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AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR Volume 34, pages 428436 (2008)

Effects of Alcohol Intoxication and Aggressivity on Aggressive Verbalizations During Anger Arousal
Christopher I. Eckhardt and Cory Crane
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

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We examined the moderating effect of dispositional aggressivity on the relationship between alcohol intoxication and aggressive verbalizations. Using a laboratory anger-induction task that simulated an interpersonal conict as a method to assess aggressive verbalizations (the articulated thoughts in simulated situations paradigm), 70 participants (33 women, 37 men) consumed either an alcoholic or a placebo beverage, and then imagined a series of audiorecorded interpersonal scenarios. Two blind-to-condition raters assessed the frequency of participants aggressive verbalizations (insults, aggressive threats, belligerent provocations) articulated during anger arousal. Aggressivity was assessed using a standard measure of dispositional aggression. Results supported the aggressivity moderation hypothesis: intoxicated participants high in aggressivity responded with signicantly more aggressive verbalizations relative to low-aggressivity participants regardless of beverage condition, and three times more aggressive verbalizations relative to the high-aggressivity/placebo group. There were no gender effects. These data support the hypothesis that alcohol potentiates aggression primarily among individuals at dispositional risk for engaging in such a behavior. Aggr. Behav. r 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. 34:428436, 2008.

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Keywords: aggression; aggressivity; alcohol; anger; ATSS

INTRODUCTION

Alcohol use is associated with interpersonal violence and aggression, as indicated by a wealth of laboratory [e.g., Giancola and Zeichner, 1997] and longitudinal [e.g., Fals-Stewart et al., 2003] investigations. Although the consistency of the alcoholaggression1 relationship is robust, the magnitude of the effect is moderate, suggesting that additional moderating situational, psychological, and methodological variables are necessary to fully explain how alcohol use may relate to aggression [Ito et al., 1996; Parrott and Giancola, 2007; Taylor and Chermack, 1993]. Recent evidence suggests that one such moderating factor may be aggressivity, or perpetrators dispositional levels of aggressive behavior [e.g., Giancola, 2002a]. In the present investigation, we evaluated whether aggressivity moderated the association between alcohol use and verbal aggression using an anger-induction
As there can be confusion regarding the conceptual distinction between aggression and violence, we operationalize these terms in accordance with the denitions set forth by Anderson and Bushman [2002]. Aggression is dened broadly as any person-directed behavior intended to cause harm, whereas violence is the subset of aggression involving the goal of severe harm, such as a crippling injury.
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laboratory paradigm to assess on-line responses to audio stimuli. The accumulated research on alcohol and aggression clearly indicates that consumption of alcohol does not unilaterally cause aggressive behavior [e.g., Ito et al., 1996]. Instead, the data suggest a vulnerability model of alcohol and aggression in which intoxicated individuals are both more likely to interpret ambiguous stimuli in the environment as threatening and to respond aggressively to perceived threats than when sober [Schmutte et al., 1979]. Thus, this vulnerability model suggests that alcohol use increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior primarily among individuals who possess aggression-relevant traits [Pernanen, 1991]. In support of this model, researchers have suggested a variety of
Grant sponsor: Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation.
Correspondence to: Christopher I. Eckhardt, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, 703 3rd Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907. E-mail: eckhardt@psych.purdue.edu

Received 31 August 2007; Revised 12 December 2007; Accepted 12 December 2007 Published online 28 February 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www. interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ab.20249

r 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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vulnerability factors that moderate alcohols effects on aggressive behavior, including high trait anger, low anger control [Giancola et al., 2003; Parrott and Giancola, 2004], a history of frequent aggressive responding, and presence of antisocial personality disorder [Fals-Stewart et al., 2005; Moeller and Dougherty, 2001]. To date, several laboratory studies involving an alcohol manipulation have specically examined the aggressivity construct as a potential moderator of the alcoholaggression relationship. Aggressivity, which refers to an individuals trait-level tendency to engage in aggressive behavior, is considered distinct from trait anger (a dispositional tendency to experience episodes of state anger across situations) and anger control, which refers to active efforts to control or lessen the intensity of anger experience [Deffenbacher et al., 1996; Giancola et al., 2003]. Bailey and Taylor [1991] demonstrated that intoxicated males high in aggressivity responded to provocation with elevated aggression relative to sober control group participants. There were no differences in aggressive responding among individuals low in aggressivity regardless of alcohol condition (ALC). Moeller et al. [1998] also reported that alcohol was associated with laboratory aggression primarily among individuals with antisocial traits (only males were evaluated). In contrast, Pihl et al. [1997] reported no differences in intoxicated aggression among males during laboratory provocation across levels of aggressivity, although some have questioned the quality of the aggressivity measure employed [Giancola, 2002a]. Finally, Giancola [2002a] and Giancola et al. [2005] found that alcohol intoxication was associated with aggressive responding only among participants high in aggressivity, especially among males. Thus, the limited laboratory research to date suggests that the psychopharmacological properties of alcohol may exert the strongest effects on aggression on those individuals who are dispositionally prone to act aggressively. The few laboratory studies in this area have almost exclusively relied upon a single experimental analogue for assessing aggressive behavior, the Taylor aggression paradigm [TAP; Taylor, 1967]. Participants in the TAP paradigm believe that they are engaged in a competitive reaction time game against a concealed opponent that is, in reality, ctional. In a common version of the paradigm, participants administer a shock to the opponent when they win a trial. If they lose, they receive a shock; frequency and magnitude of shock delivery are the proxy measures for aggression. This

paradigm has been used extensively in the literature and earlier reviews have indicated a number of associated strengths and weaknesses [Giancola and Chermack, 1996; Tedeschi and Quigley, 1996, 2000]. However, to establish generalizable ndings, it is critical to use as many empirically supported measures of a construct as possible. This is particularly true in the context of aggression assessment, as noted by Parrott and Giancola [2007]: The measurement of aggression must reect the multifaceted nature of the construct. We, therefore, advocate for the use of multiple measures of aggression (p. 295). Thus, one of the goals of the present report is to replicate and extend earlier research by examining whether intoxicated aggression assessed with a non-TAP aggression assessment methodology would be moderated by participants levels of aggressivity. This study builds upon previous work using the articulated thoughts in simulated situations (ATSS) paradigm [Davison et al., 1983], a laboratory thought production method wherein participants imagine a series of digitally recorded anger-arousing interactions involving ctional social conicts and verbalize immediate cognitive and affective content. In a series of studies using this well-validated method [Davison et al., 1997], Eckhardt et al. [2002] found that violent males articulated more aggressive, insulting, and belligerent verbalizations during anger arousal relative to nonviolent males [Barbour et al., 1998]. In addition, males with a history of intimate partner violence articulated more demanding, rigid, and inexible cognitive distortions than nonviolent males, but only during anger arousal [Eckhardt et al., 1998; Eckhardt and Jamison, 2002]. More recently, Eckhardt [2007] reported that alcohol intoxication before ATSS anger arousal was associated with increased aggressive verbalizations among males with a history of intimate partner violence, especially those who reported high levels of anger arousal from pre- to post-ATSS; this effect was not observed among nonviolent males. Thus, the ATSS anger arousal paradigm, which uses aggressive verbalizations as a proxy measure for aggressive behavior, has proven to be a useful method of assessing aggressionrelevant behaviors and in discriminating between aggressive vs. nonaggressive samples. In this study, college-aged males and females were randomly assigned to consume alcohol or a placebo beverage and then imagined a series of ATSS angerarousing interpersonal conicts. The primary outcome measure was participants aggressive verbalizations during the conict (insults, threats of
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physical aggression, belligerent statements); as in earlier research [Giancola, 2002a], trait aggressivity was assessed with the Physical Aggression Scale of the BussPerry Aggression Questionnaire [BPAQ; Buss and Perry, 1992]. We hypothesized that aggressivity would moderate the relationship between ALC and aggressive verbalizations such that those high in aggressivity would exhibit more aggressive verbalizations than those low in aggressivity, particularly after alcohol consumption. In addition, given the limited research involving an alcohol challenge regarding gender differences in laboratory aggression [Giancola, 2002b], we explored whether gender directly or indirectly predicted aggressive verbalizations.

METHOD

Participants were 70 (33 women, 37 men) individuals aged 2130 (M 5 22.63, SD 5 2.40) recruited via yers and newspaper advertisements distributed at various urban, southwestern universities, and community colleges. Study eligibility was determined during telephone screening and required participants to report (a) regular consumption of alcohol comparable to the doses administered in this study on standard quantity-frequency drinking measures, (b) no history of alcohol-related problems (i.e., no current/past alcohol-related disorders, treatment, or hospitalization), (c) no family history of drinking problems, and (d) no medical condition or medication usage that would contraindicate alcohol consumption. Eligible participants were told to refrain from drinking for 24 hr as well as from smoking and eating for 2 hr before their lab session. Participants received $20. The sample consisted of 49 White/Caucasian, 11 Latino/Hispanic, 4 Black/African American, 4 Asian American, and 2 other-ethnicity individuals. Most participants were single/never married (90%); about one-third (34%) were members of a fraternity or sorority.2 Measures Aggressivity. As in earlier alcoholaggressivity research [Giancola, 2002a], the nine-item physical aggression subscale of the well-validated
Correlational and w2 analyses indicated that participants in the two beverage conditions were equivalent with regard to age (P 5 .42), marital status (P 5 .71), fraternity/sorority afliation (P 5 .88), and ethnicity (P 5 .29). Aggr. Behav.
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BPAQ [Buss and Perry, 1992] was used to assess aggressivity.3 Respondents endorsed the extent to which items on this scale were self-descriptive on a 5-point scale (1 5 not at all, 5 5 very much). Scores for males (M 5 19.6, SD 5 5.3) were signicantly higher than scores for females (M 5 16.4, SD 5 5.2), t(68) 5 2.56, Po.02, supporting earlier research indicating that males tend to report more extensive histories of aggressive behavior than females [Baillargeon et al., 2004; Bettencourt and Kernahan, 1997]. Internal consistency (Cronbachs a) was a 5 .85. Anger-related affect. To measure changes in anger-related affect throughout the experimental procedure, participants rated affective states on a Mood Rating Scale (MRS) that was an abridged version of the Positive and Negative Affect ScheduleExpanded Form [Watson and Clark, 1992]. The MRS consists of 15 mood adjectives rated on 7-point Likert scales ranging from not at all (1) to extremely (7). Five adjectives that form a distinguishable anger factor were included [angry, hostile, irritable, disgusted, and annoyed; Watson and Clark, 1992] and were averaged to obtain a single anger experience measure (a 5 .88). Filler adjectives were also included. This measure was administered three times. The rst was before beginning the ATSS, then again after the two ATSS scenarios. There were no differences between males and females on anger experience items at any measurement point, which is consistent with earlier research demonstrating no gender differences on state and trait anger [Deffenbacher et al., 1996]. Procedure Consent. Upon arrival to the laboratory, participants were told that the experiment was investigating the relationship between alcohol use and social imagination and provided a breath sample to check for intoxication via a Breathalyzer 7410 (Draeger Safety, Durango, CO). No individuals had blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) higher than .00%. Participants gave informed consent and female participants self-administered a pregnancy test, with a negative result required for continued participation (no positive tests were received), and
The Physical Aggression Scale of the BPAQ, which served as our primary measure of aggressivity, was signicantly correlated with ATSS physical aggression (r 5 .28, Po.05) and belligerence (r 5 .25, Po.05), but not with ATSS verbal aggression (r 5 .22, P 5 .10). The BPAQ Verbal Aggression Scale did not signicantly correlate with ATSS verbal aggression (r 5 .08), physical aggression (r 5 .15), or belligerence (r 5 .09) outcomes. This pattern of data supports the use of the BPAQ physical aggression subscale as a measure of the respondents proneness to engage in physical aggression.
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Aggressivity and Alcohol Intoxication 431

the experimenter gathered height and weight data to determine beverage amounts. Participants then completed an assessment packet, from which two measures are relevant to this report. Beverage manipulation. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two alcohol administration conditions via random number generator before their arrival to the laboratory: alcohol or active placebo. Although several earlier investigations have used a sober/no-alcohol control group, numerous meta-analytic reviews have indicated that although alcohol groups exhibit higher levels of aggressive responding relative to placebo groups, placebo groups do not typically differ from no-alcohol control groups in aggressive responding [Bushman and Cooper, 1990; Ito et al., 1996]. In keeping with earlier research in this area [e.g., Giancola, 2002a], we chose to use the alcohol vs. placebo beverage conditions assignment strategy to better equalize alcohol-related expectancies than would be possible using a no-alcohol control condition. Participants were randomly assigned to a beverage condition before arrival, which was necessary to allow for proper priming of the laboratory room. To support the notion that alcohol group designation was indeed randomly determined, participants selected a slip of paper indicating group assignment from a jar. Both slips of paper, regardless of true beverage condition, indicated that the participant would be in the alcohol group. Participants in the ALC were given a dose of 100% ethanol poured from a clear plastic container mixed with a lemon-lime soft drink at a 1:6 mixture ratio sufcient to yield a BAC of .09 mg/cL. Beverage amounts were determined via a BAC computer program [Curtin et al., 1998] that calculated the mL of ethanol needed to produce the target peak BAC relative to the participants height, weight, and drinking time. Participants consumed their beverages in three consecutive 10-min periods, followed by a 20-min absorption period. During the drinking phase, instructions were given concerning the ATSS task (see below). A ller questionnaire was completed during absorption. Participants in the active-placebo condition (PLA) observed what appeared to be 34 oz of alcohol from a clear plastic container being mixed with lemon-lime soda. The container was actually premixed with a 1:6 concentration of 100% ethanol and attened lemon-lime soda. Ethanol amounts for each participant were obtained from the BAC computer program sufcient to achieve a BAC of .01 mg/cL. To align peak BACs with the start of anger induction, the participant consumed

beverages in two 10-min periods while obtaining ATSS instructions, followed by a 10-min absorption period and ller questionnaire completion. After beverage administration, participants provided breath samples and heard their BAC evidence card being printed in an adjacent room. Following procedures developed by Leonard and Roberts [1998], the experimenter secretly switched the actual card with one preset at .05 mg/cL and presented this to ALC or PLA participants as an evidence of their BAC. This was necessary to optimize the likelihood of convincing both groups that their BACs were at a moderate level, to better equalize the experiences of ALC and PLA participants, and to more specically establish alcohol pharmacology as the manipulation. Before the ATSS, participants also completed a one-item perceived drunkenness assessment [Zeichner et al., 1995], with 1 5 not drunk at all and 9 5 the most drunk Ive ever been, as well as the MRS. Sample sizes of males and females across ALCs were as follows: alcohol: males 5 23, females 5 17; active placebo: males 5 14, females 5 16. Articulated thoughts in simulated situations (ATSS). Participants received instructions to the ATSS procedure [Davison et al., 1983] stating that they would listen to, and imagine that they were involved in, two audiotaped scenarios. During these scenarios, participants were instructed to talk out loud about their thoughts and feelings into a microphone connected to a voice recorder when they heard a prompting tone, and to continue talking until they heard another tone signaling that the scenario was about to continue. Two ATSS scenarios (one neutral, one anger arousing) used in earlier research [e.g., Eckhardt, 2007], and adapted for a college student sample, were presented to participants on an uninterrupted compact disc. In the neutral scenario, participants imagined that they were waiting for a friend at a restaurant and overheard a conversation between an unknown couple, who discussed their plans for their weekend and had an uneventful interaction. In the angerarousing jealousy scenario, participants imagined that they dropped in unannounced on their romantic partner at her/his apartment only to nd their partner irtatiously conversing with an acquaintance of the opposite gender. Each scenario consisted of eight 30-sec segments of simulated interaction separated by 30-sec thought articulation pauses. As in earlier ATSS studies, the neutral scenario preceded the anger scenario for all participants. Previous studies have successfully used the ATSS procedure with both male and female samples
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[e.g., DiLiberto et al., 2002]. The experimenter left the lab room until the end of the ATSS. Articulations were recorded by a microphone attached to a digital voice recorder, and participants were prompted by a narrator to complete the MRS after each ATSS scenario. After the last ATSS scenario, the experimenter re-entered the laboratory room and collected a second BAC reading approximately 15 min after the initial BAC reading. Participants were then given a full process debrieng that explained the full nature of the study. PLA participants were allowed to leave the laboratory immediately after debrieng. ALC participants remained in the lab until BACs were at or below .03 mg/cL, and after a second debrieng. ATSS measures. Undergraduate research assistants transcribed each participants digital voice le to a coding sheet. Two blind-to-condition raters (advanced undergraduate psychology majors), who received 30 hr of training according to an authordeveloped ATSS coding manual, read transcriptions of participants articulated thoughts while listening to their corresponding audiotape and independently rated each segment. Intraclass correlation coefcients (rIC) were computed to assess inter-rater agreement. Raters assessed the presence of aggressive verbalizations by tallying the frequency of participants statements that corresponded to the following three categories: (1) verbal aggression (rIC 5 .96), recorded when a participant insulted or otherwise demeaned a character; (2) physical aggression (rIC 5 .97) was coded when a participant expressed a desire to become physically aggressive (e.g., behaviors such as hitting or shoving, or any reference to a physical altercation); and (3) belligerence (rIC 5 .76), dened as a statement attempting to initiate an altercation by provoking, threatening, or challenging a character (Yeah, thats what I said, what are you gonna do about it?).
RESULTS

TABLE I. Blood Alcohol Concentrations, Perceived Drunkenness, and Anger Experience During ATSS
ATSS scenario Pre-ATSS M (SD) Blood alcohol concentration ALC PLA Perceived drunkenness ALC PLA Anger experience ALC PLA Postneutral M (SD) Postanger M (SD)

0.078 (0.019) 0.020 (0.015) 5.31 (1.61) 3.10 (1.29) 1.29 (0.63) 1.20 (0.38)

0.085 (0.015) 0.003 (0.004)

1.60 (0.94) 3.42 (2.00) 1.54 (0.95) 3.30 (2.24)

Note. ALC, alcohol condition; PLA, active-placebo condition; ATSS, articulated thoughts in simulated situations.

Manipulation Checks To examine the effects of beverage administration, BAC levels subsequent to the postabsorption period and immediately after the ATSS procedure (15 min after the rst BAC reading) were examined (see Table I). For participants in the ALC group, the mixed analysis of variance indicated a signicant main effect for time, F(1, 38) 5 7.80, Po.01, with BAC readings increasing from pre- to post-ATSS. The gender main effect was not signicant, F(1, 38) 5 0.66, P 5 .42, nor was the gender by time
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interaction effect, F(1, 38) 5 0.04, P 5 .84. For participants in the PLA condition, who received a minimal amount of alcohol, there was a signicant effect of time, F(1, 28) 5 34.67, Po.001, with BACs decreasing from pre- to post-ATSS. Nonsignicant effects were found for the gender main effect, F(1, 28) 5 0.26, P 5 .61, and the gender by time interaction, F(1, 28) 5 0.84, P 5 .37. Participants ratings of perceived drunkenness indicated that ALC participants experienced a moderate level of intoxication, whereas PLA participants reported a minimal level of subjective intoxication. Subsequent analyses indicated that these differences in perceived drunkenness were unrelated to the primary-dependent measures.4 Thus, the alcohol manipulation was successful in eliciting desired BAC levels and in presenting ATSS materials during the ascending limb of the BAC curve. The data indicated that the ATSS procedure signicantly increased anger-related affect. Results of a 2 (ALC, PLA) 2 (MRS ratings prepostATSS) mixed analysis of covariance indicated a signicant increase in anger ratings across the ATSS procedure, F(1, 74) 5 70.90, Po.001. These ratings were not signicantly affected by beverage condition, F(1, 74) 5 0.20, P 5 .66, or gender,
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To examine whether differential ratings of subjective intoxication had a meaningful impact on primary outcome measures, perceived drunkenness was correlated with ATSS aggressive verbalization scores among ALC and PLA participants, controlling for the effects of actual BAC levels during ATSS. Results indicated no signicant relationship between perceived drunkenness and ATSS aggressive verbalizations (rp 5 .007, P 5 .96).

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F(1, 74) 5 0.31, P 5 .58. All interaction terms were nonsignicant (Table II). Gender Differences on ATSS Measures We conducted a multivariate analysis of variance examining the effects of gender on the individual ATSS outcomes used to calculate the aggregate ATSS aggressive verbalization-dependent measure. The multivariate analysis of variance did not indicate an omnibus effect for gender on ATSS verbal aggression, physical aggression, and belligerence outcomes, F(3, 64), 5 0.87, P 5 .46; therefore, results of univariate tests will not be examined further. Predicting Anger Scenario Aggressive Verbalizations To examine the effects of beverage condition assignment, aggressivity, and gender on ATSS anger scenario aggressive verbalizations, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used (see footnote 4). The number of aggressive verbalizations made by participants in this study is comparable to other studies that utilized the ATSS methodology to assess aggression [e.g., Barbour et al., 1998; Eckhardt et al., 2002]. Coding for the beverage group was ALC 5 1, PLA 5 1, and the gender variable was coded as male 5 1, female 5 1; aggressivity was entered as a continuous variable centered on its mean. Interaction terms were calculated using crossproducts of the above rst-order variables, and unstandardized regression coefcients were examined. The gender variable was entered in the rst step, followed by aggressivity and beverage condition in the second step; two- and three-way interaction terms were entered in step three.

As can be seen in Table III, the regression equation for the rst step was not signicant, R2 5 .02, F(1, 64) 5 1.44, P 5 .23. The second step was signicant, DR2 5 .15, F(3, 64) 5 4.29, Po.01, with ALC group assignment, and higher aggressivity predictive of higher ATSS aggressive verbalizations. The third step was also signicant, DR2 5 .08, F(7, 60) 5 2.84, Po.02. The interaction between beverage condition and aggressivity was signicant, with assignment to the ALC condition interacting with higher aggressivity scores to predict higher levels of ATSS aggressive verbalizations. This interaction was interpreted by plotting the effect (see Fig. 1) to determine if the slopes of the simple regression lines (1 SD below and 11 SD above the aggressivity mean) were signicantly different from zero [Cohen et al., 2003]. Gender did not signicantly interact with beverage condition or aggressivity, and the three-way interaction between gender, beverage condition, and aggressivity was nonsignicant.

DISCUSSION

TABLE II. Aggressive Articulations During ATSS by Beverage Condition and Gender
ATSS scenario Neutral M (SD) ALC Male Female PLA Male Female Anger M (SD)

.00 (.00) .00 (.00) .00 (.00) .00 (.00)

2.27 (3.46) 1.24 (2.18) 0.85 (1.50) 0.81 (1.21)

Note. ALC, alcohol beverage condition; PLA, placebo beverage condition; ATSS, articulated thoughts in simulated situations paradigm. N 5 70.

Researchers have long suggested that alcohol intoxication is neither a necessary nor a sufcient cause of aggressive behavior [Bushman and Cooper, 1990; Ito et al., 1996], and that alcohol potentiates aggressive responding among individuals at dispositional or contextual risk for engaging in such a behavior [e.g., Pernanen, 1991]. Subsequent research examined aggressivity as one such risk factor and the resulting data indicated that alcohol increased TAP-assessed aggression primarily among highaggressivity participants [Bailey and Taylor, 1991; Giancola, 2002a; Moeller et al., 1998]. Using a verbalized aggression assessment paradigm, we found that participants who were randomly assigned to receive an alcoholic beverage and who scored high in aggressivity articulated approximately eight times more aggressive verbalizations relative to lowaggressivity participants regardless of beverage condition, and approximately three times more aggressive verbalizations relative to high-aggressivity participants given a placebo. Results did not signicantly vary as a function of participant gender. The present results are congruent with previous laboratory research using an alcohol challenge, and suggest that the relationship between alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior is moderated by dispositional aggressivity. It is worth noting that the similarity between the present results and ndings
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TABLE III. Predicting ATSS Aggressive Verbalizations From Beverage Condition, Aggressivity, and Gender
Variable Step 1: Gender Step 2: Main effects Beverage contrast Aggressivity Step 3: Interactions Beverage con. aggressivity Beverage con. gender Aggressivity gender Beverage con. gender aggressivity b b t Adj. R2 .02 .15 DR2 .02 .13 .08

.59 .16 .11 .10 .28 .06

.24 .36 .24 .04 .06 .12

2.07 2.93 1.99 0.34 0.52 1.03

.16

Note. ATSS, articulated thoughts in simulated situations; b, unstandardized coefcient; b, standardized coefcient. *Po.05, **Po.01.
5 4.5 Aggressive Verbalizations 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Low Aggressivity High Placebo Alcohol

Fig. 1. Effects of beverage condition (alcohol vs. placebo) and aggressivity (high vs. low) on frequency of ATSS anger scenario aggressive verbalizations. ATSS, articulated thoughts in simulated situations.

from earlier research in this area [e.g., Giancola, 2002a] exists despite usage of an aggressive assessment paradigm not previously implemented, the ATSS paradigm [Davison et al., 1983]. Similar to the TAP, the ATSS allows for a high degree of experimental control over key aspects of the assessment situation, as researchers can specify the content and timing of aggression-eliciting interpersonal conicts [Davison et al., 1997; Eckhardt, 2007]. However, whereas the TAP uses an easily assessed proxy measure for aggression (frequency and intensity of shock administration), the main ATSS aggression measure relies upon participants spontaneous verbalizations of aggressive content. Future research is needed to establish the degree to which the two measures converge as proxy measures of the broader construct of aggressive behavior. The ndings regarding the importance of the aggressivity variable are perhaps unsurprising given that an individuals earlier aggression is a substantial determinant of ones vulnerability to future aggressive behavior [Capaldi and Clark, 1998; Ehrensaft et al., 2004; Fals-Stewart et al., 2005]. A key issue at
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this juncture is to more precisely investigate the specic facets of dispositional aggressivity that interact with alcohol use to increase ones risk of aggressive behavior. Researchers have identied core personality features that serve as vulnerability factors for persistent antisocial behavior [Miller and Lynam, 2001], and an amalgam of aggressioneliciting cognitive and affective individual difference factors have been proposed that additively increase the likelihood of specic episodes of aggressive behavior [Beck, 1999; Berkowitz, 1993; Bettencourt et al., 2006]. However, the relation among these factors and chronic aggression has received limited empirical attention in the context of alcohol intoxication. Data indicate that poor executive functioning may moderate the alcoholaggression relationship [Giancola, 2004], and that decits in social information processing may mediate this association [Ogle and Miller, 2004; Sayette, 1993]. It is also likely that these alcohol-affected cognitive processes operate at an automatic or implicit level [Ostan and Palfai, 2006]. Regarding affective components of aggressivity, trait anger appears to moderate the association between alcohol intoxication and laboratory aggression among aggression-prone [Eckhardt, 2007] and college student [Giancola, 2002b] samples, and Giancola et al. [2003] have suggested that these effects may be accounted for by the behavioral activation components of trait anger. Thus, researchers must continue to examine contextual variables that focus on how, as opposed to whether, aggressivity interacts with alcohol intoxication to increase violence risk. We did not nd a signicant moderation effect for gender. Earlier research indicates that alcohol appears to be more strongly predictive of aggressive behavior using the TAP for males than for females [e.g., Giancola, 2002b; Giancola et al., 2005]. However, in keeping with the notion of aggression

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vulnerability, earlier research has also suggested that alcohol may increase aggression for both men and women predisposed toward aggressive behavior [Giancola, 2002a; Gussler-Bukhardt and Giancola, 2005]. Thus, for individuals with a lower threshold to act aggressively, alcohol may operate consistently to elicit aggressive responding regardless of perpetrator gender; among those with greater inhibitions against aggression (i.e., lower aggressivity), alcoholrelated gender differences may be more pronounced. However, it is also possible that the lack of gender differences observed in this study may reect important differences between the TAP and ATSS aggression assessment paradigms. TAP aggression is a measure of direct behavioral retaliation, whereas ATSS aggression involves a less direct response that is verbal in nature. Indeed, as earlier research suggests that alcohol may serve as a stronger elicitor of verbal aggression for females than males [e.g., Rohsenow and Bachorowski, 1984], the gender similarity in aggressive verbalizations observed in this study may therefore be owing to the parameters of the ATSS task. Additional research is needed to directly assess the construct-level congruence of these two methods of assessing aggressive responding. This study is not without its limitations. First, our sample was relatively small and drawn from a low-risk college student population. These data may not be generalizable to more clinically relevant, high-risk samples. Second, trait aggressivity was assessed in a relatively simplistic manner using a nine-item, paper-and-pencil measure. Although this method replicates other researchers operationalization of the aggressivity construct [e.g., Giancola, 2002a], it is nevertheless a limited method to assess a rather complex construct (dispositional tendencies to engage in aggressive behavior). Finally, on a theoretical level, although this study used the ATSS procedure as a proxy for aggressive behavior, it is likely that the parameters of this task affected the relationships observed. Determining whether and to what extent the ATSS and TAP paradigms converge in their ability to assess the broader construct of aggressive behavior would be an important future contribution to the literature. Despite these limitations, the present results converge with a recent conclusion by Giancola [2002a]: alcohol does indeed have very powerful effects on aggression, but only for persons predisposed toward such behavior (p. 705, italics original). Specically, alcohols ability to potentiate aggression appears to primarily operate on those individuals with preexisting personality characteristics

that favor aggressive responding. The next step will be to determine the facets of aggressivity that account for this risk, and to determine how aggressivity dynamically relates to other risk factors to predict intoxicated aggression among high-risk populations [e.g., Fals-Stewart et al., 2005; Mulvey et al., 2006]. Such advances will enrich emerging etiological models of interpersonal aggression, and enhance efforts to prevent the occurrence of such behaviors.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported in part by a grant from the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation awarded to the rst author. The authors offer their gratitude to the following individuals: Rene Jamison, Gavin Brown, Sara Lowery, Ashley Hollweg, Summer Sullivan, Collin Hagood, West Hudgins, Paige Corbly, and Sara Goodrich.

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