Hostile attributional biases, driving anger, and roadway aggression among university students: Application of a model of affective aggression

Despite the fact that media accounts of roadway aggression have proliferated in recent years (Ferguson, 1998), little scholarly attention has been devoted to driving anger and roadway aggression and the role that hostile attributional biases play in their development. The present study sought to address this gap by employing a modified version of Geen's (1990) general model of affective aggression to examine driving anger and roadway aggression. This modified model suggests that the process begins with an interpersonal provocation to which an individual may attribute hostile intent. The model then proposes that these hostile attributional biases may lead to anger and those that cope poorly with anger will engage in roadway aggression. Given the limited research conducted on roadway aggression, it was decided that both driving and general paths to roadway aggression would be investigated via path analysis in order to increase our knowledge base. The driving paths entailed examining variables such as hostile attributional biases in driving situations (ambiguous and hostile), anger while driving, and coping with driving anger. In contrast, the general paths involved examining variables such as hostile attributional biases in general situations (ambiguous and hostile), general anger, and impulsivity. A battery of self-report measures was administered in the present study to 218 male and female university students. The results of this study provided support for the application of an adapted version of Geen's model of affective aggression in the examination of roadway aggression. While support was found for driving pathways leading to roadway aggression only partial support was revealed for general pathways. The present study also contributed to the literature by examining the role of mediating factors in the occurrence of roadway aggression. This has been a largely neglected area in the study of aggression in general. The implications of these findings were discussed in terms of the development of anger management programs for drivers and screening drivers for these programs. The results of this study require replication in other student samples and in community samples with larger age ranges.