Citation

Denson TF, Pedersen WC, Miller N. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2006; 90(6): 1032-1051.

Affiliation

Department of PsychologyUniversity of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, US. denson@usc.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/0022-3514.90.6.1032

PMID

16784350

Abstract

Previous measures of aggressive personality have focused on direct aggression (i.e., retaliation toward the provoking agent). An original self-report measure of trait displaced aggression is presented. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a 3-factor conceptualization of the construct. These analyses identified an affective dimension (angry rumination), a cognitive dimension (revenge planning), and a behavioral dimension (general tendency to engage in displaced aggression). The trait measure demonstrated good internal consistency and test-retest reliability as well as convergent and discriminant construct validity. Unlike other related personality measures, trait displaced aggression significantly predicted indirect indicators of real-world displaced aggression (i.e., self-reported domestic abuse and road rage) as well as laboratory displaced aggression in 2 experiments.

Language: en