Overview

The relationship between affective-emotional processes and aggressive behavior has been a central topic of scientific interest in the aggression literature for decades. Emotions are not merely epiphenomena of aggression: they can be triggers, amplifiers, moderators, or even ultimate goals of aggressive behavior. Insights into the functional relation between emotions and aggression are of theoretical relevance, and above all are crucial for finding solutions for efficient control, prevention, and reduction of aggression.This book brings together leading experts from fields such as social, personality, developmental, and physiological psychology, presenting state-of-art research on this relationship. The book describes assessment and treatment approaches, as well as theoretical concepts and research findings concerning the interconnections between emotions and aggression. The following main areas are covered: bibliometric analyses of psychological research on emotions and aggression; emotion-based motives and measures of aggression; anger and aggression; emotions and aggression in intergroup contexts; and, emotions and aggression from a developmental perspective.

Full Product Details

9780889373433

Table of Contents

Reviews

Review to appear in 'International Society for Research on Aggression Bulletin' in June 2008 and in 'Forensic Update' in July 2008. Reviewed by Jane L. Ireland, Chartered Forensic Psychologist based at the University of Central Lancashire, UK and at Ashworth High Secure Hospital, Liverpool, UK.This book was a timely addition to my reading list as I was settling down to write a chapter myself on aggression treatment which attended both to emotions and behaviour. My own review of this area has indicated very little in the way of a single resource which captures the importance of this area and which includes a range of up-to-date literature. The edited collection of Steffgen and Gollwitzer is therefore both a timely resource and an extremely useful one. The text is comprised of thirteen chapters separated into five parts; 1.) History of research into emotions and aggression; 2.) Emotion-based motives and aggression; 3.) Anger and aggression; 4.) Intergroup contexts; and, 5.) Developmental perspectives. I do not intend to comment on every chapter. Rather I will reflect on the general themes indicated and on selected chapters. The book is, however, a very eclectic one. Thus my identification of chapters is simply for illustration. Steffgen and Gollwitzer have done well to bring together such a ranging array of disciplines and theoretical perspectives into one cohesive text. Readers interested in developmental perspectives of aggression, aggression treatment, biological influences, neurological influences and/or social influences will certainly find something of value.The structure of the text was a useful one, commencing with historical perspectives and ending with individual development. The latter is a particularly welcome component to this area of research, including chapters focusing on childhood and adolescence through the illustration of single studies or reviews of topics. The value of some chapters was certainly in their contribution to the area via the presentation of new empirical data. The chapter of Angela Ittel ('Tight bonds or loose associations; Crossroads of emotion, social integration and aggression in early adolescence') was a good example of this. In this Ittel outlines gender-specific patterns of development with emotional attributes found to predict aggression, with a complex relationship found between attributes and aggression for girls. The only area that I felt was perhaps absent from this part of the text was some reflection on changes in adult aggression over time. This is undoubtedly a function of the increased research among children and adolescents in comparison to adults, but I felt that there did need to be at least some reflection of adult differences. For example 'gender' differences in aggression are described as boys being more aggressive than girls (Florian Juen et al, 'Emotion, aggression and the meaning of prevention in early childhood') when in fact there did need to be a clear statement that this holds only for this age groups and does not automatically translate to adults; and also that the target of the aggression is important to account for. I did feel, however, that the concluding chapter in this part by Johannes Bach ('Pre-school prevention of emotional-social disorders and aggressive behaviour') was particularly useful and quite rightly focused on the importance of prevention of difficulties within very young age groups. The inclusion of both risk and protective factors to emotional development was particularly welcome since the former is often missed and/or incorrectly described in some texts.Examples of some of my further preferred chapters in this text, were Leo Montada's 'Emotion-based aggression motives'; Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J Bushman's 'Angry emotions and aggressive behaviour'; and Georges Steffgen and Jan Pfetsch's 'Does anger treatment reduce aggressive behaviour'. Leo Montada's chapter was useful in that it encouraged a focus on motivation as opposed to typology. Although it was not explicitly indicated in the chapter, the content fitted well with formal functional analyses of aggression. Such analyses are becoming more common place within both the clinical and academic literature and so it was valuable to have a chapter included on this topic even if the specific terminology of 'functional assessment' was not used per se. I particularly like the way in which this chapter integrated developmental perspectives and included range of emotions. The attention to the latter was particularly valuable. The theme of attending to a range of emotions was also consistent with a later part of the book A- Part 3 'Anger and aggression', in particular the chapter by Roy F Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman. Although this chapter provided an excellent summary of the theoretical literature on anger and aggression, illustrated by some useful contemporary examples, it also attended to emotions other than anger. It highlighted in particular the inhibiting effect on aggression that guilt may have, with shame also presenting as a core emotion of interest. What I liked in particular about this chapter was the attention to the importance of emotions other than anger with anger often solely discussed in some readings. This was followed later by a chapter by Steffgen and Pfetsch on treatment, specifically the role of managing anger as a treatment target in aggression intervention. What I liked about this chapter was its questioning of the role of anger as a sole treatment for aggression and, in particular, the acknowledgement that dealing with anger may influence treatment outcome but not necessarily reduce aggression per se. As a clinician, I found this chapter very helpful in that it assisted with putting into a clinical context the importance of theory and tying this into focused treatment delivery.I do not have many criticisms of a text of this kind since it covered a range of authors and topic areas, the content of which all differ in terms of style and contribution to the discipline. I did feel on occasion that the distinction between aggression and antisocial behaviour could have been clearer in some chapters, or at least the debate in the overlap between these related areas discussed. There was certainly an interesting attempt in the first chapter ('Historiography of research on emotions and aggression', G. Schui & G. Krampen) to try and outline the often wide-ranging definitions of aggression which exist. On a more stylistic issue, the book was missing an index (content and author); although one may use such things infrequently you really do miss them when they are absent! This book covered so many areas that I felt it was a shame that no index was incorporated to assist the reader to navigate around the text.However, what was particularly helpful in the included chapters were their attempts to provide a wide range of information as opposed to focusing on only a small number of topics. In some ways this may the text a challenge to review in that so much was included it is difficult to convey this well in a relatively short review. The attention given to a range of topics, however, made the text more valuable as a resource and as a source for directing further reading. Overall, therefore, I warmly recommend this text.

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available