Étude d'un article (document en anglais)

1st Article: The Aggression Questionnaire

Authors: Arnold H. Buss & Mark Perry

How many people took part? 1253 first year psych students

Name of the journal: Journal of personality &social psychology 1992

Research Question: Would a new research questionnaire which used current psychometric standards give a better measure of aggression within individuals.

How the researchers went about answering the research question: Subjects were tested on their level of aggression through the use of a questionnaire which separated aggression into several components. The test was conducted on 1253 first year psych students and was designed so that it allowed for aspects of anger to be correlated, and also so it observed the correlation between aggression and personality traits. Subjects would rate their own level of aggression on a scale of one to five in the first test and then in the second test anger subjects were asked to rate their peers level of aggression.

The major findings were: Men scored significantly higher on physical aggression, verbal aggression, and hostility, but not on anger. However physical aggression was much higher than the other three scales. There was a correlation mean score between peer nominations and self-rated aggression of .31. Correlation revealed that anger is the bridge between both verbal and physical aggression and hostility.

The major conclusions were: men are much more physically aggressive and just a little more hostile. One way of integrating the data is to suggest that inhibition may be at work here: women become just as angry as men but inhibit expression of this anger by means of instrumental aggression. College students assert themselves more verbally than physically. This questionnaire could provide a valuable instrument to assess the sub traits of aggression and the patterns of their relationships with other variables.

2nd Article: Finger length ratio (2D:4D) correlates with physical aggression in men but not in women.

Authors: Allison A. Bailey & Peter L Hurd

How many people took part? 298 introductory psychology students

Name of the journal: Biological psychology 68 (2005)

Research question: Whether testosterone organizes human aggressive behaviour and whether digit ratio will correlate with the most sexually dimorphic form of trait aggression.

How: The researchers compiled a questionnaire which contained Buss and Perry’s aggression questionnaire and the Paulhus deception scale so to collect data that showed the individuals level of aggression and whether their answers were subject to self-deception or impression management. Those who scored a 7 on self-deception or 14 on impression management were considered to be untrustworthy sources of data and were excluded from the results. Levels of aggression in subjects were then compared to the length difference between the index finger and the ring finger.

Results: males with lower finger length ratios had significantly higher physical aggression scores. 2D:4D ratio however did not predict anger, hostility or verbal aggression

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