Verbal Aggression 1

Running Head: VERBAL AGRESSION

The Effects of Familial Verbal Aggression on the Compliance Gaining Strategies of College
Students

Corresponding Authors:

Alexandra Heim

Alexis Hoffey

Caroline Lovering

Casey Regan
 Verbal Aggression 2

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between perceived familial verbal aggression and positive

and negative compliance gaining strategies in relationships among college aged people.

Volunteers took a survey measuring their perception of verbal aggression in their families as well

as what compliance gaining strategies they are more or less likely to use in a given scenario. The

data collected was not significant enough to find a relationship between perceived familial verbal

aggression and compliance gaining strategies. However, prior research shows that the more

verbal aggression an individual is exposed to within their family allows for more verbal

aggression to be apparent in their later years.

Keywords: verbal aggression, familial history, college-age, Marwell and Schmidtt’s Compliance
Gaining Strategies, Infante and Wigley’s Verbal Aggressiveness Scale

Introduction

As young children grow, some learn to emulate the behavior and traits of their parents

and those who raise them. If this is true, then surely the environment that parents raise their

children in will directly influence the way in which they look for compliance within their own

relationships later in life. Considering that previous studies have shown that in college age

relationships “family verbal aggression” has impacted romantic relationships and conflict with
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their significant other, the direct correlation and impact of compliance gaining strategies has yet

to be explored (Aloia & Solomon, 2015). The research on familial verbal aggression will be

further examined and analyzed as its relation to compliance gaining strategies of college-age

people. This study uses the dynamic of familial verbal aggression and compares it to the

compliance gaining strategies within college-age relationships.

Literature Review

Familial History

The way that families engage in social interaction shapes how the children within these

families handle relationships outside of their home life. Children tend to model after their family

in how they handle communication, therefore creating their own style of communication using a

foundation of what they are exposed to growing up. This results in children adopting several

mannerisms from those around them, both positive and negative.

The Effects of Familial Verbal Aggression

Familial verbal aggression plays a large role in the way in which a person develops and

grows their communication skills and attributes. The amount a person is exposed to verbal

aggression in a familial setting and the way in which it impacts them later in life has been found

to be quite significant in a large variety of research in many ways.

In Lindsay Aloia’s study (2017), the impact of childhood familial verbal aggression on

the way an individual responds to and carries out angry behavior in their adult life was studied.

Participants, all college and graduate students between the ages of 18-30, were asked to recall

instances of targeted verbal aggression within their family throughout their middle childhood.
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These instances included targeted verbal aggression towards the participant by close family

members including parents and siblings. The participants were then asked about their current

anger-coping behaviors; in short, whether these individuals currently internalized (“anger-in”

behaviors”), externalized (“anger-out” behaviors), or controlled their anger (Aloia, 2017). The

study concluded that a history of targeted verbal aggression was positively correlated with one’s

tendency to externalize their anger.

It could also be said that these verbally aggressive behaviors in the family also affect the

way in which a person behaves during the formation of their own relationships as they grow,

including how they handle relational conflict. In a separate study, Aloia and Solomon (2015)

studied the effect that familial verbal aggression had on the way in which young, college-aged

students handled and faced conflict in their relationships. The participants in the study were

engaged in a three month or longer relationship, which allowed the study to see the affects verbal

aggression had on the participants in relation to conflict with their significant other. In the study,

it was concluded that participants who claimed to have higher instances of family verbal

aggression suffered from less stress when confronted with conflict over participants who claimed

lower instances of family verbal aggression (Aloia & Solomon, 2015). This meant that those

exposed to conflict on more occasions became desensitized to confrontation, allowing them to

become more acclimated to arguments. The more aggression those subjects were open to allowed

them to believe that aggression was a normal response to conflict in their relationships (Aloia &

Solomon, 2015).
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It is also important to note that familial verbal aggression has been argued to have an

impact on one’s willingness to display emotions. In another study carried out by Aloia and

Solomon (2016), the researchers questioned whether past family verbal aggression correlated to

the feelings of positive and negative emotions of college-aged students. In the study, Aloia and

Solomon theorized that one’s familial history with verbal aggression in childhood “may

influence people’s emotions associated with verbal aggression expression and

suppression” (Aloia & Solomon, 2016). Participants, all college students, were asked a series of

questions through survey that assessed their level of familial verbal aggression. They were then

prompted with questions about their current experiences with their own verbal aggression and

expression (in short, the emotions the participants associate with their own verbal aggression and

how they express said emotions). The study concluded that those with higher reported instances

of familial verbal aggression in the past were more likely to report a heightened feeling of anger

before, during, and after current verbally aggressive experiences (Aloia & Solomon, 2016).

Therefore, those with a history of verbally aggressive familial behavior may have a heightened

experience of emotion and, in result, may push them to express their emotions rather than

suppress them. This, in turn, shows that familial verbal aggression is a significant aspect of one’s

childhood communication development.

Compliance-gaining Strategies

Marwell and Schmitt (1967) discussed the concept of compliance-gaining strategies and

the ways in which a person utilizes these strategies to gain power; in short, to get what they want.

The researchers state that while there is plenty of research discussing why humans want to gain
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compliance, it is important to discuss how they gain compliance from others. Analyzing these

techniques are essential in understanding interaction between individuals.

While the relationship between familial verbal aggressiveness and one’s compliance

gaining strategies has not yet been observed through research, one’s individual tendency towards

verbal aggressiveness in relation to compliance gaining has been researched; specifically, in

Boster and Levine’s article (1988). The researchers first refer to Infante and Wigley's definition

of verbal aggressiveness - a “personality trait that pre-disposes persons to attack the self-

concepts of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics” (1986). Therefore,

those who tend to be more verbally aggressive also tend to be less considerate of other’s feelings.

They theorized that this was because these individuals also tend to be more dogmatic. However,

Boster and Levine’s study focuses on the specific effects that one’s individual verbal aggression,

as well as their proclivity to argumentativeness, have on the messages they use to gain

compliance from others (1988). In their study, participants, all of whom were university students,

were asked to fill out a questionnaire. This questionnaire prompted them with two compliance

gaining situations; specifically, a situation involving a casual friend’s car and trying to get a

partner to comply with a move (the former being considered a non-intimate friendship, and the

latter being an intimate relationship). The participants were then presented with a series of 32

messages, with which they were instructed to say how likely they were to use this message to

gain compliance. All messages were linked to argumentativeness, dogmatism, negativism, and

verbal aggression (Boster & Levine, 1988). Furthermore, researchers used these results to score

the participants on each dimension. The researchers concluded that verbal aggressiveness

showed to be a “significant predictor” of responses when it came to compliance-gaining situation

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with a non-intimate friend (Boster & Levine, 1988). Therefore, those with a higher score in

verbal aggression were more likely to use compliance-gaining messages.

It is important to note that when using compliance-gaining strategies, there is always a

goal. There are both positive and negative compliance gaining strategies within these goals, and

this typically effects the way a person communicates their message. In her study, Kellerman

(2004) discusses the way in which one’s goals effects their specific compliance-gaining

strategies. The researcher also studies the concept of positive and negative “face” having an

influence on these strategies. Kellerman (2004) argues that the more a person perceives a

compliance strategy to be a threat on their own face, as well as threaten the co-interactants face,

the less likely they are to use that compliance strategy. Participants in the study were provided a

survey in which they were asked to imagine themselves in a conversation with a partner, and the

conversation had a purpose of achieving a compliance-gaining goal (such as ending a

relationship, providing guidance, and obtaining information, among others). The participants

were then presented with 56 “behaviors”. These behaviors included “socially appropriate” ones

(defined as proper, fitting, and polite) and “socially inappropriate” ones (defined as uncivil,

unmannerly, and impolite) (Kellerman, 2004). The participants were then prompted to use a

Likert-scale to rate the social appropriateness of the behavior for achieving their compliance-

gaining goal. Kellerman’s study concluded that normally positive behaviors (including forgiving

and apologizing) were seen as socially less appropriate for goals that included stopping an

annoying habit, getting a date, obtaining a favor, and changing opinions; however, perceived

negative behaviors (protesting, arguing, and disagreeing) were seen as more socially appropriate

when trying to achieve goals like getting permission and providing guidance. Therefore,
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Kellerman’s study shows that the specific compliance goal and the behaviors associated with

one’s interaction effects the strategies they may use.

Rationale and Hypothesis

The way in which an individual grows up and the environment they are exposed to at a

young age can affect the way in which they handle their communication skills and compliance

gaining strategies as they mature. Variables like divorce, perceived parent-child closeness and

verbal aggression all have a large impact on the way in which an individual develops

communicatively in the long-run. Specifically, the factor of familial verbal aggression

throughout the essential years of childhood and adolescent development have been proved to

have effects on the individual later in life (Aloia and Solomon, 2015).

In our research, we decided to focus on how familial verbal aggression effects the

eventual compliance gaining strategies of young adults during college and university age. While

many studies, including Aloia’s study in 2017, have examined the impact of childhood familial

verbal aggression on the way an individual carries out angry behavior in their later life, as well as

one’s verbal aggression in general, there has been a lack of research regarding the compliance

gaining strategies of those who experience and have been exposed to familial verbal aggression.

In Boster and Levine’s study researchers concluded that verbal aggressiveness showed to be a

“significant predictor” of responses when it came to compliance-gaining situation with a non-

intimate friend (1988). Similarly, when comparing the familial history of verbal aggression to

compliance gaining strategies in college-age people we hypothesize that:

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H: There will be a positive relationship between the level of familial verbal aggression

and negative compliance gaining strategies.

Verbal aggression may trigger perceptions of negativity or anger. According to Infante

and Wigley, verbal aggressiveness is a “personality trait that pre-disposes persons to attack the

self-concepts of other people instead of, or in addition to, their positions on topics” (1986).

Aloia’s study concluded that a history of familial verbal aggression was positively correlated

with one’s tendency to externalize their anger furthering the idea that verbal aggression is seen to

have a correlation to negative traits (2017). We argue that college-age individuals will be more

apt to look for compliance gaining strategies that are positive if they have not been exposed to

this negativity. Therefore, we propose the second hypothesis that:

H2: There will be a negative relationship between the level of familial verbal aggression

and positive compliance gaining strategies.

Method

Sampling

Participants were college-aged students attending Bryant University, a private

Northeastern college. Students included in the procedures include both sexes; male and female.

The method used to collect data was through a survey answered by a volunteer sample. This

survey was administered over the period of 2 weeks and there were 101 survey responses

collected. Of those 101 responses there were only 74 responses that were considered to be valid.

This was due to the fact that some surveys were started but never completed while others left off

questions all together. Of the 74 valid survey responses that were collected there were 22 males
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(29.7%) and 52 females (70.3%). The ages of this survey ranged from 17 to 24 with an average

age being 20.56.

Research Design and Procedure

The survey used for the collection of data for this study is a combination of the scales of

Infante and Wigley’s Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (1986) as well as Marwell and Schmitt’s

Compliance Gaining Strategies Scale (1967). These scales allowed for data to be collected in

investigation of the hypothesis and the variables of verbal aggression and compliance gaining

strategies. In order to accurately measure the perception of familial verbal aggression the

participant has been exposed to questions were edited to better suit the definition of verbal

aggression that we are testing.

The survey was administered through Qualtrics. Researchers sent out the survey through

different social media platforms as that is what is most prevalent to the demographic of which

the data was being collected from. The survey began with a cover statement that included

guarantee of confidentiality; “Any information obtained in connection with this study will

remain confidential and will not be disclosed to the general public in a way that can be traced to

you. In any written reports or publications, no participant other than the researchers will be

identified, and only anonymous data will be presented”. It also included information about the

survey itself, a statement of risks, and contact information of the researchers. In the next portion

of the survey, general demographic questions will be asked, including the age and the gender of

the participant.

Verbal Aggression
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The survey then moved on to the familial verbal aggression section, where the participant

was prompted with an initial statement regarding their preconceived beliefs of familial

aggression when their families addressed a given situation. This statement read as follows:

“Please indicate how often each statement is true for your family growing up when trying to

influence other persons. (0: almost never true – 5: almost always true)”. Verbal Aggression was

measured through questions on Infante and Wigley’s Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (1986). On

the 20-item Likert scale, the scores ranged from 25 to 84 (M=51.07, SD=12.168). The

Cronbach’s Alpha for the measure was .897.

Compliance Gaining

Positive and negative compliance gaining were measured with Marwell and Schmitt’s

Compliance Gaining Strategies Scale (1967). This scale provided sixteen compliance gaining

strategies, and asked participants to measure which strategies they are more likely to use when

addressing the given topic of a situation (1: definitely would use - 5: definitely would not use). In

this section, the participant was prompted with the initial instructions “Please rate your likeliness

of using these strategies when trying to gain compliance within a friendship in the following

scenario (1: definitely would use, 5: definitely would not use)”. These instructions were

accompanied by a short scenario that reads “You are currently failing your Economics class. You

would like your roommate, Pat, who has been doing very well in economics, to spend several

hours tutoring you before the final, although Pat is very busy studying for exams.” Using this

scenario, the participants utilized a Likert scale to choose their answers for each statement. This

scale measured both negative and positive compliance gaining strategies.

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There was a total of 7 questions on the Likert Scale that measured positive compliance

gaining techniques and 9 that measure negative compliance gaining strategies with one that was

a repeat question. The repeated question was not included in the result. The scores for positive

compliance gaining ranged from 9 to 34 (M=22.16, SD=4.812). Scores for the negative

compliance gaining ranged from 8 to 32 (M=13.31, SD=5.278). The Cronbach’s alpha for the

dimensions were .630 and .852, respectively.

Results

Hypothesis one (H1) predicted that there would be a positive relationship between the

level of familial verbal aggression and negative compliance gaining strategies. A correlation was

run between two variables to test the relationship. Results showed that there was not significant

data to support a relationship between the level of verbal aggression and negative compliance

gaining strategies (r= .219 and p=.062).

Hypothesis two (H2) predicted that there would be a negative relationship between the

level of familial verbal aggression and positive compliance gaining strategies. A second

correlation was run to measure the relationship of these two variables. Results shown that it was

statistically insignificant and that there was no correlation between the two variables of familial

verbal aggression and positive compliance gaining strategies that were used (r= .140 and p=.

236).

Discussion
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Through a voluntary survey providing different scenarios of compliance gaining tactics

and the perception of amount of familial verbal aggression, we tested two hypotheses on the

correlation of family verbal aggression alongside positive and negative compliance gaining

strategies used in college-age romantic relationships. The first hypothesis predicted that there

would be a positive relationship between the level of familial verbal aggression and negative

compliance gaining strategies. The results indicated that there was not enough significant data to

support the positive relationship. The second hypothesis predicted that there is a negative

relationship between the amount of family verbal aggression and positive compliance gaining

strategies. Results showed that the hypothesis was also rejected, showing no correlation among

the variables.

This study had several limitations. First, the study was made up more predominantly of

female subjects, therefore not representing an equal random sample of both male and females.

With our voluntary survey being taken by more female subjects, we could have a better

prediction for how female college age students form romantic relationships with compliance

gaining strategies, however the male population was poorly represented and could not hold a

significant amount of subjects that would make the data more general to the population.

Second, this study was conducted of students from one university. It could be that the

culture of one institution’s students come from families of more or less aggressive backgrounds.

Our data was collected in the New England area, meaning that it could come from a region more

prone to acting on verbal aggression in the United States. Collecting data from colleges from

different areas may yield different results.

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Third, the survey had several inconveniences. One of the questions was listed twice,

disrupting the data that needed to be run through statistics. This question could have thrown our

reliability off and caused insignificant results in our survey. Another limitation regarding the

survey was the fact that when adjusting the scales to match our research, the questions became

more confusing for the survey takers. What was changed was not interpreted by the survey takers

as it was meant to when the questions were reconstructed to better fit familial verbal aggression.

This also could have impacted our reliability. Another problem of the survey was the length.

After a certain point, people dropped out of the survey and left several samples inconclusive to

our research. Out of 130 surveys started, only about 75 were usable. There were several surveys

that had certain questions skipped, therefore their responses were not recordable.

Something to learn from the research conducted is that if there were more responses and

finished surveys, the results would be more significant and conclusive. To fix this problem, a

shorter survey would have to be created with clearer questions. Also, instead of allowing survey

takers to type in their age the survey would contain a drop box of the range of ages needed for

the survey. The limitations faced in this research must also be considered and dealt with

accordingly to collected more significant data.

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