AGGRESSIVE EPISODES TAXONOMY - DIMENSIONA L OR CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION

This study aims to elaborate an empirical taxonomy based on the subjec t's perception about aggressive episodes personally experienced. A rep resentative sample of 28 aggressive episodes was evaluated across 16 b ipolar scales, wich were obtained in a previous normative study. After a transformation of the data, it were obtained dissimilarity matrices of order 28 x 28 (one for each subject). Then, the data were subjecte d to a Multidimensional Scaling with ALSCAL program (Takane, Young y D eleew, 1977) and to a cluster analysis. Both techniques revealed that the must importan criteria for the perception and social representatio n process were seriousness, justifiability, intrumentality and social judgement factors. Finally, the adjustment of the representation obtai ned with both techniques is compared, and the results discussed in ter ms of wether the subject's perceptions better fit to a dimensional con tiuum or to a discrete categories.