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Perceptions of one's attacker's intentions following an aggressive interaction involving alcohol.

Author
Abstract
:

The authors investigated and assessed the perceptions of one's attacker's intentions following an aggressive interaction involving alcohol. Participants were 328 (163 men and 165 women) healthy social drinkers between 21 and 35 years of age. After participants had consumed a beverage containing either alcohol or a placebo, the authors tested them on a modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; S. Taylor, 1967) in which participants received mild electric shocks from, and administered shocks to, a fictitious opponent (the attacker) under the guise of a competitive task. Aggressive behavior was operationalized as the shock intensities administered to the fictitious opponent. The authors queried participants about their perceptions of their opponents' intentions toward them on the task. Overall, participants who were least aggressive on the TAP perceived their opponent to have the most aggressive intentions and those who were the most aggressive perceived their opponent to have the least aggressive intentions. Alcohol only seemed to play a role for women. It appeared to decrease aggressive perceptions for the least aggressive women and to increase such perceptions for the most aggressive women. The authors discuss results according to L. Huesmann's (1988) cognitive script model of aggression.

Year of Publication
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2006
Journal
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The Journal of general psychology
Volume
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133
Issue
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4
Number of Pages
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389-400
ISSN Number
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0022-1309
DOI
:
10.3200/GENP.133.4.389-400
Short Title
:
J Gen Psychol
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