Citation

Wingrove J, Bond AJ. Aggressive Behav. 1998; 24(1): 27-36.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study describes the use of a "cooperative" computer game in which the subject has to follow directions, supposedly sent from a partner, and steer a tank to avoid invisible mines, The tank is lost if it hits a mine or does not reach base within a set time limit, The game was designed so that the majority of trials would be lost. Affective (mood self-ratings), cognitive (attribution of blame questionnaire), and behavioural (feedback sent to the "partner") outcomes were assessed. The game significantly increased ratings of discontentedness and anger, Self-blame for task failure was correlated with the Guilt subscale of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), and blaming the partner was correlated positively with the Motor Aggression subscale and negatively with the empathy scale of the 17, supporting the notion of hostile attributional bias in adults, The importance of individual differences in the strength of the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) and behavioural activation system (BAS) were explored using the BIS/BAS scales developed by Carver and White [1994], Sending negative feedback to the partner was negatively correlated with scores on the BIS, Stores on BAS drive were positively correlated with increases in discontentedness and with sending negative feedback on trials when the tank was lost due to lack of time. These results are discussed in relation to Berkowitz's [1993] model of affective aggression.