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Direct and Indirect Aggression: Relationships as Social Context
Author(s) -
Richardson Deborah S.,
Green Laura R.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00114.x
Subject(s) - aggression , psychology , anger , friendship , context (archaeology) , romance , social psychology , developmental psychology , paleontology , psychoanalysis , biology
The studies reported in this paper examined the effect of social context—target gender and target relationship—on reports of direct and indirect aggression. In Study 1, participants completed the Richardson Conflict Response Questionnaire (RCRQ; Richardson & Green, 2003), which measured their direct and indirect aggression behavior in response to anger. Participants also selected a relationship partner to complete the RCRQ with reference to their own (i.e., participants') behavior. In Study 2, participants completed the RCRQ with reference to their behavior in response to anger with a romantic partner, a same‐sex friend, and an opposite‐sex friend. In both studies, relationship with aggression target was an important determinant of aggression, with more direct aggression occurring in romantic relationships, and more indirect aggression occurring in friendship relationships.