Martijn van Teffelen

Hierarchical structure of hostility 33 2 Table 3 Spearman’s rho correlations between factor scores and hostility instruments STAXI-2T AQH FOA PID-5H P1.1 .84 *** .66 *** .87 *** .88 *** P2.1 .80 *** .77 *** .33 *** .76 *** P2.2 .35 *** .14 ** .92 *** .42 *** P3.1 .74 *** .18 *** .28 *** .75 *** P3.2 .30 *** .18 *** .90 *** .36 *** P3.3 .35 *** .92 *** .20 *** .29 *** P4.1 .75 *** .18 *** .28 *** .76 *** P4.2 .34 *** .18 *** .87 *** .38 *** P4.3 .34 *** .92 *** .19 *** .29 *** P4.4 -.17 ** .00 .11 * -.08 P5.1 .71 *** .16 ** .20 *** .72 *** P5.2 .35 *** .13 * .72 *** .37 *** P5.3 .35 *** .93 *** .20 *** .30 *** P5.4 .02 .10 .35 *** .05 P5.5 -.12 * .04 .23 *** -.03 Note . * significant at p < .05; ** significant at p < .01; *** significant at p < .001. R 2 -values of each level are respectively: 29.93, 37.16, 42.12, 46.04, and 49.03. DISCUSSION The present study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to explore the hierarchical structure of self-reported trait-hostility. We predicted that hostility can be defined as a construct that can be interpreted at different levels of specificity or, in other words, that hostility shows a multidimensional hierarchical structure. We observed that at the highest, most abstract level Hostility is characterized by a low threshold to experience and react harmfully upon angry affect. Findings demonstrate large positive associations between hostility and raw scores on different instruments of hostility. This finding is consistent with different conceptualizations of hostility (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Barefoot, 1992; Cassiello-Robbins & Barlow, 2016; Chaplin, 1982; Fernandez & Johnson, 2016; Vidal-Ribas et al., 2016). At the second level, hostility splits up into an experiential (Hostile Cognition) and expressive component (Aggressive Behavior), converging with factor analytic studies (Buss & Durkee, 1957; Fuqua et al., 1991; Martin et al., 2000; Musante et al., 1989). Correlations with the original scales show that experiential aspects of hostility are mostly captured by the STAXI-2T, AQH and PID-5H, whereas the expressive aspects are mostly captured by the FOA. At the third level, the experiential factor splits up into an affective (Angry Affect) and cognitive factor (Hostile