Aggression

Aggression is the complex interplay of cognitive, psychological, biological, and environmental factors. Most people would have experienced this common and ubiquitous social behaviour at some point, be it through their own anger or as a witness of another’s angry outburst. In humans, aggression is either intentional/goal-directed or reactive-impulsive, often resulting in inappropriate actions. Aggression is often defined as behaviour that aims to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm. Everyday aggression causes enormous social and economic damage worldwide.

Aggression plays a major role in many mental illnesses. In fact, aggression is a symptom of various mental illnesses such as ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or borderline personality disorder. Our research group is interested in the process and dynamics of anger and aggression, as well as their neural correlates.

We are currently focusing on conflict in romantic relationships as part of a DFG-funded multicenter research programme that aims to decipher the genetic and molecular mechanisms that influence aggressive behaviour. We are a part of a national transregional collaborative research center.

One subproject has the following main objectives:

1. To better understand the role of cognitive control and interpersonal regulation deficits during and after conflict and cooperation in romantic partnerships.
2. To characterise the dynamics and neural processes during and after conflict and cooperation.
3. To better understand the role of cognitive control and interpersonal regulation deficits in the escalation and de-escalation of conflicts and to identify neural predictors of aggression in everyday life.

In another subproject conducted within the framework of the national interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Center, we investigate the role of endogenous hormones in the processing of threat-related situations.
The main objectives of our subproject are:

1. To gain a better understanding of how testosterone, depending on the situational context, influences the perception and processing of threat.

2. To compare the interactions between hormonal and contextual factors in healthy women and women with borderline personality disorder.