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The Perception of Aggression
Author(s) -
Jansen Gerard,
Dassen Theo,
Moorer Peter
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of caring sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.678
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1471-6712
pISSN - 0283-9318
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-6712.1997.tb00430.x
Subject(s) - aggression , psychology , perception , clinical psychology , qualitative research , developmental psychology , social science , neuroscience , sociology
Several academic and clinical disciplines are involved in clarifying the concept of aggression by formulating operational and descriptive definitions. In the present paper the validity of the definitions of aggression, reported by nurses in an earlier qualitative study, is examined, using a survey approach among nurses of five general psychiatric hospitals in the Netherlands. Three dimensions of aggression were found; aggression as a normal, adaptive reaction, aggression as a violent reaction and aggression as a functional reaction. These findings match the results of the qualitative study. It was investigated whether there was a relation between personal and environmental characteristics of the nurses and the way they perceive aggression. The gender of the respondents, the setting in which they were working, the degree to which they used constraint measures and whether patients were voluntarily admitted or not, were related to the perception of aggression. The study points out that different instruments are needed to measure the prevalence or incidence of aggression and to diagnose or to intervene on aggression in clinical practice.