ABSTRACT. In the present paper, I focus on psychological and social factors leading to abnormal aggression, the association between aggressive behavior and injury in ice hockey, situational factors that affect the probability of aggression occurring in sporting events, and the neural mechanisms underlying the execution of aggressive acts. This paper seeks to fill a gap in the current literature by examining the relationship between athletic activity and off-field aggression in everyday life, the problem of aggressive behavior in hockey, the distinction between hostile aggression, instrumental aggression and assertiveness, and the roles of learned and innate factors in human aggression. The objective of this paper is to emphasize neural circuitries that mediate reactive aggression, the effects of observing violence on aggressive behavior, and the neural circuits that influence aggressive behaviors. pp. 170–175

Keywords: hostile; instrumental; human; aggression; sport; behavior