Aggressiveness

The study examined the effect of dispositional and situationally induced perspective taking on male retaliatory aggression under high provocation. Zillmann's (1988) cognitive-excitation model of impulsive aggression provided the theoretical rationale. After completing the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI, Davis, 1983), subjects were informed that their scores revealed that they were either high or average perspective takers. They then participated in a competitive reaction-time task designed to measure verbal aggression and completed a postexperimental questionnaire. A 2 (dispositional perspective taking) by 2 (perspective taking expectation) analysis revealed no significant effects for retaliative aggression. A similar 2 (dispositional empathic concern) by 2 (perspective taking expectation) analysis revealed that highly empathic males retaliated with less offensive messages than did less empathically concerned males. However, none of the analyses revealed significant effects of the manipulation. The results address empathic concern's inhibitory effects after prolonged exposure to provocation.

The ability to regulate emotional expression serves as an important mechanism in the adaptation of an individual. One important individual difference related to emotional regulation is agreeableness. We examined two competing theories that link agreeableness to the ability to control emotional reactivity when involved in an aggressive situation. The person-environment fit hypothesis emphasizes social behavior as a product of how the individual and situation interact with each other. The temperament hypothesis suggests that agreeableness is linked to temperamental bases of effortful control, specifically the regulation of anger. Female college students (N = 40) participated in a study that was designed to examine individual differences in emotional self-regulation in a simulated two person social interaction. Physiological responses to perceived aggression and observations of aggressive behavior were related to self-reports to examine hypotheses about links among personality and aggression. The patterns of results were different for high and low agreeable persons when they were targets of aggression.

Research on aggression suggests that males are more likely to be directly aggressive, whereas females are more likely to be indirectly aggressive. The present study examined the relationship of gender of aggressor and gender of target to the expression of direct and indirect aggression. Behavioral and self-report measures of direct and indirect aggression were obtained from 112 undergraduate students. Participants made more indirect than direct responses under low levels of provocation and more direct than indirect responses under high levels of provocation. Males were the target of more direct responses than indirect responses. Males reported engaging in more direct than indirect aggression with males than with females. Females reported engaging in more indirect aggression with females than with males. Explanations consider the effects of the situational context on aggressive responding.

In the present study, 120 children participated in an experiment
designed to investigate sex differences in the way children perceive the
consequences of aggression. Subjects were given a 48 item questionnaire
designed to measure their expectations about the consequences for
aggressive behavior. Separate questionnaire Items assessed expectations
for five categories of consequences which according to Bandura (1973,
1979) may play a role in maintaining aggressive behavior. These
categories included self-rewards, tangible rewards, victim suffering,
peer approval, and parental approval. Results indicated boys expect
greater self-rewards than girls for aggressive behavior. Sex of the
target of aggression was also found to be an important variable in
determining the perceived consequences of aggressive behavior. Children
anticipated greater self-rewards and greater tangible rewards for
aggressing towards female targets. They also expected greater parental
disapproval and greater victim suffering for female targets.
Implications for social learning theory were discussed.

This study examined the consequences of self-image failure among narcissistic children. It was hypothesized that narcissistic children who perceive themselves as falling short of their hoped-for grandiose self (e.g., whose self-esteem is low) would not only increase over time in general aggression and decrease prosocial behavior, but also increase in the tendency to direct aggression specifically toward more socially successful peers (i.e., their putative rivals for social status). Participants were 195 (101 boys) fourth through seventh-graders who were tested in both the fall and the spring of a school year. Results yielded some support for the hypotheses. Narcissism combined with low self-appraisals of the real self to predict decreases in prosocial behavior and increased aggression toward popular and attractive peers. These findings not only provide longitudinal evidence for the self-image failure hypothesis but also underscore the importance of a target-specific approach to investigating children's aggression.

This study examined how narcissism affects preadolescent children's choices of peer targets for aggression. Based on the idea that narcissists have a grandiose sense of self that requires nourishment, we hypothesized that narcissistic children are especially likely to attack peers who threaten, or fail to nourish, their grandiose self. We assessed narcissism and the degree to which each child's aggression toward peers depended on (a) the child's perceived liking by each peer, (b) the child's liking of each peer, (c) each peer's actual liking of the child, and (d) the child's perceived similarity to each peer. Participants were 197 children in the fourth through eighth grades at a university school. Narcissism predicted the four types of target-specific aggression in disparate ways for boys and girls. Narcissistic boys were especially likely to direct aggression toward male peers whom (a) they perceived as disliking them, (b) they disliked, and (c) they perceived as dissimilar to themselves. Narcissistic girls were especially likely to attack female peers whom they perceived as similar to themselves. Narcissism may enhance different motives for boys and girls in same-sex peer relatinships. We propose that narcissism enhances investment in status and rivalry amoung girls while enhancing the motive to attack dissimilar peers among boys.