A study focused on the effects of forensic participation on two specific traits--argumentativeness and verbal aggression. Two hundred eighty-one high school forensic students participating at a large western forensic tournament in the beginning of the 1990 academic year completed D. A. Infante's Argumentative and Verbal Aggression Scales. Results indicated a positive correlation between argumentativeness and high school debating experience, and showed that verbal aggression decreases as argumentativeness increases. Results supported the idea that social learning and argumentative skill deficiency are two of the major causes of verbal aggression, and that developing argument skills through debate training strengthens the argumentativeness trait and thereby reduces the verbal aggression trait. Finally, results showed that forensic directors who choose to cut debate in favor of individual events cannot justify it when argumentativeness and verbal aggression are the criteria. Data examined suggest that debate activity as an academic discipline should be viewed optimistically. (Two tables of data are included; 24 references are attached.) (PRA)