Characteristics of interpersonal hostile-dominance in psychiatric inpatients

This study assessed the extent to which psychiatric symptoms and aggression-related personality as well as cognitive and affective variables predicted interpersonal hostile-dominance (HD) in psychiatric inpatients.

Two hundred patients admitted to hospital for psychiatric treatment were recruited, including 132 men and 68 women, with an age range of 19-64 years (M = 38.32 years, SD = 11.13 years). Each participant was assessed within five days of admission using the Impact Message Inventory-Circumplex (IMI-C), the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2), the Schedule of Imagined Violence (SIV), the Measures of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA), and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the ability of psychiatric symptoms to predict HD, after controlling for the influence of psychopathy (Factor 1 [F1] and Factor 2 [F2]), trait anger, aggressive script rehearsal, and normative beliefs supporting aggression.

Psychopathy (F1 and F2), the tendency to rehearse aggressive scripts, and psychiatric symptomatology (PANSS Positive, Negative, Disorganized, and Excited) all predicted HD, with the final model explaining 71.30% of the variance in HD. Trait anger, positive attitudes toward violence, and PANSS Emotional Distress did not predict HD.

HD reflects a characteristic tendency toward interpersonal, affective, and behavioral problems marked by hostility and dominance, combined with a tendency toward frequent aggressive script rehearsal and more severe psychiatric symptomatology.