Hostility

Methods of Measurement

[Page 1068]The earliest assessments of hostility were subjective in nature and consisted of behavioral observations, clinical interviews, and responses to various projective tests. Beginning in the 1950s, various self-report questionnaires were introduced with the goal of achieving a more objective measure of hostility. Due to disagreement among researchers on a single definition of hostility, many questionnaires are only moderately intercorrelated and likely measure different constructs. Primary hostility self-report questionnaires include the Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory (Ho), the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ), and the Hostile Automatic Thoughts (HAT) Inventory.

The Ho is a 50-item Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–based questionnaire that was originally developed to differentiate teachers who had good relationships with their students from those with poor relationships with their students. The Ho Scale’s primary utility has been as a predictor of poor health outcomes such as coronary heart disease. Scores on the Ho correlate strongly with resentment and suspicion and less so with assault and aggression, suggesting that the scale may more accurately measure a construct akin to cynical hostility. High scores on the Ho strongly correlate with self-reported angry affect and overt hostile behavior, especially among men. The Ho Scale has demonstrated adequate internal consistency (i.e., the degree to which the items on the questionnaire measure the same construct) as well as good convergent validity (i.e., how well the questionnaire relates to other measures of hostility) and discriminant validity (i.e., the degree to which the questionnaire differs from instruments measuring other constructs, such as anger).

The BDHI is a 75-item questionnaire that consists of eight subscales: Assault, Indirect Hostility, Verbal Hostility, Irritability, Negativism, Resentment, Suspicion, and Guilt. Factor analyses have revealed that rather than measuring a unitary construct, the BDHI may more accurately consist of two factors: neurotic hostility, which is marked by a subjective experience of anger and irritability, and expressive hostility, or a more outwardly expressed abrasive and unfriendly interactional style. The psychometric adequacy of this scale has been seriously questioned since its development, which led to the creation of the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire. The Aggression Questionnaire is a comprehensive 29-item self-report instrument that was developed to improve upon the BDHI and to tease apart the closely related constructs of aggression, anger, and hostility. This questionnaire consists of four aggression-themed subscales assessing physical and verbal aggression (i.e., the Instrumental and Motor Components), anger (i.e., the Emotional Component), and hostility (i.e., the Cognitive Component). The Aggression Questionnaire has demonstrated good reliability and internal consistency.

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