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Abstract

This paper describes the construction and validation of a competitive task which uses a new apparatus designed for the study of aggression. A variety of personality measures were answered by 144 male and female university students before they participated in the task. During the task three independent variables (instrumentality of aggression, sex of aggressor, and sex of target) were manipulated to determine the comparability of the results with past research. Instrumental shocking occurred more frequently than non-instrumental (hostile) shocking, and males shocked more than females. A factor analysis of the personality measures produced a factor, Repression vs Expression, which represented a dimension of aggressiveness and accounted for 18% of the variance in hostile shocking. The competition paradigm was shown to provide a valid index of hostile aggression while minimizing deception and risk to subjects.

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Aggression in a Competitive Task

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