ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The goal of this chapter is to provide a review of the psychometric properties of measures used to assess the frequency of and propensity for aggression in adults. This review includes self-rating scales and clinician-rated interviews. Observational measures of aggression are not included. For a review of observational aggression measures the reader is referred to the chapter written by Bech and Mak (1). Furthermore, this review is restricted to measures that examine actual aggressive behavior. Measures that solely assess common emotive (e.g., anger), cognitive (e.g., hostility), or behavioral (e.g., antisocial behaviors) corollaries of aggression were not included. Scales that assess a general propensity toward aggression, sometimes referred to as “trait” aggression, were the focus of the chapter. However, some measures examining aggressive behavior in specific contexts (e.g., partner violence and sexual aggression) are also discussed. A list of the measures discussed in this review, along with some of their basic properties, is presented in Tables 1 and 2.
