NurseWeek

Female, male: aggression vs. injury infliction

By Grace Tsai, PhD
Health24News
September 13, 2000


	You've read the article. Now tell us what you think. Related Sites The Family Violence Prevention Fund Psychological Bulletin American Psychological Association

Washington (H24N). In the latest issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association, a review of the literature on sex differences of physical aggression in heterosexual partners found some startling results.

Contrary to popular belief, women were slightly more likely than men to use one or more types of physical aggression and to commit such acts more frequently. However, men were more likely to inflict an injury, and overall, 62 percent of those injured by a partner were women.

Another discrepancy was also found between those studies where women used self-reports compared to partner reports. Noted in an excerpt by John Archer, the author of the study, "According to self-reports, women are more likely than men to commit acts of physical aggression, whereas according to partner reports [filled out by partners and compared to counterparts’ reports] their respective levels are similar, although this is attributable to outliers [findings that are outside the bell curve, those that don’t seem to make sense because they are on the extreme ends]."

Archer illustrates a crucial point in research: how the data are collected is just as important as the results garnered. Different methods of measurement may produce conflicting results.

The study also points out the two conflicting viewpoints about partner violence. The first viewpoint is dubbed "family conflict," and data supporting this position are usually derived by asking participants not selected for their high level of violence, but more in terms of how they resolve relationship conflicts. This perspective typically emphasizes influences on aggressive behavior that are common to both men and women.

The second viewpoint, the "feminist position" is largely derived from female victims’ reports. The theoretical underpinnings of the feminist view are very different. The "feminist position" regards partner violence as a consequence of patriarchy, and thus it largely involves male perpetrators.

The meta-analysis in this current study analyzed 82 studies in six countries. The majority (72) of the studies were conducted in the United States. Studies from Canada, the United Kingdom, Korea, Israel and New Zealand were also analyzed. Archer does acknowledge that one of the limitations of this study is that many of the studies reviewed have come from culturally similar western nations, and thus generalizations of the conclusions would be inappropriate for other cultural nations.