AGGRESSIVENESS, DOMINANCE, DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS, AND SERUM-CHOLESTEROL LEVEL IN COLLEGE MALES

The present study was conducted to examine for college males relations between aggressiveness (or expressive hostility) and dominance and (a ) particular developmental experiences and (b) total serum cholesterol . Aggressiveness but not dominance was found to be positively related to subjects' reports of their parents' behavior which reflected (a) le ss genuine acceptance, (b) more interference in the person's desires a s a child, and (c) more punitiveness. For low-physically fit subjects, both aggressiveness and dominance were found to be positively related to levels of total serum cholesterol. These relations are congruent w ith the notion that both aggressiveness and dominance may contribute t o hastening coronary atherosclerosis and risk of CHD via elevated leve ls of plasma lipids. If should be noted, however that the relations ob tained in the present study were all modest in size. For high-physical ly fit individuals associations were not found between total serum cho lesterol and either aggressiveness or dominance. These results suggest that good physical fitness may attenuate the degree to which either a ggressiveness or dominance may adversely affect health via elevated le vels of cholesterol.