TITLE:
Verbally Aggressive Instructors and Machiavellian Students: Is the Socio-Communicative Style an Over-Bridging?
AUTHORS:
Alexandra Bekiari
KEYWORDS:
Verbal Aggressiveness, Socio-Communicative Style, Machiavellianism
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.8 No.10,
August
1,
2017
ABSTRACT: Goals of this research are: 1) to examine the role of gender, 2) to explore the relationship between perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness, socio-communicative style and students’ Machiavellian tactics, 3) to investigate the influence of instructors’ verbal aggressiveness on their socio-communicative style and students’ Machiavellian tactics in physical education context and 4) to propose a students’ and instructors’ typology which will be the final over-bridging of verbal aggressiveness and Machiavellianism through communication style. The sample consisted of 269 students (141 males, 128 females) aged 12 - 14 years old (M = 12.6, SD = 0.65) from secondary public schools who completed three types of questionnaires during physical education classes. The results supported the internal consistency of the instruments. According to the results of the study, statistically significant differences were observed in perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness, responsiveness, assertiveness and students’ amoral manipulation, desire for control, desire for status, distrust of others between the genders of the students. Correlational analysis indicated that perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness was positively related to assertiveness, amoral manipulation, desire for control, desire for status, distrust of others and was negatively related to responsiveness. The results of regression analysis revealed that perceived instructors’ verbal aggressiveness could significantly predict the variables of responsiveness, assertiveness, desire for status and distrust of others. Three behavioral types are revealed: 1) the unrestraint, 2) the responsive, and 3) the distrustful, where verbal aggressiveness appears to be connected with Machiavellianism through communication style in these particular combinations.