What Is ‘heteroaggressiveness’? Causes And Associated Disorders

We call heteroaggressiveness all those aggressive behaviors directed towards others This includes physical attacks, insults, or more subtle ways of hurting another person. There are those who say that heteroaggressiveness is part of our nature and is an inevitable part of the human experience that is impossible to get rid of or renounce.

Other people claim that it is a product of acculturation and can be avoided. The enigma surrounding the origin of this type of behavior has given rise to numerous hypotheses, some more rigorous and scientific and others more moralistic.

Psychologists have studied this multifaceted phenomenon from different perspectives and have obtained different complementary explanations to the question of what it is and why it occurs. We briefly explain what psychologists know about this form of aggressiveness.

    What is heteroaggressiveness?

    Heteroaggressiveness refers to disposition, a tendency to react violently towards the outside. We must understand aggression as a strategy. Aggression, psychologically speaking, is a means to an end. Therefore, Aggressive individuals are the ones who have the most tendency to use these types of strategies to obtain their goals whether tangible or emotional.

    We know that children who are aggressive from a young age are more likely to continue to be so as they grow older. We also know that Heteroaggressiveness has to do with poor impulse control The most aggressive people, having difficulties regulating their emotions and containing their most powerful emotional reactions, find it impossible not to let themselves be carried away by the anger they may feel in a frustrating situation.

    When we talk about emotional regulation and impulse control, it is impossible not to also talk about emotional education. One of the most obvious advantages of children learning to recognize and manage emotions is greater control over one’s emotional life and a greater ability to control themselves. This means that children with difficulties in managing negative emotions such as anger would have more tools to control heteroaggressiveness that could otherwise explode.

    What is the cause of heteroaggressiveness?

    So, if heteroaggressiveness depends on impulse control that is already visible in younger children, Is it a trait that is transmitted genetically?

    The answers in psychology are never so simple. Once again, we have to talk about multifactorial causes. As we know that the best way to study the adult is through the child, let’s see what factors participate in its development.

    1. Individual factors

    Individual factors in the explanation of heteroaggressiveness include prenatal factors, characteristics associated with the gender and temperament of the child. For example, there are studies that attempt to link exposure to toxic substances during pregnancy and subsequent aggressive behavior. There are others who draw a relationship between low levels of corticotropin-releasing hormone and heteroaggressive behavior.

    Regarding gender, it is found that boys and girls have different heteroaggressive behaviors. While boys opt more for a form of physical violence, girls tend to be more aggressive socially, that is, through insults or ignoring other classmates. These differences in the forms of violence crystallize as children grow, until they reach adolescence.

    Children with a difficult temperament are more likely to be aggressive towards others. Emotional regulation difficulties, hypersensitivity to negative moods or intolerance to frustration are ingredients that form an excellent breeding ground for the birth of a heteroaggressive behavior pattern.

    2. Parental factors

    It is impossible to talk about any aspect of individual development without mentioning the influence of parenting style and family aspects. Both a parenting style that is too rigid or too lax can have consequences in the development of heteroaggressiveness.

    An environment without rules or limits can give free rein to the expression of anger in a violent way, something that is not tolerated in other social environments. Likewise, an authoritative parenting style can generate frustrations and contained anger, which in addition to being harmful to health, frequently explode in adolescence in the form of heteroaggressive behavior.

    Aggressive parental models, for example the presence of a father or mother with a tendency to use physical violence to punish, validate aggression as a strategy. It is especially those children with a difficult temperament who learn these strategies the fastest and become accustomed to physical punishment more quickly, to the point where it no longer works for them.

    3. Social factors

    With schooling and later the transition to adolescence**, the role of the family is eclipsed by the influences exerted by the peer group**. Being a victim of violent behavior or seeing others being aggressive are factors that predict the appearance of heteroaggressiveness. For example, boys and girls who grow up in more violent neighborhoods also tend to be more violent, due to learning and not knowing any other alternative.

    The effects of television on heteroaggressiveness are limited. Television only has an effect on aggression in individuals who were previously aggressive. The rest of the children do not engage in heteroaggressive learning or acquire new violent fantasies. Furthermore, these effects disappear when children watch television accompanied by an adult who can guide them.

    Similarly, the content they see on the Internet will not be harmful if there is an adult who supervises and is actively responsible for discussing violent content that the child may have encountered.

    4. Attachment

    The importance of the role of attachment deserves a separate paragraph It is during the attachment process that the child learns to develop their abilities for affective and behavioral self-regulation. It is to be expected that if the child, instead of receiving loving experiences that help him establish an attachment relationship, is denied these experiences, an insecure attachment will develop.

    In some cases, children form a particular type of insecure attachment, disorganized. These children are characterized by showing profound behavioral dysregulation and uncontrolled tantrums. This is why we find that neglectful parents often have heteroaggressive children.