Cognitive and aggressive reactions of male dating violence perpetrators to anger arousal.

In the current study, 20 dating violent and 27 non-violent college males provided verbal articulations and self-report data regarding cognitive biases, change in affect, and aggressive reactions following anger induction through the articulated thoughts in simulated situations paradigm. Violent, relative to non-violent, males articulated more cognitive biases and verbally aggressive statements during provocation. These same relationships did not hold for a retrospective self-report measure. Greater cognitive biases and aggressive articulations reliably distinguished between violent and non-violent males in the current study. Results suggest that assessing cognitive and affective content "in the heat of the moment" may be a more sensitive indicator of dating violence than retrospective self-reports.