Sex differences in aggression

This chapter examines mainly same-sex aggression in adolescent peer groups and in sexual competition between adult women. Reviews from the 1980s were more cautious, and while they agreed that males were physically more aggressive than females, they saw sex differences in aggression to be a question of quality rather than quantity. The chapter suggests that research to date had an overemphasis on physical aggression, while other forms, most notably indirect aggression, which might be a more typical form of female aggression, had been overlooked. K. Bjorkqvist, K. Osterman, and A. Kaukiainen suggested that physical, verbal, and indirect aggression could be conceived of not only as three different strategies of aggression, but also as three different stages in human development, partly following, partly overlapping each other. The theory about the development of aggressive strategies suggests a correlation between indirect aggression and social intelligence. A link between testosterone and aggression is well established among subhuman species.