Effects of Gender and Aggression Type on Perceptions of Aggressive Behavior at Work

• Main Author: Way, Jason Donovan
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholar Commons 2015
• Subjects: counterproductive work behavior; multivariate; reactions; stereotypes; Psychology
• Online Access: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5608; https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6796&context=etd

This dissertation sought to examine the interactive effects of participant gender, aggression type (physical vs. relational), aggressor gender, and target gender on two sets of dependent variables. The first set consisted of a performance rating, the acceptability of the aggression, the perceived aggressiveness of the aggressor, and the perceived aggressiveness of the act. The second set consisted of perceived masculinity, perceived femininity, and perceived gender ideal. The main hypothesis was that gender stereotypes of aggression would influence performance evaluations of aggressive behavior. Other hypotheses were based on previous research regarding the effect of gender and aggression type on the acceptability and perceived aggressiveness of the aggressive behavior. Hypotheses regarding the gender perception dependent variables were based on the connection between aggression and gender stereotypes. In order to test the study hypotheses, a sample of 552 adults was recruited via an online crowdsourcing tool. Although most of the study hypotheses were not supported, the other significant results suggest that physical aggression is generally perceived to be more aggressive than relational aggression, and that there appears to be a strong connection between the female stereotype and relational aggression, even more so than the connection between the male stereotype and physical aggression, among other findings. The lack of effect of participant gender and lack of significant effects on the performance rating variable suggest that there may be less potential for discrimination in the evaluation of aggressive behavior.