[Construction of an inventory for assessing different modes of hostile aggression]

Hostile Aggression Inventory (HAI) was designed to assess different forms of hostile aggression. Subjects were 232 elementary school children, 195 junior, and 169 senior high school students. After item analyses, 54 items were selected from 96 items, many of which were derived from the Buss-Durkee Hostility-Guilt Inventory. The scale was divided into six subcategories: Physical violence (Pv), Hostility (Ho), Irritability (Ir), Verbal aggression (Vb), Indirect aggression (Id), and Displacement of aggression (Dp). Alpha coefficients were ranging from .68 to .83 for the subscales. The test-retest reliabilities ranged from .54 to .87 for the subscales in 83 senior high school students. Junior high school students of both sexes tended to express higher aggression than elementary school children and senior high school students do on Pv, Ho, and Id. Males obtained higher mean scores than females did on Pv, Id, Dp, and the total, but lower than females did on Ir. The findings showed that the scale possessed adequate construct validity and acceptable levels of reliability.