Verbal aggression
Verbal aggression, also known as verbal abuse, refers to the use of “harsh and insulting language directed at a person”. Verbal aggression 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 that use verbal aggression 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-concept of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics of communication". Verbal aggressiveness is thought to be mainly a destructive form of communication, but it can produce positive outcomes depending on the context. Infante and Wigley described aggressive behavior in interpersonal communication as a product of an 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. Argumentativeness is a constructive, positive trait that recognizes different positions which might exist on issues that are controversial. 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. The scale 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.
Verbal Aggressiveness Scale
The Verbal Aggressiveness Scale is a tool used to measure how likely someone is to respond to others with hurtful or attacking language. It helps identify how often people use verbal aggression—like insults or harsh criticism—especially when they're trying to deal with conflict or show they’re unhappy. The scale also looks at different ways people might use this kind of language, showing that verbal aggression can take more than one form. The Verbal Aggressiveness Scale "measures verbal aggressiveness across multiple dimensions, including a focus on character assassination, ridicule, and verbal attacks on the person's self-concept". This scale is utilized for understanding how individuals interact during disputes and helps researchers assess the potential negative consequences of verbal aggression in various interpersonal contexts, such as in workplace or personal relationships.A study investigated the underlying structure of the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale, questioning whether it is truly unidimensional or if it reflects multiple dimensions of verbal aggressiveness. It directly evaluates the scale's psychometric properties using statistical analysis, aiming to refine its theoretical basis and improve its accuracy in measuring verbal aggressiveness. The study and its findings emphasize "the dimensionality of the VAS suggests that verbal aggression is a multifaceted construct, which includes not just direct attacks but also more subtle forms such as threats and sarcasm". The scale was crafted to identify both overt and covert forms of verbal aggression.
Types of messages
Reasons or causes
There are four primary reasons or causes suggested by Infante, Trebing, Shepard, and Seeds, which are:- Frustration—in which a goal is blocked by someone or having to deal with an individual deemed "unworthy" of one's time
- Social learning—in which the aggressive behavior has been learned from observing other individuals
- Psychopathology—in which an individual attacks other persons because of unresolved issues
- Argumentative skill deficiency—in which an individual lacks verbal skills to deal with an issue, and therefore resorts to verbal aggressiveness
More recently Shaw, Kotowski, Boster, and Levine demonstrated that verbal aggression may be caused by variation in prenatal testosterone exposure. They conducted two studies in which they measured the length of the second and fourth digits on each hand of participants, an indicator of amount of prenatal androgen exposure, and conducted a questionnaire to determine the verbal aggressiveness of participants. A negative correlation between 2D:4D and verbal aggressiveness was determined.
Effects
Self-concept damage is the most fundamental effect, which can cause long lasting and more harmful results than the temporal effects. The more temporal and short term effects are: hurt feelings, anger, irritation, embarrassment, discouragement, humiliation, despair, and depression. Verbal aggressiveness that harms an individual's self-concept can follow an individual throughout their life. For instance, Infante and Wigley state "the self-concept damage done by teasing a child about an aspect of physical appearance can endure for a lifetime and exert an enormous impact on the amount of unhappiness experience". Verbal aggressiveness is also a major cause of violence. When verbal aggressiveness escalates, it can lead to physical violence.Constructive
The constructive traits which produce satisfaction and increase relationship contentment by helping to increase understandings between the different positions are assertiveness and argumentativeness. Assertiveness is often confused with aggressiveness, but assertive individuals often possess traits like dominance, independence, and competitiveness. Infante and Rancer define argumentativeness as the "trait-like behavior that predisposes an individual to take a stand on controversial issues and attack the positions that other people take". Argumentative individuals focus on the topic rather than attacking an individual. Productive argumentativeness can produce positive outcomes in communication through challenging and defending standpoints through justification. This allows for reasoning between individuals to resolve issue and terminate the disagreement. Argumentative encounters such as this have a positive correlation to relational satisfaction.Destructive
The destructive traits, hostility and verbal aggressiveness, lead to dissatisfaction in communication and relationship deterioration. Destructive verbal aggressiveness is used for revenge, teasing, and to manipulate others. Verbal aggressiveness is destructive and links to the hostility trait. Unlike argumentativeness, verbal aggressiveness is focused on defending one's identity and attacking others; not trying to resolve the dispute but instead attacking individuals self-concept. Also, verbally aggressive individuals often do not provide as much evidence to support their standpoint. In many cases these individuals possess verbally aggressive traits because they lack the skills to argue rationally and effectively, and therefore use verbally aggressive messages as their defense mechanism. Individuals with argumentative skill deficiency often see violence as their only alternative. These aggressive tactics cause a digression by using personal attacks which do not allow for the disagreement to ever be resolved.In romantic relationships
The manner in which conflicts are dealt with in romantic relationships differ among each partnership. There are numerous concepts, qualities, and traits that predict the verbal aggressiveness of each partner within a romantic relationship. How couples deal with arguments and controversy has been a major topic amongst researchers for many years. When resolving a dispute is the objective amongst a couple, each individual's argumentative traits come into play. The way in which couples engage and act during a discrepancy can play a chief role in the satisfaction of each partner.Verbal aggressiveness often results in deterioration of relational satisfaction. Romantically involved couples can perceive verbally aggressive messages as unaffectionate communication. Infante and et al. found that "an act of verbal aggression produces a negative emotional reaction ; the negative reaction can remain covert, leaving a trace effect that can combine additively with subsequent verbal aggression. If the effect if not dissipated through some means, it can lead to the formation of intentions to behave with physical aggression toward the origin or perceived origin of the verbal aggression". Verbal aggressiveness is impacted by the commitment levels of the partners in a relationship. Research findings have shown a negative correlation between commitment and destructive confrontation, and also commitment and communicative acts of abuse.
The arguments that occur between romantic partners play a crucial role in the quality and course of relationships. Arguing successfully means, at least in some part, that a couple will avoid unwarranted negativity and approach discrepancies in confidence that discussing dissimilarities of opinion will supply positive results. Many couples refocus the argument and attack the other partner rather than staying on track with the differences of opinion on a subject. Unhappily married couples tend to use a more destructive approach to conflict. Verbal aggressiveness is resorted to in conflict and controversy. Infante and et al. found that in violent marriages more character attacks and competence attacks are used during disputes. Happily married couples were more likely to resolve disputes without the use of verbally aggressive messages, using instead argumentativeness to negotiate an agreement.