Neuroticism and agreeableness differentiate emotional and narcissistic expressions of aggression

Shame, narcissism, and self-esteem ostensibly generate an ego threat construct claimed to underlie provocation, frustration, and self-reported aggression. Measures of these variables were examined in relation to the five factor model of personality to clarify their actual influence on aggression. Results from 150 individuals found an integrated ego threat construct could not be generated from the data that notionally indexed the components of this concept. Shame, provocation, and frustration loaded with hostility on an affective aggression dimension, whereas subscales of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, anger, and verbal and physical aggression from the Aggression Questionnaire produced a narcissistic aggression dimension. Self-esteem did not relate to either factor. Path analysis found affective aggression predicted by Neuroticism alone, whereas narcissistic aggression was underpinned by low agreeableness, extraversion, and masculinity. Our study shows that ego psychology models exaggerate emotion’s influence on expressive aggression.