Internal Anger and External Expressions of Aggression in OEF/OIF Veterans

National Guard/Reserve service members (n?=?143) deployed to Operations Enduring/Iraqi Freedom completed measures of anger/aggression, coping, and PTSD. Regressions and path analyses revealed that PTSD and avoidant coping both contributed to elevated anger. Furthermore, PTSD exerted indirect effects on verbal and physical aggression via anger, with direct effects only on physical aggression. Younger age was unrelated to anger but directly related to greater verbal and physical aggression. These results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of risk for aggression in veterans of recent conflicts; however, the generalizability is limited by sample characteristics (all National Guard/Reserve, mostly White, married, religious).     

Personality Processes in Anger and Reactive Aggression: An Introduction

ABSTRACT The situational factors precipitating anger and reactive (i.e., emotional) aggression have been well documented in the social psychology literature. However, there are pronounced individual differences in reactivity to hostile cues that are equally important in understanding such outcomes. Indeed, in predicting tendencies toward anger and reactive aggression, it appears critical to simultaneously consider both individual difference and situational factors. This case is first made. Subsequently, the utility of this individual difference realm in understanding wider personality processes related to social cognition, reactivity, and self-regulation is highlighted. Individual difference frameworks of this type are scattered across multiple literatures. For this reason, the present special section of the Journal of Personality invited contributions from experts in developmental, social, cognitive, trait, and biological subdisciplines of psychology. The final section introduces the invited papers and makes a brief case for broader process-related conclusions that are generally apparent.     

Overt and Covert Dimensions of Antisocial Behavior in Early Childhood

The present study was designed to assess both the prevalence and structure of antisocial behavior in a normative sample of preschoolers. Prevalence estimates suggested that 40% of preschoolers exhibit at least one antisocial behavior each day. Furthermore, 10% of preschoolers exhibit six or more antisocial behaviors each day. Consistent with research based on older children, factor analyses provided support for conceptualizing antisocial behavior in early childhood as consisting of both overt and covert dimensions. While both overt and covert behaviors had acceptable test–retest reliability, only overt behaviors had acceptable interrater reliability. Finally both overt and covert dimensions of antisocial behavior were uniquely related to general measures of conduct problems, hyperactivity, and adult and peer conflict in the classroom setting. Findings are discussed with regard to early assessment and the developmental course of antisocial behavior.     

The Anatomy of Anger: An Integrative Cognitive Model of Trait Anger and Reactive Aggression

ABSTRACT This paper presents an integrative cognitive model, according to which individual differences in 3 cognitive processes jointly contribute to a person's level of trait anger and reactive aggression. An automatic tendency to attribute hostile traits to others is the first of these cognitive processes, and this process is proposed to be responsible for the more frequent elicitation of anger, particularly when hostile intent is ambiguous. Rumination on hostile thoughts is the second cognitive process proposed, which is likely to be responsible for prolonging and intensifying angry emotional states. The authors finally propose that low trait anger individuals use effortful control resources to self-regulate the influence of their hostile thoughts, whereas those high in trait anger do not. A particular emphasis of this review is implicit cognitive sources of evidence for the proposed mechanisms. The authors conclude with a discussion of important future directions, including how the proposed model can be further verified, broadened to take into account motivational factors, and applied to help understand anger-related social problems.     

Roles of Callous-Unemotional Traits,Narcissism, and Machiavellianism in Childhood Aggression

This study obtained teacher ratings of impulsivity, callous-unemotional traits, narcissism, and Machiavellianism for a sample of 252 middle school children, and investigated the extent to which these variables were related to reactive versus proactive aggression and physical versus relational aggression. Results showed a main effect for gender, with boys rated highest on all measures of psychopathy and aggression, with the exception of relational aggression. Results of hierarchical multiple regressions showed that whereas impulsivity was associated with all types of aggression, CU traits, narcissism, and Machiavellianism were differentially related to specific forms of childhood aggression. In addition, Machiavellianism mediated the relationship between narcissism and relational aggression. Implications for fine-tuning interventions in ways that account for the motivators underlying subtypes of childhood aggression are discussed.     

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.     

Overt and Relational Aggression and Victimization: Multiple Perspectives within the School Setting

The current study involved a comprehensive comparative examination of overt and relational aggression and victimization across multiple perspectives in the school setting (peers, teachers, observers in the lunchroom, self-report). Patterns of results involving sociometic status, ethnicity and gender were explored among 4th graders, with particular emphasis on girls. Controversial and rejected children were perceived as higher on both forms of aggression than other status groups, but only rejected children were reported as victims. Both European American and African American girls showed a greater tendency toward relational aggression and victimization than overt aggression or victimization. Results indicated negative outcomes associated with both relational and overt victimization and especially overt aggression for the target girl sample. Poorer adjustment and a socially unskillful behavioral profile were found to be associated with these three behaviors. However, relational aggression did not evidence a similar negative relation to adjustment nor was it related to many of the behaviors examined in the current study. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Childhood Aggression,Adolescent Delinquency,and Drug Use: A Longitudinal Study

The interrelation of childhood aggression, early and late adolescent delinquency, and drug use was explored. Data were obtained for the subjects when they were 5–10 years old. Follow-up interviews were conducted when the subjects were between 13–18 years old and again when they were 15–20 years old. A LIS-REL analysis of the three waves of data indicated that childhood aggression is a precursor of adolescent drug use and delinquency, and that early adolescent drug use is correlated with contemporaneous delinquency as well as with later drug use and delinquency.     

The Role of Anger in the Relationship Between Internalising Symptoms and Aggression in Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of anger in the relationships between various internalising symptoms and direct and indirect aggression. A sample of 241 adolescents aged 12–17 years completed the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) and the Buss–Warren Aggression Questionnaire (AQ-15). Symptoms of panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and depression, but not social phobia, were positively correlated with anger, direct aggression and indirect aggression. When considered simultaneously in regression analyses, only symptoms of depression contributed to variance in the anger and aggression variables. However, using indirect effect modelling, no direct relationships were found between the internalising symptom variables and the aggression variables. Instead, the data suggested that the relationship between internalising symptoms and aggression is mediated by the emotion of anger. These findings suggest that the degree to which anger co-occurs with internalising symptoms may play an important role in an individual’s propensity to engage in aggressive behaviour.     

The Relationship between Anger Rumination and Aggression in Typically Developing Children and High-Risk Adolescents

This paper examines anger rumination as a risk factor of aggression in typically developing children and high-risk adolescents. Study 1 developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of a self-report measure of children’s anger rumination (Children’s Anger Rumination Scale; CARS) and its association with teacher- and peer-rated overt and relational aggression in school-aged children (n = 254, M age = 10.62). Findings offered support for the reliability and validity of the CARS as well as support for the hypothesis that children who ruminate to anger exhibit elevated levels of overt and relational aggression. Study 2 examined concurrent and prospective relationships between anger rumination and aggression and the moderating effects of trait anger in a sample of male juvenile offenders (n = 119, M age = 16.74). Latent growth curve analyses revealed that the interaction between trait anger and anger rumination predicted initial levels of aggression (i.e., intercept) and changes in aggression over time (i.e., slope). Juvenile offenders who were high in trait anger and ruminated in response to anger exhibited the highest initial levels of aggression. Contrary to our hypothesis, this group did not exhibit greater increases in aggression over time relative to others, but instead they had stably high levels of aggression at each time point. These findings suggest that cognitive-behavioral treatment strategies for aggression may be improved by educating youths about the contributory role of anger rumination in the development of aggression and providing them with adaptive alternatives to coping with feelings of anger.     

状态自恋与攻击行为——知觉到的威胁、愤怒情绪和敌意归因偏差的多重中介作用

采用2(自恋故事vs.中性故事)×2(威胁情境vs.表扬情境)的被试间设计对162名大学生的状态自恋与攻击行为的关系及其机制进行考察。结果发现:(1)与中性故事组相比,自恋故事能够显著激活被试的状态自恋水平;(2)与表扬情境相比,威胁情境中自恋激活组个体的攻击意向显著高于中性故事组,说明状态自恋激活能够显著增加个体的攻击行为;(3)状态自恋通过知觉到的威胁、愤怒情绪和敌意归因偏差间接预测攻击行为;(4)从总体上来说,知觉到的威胁既可显著直接预测攻击行为,也可通过愤怒情绪间接预测攻击行为。对自恋激活组,状态自恋可以通过影响愤怒情绪和敌意归因偏差间接影响攻击行为;对中性控制组来说,这种关系则不存在。本研究结果证实,状态自恋的激活能够显著增加个体面对消极反馈时攻击行为产生的认知情绪机制。     

Multilevel Correlates of Childhood Physical Aggression and Prosocial Behavior

The study identified independent individual, family, and neighborhood correlates of children's physical aggression and prosocial behavior. Participants were 2,745 2–11-year olds nested in 1,982 families, which were themselves nested in 96 Canadian neighborhoods. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that the total variation explained by the three-level model was 28.03% for physical aggression and 17.57% for prosocial behavior. For both childhood behaviors, approximately 66% of this explained variance was between individuals and up to 30% was between families. The smallest amount of observed variation was between neighborhoods. Significant individual-level predictors common to both childhood behaviors were child's sex and maternal hostility toward the target child. Specifically, boys had more mother-reported physical aggression and less prosocial behavior. Children who experienced greater-than-average maternal hostility (compared to siblings) were more physically aggressive and less prosocial. At the family level, significant common predictors were mother depressed mood and punitive parenting. Children had higher levels of physical aggression and lower levels of prosocial behavior in families where mothers had greater depressed mood and used more punitive parenting practices. At the neighborhood level, greater perceived problems and lower poverty level were associated with higher levels of physical aggression. Results are discussed with reference to past and future studies of multilevel effects on children's socialization.     

Psychopathy and Functions of Aggression in Emerging Adulthood: Moderation by Anger Rumination and Gender

Psychopathy has been previously identified as a risk factor for aggression (Porter and Woodworth 2006). However, few studies have considered specific relationships with functional subtypes of aggression, or how gender and anger rumination affect these relationships in emerging adulthood. We hypothesized that primary psychopathy would be uniquely related to proactive aggression (PA) and secondary psychopathy to reactive aggression (RA), and that these relationships would be amplified by anger rumination, and potentially influenced further by gender. Undergraduate students (N = 610; 73.3 % female) ages 18–20 completed self-report measures of anger rumination, psychopathy, and aggression, and hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression. As predicted, anger rumination enhanced the association between secondary psychopathy and RA. It also amplified the relationship between primary psychopathy and PA, but only at very high levels of anger rumination. Gender moderated interactions between primary and secondary psychopathy on aggression. For men, primary psychopathy attenuated the secondary psychopathy – RA relationship, but not for women. These findings fill an important gap in the literature by demonstrating how tendencies to ruminate on anger and psychopathic traits interact to influence functional subtypes of aggression in young men versus women.     

特质愤怒与反应性攻击的综合认知模型述评

综合认知模型(Integrative Cognitive Model, ICM)整合多个相关理论, 探讨在敌意情境下不同特质愤怒水平的个体反应性攻击行为出现差异的内部认知机制, 构建了敌意解释、反思注意和努力控制三个核心认知加工过程之间的关系模型。该模型具有结构清晰、易于操控等特点, 对该领域的实证研究与理论探索具有启发意义, 并有巨大的应用价值。该理论仍缺乏囊括更多因素的综合实证研究支持, 以及有关的神经生理研究和心理干预探索, 这将是未来研究的重要方向。     

Predicting Parent-Child Aggression Risk in Mothers and Fathers: Role of Emotion Regulation and Frustration Tolerance

Efforts to identify targets that could be instrumental for child abuse prevention programs have often implicated stress as a key risk factor. However, existing research has not adequately considered the role of emotion dysregulation and frustration intolerance in predicting parents’ risk to engage in parent-child aggression (PCA). In addition, research in this field continues to focus heavily on mothers, with limited attention to fathers. Thus, the current study investigated whether perceived stress and distress, emotion dysregulation, and frustration intolerance independently predicted risk of PCA in a sample of 81 couples; moreover, the study evaluated whether emotion regulation or frustration tolerance mediated or moderated the association between stress and PCA risk. Findings indicated that each of the risk factors uniquely predicted PCA risk after controlling for demographic factors; neither emotion dysregulation nor frustration intolerance moderated the association between stress and PCA risk but emotion regulation did partially mediate this association. No significant differences in the pattern of these relationships were observed between mothers and fathers. Future research directions are discussed, including methodological considerations as well as evaluating how emotion regulation skills training and improved parental frustration tolerance may prevent parent-child aggression.     

Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Childhood and Adolescence: Precursors, Outcomes, Processes, Experiences, and Measurement

ABSTRACT. This paper reviews and critiques the growing literature on the distinction between reactive and proactive aggression in children and adolescents. Empirical findings suggest that the subtypes of aggression are (a) preceded by different familial precursors, (b) associated with different behavioral outcomes, (c) driven by different social–cognitive and emotional processes, and (d) related to different social experiences. Because measurement difficulties have been a prominent concern in the study of reactive and proactive aggression, a discussion of various assessment approaches is included. Suggestions are made for future research directions, including a greater use of observational and laboratory-based methods, more longitudinal designs, and a greater focus on the careful assessment of the subtypes of aggression.     

Evaluating the Relationship Between Childhood Abuse and Neglect,Interpersonal Hostile-Dominance,and Aggression in Psychiatric Hospitals

This study examined whether interpersonal hostile-dominance (HD) mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and aggression in 200 psychiatric inpatients (M age = 38.32 years, 66% male). Childhood emotional (50.5%), physical (42.0%), and sexual (42.0%) abuse, and emotional (46.5%) and physical (41.0%) neglect of moderate to extreme severity was reported. More severe emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and physical neglect in childhood were associated with higher HD. Higher levels of HD and all forms of childhood abuse and neglect were associated with aggression; HD mediated the relationship between childhood emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect and aggression. Findings highlight the high prevalence of childhood trauma in adult psychiatric inpatients. Further, childhood trauma contributes to HD, which increases the risk of aggression.