Longitudinal relationships among interpersonal openness trait, hostile attribution bias, and displaced aggressive behaviour: Big Five treated as covariates

Abstract

Displaced aggressive behaviour is associated with many negative outcomes. Although certain personality traits predict displaced aggressive behaviour, the uniquely longitudinal effect of indigenous interpersonal traits on displaced aggressive behaviour is ignored. To address this gap, we explored the longitudinal relationship among an indigenously interpersonal trait of China (interpersonal openness), hostile attribution bias, and self‐reported displaced aggressive behaviour. Additionally, we tested whether hostile attribution bias mediated the relationship between interpersonal openness and self‐reported displaced aggressive behaviour. The Interpersonal Self‐Support Scale for Undergraduate Students, Word Sentence Association Paradigm for Hostility, Displaced Aggression Questionnaire, and the NEO Personality Inventory‐3 were administered to 942 undergraduates on two occasions, 6 months apart. A cross‐lagged model showed that, after controlling for the Big Five personality traits, interpersonal openness predicted subsequent hostile attribution bias, and hostile attribution bias predicted self‐reported displaced aggressive behaviour 6 months later. Hostile attribution bias at time 2 mediated the relationship between interpersonal openness at time 1 and self‐reported displaced aggressive behaviour at time 2. These results were consistent with the interpersonal self‐support theory's appraisals of interpersonal openness, and they extended the social information processing and general aggression models to explain displaced aggressive behaviour.

The Mediating Role of Extra-family Social Relationship Between Personality and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Adults

“…Participants responded on the 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). After correcting the reversely scored items (one for each dimension) and averaging the score of each dimension, the final score of each personality was calculated, with higher scores indicating higher levels of the corresponding personality trait [35]. Previous research using the CBF-PI-15 has shown that it demonstrates excellent reliability and validity across diverse samples [34,36,37].…”

Effects of relative deprivation on change in displaced aggression and the underlying motivation mechanism: A three‐wave cross‐lagged analysis

“…Displaced aggression refers to the tendency or response to harm a seemingly innocent target by a provoked person who is unwilling or unable to retaliate against the original provocateur (Denson et al, 2006; Su et al, 2021). It is a special form of reactive aggression (Su et al, 2021) because it is triggered by provocation and used to vent negative emotions such as hostility and anger.…”

“…Displaced aggression refers to the tendency or response to harm a seemingly innocent target by a provoked person who is unwilling or unable to retaliate against the original provocateur (Denson et al, 2006; Su et al, 2021). It is a special form of reactive aggression (Su et al, 2021) because it is triggered by provocation and used to vent negative emotions such as hostility and anger. The key difference from common reactive aggression is that displaced aggression targets innocent individuals, whereas reactive aggression is always directed towards the original provocateur.…”

“…The social information process (SIP) model (Crick & Dodge, 1994) proposes that aggressive cognition plays a key role in the formation and development of aggression. Studies have shown that aggressive cognition factors promote displaced aggression (Bushman et al, 2005; Su et al, 2021). Hence, aggressive cognition factors may play important roles in the development of displaced aggression.…”

“…The SIP model (Crick & Dodge, 1994) argues that hostile attribution bias is a unique factor that influences reactive aggression, as supported by previous research (Gagnon & Rochat, 2017; Lobbestael et al, 2013). One study showed that the change in displaced aggression was predicted by hostile attribution bias (Su et al, 2021). Additionally, as mentioned above, hostile attribution bias and displaced aggression may change to some degree over time.…”