Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire - Short Form - BPAQ-SF

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: May 28, 2026

Last Modified: May 28, 2026 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Background

This script implements the Buss Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Short Form (BPAQ-SF)) (Buss & Perry, 1992).

References

Bpaq-Sf

Bryant, F. B., & Smith, B. D. (2001). Refining the architecture of aggression: A measurement model for the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality, 35(2), 138–167.

Bpaq

Buss, A.H. and Perry, M.P. (1992). The Aggression Questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452-459.

Duration

1.5 minutes

Description

12 5-point Likert style questions on 4 scales: Physical Aggression (PA), Anger (A), Verbal Aggression (VA), and Hostility (H). The items are presented in a rotating order: PA-PV-A-H....

Scoring

Each question is scored on a scale 1 (extremely uncharacteristic) to 5 (extremely characteristic)
( two questions are automatically reversed-scored).
A subscale score is computed for each of the 4 subscales based on the sum of the individual responses.
The Total BPAQ-SF score is based on the sum of all responses.

Summary Data

File Name: bpaq_sf_summary.iqdat

Data Fields

Name	Description
startDate	Date the session was run
startTime	Time the session was run
subjectId	Participant ID
groupId	Group number
sessionId	Session number
elapsedTime	Session duration in ms
inquisit.version	Inquisit version number
computer.platform	Device platform: win \| mac \|ios \| android
computer.touch	0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard	0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
completed	0 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed
bpaqSFTotal	The sum of all responses (Range: 12 - 60); the higher the score the greater the reported aggressive tendencies
physicalAggression	The sum of all responses to Physical Aggression (PA) questions (Range: 3-15)
verbalAggression	The sum of all responses to Verbal Aggression (VA) questions (Range: 3-15)
anger	The sum of all responses to Anger (A) questions (Range: 3-15)
hostility	The sum of all responses to Hostility (H) questions (Range: 3-15)

Raw Data

File Name: bpaq_sf.iqdat

Data Fields

Name	Description
date	Date the session was run
time	Time the session was run
subject	Participant ID
group	Group number
session	Session number
build	Inquisit version number
q*_response	Response given (in assigned values) Scale: 1 (extremely uncharacteristic) to 5 (extremely characteristic)
q*_latency	How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)