Several models of aggression and aggressive behavior are discussed, ranging from neurological, ethological, experimental social-psychological, and historical analyses. Distinctions are suggested between two different levels of analysis for examining aggressive behavior-individual-level aggression and systemic-level aggression-and between two primary characteristics of aggression (spontaneous/planned). The limitations of using one level of analysis for examining behavior occurring at a different level are suggested. This proposed conceptual scheme incorporates in a two-dimensional framework approaches as varied as E. 0. Wilson's Sociobiology and J. T. Tedeschi's reinterpretation of research on aggression. The shift from motivational models to more cognitive information-processing models in the social-psychological literature is examined.
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