Callous–unemotional traits and empathy in proactive and reactive relational aggression in young women

Research on psychopathy and aggression in women is limited, especially relational aggression (RA). Studies on youth suggest unique associations between RA and callous–unemotional (C–U) traits (e.g., Frick & White, 2008). However, the role of C–U traits in adult RA remains unexamined, particularly functional subtypes of RA (reactive, proactive). Empathy deficits are associated with C–U traits and heightened RA. Based on prior work, we hypothesized that in young women, callous and uncaring tendencies would be related to proactive RA and to a lesser extent reactive RA, and that these relationships would be mediated by cognitive empathy deficits. Hypotheses were partially supported. Callous and uncaring traits were associated with proactive RA, and less so to reactive RA, and the latter association was mediated by cognitive empathy. Unemotional traits were not uniquely associated with RA. Study limitations and implications are considered.     

Do beliefs about aggression predict physical aggression to partners?

Three hypotheses concerning the association between instrumental (I) and expressive (E) beliefs about aggression and physical aggression were assessed among a sample comprising students (n=40), women from a domestic violence shelter (n=29), and male prisoners (n=46), all of whom had committed at least one act of physical aggression to a partner. Participants completed an adapted version of the EXPAGG [Archer and Haigh (1997a): British Journal of Social Psychology 35:1–23] to measure I and E beliefs about aggression, the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) [Straus (1979): Journal of Marriage and the Family 41:75–88] for themselves and their partner, and measures of fear and injuries resulting from partner violence. I beliefs predicted self‐reported physical aggression to the partner, most CTS acts of physical aggression, and injuries to the partner, with only minor and limited associations for E beliefs. Correlations for the student and prisoner samples, and for men and women, showed different strengths. The findings supported a general link between I beliefs and aggression but offered no support for the predictions that the link would be restricted to men or to men who showed a persistent pattern of violence to their partners. Aggr. Behav. 29:41–54, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Why aggression?2

On the basis of a formalised view of metapsychology, the author briefly considers the problems inherent in the Freudian notion of a death drive or aggressive drive and then goes on to develop a new theoretical conception of aggression. Aggression is understood as an affect, action or affective action and, in relation to these, as an expression of the intensity with which a drive'whether it be the sexual drive with its libidinal cathexes or the self‐preservative drive with its lethic cathexes'seeks to attain its object. In this context the author regards the regulation of closeness and distance with respect to the ‘psychogeometric locus’ of the relevant drive object as being of central importance. She contends that neurotic personalities suffer from specific distortions in the perception of the psychogeometric locus of their drive objects, which may give rise to an intensification of the drive tendencies prevailing in these individuals at any given time so that these tendencies take on an aggressive character. The author presents two clinical vignettes to show how her approach allows aggression and its occurrence to be conceptualised without resorting to the idea of a primary aggressive drive, and draws attention to the resulting technical consequences for interpretation.     

Do physical and relational aggression explain adolescents' friendship selection? The competing roles of network characteristics,gender, and social status

The role of physical and relational aggression in adolescents' friendship selection was examined in a longitudinal sample of 274 Chilean students from 5th and 6th grade followed over 1 year. Longitudinal social network modeling (SIENA) was used to study selection processes for aggression while influence processes were controlled for. Furthermore, the effects of network characteristics (i.e., reciprocity and transitivity), gender, and social status on friendship selection were examined. The starting assumption of this study was that selection effects based on aggression might have been overestimated in previous research as a result of failing to consider influence processes and alternative characteristics that steer friendship formation. The results show that selection effects of both physical and relational aggression disappeared when network effects, gender, and social status were taken into account. Particularly gender and perceived popularity appeared to be far more important determinants of friendship selection over time than aggression. Moreover, a peer influence effect was only found for relational aggression, and not for physical aggression. These findings suggest that similarity in aggression among befriended adolescents can be considered to be mainly a by-product rather than a leading dimension in friendship selection.     

Do we forgive physical aggression in the same way that we forgive psychological aggression?

The present study examined variations in the impact of social proximity, apologies, intent to harm, cancellation of consequences, and attitude of others on the willingness to forgive an aggressor as a function of the type of aggression—physical aggression or psychological aggression. The participants were instructed to express their willingness to forgive in two contexts—physical aggression and psychological aggression—which constituted a within‐subject factor. Five sets of scenarios corresponding to the five between‐subject factors (from social proximity to intent to harm) were used. Participants were 215 adults aged 17–60 years. As hypothesized, the cancellation of the consequences had less impact, and the apologies and the intent to harm had more impact, on the willingness to forgive in the case of physical aggression than in the case of psychological aggression. This result was a robust one; it did not depend on the participant's gender and age. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–12, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Does traffic congestion increase driver aggression?

In his recent article about aggressive driving, David Shinar proposed that the classical frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard, J., Doob, L., Miller, N., Mowrer, O. & Sears, R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press) provides a useful tool for understanding driver aggression (Shinar, D. (1998). Aggressive driving: the contribution of the drivers and situation. Transportation Research Part F, 1, 137–160). According to Shinar's (1998) application of the frustration–aggression hypothesis, driver aggression is caused by frustration because of traffic congestion and delays. In the present study, the relationships between exposure to congestion (rush-hour driving) and aggressive violations (DBQ) were investigated in Great Britain, Finland and the Netherlands. Partial correlations showed that the frequency of rush-hour driving did not correlate statistically significantly with driver aggression. Correlations between driving during rush-hour and aggression did not differ in magnitude from those between driving on country roads and aggressive violations. In addition, correlations between exposure to congestion and aggressive violations in countries with large number of vehicles per road kilometre (UK, Netherlands) were not higher than those in a sparsely populated country (Finland). These results from three countries suggest that congestion does not increase driver aggression as directly as suggested by Shinar (1998).     

Does motor encoding enhance relational information?

Summary Three experiments investigated whether learning action phrases by enacting the denoted action enhances organization or not. In the first experiment it was shown that, compared to a standard learning instruction, enacting did not enhance the clustering of episodic and taxonomic lists, but it did enhance memory performance. Furthermore, the enacting effect was strongest with an unrelated list; in all lists, organization and recall correlated only under a verbal instruction and not under an enacting instruction. In the second experiment, subjects were also informed about the categories of the lists and instructed to use them to learn the items. The organization was enhanced in all cases by this procedure, but the recall performance was enhanced only with a standard learning instruction. Under enacting, information about the categories had no influence. In the third experiment this effect was replicated for a taxonomic list and could be generalized for a motor list, in which categories were in accordance with the similarities of the movement pattern. Here too the explicit category information had an effect only under a standard learning instruction, but not with enacting. We interpret these effects as support for the assumption that enacting does not enhance memory performance by better relational information. Relational information is, on the contrary, less important for recall under enacting than under a standard learning instruction.     

Social intelligence − empathy = aggression?

Empathy reduces aggressive behavior. While empathy and social intelligence are strongly correlated, it is, for both logical and consequential reasons, important to regard them as different concepts. Social intelligence is required for all types of conflict behavior, prosocial as well as antisocial, but the presence of empathy acts as a mitigator of aggression. When empathy is partialed out, correlations between social intelligence and all types of aggression increase, while correlations between social intelligence and peaceful conflict resolution decrease. Social intelligence is related differently to various forms of aggressive behavior: more strongly to indirect than to verbal aggression, and weakest to physical aggression, which is in accordance with the developmental theory of aggressive style. More sophisticated forms of aggression require more social intelligence.     

Does solving distant analogies facilitate relational integration?

Relational processing underpins many forms of human thinking. This research addressed whether relational integration in the n-term task (linear syllogisms with three and four premises) can be facilitated. We hypothesised that solving distant analogies (e.g. furnace : coal :: stomach : ______) but not near analogies (e.g. furnace : coal :: woodstove :______) would facilitate n-term performance of undergraduates (N?=?120). Participants generated solutions to near analogies (near condition), to distant analogies (distant condition) while participants in the control condition completed a word rating task. Participants then completed the n-term task with items at two levels of complexity (ternary, quaternary), and a fluid intelligence test. Solving distant analogies facilitated relational integration on the more complex quaternary-relational items. It eliminated the complexity effect in the n-term task and the association between quaternary-relational reasoning and fluid intelligence.     

Cruel intentions on television and in real life: can viewing indirect aggression increase viewers' subsequent indirect aggression?

Numerous studies have shown that viewing violence in the media can influence an individual's subsequent aggression, but none have examined the effect of viewing indirect aggression. This study examines the immediate effect of viewing indirect and direct aggression on subsequent indirect aggression among 199 children ages 11 to 14 years. They were shown an indirect, direct, or no-aggression video and their subsequent indirect aggression was measured by negative evaluation of a confederate and responses to a vignette. Participants viewing indirect or direct aggression gave a more negative evaluation of and less money to a confederate than participants viewing no-aggression. Participants viewing indirect aggression gave less money to the confederate than those viewing direct aggression. Participants viewing indirect aggression gave more indirectly aggressive responses to an ambiguous situation and participants viewing direct aggression gave more directly aggressive responses. This study provides the first evidence that viewing indirect aggression in the media can have an immediate impact on subsequent aggression.     

Are waves of relational assumptions eroding traditional analysis?

The author designates as ‘traditional’ those elements of psychoanalytic presumption and practice that have, in the wake of Fordham's legacy, helped to inform analytical psychology and expand our capacity to integrate the shadow. It is argued that this element of the broad spectrum of Jungian practice is in danger of erosion by the underlying assumptions of the relational approach, which is fast becoming the new establishment. If the maps of the traditional landscape of symbolic reference (primal scene, Oedipus et al.) are disregarded, analysts are left with only their own self‐appointed authority with which to orientate themselves. This self‐centric epistemological basis of the relationalists leads to a revision of ‘analytic attitude’ that may be therapeutic but is not essentially analytic. This theme is linked to the perennial challenge of balancing differentiation and merger and traced back, through Chasseguet‐Smirgel, to its roots in Genesis. An endeavour is made to illustrate this within the Journal convention of clinically based discussion through a commentary on Colman's (2013) avowedly relational treatment of the case material presented in his recent Journal paper ‘Reflections on knowledge and experience’ and through an assessment of Jessica Benjamin's (2004) relational critique of Ron Britton's (1989) transference embodied approach.     

Anger rumination: an antecedent of athlete aggression?

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between anger rumination (the propensity to think almost obsessively over past experiences that have provoked negative affect in the form of anger) and athlete aggression. It was predicted that high levels of anger rumination would be associated with an increased propensity to aggress.Method. A questionnaire comprising the Anger Rumination Scale (Sukhodolsky, Golub, & Cromwell, 2001), aggression and demographic questions was distributed to 305 male and female competitive athletes of varying ability who represented several team and individual sports.Results. Principal component factor analysis revealed a single rumination factor rather than the four-factor solution previously described. No differences in Anger Rumination Scale score were found between males and females, team and individual sport players or competitive level. Provocation and anger rumination were significantly correlated with athletes’ reported aggressive behaviour. Aggression was higher in males compared to females. Type of sport was also related to incidence of aggression; athletes who participated in individual sports reported lower levels of aggression than athletes who played team sports.Conclusions. It was concluded that provocation and anger rumination were significant predictors of subsequent aggression and suggestions for preventing rumination, such as thought stopping and thought switching, were made.     

What makes relational reasoning smart? Revisiting the perceptual‐to‐relational shift in the development of generalization

Development of reasoning is often depicted as involving increasing use of relational similarities and decreasing use of perceptual similarities (‘the perceptual‐to‐relational shift’). We argue that this shift is a special case of a broader developmental trend: increasing sensitivity to the predictive accuracy of different similarity types. To test this hypothesis, we asked participants (3‐, 4‐, 5‐year‐olds and adults) to generalize novel information on two types of problems – offspring problems, where relational matches yield accurate generalizations, and prey problems, where perceptual matches yield accurate generalizations. On offspring problems, we replicated prior findings of increasing relational matches with age. However, we observed decreasing relational matches on prey problems. Provided feedback on their responses, 3‐year‐olds showed the same trend. Findings suggest that the relational shift commonly observed in categorization and analogical reasoning may reflect a general increase in children's sensitivity to cue validity rather than an overall preference to generalize over perceptual similarity.     

The instinct to teach: Altruism or aggression?

In this paper, the term ‘teaching’ means activities which induce a specific change in the behavior of a member of the same species, and are adapted until the pupil reaches a certain standard of performance. Teaching in this sense is confined to man, with one group of exceptions. Other forms of social learning are observed among the mammals and even the buds. The most important is imitation, or learning by observation. Teaching by other species always involves punishment, and always leads to the separation or spacing out of individuals. It occurs 1) at weaning, 2) in maintaining status within a group, and 3) in territorial behavior. In each case an animal is punished for approaching another. Man is distinguished by using punishment not only as a deterrent but also in the teaching of skills. Such conduct is sometimes called aggressive. To give it this name is to put teaching (by punishment) in the same class as socially undesirable acts. Such a usage obscures questions that can profitably be asked. Children learn much by imitation, and are encouraged to do so. But teaching of skills (usually not by punishment) and of customs seems to be universal in human communities, both primitive and advanced. To say that there is an instinct or drive to teach adds, however, nothing to this statement. Some teaching, especially the formal process in schools, is by adults and is confined to particular societies. But, in addition, children teach younger children, sometimes evidently without prompting by elders. This is one aspect of the nurturant behavior which is perhaps a feature of all societies. Some traditions seem to be maintained solely by children. Such conduct is probably at times altruistic in the traditional sense of the term. “Altruism” in biological writings today has, however, a different meaning, and is therefore becoming a source of confusion. In many communities, both primitive and advanced, nurturant behavior and the teaching of young children by older children are reported to be more prominent among girls than among boys. Teaching, considered as a type of behavior, has been neglected as a subject of study. It would repay multidisciplinary investigation, especially as it appears in the conduct of children.     

Does aggression cause a preference for viewing media violence?

Virtually all of the research concerned with media violence has attempted to determine whether the viewing of violence is associated with or causes aggression. Little experimental research has been directed at understanding why persons view media violence. The present research experimentally tested the hypotheses that physical aggression and fantasy aggression would lead to a preference for viewing violence. In Experiment 1, undergraduate men and women were induced to express aggressive, nonaggressive, or no fantasies and were then given an opportunity to select film clips for viewing. The films chosen by men contained more violence than those chosen by women. In addition, aggressive fantasies in males, compared to nonaggressive fantasies, increased the preference for viewing violence. Experiment 2, using only males, replicated the results of the first study and also found that men who were given an opportunity to aggress physically, compared to those who had no such opportunity, were more likely to choose to view films containing violent content. These results provide an additional perspective on the relationship between the observation of violence and the expression of aggression by suggesting that the causal effects are bidirectional: Just as the viewing of violence may increase aggression, so, too, aggressive behavior may increase the preference for viewing violence.     

Sex differences in aggression: Are current notions misleading?

Studied experimentally the influence of norms and sex of subjects on aggressive behaviour in same sex dyads. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) subjects will react aggressively to an unpleasant state of affairs, if they interpret it as being the result of violation of a norm on the part of another; (2) female subjects will display more aggression than male subjects under conditions of repeated provocation while male subjects will be more aggressive under conditions of infrequent or no provocation. In a 2 × 2 × 2 complete factorial design (norm violation versus norm enforcement; male versus female; low versus high reward for performance) 20 same sex pairs of students performed alternatively a sensory-motor task (victim) and a shock delivery task (aggressor). As predicted, subjects who consider other's behaviour to be a norm violation aggress more often (p <.0001). A significant interaction between sex of subject and norm violation is found in support for the second hypothesis (p <.05). It is concluded that positions grounded on the S-R paradigm are misleading for the understanding of sex differences in aggression.     

Excessive computer game playing: evidence for addiction and aggression?

Computer games have become an ever-increasing part of many adolescents' day-to-day lives. Coupled with this phenomenon, reports of excessive gaming (computer game playing) denominated as "computer/video game addiction" have been discussed in the popular press as well as in recent scientific research. The aim of the present study was the investigation of the addictive potential of gaming as well as the relationship between excessive gaming and aggressive attitudes and behavior. A sample comprising of 7069 gamers answered two questionnaires online. Data revealed that 11.9% of participants (840 gamers) fulfilled diagnostic criteria of addiction concerning their gaming behavior, while there is only weak evidence for the assumption that aggressive behavior is interrelated with excessive gaming in general. Results of this study contribute to the assumption that also playing games without monetary reward meets criteria of addiction. Hence, an addictive potential of gaming should be taken into consideration regarding prevention and intervention.     

The vengeance puzzle—retributive justice or hostile aggression?

Vengeance is understood as a blend of instrumental and hostile aggression. Taking the Berkowitz neoassociationistic aggression model as a basis, 84 students received a priming manipulation (anger, fear, or control condition). Afterwards, they judged one of four vengeance scenarios that differed in victim‐perpetrator relationship (coworker vs. stranger) and in the attributed motive of the perpetrator. Priming had an influence on judgments of injustice and on anticipated fury, but no effect whatsoever on aggression (measured as the decrease in well‐being wished for the perpetrator). The type of relationship had an effect only on anticipated disappointment. The main effects of motive were found on aggression and on the anticipated feeling of the perpetrator after the act. Aggression could be predicted from the motive of the perpetrator and well‐being of the victim after the transgression. Neither anticipated fury, importance of deterrence, nor judgment of injustice predicted aggression. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–12, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Do different facets of impulsivity predict different types of aggression?

This study examined the relations between impulsivity-related traits (as assessed by the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale) and aggressive behaviors. Results indicated that UPPS-P Lack of Premeditation and Sensation Seeking were important in predicting general violence. In contrast, UPPS-P Urgency was most useful in predicting intimate partner violence. To further explore relations between intimate partner violence and Urgency, a measure of autonomic response to pleasant and aversive stimuli and facets of Neuroticism from the NEO PI-R were used as control variables. Autonomic responsivity was correlated with intimate partner violence at the zero-order level, and predicted significant variance in intimate partner violence in regression equations. However, UPPS-P Urgency was able to account for unique variance in intimate partner violence, above and beyond measures of Neuroticism and arousal. Implications regarding the use of a multifaceted conceptualization of impulsivity in the prediction of different types of violent behavior are discussed.