Query: instrumental aggression in women

title: Women's Psychological Aggression Toward an Intimate Male Partner: Between the Impulsive and the Instrumental
abstract: The purpose of this article is to explore some underlying mechanisms of women's psychological aggression in intimate partner violence (IPV) as a phenomenon that requires better understanding and intervention, even in cases when it does not lead to physical violence. Psychological aggression is known to be the most prevalent pattern of IPV for both genders, and its impact on many survivors is known to be equal and sometimes worse than that of physical harm. Despite the fact that most aggressive conflicts between couples do not escalate into physical violence, research mainly addresses psychological aggression in the context of its correlation with it. This article is based on qualitative interviews with 30 women who were in bidirectional abusive heterosexual relationships, who were at least psychologically aggressive toward their male intimate partner, and who were willing to be interviewed about this experience. Results of the phenomenological psychological method of analysis of the interviews are presented, focusing on the women's personal accounts for using psychological aggression. These accounts are further analyzed from two perspectives: (a) the bimodal classification of impulsive, as opposed to instrumental, aggression; and (b) the client's perceived need to control the partner as opposed to the ability to exercise self control. The article also discusses implications for theory and practice, especially in the refining of relevant intervention goals with psychologically aggressive women.

title: Emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between traumatic exposure and aggression in healthy young women.
abstract: Research has linked trauma sequelae, such as posttraumatic stress disorder, to aggression. However, not all who experience a trauma become violent, suggesting non trauma factors, such as emotion dysregulation, influence aggression expression and if confirmed, may influence treatment approaches. Aggression can be considered a multifaceted construct with Impulsive Aggression (IA) as emotional, reactive, and uncontrolled and Premeditated Aggression (PA) as deliberate, planned, and instrumental. We hypothesized that parceling apart IA and PA may further refine predictors of aggression in the context of trauma exposure. We tested this hypothesis in undergraduate women (N 208) who completed trauma, emotion, and aggression measures. Path analysis indicated that Borderline Features, including emotion dysregulation, mediated the relationship between trauma exposure and IA and PA. The finding extends clinical literature by providing evidence that emotion dysregulation influences both IA and PA in a non clinical sample, while clinical sample research shows emotion dysregulation more specifically mediated the relationship between trauma and IA. Factors responsible for these differences are discussed.

title: Factorial Analysis and Invariance Testing for Age and Gender of the Reactive Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ)
abstract: Reactive aggression is characterized by high emotional activation, impulsivity, and hostility, while proactive aggression presents a cold, instrumental, and planned strategy. The aim was to perform a psychometric analysis of the Reactive Proactive Aggression Questionnaire [RPQ] A non probability sample of 502 people between 18 and 40 years old was formed, grouped by sex (n=297, 59.2% women and n=205, 40.8% men) and age (n 224, 44.62% under 25 years old and n=278, 55.38% over 25 years old) The instruments were the RPQ, the Anger Rumination Scale (ARS) and an affective scale (PANAS) in printed format. In this instrumental psychometric study, we found that the RPQ fits better in a model of two factors interrelated with residual covariances (CFI .928, RMSEA .044) presenting significant correlations with negative affect and anger rumination, as evidence of validity of concurrent criterion, especially with reactive aggression (anger rumination r .542, and negative affect r .359) Also, the test was not invariant between sexes and ages, given that the best fit was in the male sex and those under 25 years of age (CFI 0.01, RMSEA 0.015) We concluded that women and adults over the age of 25 have a different aggressive response profile. These findings represent new directions of research around the measurement of aggressive behavior and the development of gender differentiated interventions for adolescents and young adults.

title: Do the same risk and protective factors influence aggression toward partners and same sex others?
abstract: The current studies examined whether several risk and protective factors operate similarly for intimate partner violence (IPV) and same sex aggression (SSA) in the same sample, and to assess whether they show similar associations for men and women. Study 1 (N 345) tested perceived benefits and costs, and instrumental and expressive beliefs about aggression: perceived costs predicted IPV and SSA for both men and women. Expressive beliefs predicted IPV (more strongly for women) and instrumental beliefs predicted SSA. Study 2 (N 395) investigated self control, anxiety and empathy, finding that self control strongly predicted both types of aggression in both sexes. Study 3 (N 364) found that primary psychopathy (involving lack of anxiety) was associated with IPV for men and SSA in both sexes, whereas secondary psychopathy (involving lack of self control) was associated with IPV and SSA in both sexes. Overall there were both similarities and differences in the risk factors associated with IPV and SSA, and for men and women. The implications of the findings for theoretical debates about the study of IPV are discussed.  2017.

title: Moderate and severe aggression justification in instrumental and reactive contexts
abstract: The main goal of this study was to analyze the justification of interpersonal aggression in various situations or contexts. For this purpose, a self report instrument was employed that measures different kinds of aggressive behaviors in situations in which it may be considered justified: the Cuestionario de Actitudes Morales sobre Agresion (CAMA; Ramirez, 1991) a reliable and valid test to measure the different degrees to which youth and adolescents may justify interpersonal aggression (Ramirez Andreu, 2006) A large sample (N 735) of participants from various educational centers of Madrid was utilized. Results revealed that normative beliefs vary as a function of age, sex, and the instrumental reactive context. Reactive situations elicited higher levels of justification than instrumental situations and higher levels in the justifying beliefs about severe aggression were found among men than among women and in adolescents than in young adults. There were no significant differences in the justifying beliefs about moderate aggression.

title: Differences between bullies and victims, and men and women, on aggression related variables among prisoners.
abstract: This study assessed how behaviour indicative of bullying in prison settings is related to a variety of measures associated with aggression. Adult offenders (728 men and 525 women) from 11 prisons in the UK completed a 99 item checklist measuring behaviour indicative of 'bullying others' and of 'being bullied' as well as a range of other behavioural measures. They also completed a 43 item Response to Victimization Scale (RVS) asking about their responses to a scenario involving bullying; and measures of impulsiveness, and attributions about their aggression. Those classed as bullies showed, in response to the scenario, higher scores than non bullies on direct verbal and physical aggression, indirect aggression, verbal and physical displaced aggression, and revenge plans and fantasies; and lower values for fear/avoidance; they also showed higher impulsiveness and instrumental and expressive attributions. Those classed as victims showed higher scores than non victims for fear/avoidance, displaced physical aggression and impulsiveness. These main effects of bullying or victimization, with no interactions, are discussed in relation to hypotheses based on a previous four category classification of those involved in bullying. There were large sex differences in the male direction for direct physical aggression, and in the female direction for fear/avoidance. There were smaller differences in the male direction for revenge, indirect aggression and direct verbal aggression. These are discussed in relation to an evolutionary theory of sex differences in aggression.

title: Social representations of aggression in children
abstract: Adult men and women endorse different sets of thoughts, beliefs and emotions 'social representations' about their aggression. Study 1 investigated whether this was also the case for children. A modified version of a questionnaire designed by Campbell et al. (1992) Aggressive Behavior 18:95 108] for adults was administered to 8 11 year olds to determine whether they viewed their own aggressive acts in terms of instrumental (male) or expressive (female) representations, as had been found for adults. This was found to be the case, but there were no age differences and no interaction of sex and age. The modified questionnaire showed similar internal consistency to the original, and the effect size for sex was similar to that found for adults. It was noted that the questionnaire is biased toward physical aggression and hence toward an activity compatible with the masculine role. In study 2, the questionnaire was reworded to refer to indirect aggression (which is more characteristic of girls) and presented to substantially the same sample. Again, girls showed higher expressive scores than boys, although the sex difference was diminished. This supported the view that there is a general sex difference in reactions to aggressive or hostile acts, independent of their form. However, analysis of individual questionnaire items showed that it was lack of emotional control and subsequent regrets about the act that most clearly distinguished the sexes. It is argued that these differences arise from more general gender role characteristics rather than being specific to aggression.

title: Exploring the social image of anabolic steroids users through motivation, sportspersonship orientations and aggression
abstract: The authors explored social perceptions related to the use of anabolic steroids (AS) in sports. More specifically, 78 women and 102 men read one of two scenarios depicting a male athlete facing either a drug use or non drug use situation. Then, participants reported their perceptions of the scenario protagonist in terms of self determined sport motivation, sportspersonship orientations, and athletic aggression. Results of a multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that, in comparison with a non using protagonist, the AS using athlete was regarded as less self determined in one's motivation (i.e. sport participation based on predominant feelings of pressure to obtain external rewards or avoid punishment) and as displaying weaker sportspersonship orientations (i.e. lesser concerns for opponents, the social conventions of sport, and for one's own athletic commitment) In addition, the AS using athlete was perceived as resorting more readily to reactive aggression than to instrumental aggression (i.e. intent to injure one's opponent vs merely hinder his performance) Finally, the analyses did not disclose significant gender or interaction effects. The findings are discussed in view of theoretical and practical implications.

title: Propiedades Psicometricas de la Escala de Pensamientos de Enojo para Adolescentes
abstract: The goal of the study was to validate an Angry Thoughts Scale for Adolescents, which has three factors: revenge (4 items, e.g. "I will make the other person suffer" insulting or pejorative thoughts (5 items, e.g. "S/he is stupid" and thoughts of control (10 items, e.g. "I will be patient"  The sample had 522 adolescents (M age 15.92, SD 0.90) 213 men, and 309 women from a public school; they were recruited through intentional non random sampling. The participants answered three instruments: The Angry Thoughts Scale for Adolescents, The Multicultural Inventory of Anger and Hostility (ML STAXI) for Mexican Adolescents, and the Scale of Anger Expression with Physical Aggression. The design of the study is instrumental.  It was found, through confirmatory factor analysis and modification indexes, that the 3 factor model showed good fit (CFI .912, SRMR .046, RMSEA .076) The reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) was acceptable: .78, .86, and .92, respectively. Construct validity was satisfactory, since the scale was useful to distinguish between individuals with high and low scores in variables of anger, anger control, anger expression, and physical aggression toward people and toward objects. A gender difference was found in one of the three scales; women had more pejorative thoughts than men.  The Angry Thoughts Scale for Adolescents is a reliable option with construct validity. It represents a starting point for research, assessment, and treatment of adolescents with anger problems.

title: Instrumentality of aggression, feedback, and frustration as determinants of physical aggression.
abstract: Physical aggression was studied in relation to 5 variables. There were 2 intensities of frustration plus a control group. The aggression (delivery of electric shock) was either of instrumental value in overcoming the frustration or of no instrumental value. The victim cither gave feedback (moans, groans) or did not. Ss were cither men or women; the victims were either men or women. Frustration did not lead to more aggression than a control. When aggression was of instrumental value, it was more intense than when it was of no value. Feedback lowered aggression intensity. Men aggressed more intensely than women, and male victims received more intense aggression than women. Thus frustration was the only variable that did not affect aggression, a fact which bears on both the definition of frustration and the frustrationaggression relationship. There have been hundreds of studies of aggression (see Berkowitz, 1962; Buss, 1961) but only a few in which a subject aggresses physically against another person. These are experiments by Berkowitz and his students (Berkowitz, 1962) Hokanson and colleagues (e.g. Hokanson, Burgess, Cohen, 1963) Milgram (1963) Walters and his students (e.g. Walters Thomas, 1963) and the author (e.g. Buss, 1963) Investigations of the relationship between pure frustration and actual aggression (as opposed to projective or inventory measures) are even more rare. Of course this statement depends upon one's definition of frustration. Berkowitz (1962) adopts an inclusive position, denning frustration as: the interruption of an internal response sequence or the blocking of some drive. Similarly, a person who steps on our toes might also arouse anger if this action interrupted or interfered with the internal response oriented toward the preservation or attainment of security and comfort [p. 30]