Effects of attributional style and empathy levels on the type of aggression displayed.

Abstract

Aggression has been established to be a good predictor of later social adjustment problems. This paper aims to investigate the link between internal and external attributional styles on the type of aggression displayed. There are many subtypes of aggression but proactive and reactive aggression would be studied here. We also look at how empathy moderates the relationship between attributional style and aggression. Study 1 and 2 were pilot studies designed to develop our priming methods. Study 3 looks at the relationship between internal and external attributional style and proactive and reactive aggression, and whether empathy moderates this relationship. Study 3 results showed a main effect of attributional styles on aggression, while no main or interaction effect of empathy was found.