Ramirez et al (2001): culture and aggression

Ramirez and his colleagues wanted to investigate whether aggression varied between cultures. They were also interested in the different levels of aggression between males and females

Procedure:- 
The study involved 400 psychology students, who volunteered to take part. Half of them were at university in Japan and the other half in Spain. All students were asked to complete a questionnaire that measured different types of aggression, including:

• Verbal aggression
• Physical aggression
• Anger
• Hostility

The questionnaires included Likert-style questions, where the participants responded by saying to what extent they agree with each statement.

The questions covered different areas, for example:

Verbal aggression:

• I tell my friends openly when I disagree with them.

Physical aggression:

• Once in a while, I can't control the urge to strike another person.

Anger:

• Some of my friends think I am a hothead.

Hostility:

• I sometimes feel that people are laughing at me behind my back.

The participants had to answer each question using a five point scale.

1 = extremely uncharacteristic of me
2 = somewhat uncharacteristic of me
3 = neither uncharacteristic nor characteristic of me
4 = somewhat characteristic…