Patterns of adaptation and directions of aggression.

A group of 85 nonclinical women volunteers were given the Serial Color-Word Test and the Personality Deviance Scale to verify whether different patterns of adaptation to the Stroop task correspond to significant differences in directing aggression. It was predicted that subjects with the Dissociative pattern, i.e., high values of nonlinear changes in reading times, would score lower on Intropunitiveness than subjects with the Cumulative pattern, i.e., high values of linear changes in reading times. The hypothesis was confirmed (p = .005). No other significant intergroup difference was found, aside from a slightly higher mean score of Extrapunitiveness in the Cumulative group, compared with that for the Stabilized one (p = .04).