Conner Eveker, Aggressiveness

Culture is a distinctly human factor that plays a role in aggression. A person's beliefs about the social acceptability of an aggressive act are major predictors of their behavior. According to Hostede's cultural dimensions there is a gender gap, and women's values are said to be more similar across cultures. Women are thought of as being gentle and caring. In cultures where there is a low aggressiveness value these values are shared with the men as well. However, other cultures have more distinctive values for men such as competition, assertiveness, and "looking out for Number One." In such cultures, the values of women also move somewhat towards the Aggressiveness end of the spectrum, although not as much as men's do. This is where the Aggressiveness trait shows. Men are set out to be the alpha male and take control of the group to lead it. When having this stature there is the constant need to show you masculinity which leads to the aggression. Some scholars believe that behaviors like aggression may be partially learned by watching and imitating the behavior of others. This is mostly due to the makings of the culture you associate with. A good example would be the presentation we were showed in psychology class the other day. In the Asian culture we see that they focus more on their faults and what they needed to work on to be better contributors to their society as a whole. But in the American culture they focused on the positive actions and the accomplishments they have overcome; as well as illustrating that they could preform tasks on their own without the help of others.