The Brief Aggression Questionnaire: Psychometric and Behavioral Evidence for an Efficient Measure of Trait Aggression

Author

Gregory D. WEBSTER, University of Florida
C. Nathan DeWall, University of Kentucky
Richard S. POND, University of North Carolina - Wilmington
Timothy DECKMAN, University of Kentucky
Peter K. JONASON, University of Western Sydney
Bonnie M. LE, University of Toronto
Austin Lee NICHOLS, Peking University
Tatiana Orozco SCHEMBER, University of Florida
E. Layne PADDOCK, Singapore Management UniversityFollow

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

3-2014

Abstract

A key problem facing aggression research is how to measure individual differences in aggression accurately and efficiently without sacrificing reliability or validity. Researchers are increasingly demanding brief measures of aggression for use in applied settings, field studies, pretest screening, longitudinal, and daily diary studies. The authors selected the three highest loading items from each of the Aggression Questionnaire's (Buss & Perry, 1992) four subscales-Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, anger, and hostility-and developed an efficient 12-item measure of aggression-the Brief Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ). Across five studies (N = 3,996), the BAQ showed theoretically consistent patterns of convergent and discriminant validity with other self-report measures, consistent four-factor structures using factor analyses, adequate recovery of information using item response theory methods, stable test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with behavioral measures of aggression. The authors discuss the reliability, validity, and efficiency of the BAQ, along with its many potential applications.

Keywords

aggressive behavior, personality, Aggression Questionnaire, aggression, anger, hostility, item response theory, measurement, short form

Discipline

Organizational Behavior and Theory | Personality and Social Contexts

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Aggressive Behavior

Volume

40

Issue

2

First Page

120

Last Page

139

ISSN

1098-2337

Identifier

10.1002/ab.21507

Publisher

Wiley

Citation

WEBSTER, Gregory D.; DeWall, C. Nathan; POND, Richard S.; DECKMAN, Timothy; JONASON, Peter K.; LE, Bonnie M.; NICHOLS, Austin Lee; SCHEMBER, Tatiana Orozco; and PADDOCK, E. Layne. The Brief Aggression Questionnaire: Psychometric and Behavioral Evidence for an Efficient Measure of Trait Aggression. (2014). Aggressive Behavior. 40, (2), 120-139.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4598

Copyright Owner and License

Publisher

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21507