Excessive aggression is an urgent problem of modern society but the mechanisms of aggressiveness development are insufficiently studied. Aggression is more pronounced in males than in females, therefore the study of the aggressiveness development mechanisms is mainly carried out on males. Female aggression is considered to differ from male and findings from male samples cannot apply to females. The purpose of work was the estimation of differences of interrelationships between personality traits in men and women. Material and methods. The study involved 119 Ukrainian young people aged from 18 to 22 years (105 men and 14 women). The participants were proposed to answer questions of the Buss–Durkee Hostility Inventory, Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The Buss–Durkee Hostility Inventory was used to study aggressiveness. The Spielberger State–Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to investigate the anxiety traits. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire provided the estimation of extraversion–introversion ratio, neuroticism and the sincerity of answers. If the answers were not sincere, they were not taken into account. Statistical analysis of the results was carried out by methods of nonparametric statistics using the package “Statistica 6.0”. Results and discussion. According to the results, women and men did not differ by extraversion, neuroticism and anxiety traits, but women had a statistically significant lower aggressiveness index. This was mainly due to lower physical aggressiveness in the absence of a difference in verbal and indirect aggressiveness. It is possible that differences in aggressiveness index and physical aggressiveness between men and women are provided by features of interrelationships between personality traits. Although both men and women had strong reliable positive interrelationships between neuroticism and anxiety traits, women had some differences in the correlation between some personality traits. Conclusions. Women had a statistically significant lower aggressiveness index mainly due to lower physical aggressiveness. Both men and women had strong reliable positive interrelationships between neuroticism and anxiety traits. Moderate reliable negative correlation between extraversion and anxiety traits in men, and strong negative correlation between extraversion and neuroticism in women were found. Opposite character of correlations between neuroticism and aggressiveness index was revealed in women (strong negative correlation) and men (moderate positive correlation). Features of the relationships between personality traits in males and females are due to the determining role of sex hormones for the organization and modulation of neural networks related to behaviour. Thus, the study of differences between sex and stress hormones levels and their relationships with personality traits in men and women is necessary for understanding the aggressiveness development mechanisms.

Keywords: aggressiveness index, extraversion, neuroticism, anxiety traits, men, women

Full text: PDF (Ua) 206K

1. Hashikawa K, Hashikawa Y, Lischinsky J, Lin D. The Neural Mechanisms of Sexually Dimorphic Aggressive Behaviors. Trends Genet. 2018; 34 (10): 755–76. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30173869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2018.07.001
2. Pavlov KA, Chistiakov DA, Chekhonin VP. Genetic determinants of aggression and impulsivity in humans. J Appl Genet. 2012; 53(1): 61–82. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21994088. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353–011–0069–6
3. Yanowitch R, Coccaro EF. The neurochemistry of human aggression. Adv Genet. 2011; 75: 151–69. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22078480. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978–0–12–380858–5.00005–8
4. Picciotto MR, Lewis AS, van Schalkwyk GI, Mineur YS. Mood and anxiety regulation by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: A potential pathway to modulate aggression and related behavioral states. Neuropharmacology. 2015; 96(Pt B): 235–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.12.028
5. Popova LD, Vasylyeva IM, Nakonechnaya OA. Correlations of Aggressiveness with the Levels of Sex Hormones in Young Men; Validity of a Proposed nthropometric Marker. Neurophysiology. 2018; 50 (3): 173–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062–018–9734–2
6. Fanning JR, Keedy S, Berman ME, Lee R, Coccaro EF. Neural Correlates of Aggressive Behavior in Real Time: a Review of fMRI Studies of Laboratory Reactive Aggression. Curr Behav Neurosci Rep. 2017; 4(2): 138–50. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29607288. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5875983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473–017–0115–8
7. Kalemi G, Michopoulos I, Efstathiou V, Konstantopoulou F, Tsaklakidou D, Gournellis R, et al. Narcissism but Not Criminality Is Associated With Aggression in Women: A Study Among Female Prisoners and Women Without a Criminal Record. Front Psychiatry. 2019 Feb 1; 10: 21. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00021
8. Ogama N, Sakurai T, Saji N, Nakai T, Niida S, Toba K, et al. Frontal White Matter Hyperintensity Is Associated with Verbal Aggressiveness in Elderly Women with Alzheimer Disease and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. Dement Geriatr Cogn Dis Extra. 2018; 8(1): 138–50. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29805380. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5968270. https://doi.org/10.1159/000486826
9. Yang Y, Joshi SH, Jahanshad N, Thompson PM, Baker LA. Neural correlates of proactive and reactive aggression in adolescent twins. Aggress Behav. 2017; 43(3): 230–40. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27766650. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21683
10. Lu F, Huo Y, Li M, Chen H, Liu F, Wang Y, et al. Relationship between personality and gray matter volume in healthy young adults: a voxel–based morphometric study. PLoS One. 2014 Feb 14; 9(2): e88763. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24551159. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088763
11. Schutter DJLG, Meuwese R, Bos MGN, Crone EA, Peper JS. Exploring the role of testosterone in the cerebellum link to neuroticism: From adolescence to early adulthood. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017; 78: 203–12. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28214680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.01.009