Verbal aggression

Ali Akbar Salehi using verbal aggression against protesters

Verbal aggressiveness in communication has been studied to examine the underlying message of how the aggressive communicator gains control over different things that occur, through the usage of verbal aggressiveness. Scholars have identified that individuals who express verbal aggressiveness have the goal of controlling and manipulating others through language. Infante and Wigley defined verbal aggressiveness as "a personality trait that predisposes persons to attack the self-concepts of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics of communication".[1] Self-concept can be described as a group of values and beliefs that one has. Verbal aggressiveness is thought to be mainly a destructive form of communication, but it can produce positive outcomes. Infante and Wigley described aggressive behavior in interpersonal communication as products of individual's aggressive traits and the way the person perceives the aggressive circumstances that prevents them or something in a situation.

Infante, Trebing, Shepard, and Seeds collaborated to showcase the relationship between argumentativeness and verbal aggression. The study investigated two things. The first component investigated whether high, moderate, or low behaviors differ in how easily they are caused by an opponent that selects verbally aggressive responses. The second focused on whether different sexes display different levels of verbal aggression. The results concluded that people who scored high on argumentativeness were the least likely to prefer verbal aggression.[2][3] Argumentativeness is a constructive, positive trait that recognizes different positions which might exist on issues that are controversial.[4] As for the difference between sexes, males are more likely than females to use verbal aggression because males have been conditioned to be more dominant and competitive.

The Verbal Aggressiveness Scale measures the personality trait of verbal aggressiveness and has been widely used in communication research.[1] The VAS has 20 items, 10 that are 10-worded negatively/aggressively, and 10 worded positively/kindly. Infante and Wigley's scale is often scored as unidimensional.[5]

  1. ^ a b Infante, D.A. (1986). "Verbal Aggressiveness: An Interpersonal Model and Measure". Communication Monographs. 53 (1): 61–69. doi:10.1080/03637758609376126.
  2. ^ Infante, Dominic A.; Trebing, J.D.; Shepard, P.E.; Seeds, D.E. (1984). "The relationship between argumentativeness and verbal aggression". Southern Speech Communication Journal. 50 (1): 67–77. doi:10.1080/10417948409372622.
  3. ^ Kim, Min-Sun (2002-07-23). Non-Western Perspectives on Human Communication: Implications for Theory and Practice. SAGE. ISBN 9780761923510.
  4. ^ Infante, D.A.; Rancer, A.S. (1982). "A Conceptualization and Measure of Argumentativeness". Journal of Personality Assessment. 46 (1): 72–80. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4601_13. PMID 16370641.
  5. ^ Croucher, S.M.; Demaris, A.; Turner, J.S.; Spencer, A.T. "Assessing the Factorial Complexity of the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale" (PDF). Human Communication. 15 (4): 261–277. S2CID 33387734. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-21.