Discriminating violence emanating from over-controlled versus under-ontrolled aggressivity

Psychological characteristics of over- and undercontrolled violent offenders

Megargee (1966, 1973) has predicted a number of concomitant social, behavioral, and psychological differences between chronically undercontrolled and chronically overcontrolled violent individuals. Attempts to validate his theory, however, have resulted in seriously inconsistent findings, possibly because of the use of a measure to classify violent subjects that is of seemingly dubious validity--the Overcontrolled Hostility (OH) Scale (Megargee, Cook, & Mendelsohn, 1967). The present study used a different strategy--the classification of subjects by expert raters on the basis of extensive case history information--to compare overcontrolled violent, undercontrolled violent, and nonviolent criminal offenders on a number of psychometric measures (16PF, Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, Picture Situation Test, and the OH Scale). The findings were broadly consistent with predictions derived from Megargee's theory. Contrary to expectation, however, the nonviolent group did not obtain scores intermediate to the other two groups, but was statistically indistinguishable from the undercontrolled group, leaving a question as to the appropriateness of conceptualizing the typology in terms of over- and undercontrol of hostility and suggesting the necessity for some revision of the theory.

Validation studies of a multifactor cognitive-behavioral Anger Control Inventory

Two studies are reported on a new Anger Control Inventory based on a cognitive-behavioral person-situation interaction model. In Study 1, the inventory responses of 118 clinical subjects and 190 normal subjects were correlated with an anger problem criterion based on observable signs. Factor analyses were conducted to clarify the construct base of the inventory. In Study 2, comparisons were made between the inventory responses of 100 spouse batterers and 96 normal subjects. Significant differences between the pretreatment and posttreatment scores of 65 batterers given treatment in anger control were obtained on the inventory scales, which were found to be correlated with the problem criterion and discriminating between the clinical and normal groups. The construct validity and clinical utility of the Anger Control Inventory are discussed.

Applicability of the Group Personality Projective Test within a prison population

Administered the Group Personality Projective Test (GPPT) to 60 male offenders incarcerated in a state penitentiary. A board of 10 prisoners selected inmates who clearly had demonstrated one of three patterns of assaultive behavior: undercontrolled aggressives, overcontrolled aggressives, and over controlled psychopaths. A control group was chosen randomly from the prison population, as well. Results failed to support the hypothesis that GPPT scores significantly differ among relatively homogeneous prisoner subgroups or between these groups and the control group of non-assaultive prisoners.

Overcontrolled hostility, empathy, and egocentric balance in violent and nonviolent psychiatric offenders

Psychiatric offenders, divided into five groups on the basis of their criminal charges (murder, assault with a deadly weapon, rape, pedophilia, nonviolent property offenses), were administered the overcontrolled hostility scale, a measure of emotional empathy as well as a self-focus sentence-completion test. Data were also obtained regarding aggressive behavior of the 115 subjects during the course of hospitalization. Contrary to predictions, none of the paper-and-pencil measures discriminated significantly between offender groups and the canonical correlation between criminal charges and scores on the personality measures was only of low moderate value. Implications of results regarding suitable measures and future research strategies are discussed.