Effects of aggressive and nonaggressive rock songs on projective and structured tests

The differences between hostility scores on projective and objective tests as a function of listening to aggressive or nonaggressive rock music were studied. While taking the Thematic Apperception Test (Cards 1, 3BM, 4, 9BM, and 10) and the Buss-Durkee (1957) Hostility Scale, subjects (N = 90) randomly assigned to one of three groups listened to a rock song with (a) nonaggressive music and nonaggressive lyrics, (b) aggressive music and nonaggressive lyrics, or (c) aggressive music and aggressive lyrics. TAT stories were scored for aggressive content according to Hafner and Kaplan's (1960) hostility rating scale. Hostility scores did not differ between groups. The findings are congruent with other investigators' reports that subjects do not pay attention to rock lyrics. Previous findings that music affects the emotional quality of TAT stories and hostility scores on the Buss-Durkee scale were not supported.     

Fantasy as a medium for the reduction of trait versus state aggression

In the first phase of an experiment reducing hostility through fantasy, 203 first and second-year high school students completed a daydreaming scale, Rotter ISB, and a sociometric scale designed to ascertain which of their peers behave aggressively. The students of the upper and lower quarters of the daydreaming scale were classified as high and low fantasy, and as aggressive or nonaggressive subjects. The second phase, two weeks later, consisted of 94 subjects forming three groups: a trait aggressive group, a nonaggressive control group, and a group of nonaggressive subjects experimentally manipulated for aggression. Half of the subjects composed stories to four high-cue aggressive TAT cards; the other half read neutral stories. All the subjects then again completed the Rotter ISB which was scored for aggression. Analysis of covariance of the scores indicated that a reduction in hostility occurred only for the group experimentally aroused to aggression in the TAT condition. The scores of the trait-aggressive subjects, tested in a before-after analysis, showed an increase in their hostility level. Fantasy capacity did not influence the scores.     

Extent of Hostility in Educated Indian Unemployed Youth: A Micro Analysis

This study was designed to ascertain the level of hostility in educated unemployed youth (N = 150) as against employed youth (N = 150) at micro level by employing an Indian adaptation of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Scale. Results of statistical comparison revealed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of hostility and its various dimensions barring indirect aggression, negativism, and verbal aggression. However, both the groups tended to have a moderate amount of hostility and its dimensions. The results further showed the relative standing of the two groups on the dimensions of hostility, positing the job-seekers as possessing a high sense of guilt and low indirect aggression, and the employed youth, being high on irritability, and, like their counterparts, low on indirect aggression. Also, the study indicated a correlation among the dimensions of hostility with one another and with the total scale scores.     

Hostility in the real world and online: the effect of internet addiction, depression, and online activity

Hostility online has not been evaluated by an empirical investigation. This study aims to evaluate (a) the difference between hostility in the real world and that online and (b) whether the difference is associated with Internet addiction, depression, or online activities. A total of 2,348 college students (1,124 males and 1,224 females) were recruited and completed the Chen Internet Addiction Scale, the Center for Epidemiological Studies' Depression Scale, and the questionnaire for online activity. Further, the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory-Chinese version-short form was utilized to evaluate hostility in both real and virtual worlds. The results demonstrated that the levels of all four dimensions of hostility were lower when getting online than those in the real world. Subjects with Internet addiction had higher hostility both in the real world and online as do subjects with depression. Further, college students with Internet addiction had increased expressive hostility behavior and those with depression had decreased hostility cognition, hostility affection, and suppressive hostility behavior when getting online. Lastly, the buffering effect of the Internet on hostility was attenuated among subjects paying the most online time in chatting, and those using the Internet mainly for online gaming had higher expressive hostility behavior not only in the real world but also online. These results suggest that attention should be paid to interventions concerning aggressive behavior among subjects with Internet addiction or online gaming and chatting. On the other hand, depressed college students would be less hostile after entering the Internet. It is suggested that the Internet would be one possible interactive media to provide intervention for depression.     

Linking sexual and aggressive motives: contributions of "irrelevant" arousals

One hundred thirty-two male and female college undergraduates were randomly assigned to three different arousal conditions-sex, anxiety, laughter-and a nonaroused control, as a test of the hypothesis that aggressive and sexual imagery would appear only under conditions of sexual arousal. The subjects wrote four TAT stories, two to male-dominant pictures and two to female-dominant As predicted, the sexually aroused subjects wrote stories higher in sexual and aggressive imagery than did those in the other two arousal conditions, and the scores of those in the anxiety and laughter conditions were not significantly different from the controls'. The results are discussed in terms of a connection between sex and aggression. Hull's theory of drive level and Schachter and Singer's nonspecific arousal are rejected as explanations for the results. Support is also given to earlier findings in the area.     

Canonical versus factor analytic perspectives on the structure of associations between the MMPI and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory

A canonical correlational analysis of MMPI profiles versus Buss-Durkee hostility and aggression scales was conducted, resulting in the identification of a general hostility-aggression-maladjustment dimension and three relatively specific aggression-personality relationships. These findings were contrasted with those obtained from a factor analysis of the combination of both sets of scores. Though often used in previous studies of associations between the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory and other measures, factor analysis was seen to be less than optimally suited to such a purpose. It was concluded that canonical correlation is preferable to factor analysis when seeking to clarify the multivariate structure of relationships between two sets of variables.     

Discriminating violent individuals by means of various psychological tests

Attempted to clarify the 43/4-8(8-4) controversy and further research the relationship between assaultiveness and other non-MMPI measures. Sixty-one male adolescent prisoners divided into four groups according to Race and Level of Assaultiveness served as subjects for this study. Each prisoner was administered the MMPI, the Buss-Durkee Hostility Scale and the Rotter I-E scale. The results suggest that the 4-3 code type is not an accurate predictor of violence; that elevations of F4897&6 describe the offender population (with) 8-4 describing the violent profile type); and that the Buss-Durkee Hostility scale may be valuable in assessing the violent personality.     

A Method for Quantifying Human Relations,Hostility, and Anxiety Applied to TAT Productions

Fifteen well-adjusted couples and 15 poorly-adjusted couples produced joint stories in response to four TAT cards. The tape-recorded protocols were transcribed and content analyzed for three variables using the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety, Hostility Directed Outwards, and Human Relations Scales. As predicted, the average score on Human Relations for the well-adjusted group of couples was significantly higher than the average score on this scale for the poorly-adjusted group. The prediction of higher hostility on the part of the poorly-adjusted couples was likewise confirmed. No significant differences in anxiety between the two groups were found. Differences in the “pull” of the cards for the dimension of hostility and anxiety were reported.     

Validity of the Children's Picture-Frustration Study: A Social-Cognitive Perspective

We used three studies to examine the validity of hostility scores from the Children's Form of the Picture-Frustration (P-F) Study in the context of Dodge's (1986) social information-processing model of aggression. Dodge's theory states that frustration results in retaliatory aggression only if the frustrated individual attributes hostile intent to the frustrator. Further, differences between aggressive and nonaggressive children in retaliatory aggression are more likely when the frustrator's intent is ambiguous than when the frustrator's intent is dear. In Study 1, items on the Children's P-F Study were rated by 237 children according to how mean they believed the frustrator in each item was. Results showed that items varied significantly in the amount of hostility portrayed. On the basis of these ratings, items were divided into those in which the intent was hostile, nonhostile, or ambiguous. In Studies 2 and 3, we tested Dodge's theory that differences between aggressive and nonaggressive children would be revealed on those items in which the frustrator's intention is ambiguous. In both studies, teachers' ratings of children's retaliatory aggression correlated significantly with the scale comprised of the ambiguous items but not with the scales comprised of the hostile or nonhostile items. The results provide further support to Dodge's theory of aggression and to the use of the Children's P-F Study within a social-cognitive perspective.     

Hostility,oral contraceptive use,and cardiovascular reactivity in women

Abstract

Hostility, task instructions, social desirability and cardiovascular reactivity were investigated in a exploratory study of 70 female college students and employees. Women were administered the Videotaped Clinical Interview (VC1), the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC), the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (CM), the Buss-Durkee Hostility Index (BD) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) before undergoing a stressful discussion. Oral contraceptive users had significantly higher DBP at baseline. Based on PAQ scores, women were given instructions for the discussion task consistent or inconsistent with their gender-relevant styles. Instruction type predicted heart rate changes, and interacted with hostility to predict DBP reactivity. Interview-based hostility (VCI-H) was associated with increased DBP during the discussion task, as was being high hostile (low MC/high VCI-H). The CM and the BD had less association with heart rate and blood pressure changes. Oral contraceptive (OC) use was associated with higher SBP reactivity under stress, with highest SBP increases in the OC users concerned with social desirability. The complex interaction between trait dimensions like hostility, social desirability, and oral contraceptive use requires further investigation.     

A Study of Belief in the Accuracy of Newspaper Reports

An examination of the relationship of scores on Siegel's Manifest Hostility Scale (MHS) to Verbal Hostility, Fantasy Hostility, and Hostile Feeling responses to cartoon situations was undertaken, while controlling for sex of subject, sex of experimenter, and the social desirability (So-R) and ego strength/defensiveness (K) scales of the MMPI. MHS scores were significantly related to the three modes of hostility response, while sex of subject and sex of experimenter were not. Adjustment of the dependent variable means for So-R did not cancel MHS effects on Verbal or Fantasy Hostility, but adjustment for K cancelled the significant relationship between MHS scores and Fantasy Hostility and Hostile Feeling responses. Covariation of both K and So-R out of Verbal Hostility cancelled its relationship to MHS scores. Ego strength/defensiveness thus may be more significantly related to hostile responding than social desirability.     

Reduced Self-Referential Source Memory Performance is Associated with Interpersonal Dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder

Source memory is impaired in schizophrenia, and this deficit is related to symptoms of interpersonal antagonism such as suspiciousness and hostility. The present study evaluated source memory in borderline personality disorder (BPD) and its relation to interpersonal antagonism. Forty-one noninpatient adults with BPD according to the DSM-IV and 26 healthy control subjects performed a verbal source memory test requiring completion of sentences with and without emotional content ("Hot" vs. "Cold" sentences). Subjects also completed self-report measures of suspiciousness and interpersonal antagonism (Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory). The BPD group showed no significant difference from the control group in self-referential source memory, recognition memory, response bias, and performance enhancement for items with emotion content. However, in the BPD group, poorer self-referential source memory was significantly related to Hostility measures including suspiciousness, but not with Depression scores. In contrast, generic item recognition memory was unrelated to Hostility. Heterogeneity in source memory function may be specifically related to some of the hallmark interpersonal disturbances of BPD, independent of the effects of general negative affect or general memory impairment.     

A Hostility Scale for the California Psychological Inventory: MMPI,Observer Q-Sort,and Big-Five Correlates

Using two samples, we developed and validated a hostility scale that can be scored from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and serves as an alternate for the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Ha; Cook & Medley, 1954). The CPI Hostility (H) scale consists of 33 items that are either duplicates or close equivalents of specific He items, and the two scales correlate at least .90 in samples differing in sex. The H and Ho scales show a similar pattern of correlations with conceptually relevant MMPI scales and with observer-rated personality attributes tapping Barefoot, Peterson, et al.'s (1991) five hostility categories of Hostile Affect, Cynicism, Aggressive Responding, Social Avoidance, and Hostile Attributions. These findings provide evidence for the equivalence of the two hostility scales, as well as external validation for those personality characteristics that are purported to underlie the construct of hostility as tapped by both the original Ho and the new CPI H scale.     

Construction and validation of a measure of authoritarian personality

This paper reports the results of a series of studies in which the construction and validation of a behavioral measure of authoritarianism is reported. Factor analysis of already established behavioral scales (e,g., Ray's (1976) Directiveness scale; the Buss-Durkee (1957) Hostility inventory, etc.) and items especially written for the study resulted in a Revised F scale with a reliability (Cronbach's alpha) of .79 and a rpN of -.45. The items loaded significantly on four factors, namely, Dominance/Leadership, Achievement motivation. Interpersonal conflict and Verbal hostility. Furthermore, validity studies revealed the scale to possess satisfactory validity. It is suggested that this measure be seriously considered as an alternative indicator of levels of authoritarianism.     

An interview to measure vital exhaustion. II. reliability and validity of the interview and correlations of vital exhaustion with personality characteristics

Abstract

In the previous paper (Meesters and Appels, this issue) we described the development of an interview to measure feelings of vital exhaustion (VE). The current paper presents data on the reliability and the validity of the interview, which is labeled the Maastricht Interview for Vital Exhaustion (MIVE). Correlations with the Type A behavior pattern (TABP) and hostility are also discussed in this paper. The data were collected in a case-control study of 81 males with first MI and 168 healthy neighborhood controls. The interview was found to have a good reliability, Cronbach's alpha being .90 in the case group and .86 in the control group. The kappa coefficient was .95 in the case group and .91 in the control group. The validity was tested by computing the estimated relative risk of VE, controlling for angina pectoris and the classic risk factors. The odds ratio was found to be 8.11 (p<.001). This indicates that the interview makes a valid assessment of the mental precursors of MI. The interview correlated significantly with TABP (structured interview) and two self-report measures of hostility (Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory). Although the absolute magnitude of the observed odds ratios may be affected to some extent because the interviews were not scored blind, these results clearly suggest that the MIVE is a reliable and valid method to assess VE.     

Aggression-consistent, -inconsistent,and -irrelevant priming effects on selective exposure to media violence

Priming with aggressive concepts increases males' attraction to media violence. It was hypothesized that priming with schema-irrelevant concepts would decrease interest relative to the effects of schema-relevant concepts, whether or not the schema-relevant concepts were also schema-consistent. Thirty male undergraduates used lists including aggressive (schema-consistent and schema-relevant), positive or prosocial (schema-inconsistent yet relevant), or entirely neutral (schema-irrelevant) words to write short stories (priming task), then received an opportunity to select videotaped film clips for viewing. Subjects primed by aggressive word lists included more aggression, anger, fear, and violence in their stories than did those in the aggression-inconsistent and aggression-irrelevant conditions, whereas aggression-inconsistent priming yielded more fun, helping, and joy than did other conditions. Aggressively primed subjects expressed more interest in films containing violence and hostility than did neutrally primed subjects, whereas aggression-inconsistent priming did not differ significantly from either aggressive (schema-consistent) or neutral (schema-irrelevant) priming. Findings indicate that the aggressive priming activates aggressive concepts that make violence and hostility more salient to individuals. Because male undergraduates typically express interest in violence, enhanced salience leads to increased interest. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Validating Hand Test Acting Out Ratios For Overt and Experimentally Induced Aggression

The Hand Test Acting Out Ratio (AOR) was studied with respect to written measures of hostility toward self, task, and experimenter, and was used to test for aggression caused by experimentally induced stress. Wiggin's MMPI Hostility Scale was also compared with the Hand Test AOR. It was found that while the written measure reflected the effects of the experimentally induced stress, the AOR did not; nor did the AOR scores correlate significantly with the content-derived hostility scale. It was concluded that if one wants to find if individuals are angered by frustrating situations, simply asking them is a more effective and accurate method.     

The relationship between aggression,narcissism, and self-esteem in Asian children and adolescents

This study compared aggressive and nonaggressive students on narcissism and self-esteem scores. Three hundred and seventy students (176 boys and 194 girls) from three schools in Singapore participated in the study. The age range of students was from ten years to 17 years with a mean of 12.23 years (SD = 1.52). Consistent with our hypothesis, aggressive students scored significantly higher on narcissism compared to nonaggressive students. Also, as expected, aggressive and nonaggressive students did not differ significantly with respect to self-esteem scores. These findings contribute to a growing body of research that aggression is closely associated with narcissism for adults as well as children and adolescents, using an Asian sample. In addition, these results also provide some preliminary support that narcissism and high self-esteem though somewhat superficially similar, are distinct constructs conceptually and empirically. Aggression is closely associated with narcissism, and for the aggressive child or adolescent, it may be more beneficial to target intervention efforts towards having accurate self-appraisals rather than promoting an already grandiose self-image further.     

The relationship between aggression, narcissism, and self-esteem in Asian children and adolescents

This study compared aggressive and nonaggressive students on narcissism and self-esteem scores. Three hundred and seventy students (176 boys and 194 girls) from three schools in Singapore participated in the study. The age range of students was from ten years to 17 years with a mean of 12.23 years (SD = 1.52). Consistent with our hypothesis, aggressive students scored significantly higher on narcissism compared to nonaggressive students. Also, as expected, aggressive and nonaggressive students did not differ significantly with respect to self-esteem scores. These findings contribute to a growing body of research that aggression is closely associated with narcissism for adults as well as children and adolescents, using an Asian sample. In addition, these results also provide some preliminary support that narcissism and high self-esteem though somewhat superficially similar, are distinct constructs conceptually and empirically. Aggression is closely associated with narcissism, and for the aggressive child or adolescent, it may be more beneficial to target intervention efforts towards having accurate self-appraisals rather than promoting an already grandiose self-image further.