Date of Award

Summer 2018

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Eric Dahlen

Committee Chair Department

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Bonnie Nicholson

Committee Member 2 Department

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Michael Madson

Committee Member 3 Department

Psychology

Committee Member 4

Ashley Batastini

Committee Member 4 Department

Psychology

Abstract

The present study explored the relationships of contingent self-esteem, dispositional envy, and two cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., anger rumination and fear of negative evaluation) to indirect aggression (IA) and displaced aggression (DA) in a college student sample (N = 346). Despite the theoretical relevance of these personality and cognitive factors to aggression, there is little empirical evidence linking them to the perpetration of IA and DA. Bivariate correlations and hierarchical multiple regression were used to test the utility of these constructs in accounting for unique variance in IA and DA and to assess the potential role of participant gender. Participants high in anger rumination and dispositional envy reported more IA and DA. Further, anger rumination and dispositional envy were positive predictors of IAS-A guilt induction, IAS-A social exclusion, and DAQ behavioral displaced aggression. Fear of negative evaluation, anger rumination, and dispositional envy were positive predictors for DAQ revenge planning and IAS-A malicious humor. Despite mean gender differences on some variables, there was no evidence that the predictors differed in their utility based on gender. Moreover, contingent self-esteem did not emerge as a significant predictor of IA or DA despite its theoretical relevance to these variables. The present findings suggest that anger rumination, dispositional envy, and fear of negative evaluation may be useful in understanding indirect and displaced aggression.

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