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Antagonistic Behavior:
The goal of this assessment is to identify where a person
is along a continuum from being too soft, giving, and warm
to aggressive, easily angered, and ultimately harassing or
even prone to violent behavior. Scales that only measure potential
harassment or violence (negative end) run a major risk since
they are looking for overt behavior that most people do not
like to admit or claim. Therefore, if you can get a feel for
where a person is located along a scale from very meek to
physically aggressive, you have a better sense for the likelihood
of socially abusive or antagonistic behavior. Actually displaying
antagonistic behavior is multi-determined but it is realistic
to assume that people with higher scores are more likely to
exhibit overt abusive behavior. Additionally, since claiming
or admitting abusive behavior is not socially desirable, an
honesty scale is included to pick up a bias where people may
distort the way they really are but claim the opposite.
NOTE: The first two scales tend to show meekness, the next
two show a more assertive/aggressive stance and the next two
actually tap into the likelihood (or actual claiming) of abusive
behavior.
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ANTAGONISTIC BEHAVIOR TraitSettm
DEFINITIONS
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- Warmth:
A genuine interest in others as opposed to an interest
in oneself. Genuinely warm people are less likely
to exhibit aggressive behavior since their natural
inclination is to establish positive relationships
with others.
- Assertion :
People who are assertive are more willing to stand
up for their views and are not afraid to overtly deal
with conflict. This scale is a continuum that runs
from passive (much lower likelihood for overt violence)
to aggressive (a creator of conflict). Usually lower
score are less prone to harassing or violent behavior
because they dislike conflict. However, they are also
subject to being harassed themselves, perhaps leading
to a build up of anger and a potential blow up.
- Anger :
Anger is not good or bad since it depends on WHAT
you do with it. Some people handle it in a mature
way and state they are angry and want to resolve the
problem. Other people just become overtly angry, verbally
abusive (yelling) or may show physical activity (e.g.,
throwing things or kicking a chair). The point is
that greater feelings of anger lead to greater antagonism.
- Suffocate :
When someone is stressed or frustrated they can become
angry (see below). Another defense is to suffocate
their feeling toward the person who has been offensive
by buttering him up and making sure that everything
is okay. Hence, the natural inclination is not to
increase any overt hostility (actually avoid overt
displays of anger) but to mitigate bad feelings and
improve the relationship.
- Harrassing :
when frustrated, did not get his/her way or is irritated
at others. Clearly, a person who readily admits this
behavior (or tendency toward) probably has a greater
likelihood of showing it in difficult/stressful situations.
- Violence :
A highscore on this scale is an admission of tendencies
toward overt violent/physical behavior (e.g., grabbing
others) or stating that you either enjoy violence
or feel it is an appropriate method to deal with frustration.
Enjoying violence (e.g., action movies) may not indicate
that the person will actually use violence when dealing
with others. However, admitting the behavior and feeling
it is an appropriate way to deal with stressful relationships
certainly increases the odds of overtly violent displays.
- Withholding :
This is really a Bias scale that measures a person's
tendency to give reasonable or realistic responses
versus some distorted (e.g., exaggeration or lying)
response. Low scores often suggest the person is exaggerating
the positive aspects (socially desirable) of their
behavior. Therefore they would be UNLIKLY to admit
actual tendencies toward abusive behavior. High scores
indicate a self-critical approach so the person may
be too honest in admitting abusive behavior. Hence,
high/low scores cause one to interpret the data either
up or down. .
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