The displaced aggression questionnaire.

TLDR

Previous measures of aggressive personality have focused on direct aggression toward the provoking agent. The authors introduce an original self‑report measure of trait displaced aggression and describe its development and validation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a three‑factor model comprising angry rumination, revenge planning, and a behavioral tendency, and the measure showed good internal consistency, test‑retest reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and significantly predicted real‑world and laboratory indicators of displaced aggression.

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.