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Although the empathy-aggression relationship has been well documented, research has yet to establish whether emotions mediate and gender moderates this relationship in athletes, under conditions of low and high provocation. In this experiment, we assigned team-sport athletes to either a high (n = 40) or a low (n = 40) empathy group, and asked them to compete in a reaction-time task against a (fictitious) opponent, under conditions of low and high provocation. Empathy reduced aggression (i.e., intensity of electrical shock administered to the opponent) at low provocation in men, and at both low and high provocation in women. Guilt mediated the effect of empathy on aggression at low provocation in men; anger did not mediate any effects of empathy on aggression. Our findings indicate that the inhibitory effect of empathy on aggression and the mediating role of guilt are moderated by provocation and gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological aggression has been shown to have harmful effects on both partners, sometimes above and beyond the effects of physical aggression. However, very little is known about psychological aggression during the transition to parenthood. The transition to parenthood is a time where relationship satisfaction often declines and stress increases, which may put the couples at higher risk for psychological aggression. The purpose of this study was to examine if prenatal risk factors related to interpersonal style (specifically, emotional flooding and hostility) predict changes in psychological aggression from pregnancy to 2 years postpartum. Ninety eight couples took part in this study. The couples completed self-report questionnaires during pregnancy, 1 year postpartum, and 2 years postpartum. Both partners were asked about perpetrating and experiencing psychological aggression in their current relationship. Two level Hierarchical Linear Models (HLMs) were used to examine longitudinal associations between hostility, flooding, and psychological aggression. For women, hostility during pregnancy was a significant longitudinal predictor of psychological aggression. For men, flooding was a significant longitudinal predictor of psychological aggression. For both men and women, relationship satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between flooding/hostility and psychological aggression, indicating that women's hostile attitudes and men's tendency to be flooded tend to erode relationship quality, leading to increases in psychological aggression. This may represent a classic demand-withdraw dynamic in couples. The results indicate hostility for women and flooding for men are potential prenatal risk factors for future psychological aggression. Implications and future research directions are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 42:134-148, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research reveals that aggressive primes activate hostile information in memory. However, it is unclear whether this is true of all people or whether the activation of hostile information differs by trait aggression. In 3 studies, we investigate the organization of aggression-related knowledge. In Study 1, ratings of one's hostile emotions speeded subsequent ratings of hostile emotions, but particularly among individuals low in trait aggression. In Study 2, categorizations of blame-related words speeded categorizations of anger-related words, but particularly among individuals low in trait aggression. In Study 3, categorizations of actions as mean facilitated similar categorizations, but particularly among individuals low in trait aggression. These results suggest that aggressive primes activate hostile information in memory particularly for individuals low (rather than high) in trait aggression. The discussion of the results attempts to reconcile spreading activation processes with judgment and behavior in the particular context of trait aggression and priming effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in the theory of ambivalent sexism, this study tested the speculation that women's benevolent sexist attitudes may be, in part, a self-protective response to environments they perceive as hostile to women. Data that have indirectly supported this conjecture thus far have been correlational. The current study involved a more powerful, experimental test of the hypothesis. Women ( N= 105) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, which differed only in what participants were told about research findings on men's attitudes toward women (negative or positive attitudes, or no information). As predicted, benevolent sexist attitudes—but not hostile sexist attitudes—were strongest for women told that men hold negative attitudes toward women. This effect is consistent with a benevolent sexism-as-protest explanation and was statistically significant even while controlling for attitudes toward feminism. The differential effect of beliefs about men's attitudes on these two types of sexism lends further support to the idea that, although hostile and benevolent sexism are related, they may serve different functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports that the more dogmatic individuals have higher incidences of temper tantrums and other aggressive behaviors in. childhood. A number of studies have indicated significant relationships between dogmatism and measures of undesirable personality patterns, but have not attempted to gauge hostile feelings and aggressive behaviors in relation to different degrees of dogmatism. Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI) is a widely used measure of hostility and aggression. The BDHI is a 75-item questionnaire that consists of eight subscales, seven of which measure different aspects of hostility and aggression. These seven subscales factorially reduce to two clusters, one labeled aggression and the other hostility.

The article investigates the viability of Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ) in evaluating punitiveness through adequate normative data. Results indicated that the principal component structure of the HDHQ is at variance with the dimensions of extrapunitiveness and intropunitiveness. It is proposed hat an oblique factor analytic solution would fit better with the conceptual genesis of the questionnaire. The manual of HDHQ gives an insufficient standardization data for normal subjects.

The article cites a study that aims to subject the common hostility observations to experimental verification and to broaden knowledge of the role of personality to direct the hostile feelings and attitudes. This research describes the four types of personalities derived from Self-Concept theory. These include low defensive, low self-ideal (SI) discrepancy (adjustive); high defensive, low SI discrepancy (repressive); low defensive, high SI discrepancy (anxious); and high defensive, high SI discrepancy (distorters). The findings of the study are discussed.

The article presents a study on the effectiveness of vicarious experience in reducing hostility toward an instigator. It mentions that the theory of frustration and aggression posits that the blocking of goal directed activity leads to the occurrence of aggression of some kind and in some degree. Reduction of experimentally aroused hostility has been studied most frequently as a function of aggression expressed toward objects other than the original instigating agent. Since instigation to aggression is conceived of as being an interference with goal directed activity, strength of instigation to aggression will be a function of the strength of the instigation to the activity that is interfered with.

The article focuses on the Taylor MAS and group conformity pressure. The study attempts to examine the amount of hostility and conformity of the subjects with high scores in Taylor anxiety scores as pressure increases. It hypothesizes that when group pressure is severe, subjects low in Taylor anxiety should give significantly more yielding responses than the subjects high in Taylor anxiety. The section investigated 12 highest and 12 lowest scorers on the shortened 28-items Taylor MAS, which were selected from a total of 160 undergraduate students as subjects for this experiment.

The article presents a comparison between two hostility inventories involving an abnormal population of patients admitted at the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre of the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland. The first inventory labeled the total hostility value with "guilt" as a separate value, while the second inventory included "guilt" in their total hostility value. Both inventories were evaluated for normality of distribution and were found to be approximately normal. It was found that the inclusion or exclusion of "guilt" in the total hostility value has no effect on the correlation between the two inventories.