Date of Award
5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. Adam Stanaland
Abstract
Gender stereotypes suggest that women internalize their frustrations while men externalize them (e.g., physical aggression). One evidenced source of interpersonal aggression is insult, and here we tested whether (and among whom) insults prompt physical and verbal aggression as well as internalizing symptoms. We hypothesized that following an interpersonal insult, men would externalize frustrations (in the form of retaliatory physical and verbal aggression) while women would internalize them (expressed via reduced self-esteem). Additionally, we assessed how exposure to violence might function as a moderator for these externalized and internalized responses. Participants (N = 107; 69 women; 55 racial minority) were led to believe that they were in a study about how cognitive functioning impacts feedback style and, critically, were randomly assigned to receive either insulting vs. control feedback about their writing. Results suggest that insults led to increased externalized aggressive responses across all participants, with no significant gender differences. However, gender differences emerged for internalized outcomes: women experienced reduced self-esteem following insult, while men did not. Conversely, our findings on exposure to violence suggest that men with higher exposure to violence showed less physical aggression and were more likely to internally attribute the insulting feedback, a pattern not observed among women. In all, these results provided an updated view on consequences of interpersonal insult, with implications for psychological theory, policy, and intervention.
Recommended Citation
Martinez, Alicia, "Gender Differences in Externalized and Internalized Responses to Interpersonal Insult" (2025). Honors Theses. 1839.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/1839
