Relational aggression in the context of personality metatraits

People that hurt others through relationally aggressive behavior (e.g., damaging social reputation, threats of rejection) have a particular personality profile. It consists of high neuroticism, and low extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Similar profiles of traits constitute broader personality dimensions known as metatraits of personality conceptualized in the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits (CPM). In the present study, we examined the location of proactive and reactive relational aggression in the circumplex of personality metatraits according to the CPM. Three hundred ninety participants (228 women and 162 men) responded to an online survey. Relational aggression was located between Gamma-Minus (Disharmony) and Alpha-Minus (Disinhibition), but fitted significantly to the theoretical location on the Gamma-Minus metatrait despite of the function (proactive vs. reactive) of relational aggression. We interpret the location of relational aggression within the circumplex of the metatraits with regards to temperamental correlates of metatraits (e.g., temperamental sensitivity).