Are Hostility, Anger, and Aggression Involved in the Social Anxiety of Forensic Psychiatric Outpatients Convicted of a Violent Crime?

Abstract

There is limited evidence in the literature that hostility, anger, and aggression are involved with social anxiety. The present study examined the relationship of personality traits and aggression with social anxiety and social skills in forensic psychiatric outpatients convicted of a violent crime. Social anxiety was mainly contributed to by neuroticism, state anger, and social skills, while neuroticism and social anxiety were the main contributors to social skills. Anger, next to neuroticism and social skills, appeared to be involved in the outpatients’ social anxiety. Neuroticism and social anxiety were found to be the main contributors to social skills.

Keywords:

• Social anxiety
• social skills
• anger
• hostility
• aggression
• forensic psychiatric outpatients convicted of a violent crime

Conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).