Peer and cyber aggression in secondary school students: the role of moral disengagement,hostile attribution bias,and outcome expectancies

This study investigated the relationship between cognitive mechanisms, applied by people to rationalize and justify harmful acts, and engagement in traditional peer and cyber aggression among school children. We examined the contribution of moral disengagement (MD), hostile attribution bias, and outcome expectancies, and we further explored the individual contribution of each MD mechanism. Our aim was to identify shared and unique cognitive factors of the two forms of aggression. Three hundred and thirty‐nine secondary school children completed self‐report measures that assessed MD, hostile attribution bias, outcome expectancies, and their roles and involvement in traditional and cyber aggression. We found that the MD total score positively related to both forms of peer‐directed aggression. Furthermore, traditional peer aggression positively related to children's moral justification, euphemistic language, displacement of responsibility and outcome expectancies, and negatively associated with hostile attribution bias. Moral justification also related positively to cyber aggression. Cyber aggression and cyber victimization were associated with high levels of traditional peer aggression and victimization, respectively. The results suggest that MD is a common feature of both traditional and cyber peer aggression, but it seems that traditional forms of aggression demand a higher level of rationalization or justification. Moreover, the data suggest that the expectation of positive outcomes from harmful behavior facilitates engagement in traditional peer aggression. The differential contribution of specific cognitive mechanisms indicates the need for future research to elaborate on the current findings, in order to advance theory and inform existing and future school interventions tackling aggression and bullying. Aggr. Behav. 36:81–94, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Cool and hot executive function as predictors of aggression in early childhood: Differentiating between the function and form of aggression

Executive function (EF) has been implicated in childhood aggression. Understanding of the role of EF in aggression has been hindered, however, by the lack of research taking into account the function and form of aggression and the almost exclusive focus on cool EF. This study examined the role of cool and hot EF in teacher reported aggression, differentiating between reactive and proactive as well as physical and relational aggression. Children (N = 106) completed laboratory tasks measuring cool (inhibition, planning, working memory) and hot EF (affective decision‐making, delay of gratification). Cool, but not hot, EF significantly contributed to understanding of childhood aggression. Inhibition was a central predictor of childhood aggression. Planning and working memory, in contrast, were significant independent predictors of proactive relational aggression only. Added to this, prosocial behaviour moderated the relationship between working memory and reactive relational aggression. This study therefore suggests that cool EF, particularly inhibition, is associated with childhood aggression across the different functions and forms.     

The cycle of violence as a function of PTSD and appetitive aggression: A longitudinal study with Burundian soldiers

During deployment, soldiers face situations in which they are not only exposed to violence but also have to perpetrate it themselves. This study investigates the role of soldiers' levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and appetitive aggression, that is, a lust for violence, for their engaging in violence during deployment. Furthermore, factors during deployment influencing the level of PTSD symptoms and appetitive aggression after deployment were examined for a better comprehension of the maintenance of violence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 468 Burundian soldiers before and after a 1-year deployment to Somalia. To predict violent acts during deployment (perideployment) as well as appetitive aggression and PTSD symptom severity after deployment (postdeployment), structural equation modeling was utilized. Results showed that the number of violent acts perideployment was predicted by the level of appetitive aggression and by the severity of PTSD hyperarousal symptoms predeployment. In addition to its association with the predeployment level, appetitive aggression postdeployment was predicted by violent acts and trauma exposure perideployment as well as positively associated with unit support. PTSD symptom severity postdeployment was predicted by the severity of PTSD avoidance symptoms predeployment and trauma exposure perideployment, and negatively associated with unit support. This prospective study reveals the importance of appetitive aggression and PTSD hyperarousal symptoms for the engagement in violent acts during deployment, while simultaneously demonstrating how these phenomena may develop in mutually reinforcing cycles in a war setting.     

Aggression and prosocial behaviors in social conflicts mediating the influence of cold social intelligence and affective empathy on children's social preference

This study proposes a model in which aggressive and prosocial behaviors exhibited in social conflicts mediate the influence of empathy and social intelligence to children's social preference by same‐sex peers. Data were obtained from kindergarten to the end of the first grade. The sample yielded 117 Spanish children (64 girls and 53 boys) with a mean age of 62.8 months (SD = 3.3) at the beginning of the study. For boys, affective empathy contributed to boys’ social preference through a decrease in physical aggression as responses to social conflict. For girls, affective empathy had an indirect effect on girls’ preference by increasing assistance to others in their conflicts. No mediating effect in the contribution of social intelligence on girls’ social preference was detected. Our results suggest that, only for girls, cold social intelligence can promote both indirect aggression (coercive strategic that do not leave social preference, at least at these ages) and behaviors that lead social preference (such as prosocial behaviors).     

The effects of viewing physical and relational aggression in the media: Evidence for a cross-over effect

Research has shown that viewing violence in the media can have a profound impact on aggressive thoughts and behaviors. However, the impact of viewing relational aggression in the media has rarely been examined. This paper presents the results of an experimental study that examines the impact of viewing relational and physical aggression in the media on subsequent aggression. In this study, adult females were shown video clips containing no-aggression, relational aggression, or physical aggression. Their aggressive behavior was measured through the use of a competitive reaction time task (physical aggression) and evaluations of a confederate of the experiment (relational aggression). As a whole, participants viewing either relational or physical aggression behaved similarly. Specifically, participants who viewed either type of aggression were subsequently more physically and relationally aggressive than those who viewed the non-aggressive clip. The results show evidence for a generalization effect of viewing media aggression, in that viewing one form of aggression can influence the manifestation of other forms. This is the first study to show that viewing relational aggression in the media can increase subsequent physical aggression. Implications for parents, media producers, and policy makers are discussed.     

Judgments of marital rape as a function of honor culture,masculine reputation threat,and observer gender: A cross-cultural comparison between Turkey,Germany, and the UK

Previous research has shown that there is higher tolerance of violence against women in cultures with salient gender-specific honor norms, especially when the violence occurs in intimate relationships and in response to threat to male honor. The present cross-cultural study (N = 398) extended these findings to sexual aggression (i.e., marital rape) by comparing participants from a culture that emphasizes honor (Turkey) and participants from cultures without strong honor traditions (Germany and Britain). Turkish participants blamed the victim and exonerated the perpetrator more than did German and British participants. In all cultural groups, participants blamed the victim and exonerated the perpetrator more when the husband's reputation was threatened than in the absence of such threat, and in all cultural groups, men blamed the victim and exonerated the perpetrator more than women. Yet, the effect of masculine reputation threat and this pattern of gender differences were somewhat more pronounced among Turkish than German or British participants. Results exploring the predictive role of honor norms at the individual level beyond rape myth acceptance and traditional gender role attitudes revealed that honor norms were the primary predictor of rape perceptions and blame attributions in Turkey (an honor culture), but not in Germany and Britain (dignity cultures) where rape myth acceptance was the strongest predictor. These results provide insights into the cultural factors influencing marital rape judgments in ways that may undermine victim's well-being and fair handling of rape cases, and highlight the domains most urgently in need of potential intervention.     

Reduction of appeasement‐related affect as a concomitant of diazepam‐induced aggression: evidence for a link between aggression and the expression of self‐conscious emotions

Aggressive responding following benzodiazepine ingestion has been recorded in both experimental and client populations, however, the mechanism responsible for this outcome is unclear. The goal of this study was to identify an affective concomitant linked to diazepam‐induced aggression that might be responsible for this relationship. Thirty males (15 diazepam and 15 placebo) participated in the Taylor Aggression Paradigm while covertly being videotaped. The videotapes were analyzed using the Facial Action Coding System with the goal of identifying facial expression differences between the two groups. Relative to placebo participants, diazepam participants selected significantly higher shock settings for their opponents, consistent with past findings using this paradigm. Diazepam participants also engaged in significantly fewer appeasement expressions (associated with the self‐conscious emotions) during the task, although there were no group differences for other emotion expressions or for movements in general. Aggr. Behav. 35:203–212, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The divine dreams of a sample of South African children: the gateway to their spirituality

As part of a research project on religion, spirituality and education, the authors attended to the role that children's divine dreams could play in religious education (RE). They contend that such dreams can indeed be used by RE teachers as the gateway to understanding the spirituality of their learners. They defend their claim by firstly developing a conceptual‐theoretical framework with respect to religion, spirituality and children's divine dreams, and then presenting the results of an explorative quantitative‐qualitative investigation in three schools. They find their claim to have been vindicated, and suggest that although RE teachers should not necessarily teach divine dreams per se, they should, nevertheless, explore the possibility that (at least some of) the contents of children's divine dreams may be useful for the purpose of teaching them RE from religion itself, rather than teaching them only about religion.     

The effects of social influence on children's memory reports: the omission and commission error asymmetry

Children in two age groups (7 vs. 12 yrs, N= 174) individually interacted with a stranger and were later interviewed about this event. Right before the interview, each child encountered the stranger once again and he engaged in a conversation where he either suggested that a (central or peripheral) detail originally present in the event had actually not been there or that an originally non-present (central or peripheral) detail had in fact been there. It was hypothesized that the two types of misinformation would result in omission and commission errors respectively. The results showed that the social influence resulted in an asymmetric effect (i.e., more commission than omission errors). Importantly, we also found that the children made more errors with respect to the peripheral detail (a suitcase), compared to the central detail (a passenger). Younger children did not make more errors (neither omission nor commission errors) than older children.     

The aggression test as a taxonomic tool: Evaluation in sympatric and allopatric populations of wood-ant species

Ant-workers of Formica lugubris and F. rufa from colonies living sympatrically (from the same area) and allopatrically (from different areas) were tested in pairs using a laboratory aggression test. The aim was to verify whether sharing the same area of origin influences the relationships among heteroeolonials between and within these species which belong to the F. rufa group. The results suggest that a similar degree of agonistic behaviour (ritualised aggression) was shown in sympatric and allopatric conspecific dyads of both species studied. The interactions between F. lugubris and F. rufa were characterised by a low level of overt aggression both in sympatric and allopatric pairs, confirming the interspecific tolerance observed in our previous studies on these wood-ant species. This reduced aggressiveness between workers of F. lugubris and F. rufa coming from the same or a different area can be interpreted on the basis of their sharing common signals, such as odours and patterns of behaviour. Therefore, their mutual tolerance and acceptance can be indicative of a phylogenetic closeness between such species. We propose that an aggression test can be a valid tool for elucidating systematic problems in this taxonomically difficult group of ants. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Relationships between individualism-collectivism, gender, and direct or indirect aggression: a study in China, Poland, and the US

Direct and indirect aggression were studied in college students from China (women n=122; men n=97), a highly collectivistic culture; the US (women n=137; men n=136), a highly individualistic culture; and Poland (women n=105; men n=119), a culture with intermediate levels of collectivism and individualism. Consistent with a hypothesis derived from national differences in relative levels of collectivism and individualism, both direct and indirect aggression were higher in the US than in Poland and higher in Poland than in China. The theoretical implication of these results and directions for future research were discussed.     

Adolescent romantic relationships as a tug of war: The interplay of power imbalance and relationship duration in adolescent dating aggression

The present study investigates the link between power imbalance within the romantic couple and psychological, relational and physical adolescent dating aggression (ADA) perpetration, considering also the role of relationship duration as an indicator of the developmental stage of the relationship. This is the first investigation into whom is perceived to have power in the relationship (the partner or the subject him/herself) by distinguishing between male and female adolescents. Participants were 805 Italian adolescents (36.1% males; 63.9% females) aged 14–20 years (M_age = 17.16 years, SD_age = 1.34), all reporting having been in a romantic relationship currently or within the past 6 months. Males perceiving a balanced relationship reported lower levels of psychological ADA perpetration, and they perpetrated more relational ADA in longer relationships where the partner is perceived to have the power. No significant findings emerged regarding physical ADA. Females perceiving themselves as having the power in the relationship reported higher levels of psychological and physical ADA perpetration. They perpetrated more relational ADA when they perceived the partner as having the power in the relationship. Also, females in longer relationships in which power was not perceived as equally shared between partners reported higher physical ADA perpetration. Finally, for both males and females, longer relationships were characterized by higher levels of ADA toward the partner. Findings highlight the importance of studying the interplay between power imbalance and relationship duration on ADA perpetration, and provide the way to understand possible functions of ADA within a romantic relationship.     

Aggression of police officers as a function of temperature: An experiment with the fire arms training system

The impact of temperature on police officers' tension, perception, and behaviour in police—offender interactions was investigated. It was hypothesized that increased temperature results in: (1) increased tension; (2) a negative impression of the offender; and (3) aggressive behaviour. The findings confirmed these hypotheses. Finally, some implications of the results are discussed.     

Formalising a hypothesis for the development of anticipatory skill in time-constrained interceptive actions: Implications for the design of junior sport

When professional athletes strike a ball in tennis, cricket or baseball, the high temporal demands often necessitate the need to exploit pre-ball-flight information in order to anticipate the ball's trajectory. Despite the wealth of research probing anticipatory behaviour in sport, our understanding of when, how or why anticipatory skill develops is limited. In this article, we sought to formalise a hypothesis on the development of anticipatory skill. Using empirical temporal data from tennis, cricket and baseball, we propose that the temporal demands of the task dictate an athlete's propensity to anticipate. We then outline the implications of this hypothesis as it relates to junior sport. Notably, we question whether current playing dimensions in junior sport impose temporal demands that are sufficient to elicit anticipatory behaviour. Using tennis, cricket and baseball as examples, we illustrate differences in temporal demands between the junior and professional game and present implications for anticipation. Our discussion challenges the current junior sport experience as it relates to developing anticipatory skill.     

The emotional relations of children's participation rights in diverse social and spatial contexts: Advancing the field

Children's participation rights, enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), have been a popular area of research, policy and practice for decades. Despite a great deal of interest and activity, participation rights have posed a particular challenge to implement. In response, researchers have consistently called for more in-depth and nuanced analyses of the way participatory rights are actually lived and experienced by children and young people, within the complexity of interdependent relationships. However, there has been surprisingly little focus on the emotional relations of children's participation rights. The analytical links between emotions and participation rights are rarely the focus and, where emotions are discussed, they are rarely discussed as a central concern in their own right. This article provides a review of the field and identifies three ways in which making emotions a central concern can help to advance debates on children's participation rights: by helping to unsettle ‘traditional’ constructions of the child-adult binary, by increasing sensitivity to ethical and safeguarding issues, and by making visible and challenging intersectional power relations.     

Testing the properties of the triarchic model of psychopathy in a community sample: Self‐reported trait aggression and drug consumption associations

The triarchic model of psychopathy encompasses different conceptions of psychopathic personality characterized by three phenotypic components: boldness, disinhibition, and meanness. Psychopathy is a complex construct at both emotional and behavioral level. The aim of this study was to determine the core elements of psychopathic personality in a community sample and analyze the relation between these elements and other personality traits such as aggression, and certain specific behavioral manifestations such as substance use. The study sample comprised 1,159 participants aged between 17 and 74 years, who were administered the Triarchic Psychopathy Questionnaire, the Impulsive‐Premeditated Aggression Scale, and the Aggression Questionnaire. The results show that the constructs of meanness and disinhibition are more highly associated with different forms of both impulsive and premeditated aggression. Furthermore, men scored higher on all three components of the triarchic model compared to women. Finally, higher substance use (tobacco and drugs) was associated with higher scores in meanness, boldness, and disinhibition. These findings demonstrate the importance of assessing psychopathy in a community sample, and the detection of possible risk factors for the disorder.     

Falsification of matching theory: changes in the asymptote of Herrnstein''s hyperbola as a function of water deprivation.

Five rats pressed levers on variable-interval schedules of water reinforcement at various levels of water deprivation. In one phase of the experiment, three deprivation conditions that replicated conditions in Heyman and Monaghan (1987) were arranged, along with three less extreme deprivation conditions. In a second phase, water deprivation was arranged so that subjects were exposed to a greater range of access to water per day. Herrnstein's hyperbola described the rats' response-rate data well. The y asymptote, k, of the hyperbola appeared roughly constant over the conditions that replicated those of Heyman and Monaghan, but decreased markedly when less extreme deprivation conditions were included. In addition, k varied systematically when the second method of arranging deprivation was used. These results falsify a strong form of matching theory and confirm predictions made by linear system theory.     

The construction of gender in halakhic Responsa by the Reform movement: transgender people as a case study

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to the expanding field of trans-Jewish-feminist studies in general, and to the scholarship about Jewish law in particular, by analyzing the ways in which the Reform movement has gradually legitimized transgender people and accepted them fully. Applying Judith Butler's ideas about the heterosexual matrix as an analytical tool, the article demonstrates how the Reform movement, in a slow and gradual process, has left the entire heterosexual matrix behind, although it can be claimed that the process (of leaving behind the heterosexual matrix) has not run all the way to a complete dissolution.     

Confirmation of linear system theory prediction: Changes in Herrnstein's k as a function of changes in reinforcer magnitude

Eight human subjects pressed a lever on a range of variable-interval schedules for 0.25¢ to 35.0¢ per reinforcement. Herrnstein's hyperbola described seven of the eight subjects' response-rate data well. For all subjects, the y-asymptote of the hyperbola increased with increasing reinforcer magnitude and its reciprocal was a linear function of the reciprocal of reinforcer magnitude. These results confirm predictions made by linear system theory; they contradict formal properties of Herrnstein's account and of six other mathematical accounts of single-alternative responding.     

Pain in the eye of the beholder: Variations in pain visual representations as a function of face ethnicity and culture

Pain experienced by Black individuals is systematically underestimated, and recent studies have shown that part of this bias is rooted in perceptual factors. We used Reverse Correlation to estimate visual representations of the pain expression in Black and White faces, in participants originating from both Western and African countries. Groups of raters were then asked to evaluate the presence of pain and other emotions in these representations. A second group of White raters then evaluated those same representations placed over a neutral background face (50% White; 50% Black). Image-based analyses show significant effects of culture and face ethnicity, but no interaction between the two factors. Western representations were more likely to be judged as expressing pain than African representations. For both cultural groups, raters also perceived more pain in White face representations than in Black face representations. However, when changing the background stimulus to the neutral background face, this effect of face ethnic profile disappeared. Overall, these results suggest that individuals have different expectations of how pain is expressed by Black and White individuals, and that cultural factors may explain a part of this phenomenon