Measures the various aspects of aggression: triggering, manifestation, coping and stabilization.
The main area of application is clinical & health psychology as well as educational psychology. The inventory’s detailed assessment of aggression provides useful information, especially in connection with the planning and implementation of intervention measures.

Each item consists of four different statements, from which respondents must choose the one that applies least to them and the one that applies most (forced choice format). When all the items have been worked the program identifies the respondent’s predominant way of coping and the most prominent aspect of manifestation. With reference to this respondents then rate how much or how little various behavior patterns apply to them, choosing a position between two extreme scores.

One test form.

The following main variables are scored:

• Triggering
  • Learning theory: The individual’s readiness to be aggressive is regarded as rooted in learned behavior.
  • Drive theory: The individual’s readiness to be aggressive is regarded as rooted in innate biological drives.
• Manifestation
  • Physiological: Subjective awareness of a physiological arousal pattern (e.g. racing heartbeat) underlying the act of aggression.
  • Emotional: Anger and rage towards an object, oneself or another person.
  • Behavioral: Directly observable behavior (e.g. verbal abuse).
  • Cognitive: Ruminating and looking for the causes of aggression.
• Coping
  • Constructive: Using active and positive approaches (e.g. relaxation).
  • Destructive: Subjective conviction that one’s own resources are insufficient to cope with the challenges (negative approaches; e.g. drugs).
• Stabilization
  • External: Persistent maintenance of aggression as a result of the increased attention from the social environment (morbid gain).
  • Internal: Individual processes (e.g. self-talk or imagining future events) cause the aggression to be maintained.
• The level of aggressive manifestation and the level of existing coping strategies: the dominant factors are evaluated in quantitative terms.