Syndromal versus contextualized personality assessment: differentiating environmental and dispositional determinants of boys' aggression

Do agonistic motives matter more than anger? Three studies of cardiovascular risk in adolescents

OBJECTIVES

Three motivational profiles have been associated with recurring psychological stress in low-income youth and young adults: Striving to control others (agonistic striving), striving to control the self (transcendence striving), and not asserting control (dissipated striving). Agonistic striving has been associated with elevated ambulatory blood pressure during daily activities. Three studies tested the hypotheses that: (1) agonistic striving is associated with poor anger regulation, and (2) agonistic striving and poor anger regulation interactively elevate blood pressure.

DESIGN

Motivational profiles, anger regulation, and ambulatory blood pressure were assessed in a multiethnic sample of 264 urban youth.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

(1) anger regulation/recovery during laboratory challenge; (2) anger/blood pressure during daily activities (48 hours).

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Replication of the profiles in distant cities showed they occur with similar frequency across differences of region, race, and gender. Analyses controlling for body size, race, and gender revealed that individuals with the agonistic striving profile had higher ambulatory pressure, especially during social encounters. They became more openly angry and aggressive when challenged but did not exhibit difficulty regulating anger in the laboratory, nor did they feel angrier during monitoring. However, individuals with the agonistic striving profile who did display poor anger regulation in the lab had the highest blood pressure; deficient self-regulatory capability amplified the positive association between agonistic striving and cardiovascular risk in both genders and all ethnic groups. Although anger is thought to increase cardiovascular risk, present findings suggest that anger and elevated blood pressure are coeffects of agonistic struggles to control others.

Probing the depths of informant discrepancies: contextual influences on divergence and convergence

This study examined how a contextual approach to child assessment can clarify the meaning of informant discrepancies by focusing on children's social experiences and their if…then reactions to them. In a sample of 123 children (M(age) = 13.30) referred to a summer program for children with behavior problems, parent-teacher agreement for syndromal measures of aggression and withdrawal was modest. Agreement remained low when informants assessed children's reactions to specific peer and adult events. The similarity of these events increased consistency within informants but had no effect on agreement between parents and teachers. In contrast, similarity in the pattern of social events children encountered at home and school predicted informant agreement for syndromal aggression and for aggression to aversive events. Our results underscore the robustness of informant discrepancies and illustrate how they can be studied as part of the larger mosaic of person-environment interactions.