Assessing the forms and functions of aggression using self-report: factor structure and invariance of the Peer Conflict Scale in youths

This study examined the structure of a self-report measure of the forms and functions of aggression in 855 adolescents (582 boys, 266 girls) aged 12 to 19 years recruited from high school, detained, and residential settings. The Peer Conflict Scale (PCS) is a 40-item measure that was developed to improve upon existing measures and provide an efficient, reliable, and valid assessment of four dimensions of aggression (i.e., reactive overt, reactive relational, proactive overt, and proactive relational) in youths. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 4-factor model represented a satisfactory solution for the data. The factor structure fit well for both boys and girls and across high school, detained, and residential samples. Internal consistency estimates were good for the 4 factors, and they showed expected associations with externalizing variables (i.e., arrest history, callous-unemotional traits, and delinquency). Reactive and proactive subtypes showed unique associations consistent with previous literature. Implications for the use of the PCS to assess aggression and inform intervention decisions in diverse samples of youths are discussed.     

Regulation of memory accuracy with multiple answers: the plurality option

We report two experiments that investigated the regulation of memory accuracy with a new regulatory mechanism: the plurality option. This mechanism is closely related to the grain-size option but involves control over the number of alternatives contained in an answer rather than the quantitative boundaries of a single answer. Participants were presented with a slideshow depicting a robbery (Experiment 1) or a murder (Experiment 2), and their memory was tested with five-alternative multiple-choice questions. For each question, participants were asked to generate two answers: a single answer consisting of one alternative and a plural answer consisting of the single answer and two other alternatives. Each answer was rated for confidence (Experiment 1) or for the likelihood of being correct (Experiment 2), and one of the answers was selected for reporting. Results showed that participants used the plurality option to regulate accuracy, selecting single answers when their accuracy and confidence were high, but opting for plural answers when they were low. Although accuracy was higher for selected plural than for selected single answers, the opposite pattern was evident for confidence or likelihood ratings. This dissociation between confidence and accuracy for selected answers was the result of marked overconfidence in single answers coupled with underconfidence in plural answers. We hypothesize that these results can be attributed to overly dichotomous metacognitive beliefs about personal knowledge states that cause subjective confidence to be extreme.     

The effect of expertise on the relation between implicit and explicit attitude measures: An information availability/accessibility perspective

Three experiments investigate expertise as a moderator of the relationship between implicit and explicit attitude measures. Prior research suggests that greater expertise leads to stronger implicit–explicit relations; however, a cognitive view of expertise can also predict a weaker implicit–explicit relation. Our framework helps to resolve that seeming contradiction on the basis of the availability/accessibility of attributes versus attitudes in explicit attitude measures. We show that object specificity and contextual factors (e.g., instructions and prior evaluations in a survey) differentially affect the availability/accessibility of global attitudes and attribute information for novices versus experts, thus determining how expertise moderates the implicit–explicit relation.     

Types of Aggression,Responsiveness to Provocation,and Callous-unemotional Traits in Detained Adolescents

The present study investigated differences in the behavioral and psychophysiological responses to provocation and in the level of callous-unemotional traits in boys exhibiting different patterns of aggression. Eighty-five boys (ages 13-18) in a juvenile detention center played a competitive computer task against a hypothetical peer who provided low and high levels of provocation. Youth high on both self-reported reactive and proactive aggression showed different behavioral responses to provocation than youth high on only reactive aggression. Specifically, the combined group showed high levels of aggressive responses without any provocation, whereas the group high on reactive aggression showed an increase in aggressive responding to low provocation. Further, results revealed a trend for the combined group to show lower levels of skin conductance reactivity to low provocation if they were also high on callous-unemotional traits.     

The Role of Thin‐Slice Judgments in Consumer Psychology

This article examines the potential theoretical and practical contributions that thin‐slice judgments may offer to consumer psychology. We begin by exploring thin‐slice judgments in the context of existing consumer information processing research. Then, we discuss the antecedents of thin‐slice judgments, the type of processing that may underlie and impact thin‐slice judgment formation. Finally, we review the potential consequences of thin‐slice judgments and investigate applications within the consumer domain.     

Visual category-selectivity for faces, places and objects emerges along different developmental trajectories

The organization of category-selective regions in ventral visual cortex is well characterized in human adults. We investigated a crucial, previously unaddressed, question about how this organization emerges developmentally. We contrasted the developmental trajectories for face-, object-, and place-selective activation in the ventral visual cortex in children, adolescents, and adults. Although children demonstrated adult-like organization in object- and place-related cortex, as a group they failed to show consistent face-selective activation in classical face regions. The lack of a consistent neural signature for faces was attributable to (1) reduced face-selectivity and extent of activation within the regions that will become the FFA, OFA, and STS in adults, and (2) smaller volumes and considerable variability in the locus of face-selective activation in individual children. In contrast, adolescents showed an adult-like pattern of face-selective activation, although it was more right-lateralized. These findings reveal critical age-related differences in the emergence of category-specific functional organization in the visual cortex and support a model of brain development in which specialization emerges from interactions between experience-dependent learning and the maturing brain.     

Can a Laboratory Measure of Emotional Processing Enhance the Statistical Prediction of Aggression and Delinquency in Detained Adolescents with Callous-unemotional Traits?

In this cross-sectional study, we investigated whether the combination of the presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and emotional deficits to distressing stimuli, assessed by a computerized dot-probe task, enhanced the statistical prediction of aggression and delinquency in a sample of 88 detained and predominantly African-American (68%) adolescents (M age = 15.57; SD = 1.28). Overall, self-reported CU traits were associated with self-report measures of aggression and delinquency, but not with official records of arrests. However, there was an interaction between CU traits and emotional deficits for predicting self-reported aggression, self-reported violent delinquency, and a record of violent arrests. Youth high on CU traits and who showed a deficit in their responses to visual depictions of distress showed the highest levels of aggression and violent delinquency.     

CONTRIBUTION A UNE ETUDE COMPARATIVE DES REPRESENTATIONS DES ROLES ET STATUTS MASCULINS ET FEMININS CHEZ LES JEUNES TUNISIENS SCOLARISES

After highlighting the local problems of the investigation and the cooperation with the other research groups, the authors describe the sample of subjects which is not representative of the whole Tunisian youth, and the application conditions of the questionnaire in Tunis. The Masculinity score is not affected by sex, age and academic orientation while sex and academic orientation influence the Femininity score. Sex is an important variable on the Importance of Marriage (F>M) and the Number of children desired (Fgt; M) but does not influence Educational Aspiration and Expectation. About the same findings are obtained for both sexes on the occupational values: Success is the most important factor. Academic orientation affects Success and Security (technical > college), and Creative, and Prestige (college > technical). The authors conclude that for the sample of subjects studied, attitudes, motivations and representations are changing.     

The influence of pubertal maturation on antisaccade performance

Adolescence is a period characterized by continued improvements in inhibitory control, and this persisting immaturity is believed to interact with affective/motivational behavior to generate the impulsive and risk‐taking behavior evidenced at this time. Puberty is a central event of adolescence that has been shown to influence affective/motivational behavior. However, despite plausible mechanisms by which puberty might influence inhibitory control, researchers have yet to test this possibility rigorously. Thus, we designed a study to examine the unique role of pubertal maturation, independent of age, in the development of inhibitory control. In order to minimize age‐related variability while maximizing pubertal status variability, we recruited 78 participants (34 F) whose ages narrowly spanned the mean age of gonadarche for each sex (F: ages 11–13, M: ages 12–14). Two complementary measures were used to assess pubertal status: (1) circulating blood serum testosterone and estradiol levels reflecting internal manifestations of pubertal maturation, and (2) Tanner staging by a trained nurse reflecting pubertal maturation's external manifestations. Inhibitory control was assessed using the antisaccade task, and findings were adjusted for the potential effect of age. Results revealed no association between testosterone levels and error rates or response latencies in either sex. In girls, estradiol levels were not associated with error rates, but were associated with faster response latencies. There was similarly no association between Tanner status and error rates, although girls in more advanced pubertal stages showed faster response latencies. Power analyses indicate that findings of a lack of association did not reflect limited statistical power. Thus, in a study designed to isolate the effects of pubertal maturation independent of age, both external and internal indices of pubertal maturation converged to indicate that age‐related improvements in cold antisaccade performance are independent of pubertal maturation.     

The effect of spatial-frequency filtering on the visual processing of global structure

In three experiments we measured reaction times (RTs) and error rates in identifying the global structure of spatially filtered stimuli whose spatial-frequency content was selected by means of three types of 2-D isotropic filters (Butterworth of order 2, Butterworth of order 10, and a filters with total or partial Gaussian spectral profile). In each experiment, low-pass (LP), bandpass (BP), and high-pass (HP) filtered stimuli, with nine centre or cut-off spatial frequencies, were used. Irrespective of the type of filter, the experimental results showed that: (a) RTs to stimuli with low spatial frequencies were shorter than those to stimuli with medium or high spatial frequencies, (b) RTs to LP filtered stimuli were nearly constant, but they increased in a nonmonotonic way with the filter centre spatial frequency in BP filtered stimuli and with the filter cut-off frequency in HP filtered stimuli, and (c) the identification of the global pattern occurred with all visible stimuli used, including BP and HP images without low spatial frequencies. To remove the possible influence of the energy, a fourth experiment was conducted with Gaussian filtered stimuli of equal contrast power (c(rms) = 0.065). Similar results to those described above were found for stimuli with spatial-frequency content higher than 2 cycles deg(-1). A model of isotropic first-order visual channels collecting the stimulus spectral energy in all orientations explains the RT data. A subsequent second-order nonlinear amplitude demodulation process, applied to the output of the most energetic first-order channel, could explain the perception of global structure of each spatially filtered stimulus, including images lacking low spatial frequencies.