Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of vicarious participation in physical activity on subject aggressiveness. The independent variables were task strategy viewed (co-operative, competititve, and competitive-aggressive), and subject arousal (angered or non-angered). The various combinations of the two preceding variables produced six treatment conditions. Ten high school boys were randomly assigned to each of the six treatment conditions and exposed to their respective experimental manipulations. Subject aggression scores in both the pretest and post test conditions were obtained by use of the Buss Aggression Machine. Difference scores from the pretest to the post test conditions were subjected to analyses of variance, and orthogonal contrasts (when applicable) to determine which treatment sums were significantly different. The data obtained from the present study indicate that the strategy of physical activity viewed yielded significant differences. Application of orthogonal contrasts indicate that it is the acutal viewing of an aggressive model that results in increased aggressiveness. No difference was found between angered and non-angered arousal conditions. Verf.-Referat