For diagnosis, prevention and intervention to align properly, it is essential to investigate the underlying processes of aggressive behavior. Therefore it is important to know the function of this...Show moreFor diagnosis, prevention and intervention to align properly, it is essential to investigate the underlying processes of aggressive behavior. Therefore it is important to know the function of this aggressive behavior. There are two functions of aggression: reactive aggression, which is an impulsive reaction to a perceived threat, and proactive aggression, which is characterized by developing a plan for personal gain. Several personality traits, that are assumed to be related to these two constructs, have been previously researched. However, impulsivity is not included in that study and this is one of the personality traits that is theoretically assumed to divide reactive and proactive aggression. Therefore we tried to research in this study to which extent impulsive behavior can be predicted from reactive and proactive aggression, controlling for the influence of age and sex. With the Instrument for Reactive and Proactive Aggression (IRPA) to measure the functions of aggressive behavior and Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks - Shifting Attentional Set – visual (ANT – SSV) to measure impulsivity, 74 children in total (54 boys, 20 girls, MAge = 10.74 years old, SD = 2.88) were tested. The results show that reactive aggression, F(3, 73) = 0.65, p = .587, R2 = .03, and proactive aggression, F(3, 73) = 0.33, p = .807, R2 = .02, are non significant predictors of impulsive behavior. Concluding, there is no relation between impulsive behavior and the two functions of aggressive behavior. Therefore this is not an underlying process of reactive and proactive aggression. Key words: Aggression, reactive aggression, proactive aggression, impulsivityShow less
