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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the dimensions of perfectionism and various aspects of anger, such as state, trait, and the expression of anger, for collegiate springboard divers. The role of gender was also investigated. Forty women and 19 men were administered the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1999) and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990). Data analysis showed no significant differences between genders for any scales or subscales of anger or perfectionism. State anger and its subscales were not significantly correlated with any subscales of perfectionism. Anger expression scales were not found to be significantly correlated with the subscales of perfectionism. Only trait anger, and the subscale trait anger/ angry reaction, were found to have significant relationships with the concern over mistakes dimension of perfectionism. The perfectionism personal standards subscale was also correlated with trait anger/ angry reaction.

Introduction

Many athletes strive to reach the highest levels of competition possible. Competitors dream of the perfect game, performance, or skill execution required of sport. Much time is invested into practice, conditioning, and competition to provide athletes the best opportunity for a quality experience. With such emphasis placed on attaining so difficult a goal, resulting failures are to some extent inevitable. Individuals who exhibit qualities characteristic of the construct “perfectionism” may be significantly affected by these failures. How people experience and react to failure is directly associated with the level and type of perfectionism possessed. Those who demonstrate more adaptive perfectionistic reactions to failures are more likely to express positive, or success oriented, thoughts about sport. Those whose reactions align with maladaptive perfectionism likely will exhibit negative, or failure oriented, behaviors following failure in sport (Frost & Henderson, 1991; Hamachek, 1978).

The most common components present in the various definitions of perfectionism are the engagement of actions and behaviors that lead to the setting of exceptionally high standards for the purpose of being the best in a chosen endeavor. These actions are often accompanied by highly self-critical evaluations by the perfectionist (Burns, 1980; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990; Hill, Zrull, & Turlington, 1997; Lombardi, Florentino, & Lombardi, 1998).

Hamachek (1978) has characterized perfectionism as either normal (adaptive) or neurotic (maladaptive). According to him, adaptive perfectionists are those who set extremely high personal standards, are highly motivated to do their best on every task attempted, experience pleasure while working hard, and are able to recognize weaknesses which enable the individuals to perceive themselves as successful, even when those high standards are not met. In contrast, maladaptive perfectionists are characterized as those who set unrealistic and inflexible goals, are driven by an intense fear of failure, are extremely self-critical, and are unable to experience satisfaction from accomplishments.

To measure perfectionism, a number of scales have been constructed (Anshel & Eom, 2002; Burns, 1980; Garner, Olmstead, & Polivy, 1983; Randolph & Dykman, 1998), two of which have been used the most consistently: The Hewitt and Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (HF-MPS; Hewitt & Flett, 1991) and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990). The HF-MPS measures three dimensions of perfectionism: Self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and socially prescribed perfectionism. The F-MPS examines an overall perfectionism score, and six independent dimensions of perfectionism: Concern over mistakes, personal standards, doubts about actions, parental expectations, parental criticism, and organization.

Perfectionists, maladaptive and adaptive, require that certain standards for themselves, others, and situations be met. When results are not perceived to be adequate by the perfectionist, an emotional response may be elicited. One such emotion is anger (Saboonchi & Lundh, 2003). Anger can be described as a state emotion, or as a trait personality characteristic. Spielberger, Jacobs, Russell, and Crane (1983) have conceptualized state anger as the experience of negative feelings similar to being annoyed or irritated, or to a greater extent, filled with rage. During this experience, the autonomic nervous system can become aroused to different degrees depending on the situation. Spielberger et al. describe trait anger as how frequently state anger is experienced.

An exploration of perfectionism and anger by Hewitt and Flett (1991) was one of the first to examine how these constructs may be related. Using data from 91 university students, the study concluded that self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism were correlated with anger, with socially prescribed perfectionism being more strongly related. These results were inconsistent with Saboonchi and Lundh (2003) who found that in a randomly selected sample of adult men and women with a mean age of 37 years, self-oriented perfectionism had a weak correlation with anger, but other-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism had no significant relationship. This study concluded that anger in perfectionists was manifested more so because of high goals not being achieved, than by any perception regarding treatment by others. The age difference in the samples may have confounded these results, as evidenced by another study (Hewitt et al., 2002) using children which resulted in dissimilar conclusions. Unlike earlier research, this study found no correlation between self-oriented perfectionism and anger, but did indicate a relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and aspects of anger. This type of perfectionism was shown to be positively correlated with outward expressions of anger and negatively correlated with actions indicative of anger suppression. This lack of a relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and anger may be explained by children not holding themselves as accountable for their actions as an adult might, and instead, lashing out at others who are perceived to be placing unfair perfectionistic demands upon them.

The results of these studies, albeit somewhat inconclusive, do provide evidence that socially prescribed perfectionism may have a slightly stronger relationship with anger than with other dimensions of perfectionism. This interesting association has seemingly been unexplored within the realm of sport, despite consistent findings of perfectionism in athletes (Owens & Slade, 1987) and an association between poor performances precluded by high goal setting and anger (Fazackerley, Lane, & Mahoney, 2004).

Recently researchers began to examine perfectionism, anger, and sport collectively. Valance and Dunn (2002a), using their newly developed sport-specific version of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990), found that with adolescent ice hockey players, trait anger was highly correlated with the subscales concern over mistakes and perceived coach pressure. Perceived coach pressure, a subscale of the sport oriented version of the F-MPS, is similar to the parental expectations subscale of the F-MPS. The results of this study demonstrated a significant relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and trait anger. A follow up study examining state anger and perfectionism implemented a situation criticality variable. Youth ice hockey players were measured for perfectionism and state anger in two scenarios which had different degrees of criticality to the outcome of the competition. The results indicated that maladaptive perfectionists had higher state anger and experienced greater levels of anger following mistakes than adaptive perfectionists during competition, particularly during a critical time period. The study also concluded that situation criticality, or the extent to which a situation within a competition is perceived as critical to the outcome, was positively correlated with emotional responses during competition (Vallance & Dunn, 2002b).

An aesthetic sport such as springboard diving has innate characteristics that focus on attaining perfectly executed performances. As a subjectively scored athletic event, there is a set “perfect” score, for which divers aim. It is plausible to believe that this standard may draw competitors in this sport towards perfectionistic thoughts and behaviors, which in turn may lead to situations conducive to experiencing greater levels of anger and anger expression. If an athlete who experiences anger consistently while engaged in sport can become more aware of how that anger may be stemming from maladaptive perfectionism, a greater understanding regarding the ensuing dysfunctional beliefs and actions may be attained. This may lead to a greater control over anger, more appropriate expressions of anger, and potentially, performances that are less affected by experiences of anger.

Statement of Purpose

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the concern over mistakes and personal standards dimensions of perfectionism with the various scales and subscales of anger, as measured by the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1999). Secondary purposes were to: a) examine how the parental criticism and parental expectations subscales of perfectionism relate to state anger, trait anger, and anger expression, and b) to explore how gender relates to the perfectionism-anger relationships.

Methodology

Participants

Fifty-nine springboard divers, 19 men and 40 women, from varsity collegiate teams throughout the United States participated in this study. The divers’ ages ranged from 18-26 years, had competed the previous two years, and had a minimum of two years competitive experience. Competitive experience was operationally defined as a minimum of six United States Diving sanctioned meets or six NCAA Collegiate meets per year.

Instrumentations

The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) was used to assess the dimensions of perfectionism. This scale consists of 35 items that use a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The scale measures overall perfectionism and six independent dimensions of perfectionism. The subscales are concern over mistakes (CM), personal standards (PS), parental expectations (PE), parental criticism (PC), doubts about actions (DA), and organization (ORG). The CM subscale measures the extent to which an individual reacts negatively to one’s own mistakes. PS measures the extent to which a person sets high standards. The PE subscales indicates the strength of an individual’s perceptions regarding his or her parents’ setting of high standards for the individual. PC is a measure of how a person perceives criticism from his or her parents regarding their performances. The subscales DA and ORG measure how satisfied or dissatisfied an individual is with a performance or project, and how important order and neatness is to an individual, respectively. For greater interpretation of the scores, a directional scale was added by the primary investigator of this study. This seven-point Likert scale measures how an individual feels perfectionism affects his or her performance. Overall internal reliability for F-MPS has been reported at .90 (Parker & Adkins, 1995) and has been concurrently validated by Frost et al. with the HF-MPS (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) and the Burns Perfectionism Scale (Burns, 1980). Frost et al. also demonstrated a Cronbach’s alpha of .91 for this scale.

The State Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (Spielberger, 1999) was used to measure trait anger, state anger, and anger expression. The STAXI-2 is a 57-item scale which uses four-point Likert scales. The first part of the STAXI-2 is the state anger (SANG) scale. It consists of fifteen items measuring how intensely an individual experiences anger during either the testing period, or a time or situation specified by the test administrator. For this study, the individuals were directed to indicate how he or she generally feels during a competition or practice. The Likert scale for the state anger scale ranges from 1 (Not at all) to 4 (Very much so). The state anger scale consists of three subscales: state anger / feeling angry (SANGF), state anger / feel like expressing anger verbally (SANGV), and state anger / feel like expressing anger physically (SANGP). The second part of the STAXI-2 is the trait anger (TANG) scale. This scale consists of ten items measuring an individual’s proneness to experience angry feelings. The Likert scale for this measure ranges from 1 (Almost never) to 4 (Almost always). Two subscales are used to comprise the TANG scale: Trait anger / angry temperament (TANGT) and trait anger / angry reaction (TANGR). The final part of this inventory measures the ways in which an individual expresses and controls anger. These scales consist of 32 items using the same Likert scale as the TANG scale. The following scales make up this final part of the STAXI-2: The anger expression-out (AX-O) scale, the anger expression-in (AX-I) scale, the anger control-out (AC-O) scale, the anger control-in (AC-I) scale, and the anger expression index (AX). Like the F-MPS, and additional seven-point Likert directional scale was added to measure how an individual feels anger positively or negatively affects performance. The three primary components of the STAXI-2 have been concurrently validated by Spielberger with various subscales of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (Buss & Durkee, 1957), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (Hathaway & McKinley, 1967), Spielberger’s (1979) State-Trait Personality Inventory (as cited in Spielberger, 1999) and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975).

Procedures

A packet containing a cover letter, the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, informed consent forms, directions for the administration of the surveys, and a self-addressed stamped envelope, was sent to university teams. The letter included a rationale for the study and the possible benefits to springboard diving, in addition to information on the length of time necessary to complete the scales. A requested return date was also noted in the cover letter. The informed consent form addressed issues regarding an assurance of confidentiality and anonymity. The information in the packet was to be read by those administering the scales.

The diving programs were contacted by either phone or email prior to receiving the surveys. The scales were administered primarily in the practice facilities for each team. Data were also collected at a diving competition from those individuals who met the prerequisites. In this case, the packets were distributed at a pre-competition meeting and were to be returned as soon as possible. Most were returned by mail several weeks later.

A reminder email was sent two weeks prior to the return date. Packets were mailed a second time to those programs who had requested an additional packet. Collection ceased soon after the deadline had passed.

Results

Multiple Pearson’s Correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between: a) the F-MPS subscales CM and PS with all scales and subscales of the STAXI-2, and b) the F-MPS subscales PE, PE, DA, and ORG with the STAXI-2 scales SANG, TANG, and the AX Index. Because there were 35 correlations examined and 10 independent t-tests analyzed, the alpha level was adjusted to p < .01.

The subscale CM resulted in two significant correlations. TANG showed a weak, positive relationship (r = .374, r2 = .140, p < .01), while TANGR (r = .490, r2 = .240, p < .01) demonstrated a moderate, positive relationship. No other scales or subscales of the STAXI-2 were found to be significantly correlated with CM, and only one other scale approached significance; AX-I (r = .310, r2 = .096, p = .019). Results for all correlations for CM are shown in Tables 1, 2, and 3.

For the F-MPS subscale PS and the STAXI-2 scales and subscales, only one significant correlation surfaced. TANGR was found to have a weak, positive relationship with PS (r = .408, r2 = .166, p < .01). Two other STAXI-2 scales approached significance: TANG (r = .307, r2 = .094, p = .019) and AC-I (r = .310, r2 = .096, p = .018). The correlations for PS are shown in Tables 1, 2, and 3.

For all other correlations examined, only one was found to be significant at the alpha level of p < .01. PE was found to have a weak, positive relationship with TANG (r = .397, r2 = .158, p < .01) as shown in Table 4.

To examine the differences between genders for the F-MPS subscales CM, PS, PE and PC, four two-tailed independent t-tests were utilized. These independent t-tests, along with all others used in this study, had an alpha level adjusted to p < .01. Results show no significant differences between men and women for the above constructs. See Table 5.

Three one-tailed independent t-tests revealed no significant differences between genders on SANG, AX-I, and AX-O. See Table 6.

For the STAXI-2 scale TANG, a two-tailed independent t-test again resulted in no significant differences between genders. See Table 7.

The directional scales added to the F-MPS and the STAXI-2 surveys also resulted in no significant differences between genders. See Table 8.

To examine the differences between the correlations specified in the hypotheses, a Fisher’s zr transformation was utilized. However, only a single transformation contained at least one significant correlation, thus essentially nullifying any significant results for all others, of which there were none. The one Fisher’s zr transformation that did contain a significant relationship, CM and PS for TANG, also resulted in a non-significant difference between correlations.

Discussion

The data analysis on the relationship between the perfectionism subscales and SANG resulted in unexpected outcomes. Individuals who score highly on the CM subscale have an increased focus on errors (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) and have a greater desire to self-present positively to others (Hamachek, 1978). Because athletes fitting this criterion are less able to remove negative athletic related images from his or her mind (Frost & Henderson, 1991) it was hypothesized that SANG would be positively correlated with CM. Additionally, Hewitt and Flett (1991) found a correlation between socially prescribed perfectionism and a measure of anger, which although not specified, appeared to be more closely related to state anger. Socially prescribed perfectionism has been found to be significantly correlated with CM (Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993) but unexpectedly, CM was not found to have a significant relationship with SANG for the current study despite its correlation with AX-I approaching significance (r = .310, r2 = .094, p = .019). This may lead to the conclusion that those who score highly on CM may experience angry feelings, but perhaps not during diving practice or competition, as only the SANG scale of the STAXI-2 (Speilberger, 1999) inquires about emotions coinciding with the diving experience.

Examining the subscales of SANG, and the relationships present with the CM and PS subscales of perfectionism, resulted in additional counter-intuitive findings. Vallance and Dunn (2002b) found that maladaptive perfectionists, or those who’s CM score was high, had significant correlations with SANGF and SANGV. The current study’s hypothesis proved to be incorrect, in that CM did not have a significantly stronger correlation with these subscales than did PS. In fact, PS had a stronger correlation with SANGF, although none of these correlations were significant at p < .01.

The final SANG subscale, SANGP, also resulted in relationships with PS and CM that were not significant. It was presumed that participating in a sport in which the participant is under water and out of view immediately following a performance, in addition to having the opportunity to leave the immediate vicinity of the competitive venue during a competition or practice, would increase the incidence of a diver’s desire to express anger in a physical manner. Examples of these expressions might be hitting walls under water, clenching fists or other muscles, or slamming lockers. However, this proved not to be the case, and may be due to the fact that two of the five items of the STAXI-2 (Spielberger, 1999) which measure SANGP describe acting violent toward “somebody.” The participants of this study may have interpreted “somebody” as someone else in the practice or competition setting. In springboard diving, this is not socially acceptable, as it may be in a few other sports, and would potentially result in greater negative consequences.

TANG, and its subscale TANGR, were found to have the greatest number of significant correlations. TANGR was significantly correlated with both CM and PS, with CM having a stronger relationship. These results were not unexpected as it follows logic that those who are most concerned with how they appear to others naturally might experience greater levels of anger in frustrating situations, or following a negative evaluation. However, it was unexpected that CM had a significant relationship with TANG, but PS did not. Hewitt and Flett’s (1991) self-oriented dimension of perfectionism, which is significantly correlated with PS, has been found to be positively correlated with TANG, but socially prescribed perfectionism, which correlates with CM, was not (Saboonchi & Lundh, 2003). Because of these previous findings, it was believed that PS would have a stronger relationship with TANG than CM. However, results of this study showed the opposite. These findings demonstrate some support the premise that springboard divers who are more concerned about mistakes and how a performance is evaluated may experience a greater frequency of angry emotions than those who are more concerned with eclipsing self-imposed standards.

The perfectionism subscales examining perceptions of parents also resulted in interesting findings. TANG was found to be significantly correlated with PE, however PC was not. It appears that within the springboard diving community, anger may be experienced in greater frequency by those who perceive parents as having extremely high standards imposed on him or her, than by those who perceive parents as overly critical for not meeting certain standards. Perhaps this is due to other emotions being elicited by those with overly critical parents, such as sadness, apathy, or resignation. More research is needed in this area for a greater understanding of this dynamic.

Examining gender in the context of perfectionism, anger, and springboard diving also brought about interesting findings. Based on previous literature (Anshel, & Eom, 2002; Flett, Hewitt, Endler, & Tassone, 1995; Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993; Gotwals, Dunn, & Wayment, 2003; Saboonchi, & Lundh, 2003) it was believed that perfectionism would not be significantly different between genders. The results of this study supported conclusions drawn in earlier research regarding the similarities between how men and women experience perfectionism. What was surprising were the differences between genders for the various scales and subscales of anger.

Results for TANG and gender were consistent with the findings of Spielberger’s (1999) investigation. There were no significant differences between gender and the two subscales of TANG. This was also true for SANG and its subscales, despite Spielberger’s findings demonstrating significantly higher scores for men than women on each construct. In addition to Spielberger (1999), Forgays, Forgays, and Spielberger (1997) revealed results supporting the belief that men and women experience anger differently.

One possible explanation for the incongruence of SANG scores between the current study and those cited above is that for Spielberger’s (1999) study, survey items were to address the participant’s state at the time of the test administration in a controlled setting. The participants used in this study were asked to recall and indicate how he or she generally felt during a competition or practice. It is possible that while diving, similar state anger emotions may be elicited between genders, regardless of how state anger is experienced in a more controlled setting.

With regard to anger expression, it was hypothesized that women would score significantly higher on the AX-I scale, and men would score significantly higher on the AX-O scale. Results showed neither to be supported, with women actually scoring slightly higher on AX-O. It is less surprising that AX-I scores were not significantly different, as Spielberger (1999) had similar results. However, the assumption in this case was based on previous findings that women experience shame with greater frequency, and that shame is positively correlated with AX-I (Lutwak, Panish, Ferrari, & Razzino, 2001). It was thought that being an elite athlete on display in an individual sport such as diving, may have lead to increased instances of shame if the athlete were to perform poorly. If this were the case, women may experience shame with greater frequency than men, thus leading to a greater propensity for experiencing and suppressing anger, as measured by the AX-I scale. It appears, though, that participating in springboard diving is not sufficient enough to alter the extent to which men and women typically experience and suppress angry feelings.

Interestingly, women did score higher on AX-O, although not significantly. These results refute the findings of Spielberger (1999) that men scored significantly higher than women on this scale, and are even more noteworthy when juxtaposed with Forgays, Forgays, and Spielberger’s (1997) conclusion that the outward expression of anger is a more distinctive and significant event for women than men. It is possible that the lack of significant differences within this sample may be due to the disparity in the number of men and women participants, but greater research is needed regarding the uniqueness of the similarities between genders for these typically asymmetric constructs.

Overall, findings in this study produced unexpected results. The similarities between genders prompts the need for future research on how springboard divers differ with samples derived from other sport populations. The relatively small number of participants and the difference in the number of men and women who participated may have affected these findings. Having only 59 participants may have decreased the power for the correlations and independent t-tests to such an extent, that few correlations and independent t-tests resulted in significance. Despite this possibility, it may be that there is an aspect of springboard diving that either draws in a certain type of individual to participate, or fosters similar personality characteristics through participation.

The lack of variability in this sample decreases the ability of the results of study to be generalizable to individuals who participate in other sports. Because of this, differences between team and individual sports should be examined in future studies. There appears to be a very small amount of research examining perfectionism and anger in an athletic setting and comparisons between team and individual sport participants has not been a focus. With social evaluation and individualized standards, cornerstones of the dimensions of perfectionism, varying greatly between team and individual sports, anger and perfectionism may prove to be experienced very differently through participation in diverse settings. More research of this kind may lead to a greater understanding of how the perfectionism-anger dynamic is uniquely experienced in springboard diving.

Although not specifically scrutinized in the current study, there did appear to be differences in scores between the normal population and springboard divers. Greater research is needed comparing the relationships of anger and perfectionism between these groups. Understanding how these populations differ on these constructs may shed light on the presence of conditions that lead to the formation of relationships between the various dimensions observed in this study.

Finally, research that has a deeper focus on the trait anger-perfectionism dynamic is needed. This study found the strongest and greatest number of correlations between these dimensions, and understanding why this is the case could prove to be useful. Perfectionism is also a trait characteristic and examining the development of these qualities, and the ties between them, could lead to greater insight into how they may be fostered or discouraged.

Table 1
Correlations for the F-MPS subscales Concern Over Mistake (CM) and Personal Standards (PS) and the STAXI-2 scale State Anger (SANG) and subscales State Anger / Feeling Angry (SANGF), State Anger / Feel Like Expressing Anger Verbally (SANGV), and State Anger / Feel Like Expressing Anger Physically (SANGP)

 

	SANG	SANGF	SANGV	SANGP
CM	.189	.139	.217	.120
PS	.209	.202	.160	.210

Table 2
Correlations for the F-MPS subscales Concern Over Mistake (CM) and Personal Standards (PS) and the STAXI-2 scale Trait Anger (TANG) and subscales Trait Anger / Angry Temperament (TANGT) and Trait Anger / Angry Reaction (TANGR)

	TANG	TANGT	TANGR
CM	.374**	.187	.490**
PS	.307*	.123	.408**

**Correlation is significant at the .01 level (two-tailed)
*Correlation is significant at the .05 level (two-tailed)

Table 3
Correlations for the F-MPS subscales Concern Over Mistakes (CM) and Personal Standards (PS) and the STAXI-2 scales Anger Control-In (AC-I), Anger Control-Out (AC-O), Anger Expression-In (AX-I), and Anger Expression-Out (AX-O)

 

	AC-I	AC-O	AX-I	AX-O
CM	-.092	-.177	.310*	.135
PS	.310*	.113	.234	.136

*Correlation is significant at the .05 level (two-tailed)

Table 4
Correlations for the F-MPS subscales Parental Criticism (PC), Parental Expectations (PE), Doubts About Actions (DA), and Organization (ORG) and the STAXI-2 scales State Anger (SANG), Trait Anger (TANG), and the Anger Expression Index (AX)

 

	PC	PE	DA	ORG
SANG	.178	.159	.035	-.078
TANG	.274*	.397**	.165	.031
AX	.179	.176	.030	-.054

**Correlation is significant at the .01 level (two-tailed)
*Correlation is significant at the .05 level (two-tailed)

Table 5
Results for independent t-tests for gender on the F-MPS subscales Concern Over Mistakes (CM), Personal Standards (PS), Parental Expectations (PE), and Parental Criticism (PC)

Subscale	Gender (Number)	Mean	Standard Deviation	Sig.(2-tailed)
CM	Men (19) Women (40)	24.79 23.33	9.07 6.57	.483
PS	Men (19) Women (40)	26.68 25.03	5.57 5.07	.260
PE	Men (19) Women (40)	13.79 14.65	4.38 3.98	.455
PC	Men (19) Women (40)	6.95 8.20	3.92 3.09	.188

Table 6
Results for independent t-tests for gender on the STAXI-2 scales State Anger (SANG), Anger Expression-In (AX-I), and Anger Expression-Out (AX-O)

Scale	Gender (Number)	Mean	Standard Deviation	Sig. (1-tailed)
SANG	Men (19) Women (40)	26.89 24.40	8.77 8.10	.286
AX-I	Men (19) Women (40)	17.89 17.26	4.56 3.44	.554
AX-O	Men (19) Women (40)	14.42 14.56	3.66 4.22	.900

Table 7
Results for independent t-test for gender on the STAXI-2 scale Trait Anger (TANG)

Scale	Gender (Number)	Mean	Standard Deviation	Sig. (2-tailed)
TANG	Men (18) Women (40)	17.28 17.25	4.74 4.67	.983

Table 8
Results for independent t-tests for gender on the directional scales added to the F-MPS (PERDIRECT) and the STAXI-2 (ANGDIRECT)

Scale	Gender (Number)	Mean	Standard Deviation	Sig. (2-tailed)
PERDIRECT	Men (18) Women (38)	1.33 .76	1.33 1.73	.223
ANGDIRECT	Men (18) Women (39)	-.28 -.62	1.02 1.31	.339

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