The studies Pancho sites show
more agression by boys as an average regarding frequency of behavior.
Aggressive behaviors from boys is
generally acccepted, and physical behavior, including destructive behavior, is more often exhibited. Boys are the
physically dominant sex, and have more testosterone. It is also the male role in world culture to assume
responsibility for a society's "aggressive tasks". Situations where a mother must protect her children are an
exception to this. Women often need to establish practical dominance in domestic situations for this reason, and
do.
This is not inconsistent with Belgareth's point, though, if you "factor out the frequency variable".
In psychology, as I often point out, you have to look very closely to see exactly what some particular
research shows; before drawing general conclusions about human behavior from that research.
When you get to
subtle levels, where the research is scarce, you do well to look at personal experiences to form hypotheses.
My
personal and clinical experiences tell me that women can be as viscious and focused on doing maximum harm as men,
when they become aggressive, if not moreso. There is little research on this aspect.
For example, I used
to box and do martial arts. When I've watched women compete in full-contact situations, they were not as "calm" and
"cool" with their "violence", but tended to be more viscious and unrestrained with it. Often, the first time someone
hit the other person, the "buzzsaws would start flying", until a clear winner emerged.
Women also have seemed to
me to be more skilled at doing harm with emotional violence; again, when they have chosen to engage in
it. This type of aggression is often indirect, but is aggression none the less.
I think men are more used to
physical violence, due to the frequency issue Pancho highlighted; and ritualize it more. In this sense, they know
how to "handle" violent situations "better". As a result, for example, I suspect there are more functioning "codes
of honor" to male physical violence, on the average.
But these are just my testable hypotheses. The research
needs to "catch up to the life stories" a little bit on this one.
This "lag" is the typical situation in the
human sciences; the situation that Belgareth was alluding to.
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