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The assessment of anger has received increased attention because of growing evidence that anger and hostility are related to heart disease. Research on anger assessment has also been stimulated by the development of psychometric measures for evaluating different facets of anger, such as the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). In this study, factor analyses of the responses of a large sample of university students to the 44 STAXI items identified 7 factors. Of these, the first 6 factors closely corresponded with the 6 STAXI scales and subscales: State Anger (S-Anger); Trait Anger Temperament and Reaction; and Anger-In, Anger-Out, and Anger-Control. All 10 STAXI S-Anger items had salient loadings on the 1st factor for both sexes; the 7th factor also consisted primarily of S-Anger items. Factor analyses of responses to the 10 S-Anger items clearly confirmed two S-Anger factors for both sexes: Feeling Angry (e.g., "I am furious") and Feel Like Expressing Anger (e.g., "I feel like hitting someone").

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Recently, Forgays, Forgays, and Spielberger (in press) reported the first exploratory factor analysis of the total 44-item State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) by gender. The analyses were based on a sample of over 700 male and female university students and identified quite well six of the original STAXI scales and subscales. In addition, a seventh factor, "Feel-Like-Expressing-Anger," emerged for women. In the present study, we examined the STAXI responses from a middle-aged adult population. Exploratory factor analyses replicated the majority of the original structure of the STAXI measure including a Feel-Like-Expressing-Anger factor for men and women. In addition, we employed confirmatory factor analyses and cross-validation procedures to test the validity of Spielberger's (1988) AHA! model. Based on these procedures, we found (a) that a seven-factor model provided a better fit than a six-factor solution for each gender and (b) evidence of robust gender differences for two factors: Feel-Like-Expressing-Anger and State Anger. These gender differences are consistent with the social costs for anger expression in women and the social benefits for men.

Psychologists have known for some time that the type of early experience provided an animal can influence his adult performance on a variety of tasks (Beach & Jaynes, 1954). Recently, researchers (Bingham & Griffiths, 1952;Forgays & Forgays, 1952; Fergus, 1954; and others) have demonstrated that rats reared in large complex environments are superior in problem-solving ability to rats reared under more restricted conditions. In addition, Hymovitch (1952) found evidence indicating that the enriched experience must occur before maturity if it is to lead to the reported effect. In a study using form discrimination as the response measure, Fergus (1954) reported that the enriched experience must occur extremely early in the life of the rat. In this latter study, testing of the two groups of animals constituting the design was accomplished well before full maturity of the rats so that in this sense, at least, the results cannot be compared directly with those of Hymovitch.As yet there has not been reported a systematic investigation of several quite important aspects of the early-experience issue; namely, just how much experience is necessary in these complex environments to produce a superior adult animal, and when, specifically, during early life must this experience occur, assuming that it must take place before full maturity. A still more interesting matter is the interaction of these two dimensions, that is, the possibility that a greater amount of experience occurring during one developmental period produces the same results in the adult animal as a smaller quantity of such experience during another period. Moreover, it would be desirable in any such studies to examine the functioning of the adult animals on a variety of intellectual, emotionality, and other measures.The present study is an attempt to investigate in part the second of the issues raised above; that is, When, specifically, during the relatively short maturation period of the