Relationship of pain tolerance with human aggression

In research with animals as well as samples of chronic pain patients and elderly persons, pain has been positively correlated with measures of irritability, hostility, and aggression. The present investigation examined the relationship of pain tolerance with aggression. 72 men participated in the Response Choice Aggression Paradigm, described previously by Zeichner and colleagues, in which aggressive response to provocation was possible but not required of participants. Subjective pain tolerance, defined as maximal electrical shock willingly tolerated by participants, was assessed. Significant but small Pearson product-moment correlations between pain tolerance and aggression ranged between .21 and .32, with the largest accounting for 9% of variance.     

A multitrait-multimethod analysis of variance of teachers' ratings of aggression,hyperactivity, and inattention

The convergent and discriminant validities of three teacher rating scale measures of the traits of hyperactivity, aggression, and inattention were explored, using the multitrait-multimethod matrix approach of Campbell and Fiske (1959), as well as an analysis of variance procedure (Stanley, 1961). In the present study teachers rated children from their elementary school classrooms on the above traits. The results provided strong evidence for convergent validity. Data also indicated that these traits can be reliably differentiated by teachers, suggesting that research aimed at better understanding the unique contributions of hyperactivity, aggression, and inattention is warranted. The respective benefits of analyzing multitrait-multimethod matrices by employing the ANOVAprocedure or by using the Campbell and Fiske (1959) criteria were discussed.     

Bobo clown aggression in childhood: Environment,not genes

We videotaped 216 twin children (average age: 7.6 years) hitting a 5-ft “Bobo clown”. Three behaviors in the Bobo clown situation showed adequate response characteristics, rater reliability, and test-retest reliability: number of hits, intensity of hits, and number of quadrants (into which the Bobo clown was hit). In terms of two “anchor” variables, height and weight, the twin correlations were representative of other studies in suggesting substantial hereditary influence. However, twin analyses of the three behavioral ratings during the Bobo clown session yielded no evidence of hereditary influence. Moreover, the results provided evidence of substantial environmental influence of the “between-family” variety. In other words, the family environment is the major source of individual differences for these measures.     

Peer ratings of depression,anxiety, and aggression in inpatient and elementary school children: Rating biases and influence of rater's self-reported depression,anxiety, and aggression

Using parallel self-, peer, and teacher rating scales, several rating biases in children's peer ratings of depression, anxiety, and aggression were examined. Participants were 66 inpatient and 133 elementary school children (N = 199, 109 boys, 90 girls; 61% white, 39% black) aged 8 to 12, and their teachers. Results showed significant halo bias in both the children's peer ratings and the teachers' ratings. Children's self-reports on each of the three traits were significantly related to their peer ratings of the same trait, while adjusting for socioeconomic status and the peers' teachers' ratings of the same trait. Children who rated themselves as high on each trait rated their peers significantly higher on the same trait than children who rated themselves as medium or low; and for depression and anxiety, those who rated themselves as medium rated their peers significantly higher on those traits than those who rated themselves as low. For both depression and aggression, children's self-reports on the trait were significantly related to their peer ratings of the same trait, but not significantly related to their peer ratings of different traits. Disagreements between children's and teachers' ratings of the peers on all three traits were significantly related to child self-reports on each trait, indicating a possible distortion in children's peer ratings due to self-report. The implications of the results for both peer and others' assessments are discussed, and further investigation of rating biases in other informants' assessments is encouraged.These data were collected as part of the author's doctoral dissertation submitted to Memphis State University. Appreciation is expressed to Stacey Donegan for assistance with the literature review for an earlier version of this paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, March 1993.     

Attention, not anxiety, influences pain

Four hypotheses about the influences of anxiety and attention on pain impact were tested in a critical experiment: (1) anxiety increases pain; (2) anxiety decreases pain; (3) attention to pain increases pain; (4) only the combination of anxiety and attention to pain increases pain (interaction hypothesis). In a 2 x 2 design, anxiety (low vs high) and attention (attention vs distraction from the pain) were experimentally manipulated. Subjects received 20 electrically produced painful stimuli. Subjective pain experiences, skin conductance responses and heart rate responses gave no support for a pain impact increasing effect of anxiety. The anxiety-attention interaction hypothesis did not receive any support either. There was some support, only from the heart rate responses, that anxiety reduces pain impact. The critical factor appeared to be attention. Attention to the pain stimulus was related to a stronger pain impact (indicated by all measures) and to less subjective habituation, compared to distraction.     

Body weight, not facial width-to-height ratio, predicts aggression in pro hockey players

Studies indicate that facial characteristics may predict behavior, but it is unclear if this will hold within highly selective populations. One relevant characteristic is the face’s width-to-height ratio (FWHR), a sexually dimorphic trait that has been shown to predict aggression. That FWHR may predict aggression within highly selective populations was suggested by Carré and McCormick’s (2008) finding that professional hockey players with greater FWHRs accrued more penalties. We attempted to replicate this result using all NHL players. We also explored fighting penalties as another aggression measure and height and weight as additional aggression predictors. We found that body weight predicted substantial variance in aggression but FWHR did not. Thus, in highly selective populations, inferences based on faces may be inaccurate.     

African American students' ratings of Caucasian and African American counselors varying in racial consciousness

African American college students (63 female, 30 male) rated vignettes of counselors varying in racial consciousness (high vs. low) and race (African American vs. Caucasian). Participants then completed a counselor rating scale and the Racial Identity Attitude Scale (Short Form; T. A. Parham & J. E. Helms, 1981). African American counselors were rated more favorably than White counselors, and high racially conscious counselors were rated more favorably than low racially conscious counselors. The African American counselor with high racial consciousness was rated the most favorably. Several significant correlations were found between participants' racial identity attitudes and their ratings of counselors. Implications for the training of both African American and White counselors are considered.     

A preliminary comparison of teacher ratings and child self-report of depression,anxiety, and aggression in inpatient and elementary school samples

Using equivalent scales, the differential utility of teachers' ratings of elementary school (n=142) and inpatient (n=83) 8 to 12yearold children was examined by comparing teachers' correspondence with the inpatient and elementary school children's selfreports of depression, anxiety, and aggression. Teacherchild correspondence was significant for all three traits in the elementary school sample, yet only significant for aggression in the inpatient sample. However, the level or severity of depression and anxiety symptoms that the teachers reported for the inpatient sample was similar to that reported by the children themselves. In contrast, elementary school children reported significantly more internalizing symptoms than their teachers. Inpatient children reported more depression, but not significantly more anxiety and aggression than elementary school children. For all traits, teachers reported significantly more symptoms for inpatient children, after controlling for child selfreport and socioeconomic status. The utility of teachers' ratings across samples, method variance and rater biases, and issues pertaining to selfreport are discussed.     

Artifact in pain ratings,its implications for test-retest reliability,and correction by a new scaling procedure

The conventionally employed procedure for rating ischemic pain was found to produce a degree of response bias associated with the ceiling points of the scale used. A new approach permitting open-ended ratings followed by transformation of these ratings into a common decile scale provided far greater test-retest reliability. This was explained largely in terms of the attenuation of rating artifact. The new procedure also gave rise to consistently linear functions for ischemic pain. Implications are raised for the measurement of pain as well as other psychological continua.     

Effects of a stimulus associated with a victim's pain on later aggression.

Male college students participated in an experiment designed to associate a neutral stimulus with a victim's pain and then to assess the impact of the paired stimulus on their aggression. The subjects were either provoked or not provoked by a confederate's shock evaluation. They then observed a flashing white light that was associated with either their former evaluator's pain or an irrelevant, affectively neutral event. The subjects then administered electric shocks to a different confederate, with whom they had not interacted previously, at the flash of both the familiar white light (the conditioned stimulus) and a novel blue light. Results supported the prediction that provoked subjects would give more intense shocks to the conditioned stimulus when it had been associated with their evaluator's pain. Unprovoked subjects were found to give less intense shocks to the light that had been associated with their evaluator's pain.     

Punitiveness in response to films varying in content: A cross-national field study of aggression

Punitiveness in male movie-goers in London, Philadelphia, Rome and Toronto was measured before or after they attended films varying in content (aggressive, sexual, neutral) and arousal potential (low, high). A second dependent variable, altruism, was also assessed for some Ss. Hypotheses stemming from social learning theory and arousal theory were tested by comparing changes in punitiveness at aggressive, nonaggressive arousing (sexual) and nonaggressive nonarousing (neutral) films. At aggressive films there was an increase in punitiveness whereas a reduction in punitiveness was found at neutral films. Sexual films led to a smaller (nonsignificant) increase in punitiveness than aggressive films. The findings implied that arousal was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for increasing punitiveness. There were no significant cross-national differences in response to the films. Since the results did not generalize to other, nonaggressive responses, the film effects may be aggression-specific. Two additional findings in the U.S. sample were that urban Ss were more punitive than rural Ss and that the length of urban residency correlated negatively with altruism.     

Verbal responses of male college students to human figure paintings varying in collative properties, perceived sexuality, and perceived aggression

20 male undergraduates rated 60 human figure paintings on verbal scales to index collative variability (e.g., simple-complex), perceived sexuality, and perceived aggression in the stimuli. Regression equations were used to predict epistemic (interest) and diversive (pleasingness) responses to the paintings. Collative variability predicted diversive but not epistemic appreciation. Perceived aggression was the strongest predictor for both types of aesthetic reaction. Perceived sexuality was most strongly related to diversive appreciation. Both linear and nonlinear functions emerged and these were discussed in terms of consistency with Berlyne's 1971 theory of aesthetics.     

Public but not private ego threat triggers aggression in narcissists

One line of research indicates that people are more aggressive when they are insulted publicly rather than privately, whereas another indicates that subclinical narcissism predicts aggression. Drawing on these lines of research, we predicted that aggression would be increased among participants who scored higher on narcissism (as opposed to lower), received negative (as opposed to positive) self‐relevant feedback, and did so in public (as opposed to private). The findings supported that prediction and further confirmed that narcissism was only predictive of aggression in the negative‐public condition. The findings thus indicate that aggression is influenced by the interaction of situational and dispositional factors. Copyright © 2011 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamics of hostile aggression: Influence of anger,hurt instructions,and victim pain feedback

The research basically examined some of the dynamics of hostile aggression by looking at the effects of different Buss procedure instructions and levels of victim pain feedback on the aggressive behavior of angered and nonangered men. In a 2 × 2 × 2 completely crossed factorial experiment, male undergraduates were initially either angered or not by an experimental accomplice. When later given the ostensible opportunity to administer shocks to the same accomplice in a typical Buss procedure, the subjects were either told that longer and more intense shocks would probably interfere with the person's learning as well as causing him more pain (hurt instructions) or given no information about the effects of shocks on learning (standard instructions). Finally, after each shock they administered, the subjects were provided with either high or low victim pain feedback. The angered men were significantly more aggressive than their nonangered counterparts, and a significant interaction between anger and instructions indicated this was especially true for the men given hurt instructions. Significant interactions between the other independent variables and trial blocks revealed that the angered men, particularly those receiving hurt instructions and high victim pain feedback, displayed the greates increases in aggression. The results provide qualified support for the derived proposition about hostile aggression that signs and/or knowledge of victim injury and pain can stimulate more intense aggression from angry individuals.