Age and vengeance as predictors of mild driver aggression

The present study examined the influence of driver age and vengeance on mild aggression among drivers with at least 5 years experience. Mild aggression decreased with age among low vengeance drivers and changed little across age groups among moderately vengeful drivers. However, mild driver aggression actually increased with age among highly vengeful drivers. Results are interpreted in terms of the aggressive nature of an enduring vengeful attitude.     

The Driving Vengeance Questionnaire (DVQ): the development of a scale to measure deviant drivers' attitudes

The Driving Vengeance Questionnaire (DVQ) was developed and administered to assess drivers' use of vengeance when faced with common driving situations. Subjects in the development of the scale were 266 male and female university students. The scale was then administered to 271 university students (both male and female) and 74 male inmates who were classified as either violent or nonviolent offenders on the basis of the amount of force used in committing the offence. A Cronbach alpha of .83 (M = 40.76, n = 310) indicated a high level of internal consistency for the DVQ. Younger drivers (18-23 years old) indicated higher levels of vengeance while driving than did older drivers (24-66 years old, M = 44.35 and 37.81, respectively). Those with less driving experience (0-6 years) expressed higher levels of vengeance while driving than more experienced drivers (6+ years, M = 42.95 and 38.81, respectively). Male drivers responded with greater vengeance to the questionnaire items than females (M = 42.07 and 39.62, respectively). The level of force used in commission of crime failed to correlate with the DVQ. A factor analysis was performed with a different sample of subjects using a slightly modified version of the DVQ to deal with the issue of whether horn honking constituted an appropriate measure of aggression. When the two relevant DVQ items were changed to read "leaning on horn" rather than mere honking, a strong, single factor of vengeance was found to characterize the scale. Suggestions were made for the use of DVQ in the screening of driving license applicants and in the study of problem drivers.     

Angry drivers: a test of state-trait theory

Tested hypotheses from state-trait theory applied to anger while driving. College student drivers high in trait driving anger were compared to drivers low in trait driving anger. High anger drivers were more frequently angered in day-to-day driving (frequency hypothesis). They reported more intense anger in their most angering driving situations, when visualizing provocative driving events, and in day-to-day driving (intensity hypothesis). Driving diaries and surveys showed they engaged in more aggressive behavior and expressed their anger through more verbal, physical, and vehicular means (aggression hypothesis). They reported handling of their anger less well when visualizing provocative events and on the Adaptive/Constructive Expression scale (reduced adaptive expression hypothesis). They engaged in risky behavior (risky behavior hypothesis) and experienced more moving violations, close calls, and losses of concentration, but not more major or minor accidents (partial support for crash-related outcomes hypothesis). High anger drivers were more generally angry and impulsive and employed more negative, less controlled forms of general anger expression. Results supported state-trait theory and added to the literature showing that high anger drivers have some other psychological and behavioral characteristics that may interact negatively with anger behind the wheel.     

Women who use violence in intimate relationships: the role of anger, victimization, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression

The present study examines the role of anger and victimization in women's use of aggression in heterosexual intimate relationships. The sample was composed of 108 women, primarily African American, urban, and poor, who had used violence against a partner in the previous 6 months. Path modeling was used to examine the interrelationships among anger, women's aggressive behavior, victimization, childhood abuse experiences, and symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression. Results revealed that almost all of the women experienced violence from their partners. Greater frequency of victimization from partners and experiences of childhood abuse increased the likelihood that women would use aggression against their partners. Victimization from partners and childhood abuse also increased the likelihood that women would experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression. Women with more symptoms of posttraumatic stress were also more likely to express anger outwardly towards others. Expressing anger outwardly toward others, in turn, predicted an increased likelihood of using aggression against partners.     

Personal predictors of spectator aggression at little league baseball games

Parents from two baseball leagues completed questionnaires regarding their likelihood of engaging in various aggressive behaviors (yelling, swearing, shoving, fighting, humiliating) toward targets at youth baseball games (other spectators, umpires, coaches, other players, their child). Overall, the likelihood of all forms of aggression was very low, particularly physical aggression and swearing. Hierarchical entry stepwise regressions were calculated to determine predictors of yelling and humiliating using demographics, trait aggression, anger, hostility, and vengeance as predictors. Parents with greater hostility reported a greater likelihood of humiliating a child's teammate, while those with elevated trait anger reported a greater likelihood of yelling at other spectators. Finally, parents with a more vengeful attitude reported a greater likelihood of humiliating umpires.     

Workplace aggression against health care workers,law enforcement officials,and bus drivers: Differences in prevalence,perceptions, and psychological consequences

Investigations into workplace aggression (WPA) remain largely occupation specific, with few studies using a comparative approach. The aim of the present study was to compare the health care, law enforcement, and public transportation sectors with regards to the prevalence of different types of WPA, the perceptions of workers toward WPA, and the psychological consequences of such acts. A cross-sectional survey was completed by 1,774 workers in Canada. Multinomial regressions were utilized to address the objectives. Findings revealed that verbal abuse victimization was particularly common in bus drivers, witnessing death threats was most frequent among law enforcement officials, and witnessing all types of WPA was most common among health care workers. Although bus drivers did not normalize WPA, they feared complaining about violence to their employer and thought it useless to talk it about unless wounds were visible. Fear of complaining about violence to colleagues was prevalent in health care and law enforcement, both sectors in which WPA was normalized. Finally, flashbacks and irritability following WPA were most likely to affect bus drivers whereas health care workers experienced hypervigilance to a greater extent. Strategies to tailor primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention according to these distinctions are suggested to offer a better-informed response to WPA.     

The Moderating Effects of Support for Violence Beliefs on Masculine Norms,Aggression, and Homophobic Behavior During Adolescence

In 2 studies, beliefs supporting the use of violence moderated the association between normative masculine activities and aggressive behavior (Study 1) and normative masculine attitudes and aggressive and homophobic behavior (Study 2) among adolescent boys. These beliefs also moderated the association between normative masculine activities and homophobic behavior among adolescent girls. Consistent with social information processing models, beliefs about the appropriateness and effectiveness of violence predicted aggressive behavior for boys and girls, including bullying, fighting, and relational aggression. Furthermore, the association between masculine norms and aggressive behavior and homophobic behavior was partly dependent on holding these beliefs among boys. Continued research is needed to identify other beliefs that may distinguish different expressions of masculinities and their association with other attitudes and behaviors. Within the broader aggression and homophobia literature among adolescents there is a need to include the study of gender norms, while recognizing the complexity with which these factors are associated.     

Dating violence in young Mexican couples: a dyadic analysis / Agresiones en el noviazgo de universitarios mexicanos: un análisis diádico

This study analyses the frequency, perception, bidirectionality and degree of agreement in the occurrence of aggression committed and suffered in 100 heterosexual couples. The selection of the sample was non-probabilistic, with 100 Mexican male-and-female dyads (age range 18 to 25). We used a virtual questionnaire which evaluated the frequency of psychological, mild physical and sexual aggression committed and suffered by each member of the dyads. Psychological aggression was the most frequent, and no significant differences were found by sex except in sexual aggression committed by men. The women more often underestimated both the aggression they suffered from and that which they committed, primarily sexual aggression. Bidirectionality was found in all three kinds of aggression, and there was greater agreement between couples when the women were the aggressors than when the men were the perpetrators. More studies are needed on couple violence that include the perspective of both members of the dyad.     

The Recurrence of Violence

This article examines the recurrence of violence in the contemporary world based on the premise that states can use their monopoly of violence not only for preserving the life of their citizens but also for the sake of terror and annihilation. This ambiguous nature of the use of violence derives from the fact that the legal order of the state is a function of concrete acts of bloodshed and killing. The state bases the law on violence because authorities fear the psychological attraction that bloodshed has on the human imagination. The contagious character of violence, however, is not based on man's innate potential for aggression. Rather, it depends on the nature of the reciprocity of social relations. Violent conflict often feeds on negative social communication such as hatred and desire for vengeance. Yet, faced with the inevitable recurrence of violence humans have the capacity to act on the spiral of vengeance. One possible way to pacify violence is to transform the destructive, negative reciprocity of retaliation into the creative, positive reciprocity of active non-violence.     

Naturalistic observation of drivers' interactions while overtaking on an undivided road

Current models of driving behavior and designs of driver support systems are not taking adequately into account the interactions between drivers. Although a driver's intended maneuver may not be physically possible at a specific time point, it may still be safely executed if the driver's intention is successfully communicated to and interpreted by another driver, who alters the own future trajectory so as to enable the maneuver execution. This paper presents some empirical findings relevant to communicative and cooperative interactions between drivers along naturalistic overtaking maneuvers on an undivided road. The cues used by drivers to interpret other drivers' intention and the drivers' interactions were extracted through video observations of the maneuvers together with the frequency of such interactions per level of traffic risk. The findings show that drivers use formal and informal cues to anticipate other drivers' intention. A significant percentage of maneuvers were performed after facilitation by other drivers. Future studies should focus on this phenomenon while future models of driving behavior should incorporate communicative and cooperative interactions among drivers, so as to design adequate cooperative support systems to enhance road safety.     

Evaluations of aggressive women: the effects of gender, socioeconomic status, and level of aggression

Research finds gender differences in aggression and suggests that female violence is viewed differently from male violence. Participants were 94 female and 38 male students from a mid-size public university in the Southeast. Participants read a mock trial and answered questions about their attitudes concerning an aggressor in the scenario. The study was a 2 (male or female) by 2 (high socioeconomic status or low socioeconomic status) by 2 (verbal aggression or physical aggression) between-subjects factorial design. The participants responded to a revised version of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Nelson, 1988). As hypothesized aggressive women were evaluated more negatively than aggressive men and participants evaluated the female aggressor who used physical aggression more negatively than the female who used verbal aggression. The hypothesis that the female aggressor would be perceived as more in need of counseling than the male aggressor was not supported. Contrary to another hypothesis, respondents did not evaluate higher socioeconomic status aggressors more negatively than those of lower status. As hypothesized people with traditional views of women evaluated the female aggressor more negatively than people with more liberal views of women, and liberal participants evaluated the male and female aggressors similarly. The more negative evaluation of female aggressors and, in particular, females who use physical aggression, may result in unfair treatment of such females. These social biases may cloud perceptions of aggressive females, suggesting that their actions are more inappropriate than those of a male who committed the same act.     

VIOLENT VALUES, CONDUCT NORMS, AND YOUTH AGGRESSION: A Multilevel Study in Iceland

The subculture of violence approach suggests that group adherence to values and norms that encourage violence influence aggressive behavior through two analytically separate processes: (1) internalization of values encouraging violence, and (2) social control stemming from others' adherence to conduct norms. While some attention has been paid to the former process, the research has rarely addressed the latter. We examine the individual-level and contextual effects of values that encourage violence and perceived conduct norms on youth aggression in Iceland. The results indicate that group adherence to violent values and norms influences aggression through social control as well as internalization (socialization), lending cross-cultural support to the subculture of violence perspective.     

Insecure Attachment Behavior and Partner Violence: Incorporating Couple Perceptions of Insecure Attachment and Relational Aggression

Intimate partner violence and insecure attachment are therapeutically relevant concepts when working with couples. The link between attachment and intimate partner violence has been examined in the literature, but an area of aggression that often goes unexamined is relational aggression, or using third parties as a means of being aggressive toward a partner. We asked how participants' attachment behaviors were related to their own and partners' relational and physical aggression. We used structural equation modeling to estimate actor–partner interdependence among these relationships in 644 heterosexual couples. Results indicated significant partner paths from attachment to relational aggression, as well as significant actor paths between relational aggression and physical aggression. Implications were discussed. Data for this study were collected from the RELATE assessment.     

Risk-taking, attitudes toward aggression, and aggressive behavior among rural middle school youth

This study examined the relationship between risk-taking, general acceptance of aggression (GAA), verbal harassment (VH), and aggressive behavior (AB) in the last 30 days among 1440 seventh- and eighth-grade rural middle school youth. Higher levels of risk-taking predicted higher GAA and VH. Significant interactions for AB indicated that, excepting Black youth, higher risk-taking was related to higher levels of violent behavior. Among Black youth the highest levels of AB occurred at moderate levels of risk-taking. Level of risk-taking is an important risk factor that should be taken into account in the study of attitudes toward aggression and aggressive behavior among rural youth.     

Sexual Coercion,Verbal Aggression,and Condom Use Consistency Among College Students

Abstract

Objective: The relationship between condom use and 2 less visible categories of intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual coercion and verbal aggression, was examined among college students. Methods: In March 2007 a random cross-sectional sample of undergraduates from the southeast region of the United States was taken to collect information about sexual coercion and verbal aggression, in addition to condom use consistency. Alcohol use was also assessed. Results: Of the 142 participants, 31.7% reported being victims of sexual coercion, and 78% reported having verbally aggressive partners. Participants who reported experiencing sexual coercion in their relationship were significantly less likely to consistently use condoms. Additionally, alcohol use before or during episodes of verbal aggression was negatively associated with condom use. Alcohol use was also significantly associated with heightened incidents of coercion and aggression. Conclusions: Results indicate that among college students, the presence of sexual coercion adversely affects condom use, as does alcohol use.     

Female victimization and intimate partner violence after the May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake

This study investigates the impact of the earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan, China on stressed families already experiencing domestic violence. We hypothesized that cumulative postdisaster stress would increase marital aggression and that the well-being of victims would deteriorate following the quake. A total of 186 women were recruited for this study. Results show that all types of family violence, including psychological aggression and physical violence between partners, increased after the earthquake. We provided preliminary evidence that psychological aggression was significantly associated with the detrimental effects on victims' mental and physical functioning. The findings support the need for violence assessment among victims of earthquakes, and we recommend that violence prevention be considered as part of the intervention during such natural disasters.     

Perceived threats of female infidelity, male proprietariness, and violence in college dating couples

According to evolutionary theory, men faced the adaptive problem of keeping their partners sexually faithful. In the current study, men's perception that their partners are interested in other men was hypothesized to be associated with more controlling behaviors in romantic relationships. Of the two dimensions of mating tactics, controlling and attentive behaviors, physically aggressive men were expected to be especially controlling, but not attentive. Using structural equation modeling with 116 college dating couples, women who reported greater interest in other men were perceived by their partners to do so and these men also exhibited more controlling behaviors, which were associated with physical aggression. Men's perception of women's interest in others was a more important predictor of male violence than women's actual interest in other men. The link between women's control tactics and their use of physical violence differed from men.     

Self,Emotions, and Extreme Violence: Extending Symbolic Interactionist Theorizing

Extreme violence revolves around actions of individuals who are emotionally aroused and willing to kill themselves, if need be, to inflict harm on enemies. Terrorism, gangbanging, and genocide are conspicuous examples of extreme violence. This violence is ultimately driven by repressed negative emotions about self that are transmuted into variants of anger and combinations of anger with satisfaction‐happiness to produce emotions such as hatred, righteous anger, and vengeance. This theory combines symbolic interactionism's emphasis on identity and self with key ideas from gestalt theories, psychoanalytic theories, and interaction ritual theory as well as data from primatology, evolutionary biology, and neurology. I explain extreme violence as the outcome of several converging forces: the neurological capacity for humans as evolved apes to experience and express a large palate of high‐intensity emotions, the experience of shame in key institutional spheres, the repression of shame (and, at times, guilt and alienation as well as other highly charged negative emotions), the intensification and transmutation of these repressed emotions into variants and elaborations of anger, the making of external attributions blaming external targets for negative experiences, the portrayal of these targets in highly negative terms, and the charging up of positive emotions in interaction rituals directed at inflicting harm on external enemies.     

User acceptance of cooperative maneuver-based driving--a summary of three studies

Modern cars offer drivers support with the help of a number of driver assistance systems. Those systems aim to relieve drivers through assumption of sub parts of the driving task (e.g. in case of an Adaptive Cruise Control by regulation of vehicle speed and time gap to preceding vehicle). Today, systems are controlled and monitored separately which leads to efforts to combine the functionality of all systems in an overlying assistance for drivers. The approach of the University of Technology Darmstadt is called Conduct-by-Wire and can be seen as a cooperative maneuver-based driving paradigm, where the driver gives maneuver command to the systems which are automatically executed. This paper summarizes the results of three studies which investigated the user acceptance of this driving paradigm. Overall, it can be said that the acceptance of the system depends on personal traits of the driver and on the driving situation. Almost all participants are willing to use Conduct-by- Wire for routine tasks such as commuting, which makes the systems interesting for company cars. Still, there remain a number of drivers who are not willing to use such a highly automated system at all.     

Establishing Independence in Low‐Income Urban Areas: The Relationship to Adolescent Aggressive Behavior

Although adolescents in poor urban areas often assume independent, adult‐like roles, relatively little is known about the relationship between these roles and other adolescent behaviors. This research examines the association between independent roles occurring within different contexts (e.g. family, peer, work) and aggressive behavior among 516 low‐income, urban middle school students. Overall, adolescent employment is related to increases in aggressive behavior. However, associations that familial and peer independent roles have with aggression differ by the extent of youth involvement in paid work. Greater engagement in familial independent roles is associated with decreased aggression among employed adolescents, but with increased aggression among unemployed youth. Also, peer independent roles are related to significantly greater increases in aggression among unemployed, compared with employed, adolescents.