steps toward the goal of producing a
universal psychology, both in terms of demonstrating how human psychological
functioning is similar across cultures and how important differences in behavior
repertoire emerge. We have investigated differences between both sexes in
several kinds of interpersonal aggression from an ethological approach, as well as
using self-report inventories. The patterns of moral approval of aggressive acts of
different intensity in different situations from the observer's perspective have also
been analysed in studies conducted with different national samples, allowing us to
10