Verbal aggressiveness: Messages and reasons

Abstract

The nature of verbal aggression is discussed with an emphasis on its destructiveness. A need to learn more about people who are verbally aggressive is argued because past research has tended to emphasize the situation rather than the person. A study of 181 college students is reported which explored the types of verbally aggressive messages used, the types of messages received, perceptions of the hurt produced by the messages, and the reasons for using verbal aggression which differentiate high from low verbal aggressives. The results identified types of messages used, beliefs about hurt and reasons for use which distinguish high from low verbal aggressives. The results are discussed in terms of understanding the nature of trait verbal aggressiveness. Speculations are advanced as to why high verbal aggressives are prone to using self‐concept attacking messages.

Key concepts:

• Verbal aggression
• aggressiveness
• message hurtfulness
• self‐concept
• message construction.