An Investigation into Theoretical State Aggression and the Difficulties Surrounding its Psychometric Quantification

To date, the General Aggression Model has been the most extensive method of measuring aggression, with media violence being used as a strong influence on aggressive behaviour within a western society. However, due to the consistent increase in realism portrayed within the media, a more contemporary method of measurement is required to ensure reliability in relation to current society trends. Due to the extensive range of psychometric scales available to measure trait aggression effectively, the current research aimed to develop a psychometric scale to measure the shifts in state aggression to ultimately coincide with the current trait aggression scales to create an overall extensive psychological measure of aggression. 354 self report questionnaires were developed based on four predominant factors identified from previous literature as influential on state aggression. They were separated into 177 consisting of questionnaire A and 177 consisting of questionnaire B. Using an opportunity based sample, 177 mixed gender (47.5% male and 52.5% female) participants were recruited. Ages ranged from 18 – 72 years (mean = 1.53, SD = 0.5, range= 54, with the average age group being 30 – 39). Factor analysis was employed in the form of principal component analysis (PCA), allowing factors to be extracted to enable the development of a reliable self report scale. However, the proportions of residuals highlighted a lack of reliability (227>0.05) suggesting that a state aggression scale could not be developed efficiently. Consequently, validity of the scale was not tested throughout the development process. The importance of hostility as an influential factor (24.378%) on the measurement of state aggression was highlighted within PCA as a strong element to focus on within future research on state aggression.