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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Assessment of Social Interaction Behaviors
Published on: February 25, 2011
Personality and aggressive behavior under provoking and neutral conditions: a meta-analytic review
B Ann Bettencourt1, Amelia Talley1, Arlin James Benjamin2
1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia.
Abstract:
The authors conducted a comprehensive review to understand the relation between personality and aggressive behavior, under provoking and nonprovoking conditions. The qualitative review revealed that some personality variables influenced aggressive behavior under both neutral and provocation conditions, whereas others influenced aggressive behavior only under provocation. Studies that assessed personality variables and that directly measured aggressive behavior were included in the quantitative review. Analyses revealed that trait aggressiveness and trait irritability influenced aggressive behavior under both provoking and neutral conditions but that other personality variables (e.g., trait anger, Type A personality, dissipation-rumination) influenced aggressive behavior only under provoking conditions. The authors discuss possible relations between these patterns of aggressive behavior and the personality dimensions of Agreeableness and Neuroticism and consider implications for theories of aggression.
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