Aggression and the Use of Coercive Power

Abstract

That body of social psychological literature typically subsumed under the concept of aggression is reinterpreted as a compendium of different processes and functional relationships including equity, reciprocity, and self‐defense. An evaluation of this literature leads to the conclusion that social psychological researchers have concentrated their efforts in studying retaliatory behaviors whereas “aggression” commonly refers to harm doing initiated by some transgressor. A reconceptualization based on the concept of coercive power leads to a clearer understanding of harm‐doing actions and allows researchers to classify and distinguish initiated harm‐doing actions from those that are retaliatory. Having made this distinction, a set of propositions related to the initiation of harm doing isspelled out, and the implications for the social control of such behavior are considered.