title: Assessing the heterogeneity of aggressive behavior traits: exploratory and confirmatory analyses of the reactive and instrumental aggression Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) scales.
abstract: The heterogeneity of violent behavior is often overlooked in risk assessment despite its importance in the management and treatment of psychiatric and forensic patients. In this study, items from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) were first evaluated and rated by experts in terms of how well they assessed personality features associated with reactive and instrumental aggression. Exploratory principal component analyses (PCA) were then conducted on select items using a sample of psychiatric and forensic inpatients (n = 479) to examine the latent structure and construct validity of these reactive and instrumental aggression factors. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on a separate sample of psychiatric inpatients (n = 503) to evaluate whether these factors yielded acceptable model fit. Overall, the exploratory and confirmatory analyses supported the existence of two latent PAI factor structures, which delineate personality traits related to reactive and instrumental aggression.
authors.affiliation: New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. danielan@buffalo.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Antonius
authors.forename: Samuel Justin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sinclair
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Shiva
authors.forename: Julie W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Messinger
authors.forename: Jordan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maile
authors.forename: Caleb J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Siefert
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Belfi
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malaspina
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Blais
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult