Verbal Aggression :: science

Verbal AggressionVerbal assault is depicted object appearance which attacks a persons self-concept in order to deliver psychological pain.(Infante, 1995) Studies of communicative onset have foc utilize primarily on children and adolescents in educational and friendly settings. Very few studies were found to examine verbal hostility in adults in the workplace.(Ebbesen, Duncan, Konecni, 1974) The consequences of verbal aggression in the workplace can jumper cable to social isolation, job related stress, health related problems, as nearly as problems in career advancement. It therefore should be considered important, for the individual and management, to determine and address the causes of verbal aggression. This program attempts to understand verbal aggression by 1) identifying the various functions of verbal aggression. 2) identifying the antecedent conditions of verbal aggression. 3) Avoiding the antecedent conditions of verbal aggression. mode Subject The military issue, Shirley J., is a 49 year old African American female. Shirley J. has several advanced degrees and is employed as a school psychologist in a metropolitan school district. She is married with two adult children. The subject readily agreed that the target behavior, verbal aggression, is a problem as it interferes with her relationships with others. She was enthusiastic in her desire to reduce, if not eliminate, this behavior. It would seem that self-monitoring for verbal aggression and antecedent control would be valuable as it would allow for unchanging avoidance of verbal aggression. As a school psychologist the subject was truly familiar with the basic principles of applied behavioral analysis and frequently offered programmatic suggestions. A behavioral read was developed jointly between the therapist and subject. The contract outlined the target behavior, success criteria, and individual responsibilities of the therapist and subject. (see Appendix A) weapon A basic checklist was used to document the frequency of verbal aggression on a daily basis. The checklist was designed to track only the concomitant of the behavior. It was felt by the therapist that the content of the verbally aggressive message would be too open for subjective interpretation and that no important data would be gained from such documentation. In addition the subject make frequent comments of significant success or failure in avoiding verbal aggression for discussion with the therapist. The weekly discussions were used to evaluate the appropriateness of the procedures used and make any necessary adjustments to the program. Procedure For the first two weeks of the program no intervention was applied. Given that the subject self-reported that verbal aggression was a problem it was important to determine if the frequency of the behavior merited intervention.