Violent and Agressive Behaviour: Are we Defining the Problem Appropriately?

Abstract

Violent behaviour has an abundance of negative consequences ranging from the victim’s personal distress to increased economic strain on an entire community. The search for the cause(s) of aggression has been long underway with some major findings and innovations. However, there have also been several overlooked topics pertaining to the increased likelihood of violence. The current review aims to examine one of these oversights: the deeper meaning of trait aggression and the role of emotional self-regulation in violence perpetration. The author reviews current literature on the topic and outlines several correlations between violent behaviour and emotional self-regulation, which appear to be consistent across multiple adult populations. The author argues that this strong link provides due cause for future research aimed at empirically examining the relationship between emotional self-regulation and violent behaviour.