Evolutionarily relevant aggressive functions: Differentiating competitive, impression management, sadistic and reactive motives

This study investigated early adolescents' (ages 9-14; M = 11.91) self-reported, evolutionarily relevant motives for using aggression, including competitive, impression management, sadistic, and reactive functions, and examined differential relations with a range of psychosocial characteristics. As expected, competitive functions were associated with aggression and victimization in which the perpetrator had equal or less power than the victim, in line with the view that these are aversive and appetitive motives related to competition with rivals. Impression management and sadistic functions were associated with bullying and coercive resource control strategies (the latter for boys only), consistent with expectations that these are appetitive motives, with the former being more goal-directed and the latter somewhat more impulsive. Finally, as hypothesized, reactive functions were associated with emotional symptoms, hostility, victimization by bullying, and aggression by perpetrators with equal or less power than the victim, consistent with theory and research conceptualizing reactive aggression as an impulsive, emotion-driven response to provocation. The benefits of studying a wide range of evolutionarily relevant aggressive functions are discussed.

Automated summary

This study investigated the evolutionarily relevant motives for aggression among early adolescents and examined their relations with psychosocial characteristics. Results showed that competitive functions were associated with aggression and victimization, while impression management and sadistic functions were associated with bullying and coercive resource control strategies. Reactive functions were associated with emotional symptoms, victimization, and aggression.