Global self-evaluations and perceived instability of self in early adolescence: a cohort longitudinal study.

A cohort longitudinal design with four adjacent cohorts of students (n = 1689) followed over two years was used to study key issues identified in the research literature on the development of self-evaluations in early adolescence. There was no clear relationship between age/grade and self-evaluations. We found no support for a "stressful periods" hypothesis with respect to self: Possible changes were very gradual and quite small. However, there was a consistent "relative age" effect implying that younger students within a grade had more negative self-evaluations. There were small but consistent sex differences in self-evaluations in favor of the boys; more detailed analyses of very negative self-evaluations suggested that the early adolescent years are the period in which a sex difference in depression related symptomatology begins to emerge. Finally, the usefulness of some kind of effect size measure and advantages and problems associated with a cohort longitudinal design were discussed.

Circulating testosterone levels and aggression in adolescent males: a causal analysis.

Empirical analyses conducted within a causal-analytic framework (path analysis) on a sample of normal adolescent human males suggested that circulating levels of testosterone in the blood had a direct causal influence on provoked aggressive behavior (self-reports): A high level of testosterone led to an increased readiness to respond vigorously and assertively to provocations and threats. Testosterone also had an indirect and weaker affect on another aggression dimension: High levels of testosterone made the boys more impatient and irritable, which in turn increased their propensity to engage in aggressive-destructive behavior. Two somewhat parallel dimensions of behavior, intermale and irritable aggression, have been identified in animal research to be under testosterone control.

The consistency issue in personality psychology revisted--with special reference to aggression.

A considerable body of evidence is presented showing a substantial degree of longitudinal as well as cross-situational consistency in the motive area of aggression. These data demonstrate that the influential conclusions with regard to consistency drawn by Mischel in his evaluative review (1968, 1969) are not supported by existing empirical evidence in the field of aggression. The consistency found makes it both defensible and natural to assume the 'existence' of some kind of relatively stable, individual-differentiating aggressive reaction tendencies within the individuals, however conceptualized. Furthermore, on the basis of a conceptual analysis, it is shown why low correlations have often been found between self-report data (S data) and rating data (R data), on one hand, and objectively recorded behaviour (T data), on the other. It is argued that the reasons are often to be found in a conceptual mismatch as well as in psychometric insufficiences of T data. This analysis has broad implications for personality measurement in laboratory settings in general.

Testosterone, aggression, physical, and personality dimensions in normal adolescent males.

Fifty-eight normal adolescent Swedish boys, aged 16, provided two sets of blood samples for plasma testosterone assays as well as data on a number of personality inventories and rating scales assessing aggression, inpulsiveness, lack of frustration tolerance, extraversion, and anxiety. Physical variables such as pubertal stage, height, weight, chest circumference, and physical strength were measured. There was a significant association (r = 0.44) between plasma testosterone levels and self-reports of physical and verbal aggression, mainly reflecting responsiveness to provocation and threat. Lack of frustration tolerance was also related to testosterone levels. About 40% of the variance in perfectly reliable testosterone measurements could be predicted from equally reliable Physical + Verbal Aggression and Lack of Frustration Tolerance scales. Pubertal stage was correlated with testosterone (r = 0.44), but the above-mentioned relationships could not be accounted for by pubertal stage as a third common variable. Previous hypotheses relating testosterone to strong body build and antisocial behavior, respectively, received only weak or no support.