Generalization of aggressive behavior in adolescent delinquent boys

The generalization of conditioned aggressive and nonaggressive responses in a group of six adolescent delinquent boys was investigated. Responses were reinforced in card games where a token reinforcement system with money as a back-up rinforcer was used. Conditioning of responses was rapid. Generalization, measured in terms of frequency of physical contact, was tested in a group game for which no reinforcement was given. Generalization occurred during aggressive contingencies. During nonaggressive contingencies, responses did not return completely to the baseline level.     

Conflicts between parents and aggressive and delinquent behavior in children

The exposure of children to their parents' conflicts are a factor of substantial risk for the development of behavior problems in children. This study examines the relationship between marital conflicts and children's aggressive and delinquent behavior. The sample consisted of a total of 332 children, aged 7 to 17 years, and their mothers. The children completed the Children's Perceptions of Interparental Conflict Scale, providing information on the dimensions of the marital conflicts: frequency, intensity, no resolution, and content. The mothers completed the O'Leary Porter Scale, providing information about the frequency of conflicts, and the Child Behavior Checklist, about the aggressive and delinquent behavior problems in their children. The results indicate that parental conflicts affect sons and daughters equally, and they affect adolescents more than younger children when they are perceived by the children. However, conflicts affect all groups when the mothers perceive them.     

Verbal imagery and connotation as memory-induced mediators of aggressive behavior.

Three studies investigated the effects of an information-processing variable (imagery-concreteness) on susceptibility to aggressive stimulation. Study 1 (n=83) results indicated that subjects' rating of imagery level and aggressive connotation for words can be manipulated independently. In study 2 (n=64), manipulations of verbal connotation and verbal imagery indicated that imagery level but not aggressive connotation significantly influenced the delayed recall of the verbal material. In Study 3 (n=60), males in a 2 X 2 between-subjects factorial design first learned lists of words varying in imagery (high or low) and verbal connotation (aggressive or neutral). Next, subjects were given the opportunity to shock their partners as part of a sham learning task. To induce arousal, all subjects learning high-imagery-aggressive word lists delivered significantly more intense shock to their partners. The results were interpreted as supporting an information-processing (memory) analysis of the effects of exposure to aggressive material.     

An anger-control intervention with aggressive delinquent youths

Social problem-solving skills, a self-instructional procedure, and a “thinking-ahead” procedure were taught to institutionalized, aggressive, delinquent adolescents as part of an anger-control intervention package. A multiple baseline design across four subjects and an alternating-treatments design were used. The effects of intervention were assessed on problem-solving ability, use of self-guiding verbalizations for coping with anger provoking situations, reported frequency of anger-control behaviors relative to loss of anger-control incidents, and behavioral progress within the institution. All youths showed improvement during the training of problem solving on hypothetical dilemmas, with some generalization to untrained problems. Follow-up data on some youths suggested maintenance of treatment gains. Three of the youths displayed increased usage of self-instructions and thinking-ahead statements during personal anger-provoking situations. All youths displayed an increase in self-reported anger-control behaviors relative to loss of anger-control. Improvements in behavior outside of the therapy sessions were indicated by positive behavioral progress within the institution.     

Correlates of aggressive and delinquent conduct problems in adolescence

The primary purpose of the study was to test a hypothetical model for aggressive and delinquent conduct problems in adolescence. A total of 168 adolescents from 121 families were studied using several questionnaires and a semi‐structured interview. The following factors were considered: obstetric complications, temperament (novelty‐seeking), self‐esteem, family influences (perceived parenting, alcohol abuse/dependence of parents, antisocial personality disorder of the father) and peer‐group characteristics (peer rejection and membership in a deviant peer group). The evaluation methods applied included correlation analyses and testing of two hypothetical models using structural equation modeling. The correlation analyses revealed significant relationships between adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavioral problems and parental antisocial behavior; perceived parental rejection and low emotional warmth; adolescent novelty‐seeking, self‐esteem, peer rejection and peer deviance. The two empirical models, separately for aggressive and delinquent behavior problems, revealed direct relationships between paternal antisocial behavior, parental rejection, adolescent novelty seeking, peer deviance, peer rejection, and offspring aggression and delinquency. There were, however, two differences with respect to the relationships between peer rejection, peer deviance, aggression and delinquency. First, peer rejection was more strongly associated with aggressive behavior and only moderately linked to delinquency. Second, deviance in the peer‐group was found to be closely related with delinquency but only moderately with aggression. Our findings suggest that several pathways for aggressive and delinquent conduct problems are comparable while others were not. Regarding the findings of the empirical models, we conclude that only intervention measures that include parents, peers and individual adolescents may help decrease the incidence of aggressive and delinquent conduct problems. Aggr. Behav. 31:24–39, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The moderating role of empathy in the association between parental support and adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavior

The present two‐wave longitudinal study addressed the role of affective empathy and parental support in aggressive and delinquent behavior in a sample of 323 adolescents (158 boys, 165 girls). Self‐report questionnaires were used to assess affective empathy, perceived support from parents, delinquency, and aggression. Guided by theories on children's differential susceptibility to socialization, we expected adolescents with different levels of empathy to vary in their responsiveness to parental support. In agreement with our hypothesis, empathy moderated the relation of perceived parental support with aggressive and delinquent behavior. Controlling for the effect of gender and for the stability of aggression and delinquency, higher perceived parental support was predictive of lower levels of aggression at age 15, but only for adolescents high in empathy. Remarkably, adolescents low in empathy not only appeared to benefit less from parental support, but even showed more aggression and delinquency at age 15 when they perceived their parents to be more supportive at age 14. Aggr. Behav. 38:368‐377, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Verbal behavior

The recent history and current status of the area of verbal behavior are considered in terms of three major thematic lines: the operant conditioning of adult verbal behavior, learning to be an effective speaker and listener, and developments directly related to Skinner's Verbal Behavior. Other topics not directly related to the main themes are also considered: the work of Kurt Salzinger, ape-language research, and human operant research related to rule-governed behavior.     

Female adolescent friendship and delinquent behavior

Young female offenders (n = 29) and female high school students (n = 47) were compared in terms of delinquent behavior and relationships with their best female friend and peer group. Young offenders exhibited significantly more delinquent behavior than did high school students in the past year. Delinquents and nondelinquents did not significantly differ in amount of companionship, conflict, help, security, and closeness with their best female friend, and amount of trust, alienation, and perceived intimacy in their peer group. Less communication and more perceived peer pressure in the peer group distinguished delinquent females from nondelinquent females. Perceived peer pressure significantly predicted delinquent behavior in female adolescents. In short, friendships of delinquent and nondelinquent female adolescents are essentially similar despite higher levels of peer pressure among delinquents.     

Characterizing aggressive behavior

In the research literature, aggressive behavior has traditionally been classified into two distinct subtypes, impulsive or premeditated. Impulsive aggression is defined as a hair-trigger aggressive response to provocation with loss of behavioral control. Premeditated aggression is defined as a planned or conscious aggressive act, not spontaneous or related to an agitated state. The present study outlines the development of a clinically useful self-report instrument, the Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scales (IPAS), designed to characterize aggressive behavior as predominately impulsive or predominately premeditated in nature. The IPAS showed strong reliability and validity. Analysis of the IPASscores demonstrated thepresence of two types of aggressive behavior, impulsive and premeditated, in men referred for anger problems. The aggression of most individuals in the present sample was characterized as predominately impulsive in nature (90%).     

Predictors of aggressive behavior

A multiple factor approach was used to test additive and multiplicative models as well as to isolate a best predictive model of physical aggression. The variables of aggressive learning history, provocation, sex of target, sex of subject, sex-role orientation, and aggressive tendencies were selected. Eighty-three males and 117 females participated in the experimental session. Multiple regression analyses indicated that multiple predictor models were able to account for significantly more variance than were single predictor models; however, multiplicative models were unable to increase predictive efficacy. A model composed of sex of target, masculinity, and aggressive tendencies was established as the best predictive model for unprovoked aggression; provocation, masculinity, and aggressive tendencies made up the best predictive model of provoked aggression. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Excitation transfer in communication-mediated aggressive behavior

To test the effect of excitation produced during exposure to communication, both the excitatory potential and the degree of manifest aggressiveness of communications were assessed to select: (a) an aggressive communication associated with a particular excitatory potential; (b) a nonaggressive communication associated with an excitatory potential significantly below that of a; and (c) another nonaggressive communication associated with an excitatory potential significantly above that of a. A model of excitation transfer was advanced, based on the assumption that salient elements of excitation decay relatively slowly, and that interoception of excitation is nonspecific, permitting the integration of any residue with elements of the excitatory response to subsequent stimuli. If the postcommunication situation provides the individual with perception-cognitions enabling him to unambiguously interpret his emotional state, it is expected that this state is intensified by the magnitude of the excitational residue from the response to the communication. It was predicated that, quite independent of the degree of aggression manifest in the communication, postcommunication aggressive behavior would be facilitated mainly as a function of the communication's excitatory potential. The highly significant results obtained (b < a < c) were fully consistent with the predictions from the transfer paradigm.