Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm: Validity of a Brief Schedule of Use

• Published in: Violence and victims Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 95 - 103
• Main Authors: Golomb, Beatrice A., Cortez-Perez, Myrna, Jaworski, Beth A., Mednick, Sarnoff, Dimsdale, Joel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Springer Publishing Company 2007
• Subjects: Adult; Aggression; Aggression - psychology; Antisocial Personality Disorder - diagnosis; Behavioral Sciences; Counseling; Dangerous Behavior; Female; Humans; Male; Marriage and Family Counselling; Measurement; Personality Assessment - standards; Policy, Social Justice, and Human Rights; Psychology; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Factors; Social and Personality Psychology; Social Work; Validity; VIOLENCE; CONVERGENT VALIDITY; RISK FACTORS; PSYCHOMETRIC MEASURE
• ISSN: 0886-6708; 1945-7073
• DOI: 10.1891/vv-v22i1a006

The Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) is a validated behavioral measure of aggression in response to provocation. Canonically, multiple sessions continue until performance asymptotes, requiring significant time. We sought to examine whether use of the PSAP-first-session ("PSAP-FS") had acceptable construct validity for group data, potentially expanding the settings in which the PSAP may be useful. One hundred male and female young adult subjects completed the PSAP-FS and additional behavioral measures of aggression, and provided information related to risk factors. The PSAP-FS correlated significantly with known risk factors of aggression. The PSAP-FS, which measures aggression in the present, correlated well with measures of recent aggression and less strongly with life history of aggression. The PSAP-FS had satisfactory validity properties for use where group-level data are of interest.