Perceptions of an aggressive encounter as a function of the victim's salience and the perceiver's arousal.

Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of a victim's physical salience and perceivers' arousal on perceptions of a verbally aggressive interaction. Based upon evidence that there is a tendency to attribute causality to salient stimulus persons and to form more evaluatively extreme impressions of such persons, it was predicted that an aggressor's behavior would be attributed more to causes in a physically salient than a nonsalient victim and that the behavior of a salient victim would be evaluated more extremely than that of a nonsalient victim. Based upon Easterbrook's hypothesis that arousal narrows the focus of attention to the most salient cues in the situation, it was further predicted that aroused perceivers would manifest both a stronger tendency to attribute causality to a physically salient victim of aggression and more extreme ratings of the stimulus persons than would nonaroused perceivers. The results supported all of the experimental hypotheses except one: The tendency to attribute the aggressor's behavior more to a physically salient than a nonsalient victim was not greater for aroused than for nonaroused perceivers.     

The victim's reaction to an attack as a function of his perception of the attacker following a verbal insult

This study investigated the role of perception in the victim's behaviour following a verbal attack. It was expected that the victim's counterattack and evaluation of attacker would be influenced by: (a) the victim's level of aggressiveness; (b) the attacker's perceived level of aggressiveness; (c) the attacker's status (prestige in the classroom); and (d) retaliation threat for counterattack. High and low aggressive subjects (victim's) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions differing in the attacker's attributed level of aggression and status. Half of the subjects in each condition received a retaliation threat treatment. The victims were interacting with an assumed partner (attacker) in a guessing game during which they were insulted. After each insult the victim could counterattack by withholding a monetary reward from the attacker. At the end, the victim rated his attacker on aggressiveness, potency and social desirability. The results indicated that there were significant main effects of the victims level of aggressiveness, the attacker's status and retaliation threat. There was also a significant interaction between victim's and attacker's aggressiveness, for the two dependent variables. In addition, victim's behaviour was influenced by the interaction between attacker's status and his aggressiveness.     

Instigation to aggression as a function of degree of defeat and the capacity for massive retaliation

Forty-eight subjects, half of whom were assigned to a condition of massive retaliation (MR) and half of whom were not (NMR), competed against a presumed opponent The loser on each trial received a shock of intensity level selected by the winner at the beginning of a trial and, simultaneously, feedback on the opponent's shock setting The winner received only feedback on the opponent's shock setting Defeat and feedback of aggressive intent (opponent's shock setting) were varied independently In the MR condition, an extreme level of shock could be selected Although its use was avoided, its psychological presence influenced perception of the opponent, aggressive behavior, and physiological arousal Consistent with previous findings, primary frustration was found to be a relatively inconsequential instigator to aggression compared to learned social attitudes     

Threatened retaliation from the victim as an inhibitor of physical aggression

Sixty male undergraduates participated in an experiment designed to investigate the effects of apparent probability of retaliation from the victim and level of prior anger arousal upon adult aggressive behavior. It was hypothesized that threatened retaliation would be highly effective in inhibiting subsequent aggression under conditions where subjects had not previously been angered by the victim, but would generally fail to inhibit such behavior under conditions where they had previously suffered strong provocation at the hands of this person. Support was obtained for both of these predictions. Findings were discussed in terms of their implications for the prevention and control of human violence in naturalistic social situations.     

Perception of an adversary as a function of masculinity, sex, and aggression/empathy

The study was designed to test whether men and women identifying with a masculine stereotype differ in their perception of a confederate (adversary) who displays either an empathetic or aggressive role in resolving a disagreement over social issues. It was hypothesized that masculine individuals would be more perceptually sensitive to aggressive cues of an adversary and make more hostile responses than nonmasculine individuals. Conversely, nonmasculine individuals were hypothesized to be more perceptually sensitive to empathetic cues of an adversary and make fewer hostile responses than masculine individuals. Results of both perceptual measures and the measure of hostility did not support the hypotheses. Nonmasculine individuals perceived the adversary more positively than masculine individuals regardless of strategy of resolution.     

Perception of hostility in the TAT as a function of defensive style

Groups of male and female students with high, intermediate, and low scores on Byrne's Scale of Repression-Sensitization judged the amount of hostility and the darkness of 10 TAT cards, including the blank. The groups' judgments for each card were expressed in terms of the statistic E, a non-parametric index of discriminability derived on the basis of the theory of signal detection. Subjects with low scores on the scale showed significantly lower E values for hostility (p less than .05), but not for darkness, than the other two groups. It was concluded that differences in sensitivity to affective stimulation underlie the dimension of Repression-Sensitization.     

Perception and recall of aversive material as a function of personality type

Relationships between personality dimensions of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P) and barrier (B) and patterns of psychophysiological responding during exposure to and subsequent recall of aversive and non-aversive material were investigated. Sixteen male volunteers were asked to recall the critical features of 10 film segments containing either neutral or aversive material. Heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC) and electromyographic (EMG) responses were recorded throughout the session. Analysis showed that during exposure to aversive material, high BE Ss recorded high levels of autonomic responding and low levels of muscle tension, while during recall, they showed reduced autonomic activity and significantly higher levels of muscle tension. Low BE Ss showed significantly higher levels of muscle tension during film presentation and significantly lower levels during recall, with little change in autonomic reactivity between treatments. Recall data indicate that high BE Ss had significantly better recall under all conditions. N and P differences were unrelated to patterns of psychophysiological responding or efficiency of recall.     

Identification with an aggressor or a victim and its relation to creativity

Studied identification using a meta-contrast design. The first stimulus was the word 'I'. The second stimulus depicted an aggressor and a victim facing each other. The subliminal 'I' was flashed on either the victim or on the aggressor, or completely withheld. The subjects were 33 school children, aged 10–12 years. They also took a percept-genetic (PG) test of creativity, measuring willingness to return to and recognize early conceptions of a stimulus picture (a still-life). The results showed that the creative children reacted with less anxiety and defense when manipulated to identify with the aggressor than with the victim. The uncreative children showed the opposite reaction, namely a preference for the passive, surrendering victim.     

Empathy and risk status for child physical abuse: the effects of an adult victim's pain cues and an adult victim's intent on aggression

It has been proposed that abusive parents and parents at high risk for child physical abuse could be more likely to view children's behavior as being motivated by hostile intent [e.g., Milner, 1993], as compared to nonabusive and low‐risk parents. This kind of misattribution of other's behavior may inhibit empathic emotion, and therefore, could block the inhibiting effect of a victim's pain cues on aggression [Baron, 1979]. An experiment was designed to analyze the moderating effect of an adult victim's intent on aggression in high‐ and low‐risk participants for child physical abuse. A 2 × 2 factorial design based upon two levels of the participant's risk status (high, low) and two levels of victim's intent (positive, ambiguous) was employed. All participants observed an adult victim's pain cues. Ninety‐five (48 high and 47 low risk for child physical abuse) undergraduate females enrolled in courses at the University of the Basque Country participated in the experiment. The main effects of victims' intent and of participants' risk status were statistically significant. Participants in the ambiguous victim's intent condition aggressed significantly more than participants in the positive victim's intent condition. Moreover, high‐risk participants aggressed more than low‐risk participants regardless of the victim's intent. A significant interaction between risk status and victim's intent was expected. High‐risk subjects for child physical abuse were expected to aggress more than low‐risk subjects only in the ambiguous victim's intent condition. However, results did not support this hypothesis. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–12, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.