AGGRESSION RESEARCH - A CRITICAL-HISTORICAL, MULTILEVEL APPROACH

In a recent article Fowers and Richardson raised epistemological eyebr ows by recasting the cognitive aggression formulation of Huesmann, Ero n and associates within a critical hermeneutic analysis. They highligh ted certain ideological and value choices, especially of 'liberal indi vidualism', linked to violence and its control; these constrained rese arch and limited the range of questions asked. This 'hermeneutic' vs ' naturalistic, empiricist' debate offers a valuable starting-point for a broader, critical-historical, multi-level analysis of phenomena such as aggression. After historically situating Huesmann and Eron's resea rch programme within mainstream psychology, the development of a conse nsus about aggression research strategies is traced at three levels-sc ientific, meta-scientific and extra-scientific. Such historical and mu lti-level analyses point to a need for both traditional positivist and alternative perspectives to reconceptualize, for both their research and practice, the moral dimension of scientific psychology.