Empathy as a cognitive inhibitor of interpersonal aggression

The studies presented in this paper examined empathy, especially perspective taking, as a potential inhibitor of interpersonal aggression. The theoretical rationale for these investigations derived from Zillmann's [(1988): Aggressive Behavior 14: 51–64] cognitive excitation model. Study 1 revealed that dispositional empathy correlates negatively with self-reported aggression and with conflict responses that reflect little concern for the needs of the other party. Empathy also was positively related to constructive responses to interpersonal conflict (i. e., those that do involve concern for the needs of the other party). In Study 2, perspective taking was manipulated with instructions to subjects prior to participation in a reaction-time task designed to measure aggression. When threat was relatively low, subjects who were instructed to take the perspective of the target responded less aggressively than did those who had been instructed to focus on the task. Study 3 examined the effect of dispositional perspective taking on verbal aggression. Threat was manipulated in terms of the combination of provocation and gender of the interactants. As predicted, perspective taking related to aggression inhibition under conditions of moderate threat–for males under low provocation and females under high provocation. These effects were predicted and explained in the context of the cognitive-excitation model. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The pain-aggression relationship and its expression in naturalistic settings

Relationships between environmental events and aggression are briefly reviewed. Response-independent pain is a fundamental antecedent environmental cause of attack. Aggression-contingent pain decrease causes further attack strengthening, while pain increase following aggression can decrease attack and foster escape and avoidance behavior. Recent experiments that have questioned the pain-aggression relation and proposed, in the alternative, a pain-defense relationship are discussed. It is argued that this contradiction results from observational difficulties in naturalistic settings, discordance between field and laboratory terminology, substitution of behavioral taxonomy in the place of functional analysis, incomplete understanding of previous findings, and an absence of essential experimental control observations.     

A descriptive analysis of potential reinforcement contingencies in the preschool classroom

In recent years, functional analysis methods have been extended to classroom settings; however, research has not evaluated the extent to which consequences presented during functional analysis are associated with problem behavior under naturalistic classroom conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the social consequences commonly manipulated in functional analyses occur in typical preschool classrooms. A total of 14 children attending preschool programs participated in the study. Data were collected on the occurrence of antecedent events (e.g., presentation of tasks), child behaviors (e.g., aggression), and teacher responses (e.g., delivery of attention). The probability of various teacher responses given child behavior was then calculated and compared to the response-independent probabilities of teacher responses. Attention was found to be the most common classroom consequence (100% of children), followed by material presentation (79% of children), and escape from instructional tasks (33% of children). Comparisons of conditional and response-independent probabilities showed that the probability of teacher attention increased given the occurrence of problem behavior for all children, suggesting that a contingency existed between these two events. Results suggest that functional analyses that test the effects of attention, escape, and access to materials on problem behavior may be appropriate for preschool settings.     

The interaction of response complexity and instructional set

This study investigated the interaction of experimental instructions and response complexity in an attempt to provide a possible explanation for some of the equivocalness in the programming time literature. Response complexity was manipulated by varying the accuracy required of subjects striking circular targets in a simple reaction time paradigm. Subjects were tested on two days, one week apart, during which experimental instructions emphasized either leaving the start position as soon as possible (initiation emphasis) or completing the response with a rapid but smooth movement (form emphasis). Subjects had shorter reaction times but longer movement times when they performed under initiation-emphasis instructions rather than under form-emphasis instructions. Furthermore, in contrast to form-emphasis conditions, there was no effect of response complexity on reaction time in conditions of initiation emphasis. It appears that subtle changes in experimental instructions can lead to very different patterns of reaction time and movement time data. These findings highlight the need for caution in preparing subject instructions in response programming experiments.     

Effects of social proximity on multiple aggressive behaviors

We systematically manipulated social proximity to examine its influence on multiple topographies of aggression. Aggression occurred at high levels during close-proximity sessions and at low levels during distant-proximity sessions even though social contact was presented continuously during both conditions. Topographies of aggression emerged sequentially across the close-proximity sessions, and all topographies were reduced to zero following extended sessions of this condition.     

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.     

A descriptive analysis of social consequences following problem behavior.

The social consequences delivered for problem behavior during functional analyses are presumed to represent common sources of reinforcement; Final acceptance however, the extent to which these consequences actually follow problem behavior in natural settings remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine whether access to attention, escape, or tangible items is frequently observed as a consequence of problem behavior under naturalistic conditions. Twenty‐seven adults who lived in a state residential facility and who exhibited self‐injurious behavior, aggression, or disruption participated. Observers recorded the occurrence of problem behavior by participants as well as a variety of consequences delivered by caregivers. Results indicated that attention was the most common consequence for problem behavior and that aggression was more likely to produce social consequences than were other forms of problem behavior.     

Possession Episodes in Young Children's Social Interactions

This naturalistic study examined the relationships between possession episodes and other social behaviors. Twenty children were observed in 240 social interactions that occurred during free play in their preschool classroom. The interactions were analyzed for behaviors related to possession, affiliation, prosociability, and aggression. The findings suggest that possession episodes are positively associated with agonistic behaviors and negatively related to positive social responses both situationally and dispositionally. First, disputes following possession claims frequently resulted in the termination or disruption of the social interaction. Moreover, a comparison between children's behaviors in interactions that contained a possession episode and in those that did not revealed that more aggression and fewer prosocial and affiliative behaviors occurred in the possession interactions. Second, in an analysis of individual social patterns, children who frequently engaged in possession disputes engaged in more aggressive actions and fewer affiliative ones than did their less possession-oriented classmates.     

Brutality of assault in political cartoons affecting humor appreciation

Political cartoons depicting a presidential candidate undergoing an aggressive assault were manipulated to assess the effect on humor appreciation of variations in the degree of brutality of the aggressive tactics (minimal, intermediate, extreme). The identity of the depicted candidate (Richard Nixon vs George McGovern) was also manipulated. Humor-appreciation ratings were given to these cartoons by student subjects during the week preceding the 1972 presidential elections. Attitudes toward the depicted candidates were assessed in a postexperimental questionnaire. Neither degree of brutality nor affect toward the victim exerted a significant main effect, but a significant transverse interaction between the two variables was observed. When the assault involved minimal levels of brutality, the victimization of a rejected candidate was appreciated significantly more than that of a favored one; when intermediate levels of brutality were depicted, assaults against rejected candidates did not differ appreciably from attacks upon favored candidates in the level of mirth they elicited; when the brutality was extreme, aggression against rejected candidates was appreciated less than assaults against favored candidates, although nonsignificantly so. Of the various theoretical notions which were advanced to predict the results, a rationale involving the decoder's motivation to favor or object to the manner in which the aggressive agent is characterized as well as his motivation to enjoy or dislike the communication's projected outcome was considered to account best for the findings.     

高低特质攻击个体对威胁面部表情识别的差异研究——来自ERP的证据

为揭示高特质攻击个体对愤怒、恐惧威胁面部表情识别的特点及其电生理机制，本研究采用Buss-Perry攻击问卷选取高低特质攻击个体26名和27名为被试，采用面孔识别范式对高低特质攻击个体识别威胁面部表情时的ERP差异进行研究。结果发现，在愤怒、恐惧表情上，高特质攻击组在N170成分的潜伏期都显著短于低特质攻击组；在愤怒、恐惧表情上，高特质攻击组在P200成分的波幅都显著高于低特质攻击组。这表明高特质攻击个体对愤怒、恐惧威胁面部表情的识别具有高度敏感性，这种敏感性体现在面部表情识别的早期和中期阶段，而非晚期阶段，即高特质攻击个体在早期的前注意阶段就对愤怒、恐惧威胁面部表情进行优先注意；在中期的注意阶段，高特质攻击个体可以很好地确认愤怒、恐惧威胁面部表情。     

Word concreteness and encoding effects on context-dependent discrimination

In three experiments, we investigated the effects of word concreteness and encoding instructions on context-dependent discrimination in verbal contexts, using Murnane, Phelps, and Malmberg's (1999) ICE (item, context, ensemble) theory as the framework Word concreteness was manipulated within participants, and encoding was manipulated between participants. It was hypothesized that the magnitude of context-dependent discrimination would be affected by both concreteness and encoding instructions. Imagery instructions resulted in context-dependent discrimination for both concrete and abstract word pairs across all the experiments. Context-dependent discrimination was observed under rote instructions for concrete and abstract words, particularly when the same context word was paired multiple times with the targets. The results indicated that context-dependent discrimination is not dependent solely on the use of interactive imagery instructions or on word concreteness.     

Television violence and children's aggression: testing the priming, social script, and disinhibition predictions

The effect of television violence on boys' aggression was investigated with consideration of teacher-rated characteristic aggressiveness, timing of frustration, and violence-related cues as moderators. Boys in Grades 2 and 3 (N = 396) watched violent or nonviolent TV in groups of 6, and half the groups were later exposed to a cue associated with the violent TV program. They were frustrated either before or after TV viewing. Aggression was measured by naturalistic observation during a game of floor hockey. Groups containing more characteristically high-aggressive boys showed higher aggression following violent TV plus the cue than following violent TV alone, which in turn produced more aggression than did the nonviolent TV condition. There was evidence that both the violent content and the cue may have suppressed aggression among groups composed primarily of boys low in characteristic aggressiveness. Results were interpreted in terms of current information-processing theories of media effects on aggression.     

Recall of short word lists presented visually at fast rates: Effects of phonological similarity and word length

Phonological similarity of visually presented list items impairs short-term serial recall. Lists of long words are also recalled less accurately than are lists of short words. These results have been attributed to phonological recoding and rehearsal. If subjects articulate irrelevant words during list presentation, both phonological similarity and word length effects are abolished. Experiments 1 and 2 examined effects of phonological similarity and recall instructions on recall of lists shown at fast rates (from one item per 0.114-0.50 sec), which might not permit phonological encoding and rehearsal. In Experiment 3, recall instructions and word length were manipulated using fast presentation rates. Both phonological similarity and word length effects were observed, and they were not dependent on recall instructions. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated the effects of irrelevant concurrent articulation on lists shown at fast rates. Both phonological similarity and word length effects were removed by concurrent articulation, as they were with slow presentation rates.     

Playground Contexts for Aggression for Preschoolers with Hyperactivity

This study assessed the naturalistic conditions that set the occasion for aggressive behavior in three preschoolers with hyperactivity and aggression (H/A). Peer and teacher responses to preschoolers' aggression were also investigated. For a total of 114 aggressive instances observed, relatively low percentages of aggression in social play with at least one other child were documented. The antecedent condition that was most predictive of aggression was (a) when children were seeking to enter into an activity and were denied entry and (b) when another child interrupted an on-going activity. Aggression was about 14 times greater for seeking/interrupted activity than for ongoing social play. Finally, the percentage of negative responses from peers to aggression on the playground was almost three times the rate documented in past research for preschoolers without hyperactivity.     

Known risk factors for violence predict 12-month-old infants' aggressiveness with peers

This study tested the hypothesis that 12-month-old infants' use of force against peers is associated with known risk factors for violence. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study, which included laboratory observations of firstborn British infants (N = 271) during simulated birthday parties. No gender differences in aggressiveness were observed. The infants' observed aggressiveness was significantly correlated with mothers' mood disorder during pregnancy and with mothers' history of conduct problems. Infants' observed aggressiveness was correlated with parents' ratings of infants' anger and aggression, which were also predicted by mothers' mood disorder and history of conduct problems. Our findings indicate that infants at risk for serious aggression can already be identified when the motor ability to use physical force first enters the human repertoire.     

Naturalistic studies of aggressive behavior: aggressive stimuli, victim visibility, and horn honking.

Three studies extended laboratory research on aggression to a naturalistic setting which involved horn honking from drivers as a measure of aggression; the studies were adapted from Doob and Gross. The results from a survey (Study 1) of 59 drivers suggested that they were frequently irritated by and aggressive toward other drivers. A second study (using a 3x2 factorial design with 92 male drivers) indicated that manipulations of a rifle in an aggressive context and victim visibility (dehumanization) both significantly influenced horn honking rates subsequent to obstruction at a signal light. A third study with 137 male drivers and 63 female drivers examined the interactive effects of a rifle, an aggressively connotated bumper sticker, and individual subject characteristics (sex and an exploratory index of self-perceived status) on horn honking. The results for three studies in naturalistic settings offer possible extensions of laboratory based findings on aggression. The role of inhibitions in modifying the pattern of results was also discussed.     

Preschoolers' aggression and parent-child conflict: a multiinformant and multimethod study

This multiinformant and multimethod study (N=47) investigated the link between the parent-child relationship system and the display of physical and relational aggression with peers at school during early childhood. Children (mean age=43.54 months, SD=8.02) were observed (80min/child) during free play, and parents and teachers were asked to complete several standard measures. Intercorrelations between aggression subtypes revealed moderate to high levels of correlation for parents and teachers and no significant association for observations of physical and relational aggression. Interinformant agreement was examined, and teachers and parents were found to significantly agree for both physical and relational aggression, and teachers and observers also significantly agreed for both subtypes of aggression. Results of regression analyses suggest that parent-child conflict was uniquely associated with relational aggression among peers when controlling for physical aggression and gender. Ways in which these findings build on the extant literature are discussed.