Chapter 4 - Measures of Anger and Hostility in Adults

Abstract

This chapter consists of psychometrically-oriented reviews of 16 self-report tests of anger or hostility in adults. We begin with the historic Buss–Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI: Buss & Durkee, 1957), but focus more importantly on its factor analytically improved and updated revision, the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ: Buss & Perry, 1992). Next we turn our attention to scales utilizing hypothetical anger-provoking scenarios: the Anger Self-Report Questionnaire (ASR: Reynolds et al., 1994), the Reaction Inventory (RI; version by Cho et al., 2009) and the Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI: Novaco, 1994, 2003). This is followed by the Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI: Siegel, 1986) and the widely-used State–Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI: Spielberger, 1988, 1999). In the second section, nine additional self-report tests are reviewed. These are generally newer and less embellished with psychometric details, and hence they are reviewed relatively briefly. Together, the reviews enable comparisons of the 16 self-report instruments in terms of various aspects of reliability and validity.