You Can Never Have Enough of a Good Person?: Aggression and Its Correlation to Body Size

The article is a review of research done both in Russia and other countries on the relationship between the body size and aggressive behavior in humans. This work describes the principal methods and approaches to studying the influence of weight and height on aggression, presents the results of important research conducted among children, adolescents, and adults, both in normal and pathological groups, from the late 1970s to the present. In addition, I discuss the main theories that attempt to explain the relationship between body size and aggression. I further discuss the shortcomings of the research done in this area to date, which has been mainly concerned with samples and methods, and propose possible ways of solving methodological problems in future research endeavors.

Keywords

aggression, body size, height, weight, bulling, victimization

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by the following institutions and grants: Russian Foundation for Basic Research, https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002261 [19-09-00461]

Received

28.06.2020

Publication date

28.06.2020

Number of characters

25050

Cite

GOST	Burkova V. You Can Never Have Enough of a Good Person?: Aggression and Its Correlation to Body Size // Etnograficheskoe obozrenie – 2020. – №3 C. 177-190 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/ethnorev/s086954150010055-0-1-en (circulation date: 26.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S086954150010055-0
MLA	Burkova, Valentina N "You Can Never Have Enough of a Good Person?: Aggression and Its Correlation to Body Size." Etnograficheskoe obozrenie 3 (2020):177-190. DOI: 10.31857/S086954150010055-0
APA	Burkova V. (2020). You Can Never Have Enough of a Good Person?: Aggression and Its Correlation to Body Size. Etnograficheskoe obozrenie (3), pp.177-190 DOI: 10.31857/S086954150010055-0

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1	“Ты не смотри, что мы меньше ростом”, –
2	грозя кулаками, сказали пираты.
3	(И. Антонова «Тили-тили-тесто»)
4	В животном мире размеры особи принимаются как аргумент физической силы без дополнительных доказательств. Однако эволюция приматов как общественных видов (независимо от средних размеров животного, его физической силы и размеров клыков) шла в сторону развития стратегий и оптимальных механизмов, позволяющих предотвратить эскалацию напряженности в повседневной жизни группы, остановить конфликт и примирить агрессора с жертвой (Бутовская 1999). Способности лидера защищать членов своего сообщества от чужаков, умение регулировать взаимоотношения между ними, инициировать совместное передвижение имели большое значение. Исследования среди детей и подростков в разных культурах показали, что социальная успешность индивида зависит как от форм агрессии, которые он использует или не использует по отношению к своим сверстникам, так и от желания и умения мириться, регулировать чужие конфликты и сохранять социальное равновесие в группе (Буркова 2017; Butovskaya et al. 2007). Однако действительно ли размеры тела человека перестали иметь значение в агрессивных взаимодействиях? На этот вопрос мы постараемся найти ответ в предлагаемом обзоре российских и зарубежных исследований.
5	Первым исследованием взаимосвязи телосложения и противоправного поведения считается работа одного из основоположников конституциональной психологии У.Г. Шелдона, в которой отмечалось, что у юношей-правонарушителей развитие мезоморфного компонента тела выше среднего (они – прирожденные спортсмены, худы и мускулисты “от природы”) (Sheldon 1949; Ксенофонтова 2015). В исследовании 1978 г. было показано, что среди несовершеннолетних преступников также чаще встречаются мезоморфы, но с элементами эндоморфии (обычно это крупные люди, с большой жировой массой, однако не обделенные и мышечной массой), и практически нет эктоморфов (тощих людей, обладающих небольшими по размерам суставами и почти не имеющих мышц, с длинными тонкими пальцами и узкими плечами) (Ксенофонтова 2015; Shasby 1978). В более поздних работах также было отмечено, что преступники и несовершеннолетние правонарушители более мезоморфно-эндоморфны и менее эктоморфны по сравнению с контрольными группами (Eysenck, Gudjonsson 1989; Sanson et al. 1993; Wilson, Herrnstein 1998). Однако многие специалисты уже тогда указывали на неравномерность представленных выборок, на то, что не учитываются социальные и культурные факторы, отсутствуют долгосрочные исследования влияния размеров тела на агрессивное поведение (Raine et al. 1998; Sampson, Laub 1997).
6	Применение иных методов позволило от описания типа телосложения перейти к прямым измерениям тотальных размеров тела – роста и веса. Индекс массы тела (ИМТ), рассчитанный на основе этих показателей, несмотря на имеющиеся ограничения, и в настоящее время повсеместно используется для оценки степени ожирения или нехватки веса у детей и подростков (Gallup, Wilson 2009; Lee, Vaillancourt 2018). Исследования показывают, что дети с избыточным весом по сравнению со сверстниками с нормальной массой тела не только подвержены значительно большему риску развития различных заболеваний, но также среди них более высока вероятность появления поведенческих проблем, особенно агрессии (Bin et al. 2005; Epstein et al. 1995).

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