Ice and fire: Two paths to provoked aggression

Publication date: 1 February 2019Source: Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 138Author(s): Angela Book, Beth A. Visser, Anthony Volk, Ronald R. Holden, Madeleine T. D'AgataAbstractResearch separates aggression into proactive (predatory) and reactive (provoked). Another response to provocation is revenge, which is generally viewed as a more premeditated response. We predicted that revenge would be predicted by different personality traits than reactive aggression, particularly the trait of Emotionality. As expected, Emotionality was negatively related to revenge, but positively correlated with reactive aggression. Revenge, then, was more similar to proactive aggression, but was not related to impulsivity (i.e., low Conscientiousness). Follow-up analyses suggest that sentimentality accounts for the relationship between Emotionality and revenge, while anxiety appears to accounts for the relationship between reactive aggression and Emotionality.

Source: Personality and Individual Differences - October 17, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research