Religious Activities, Religious Orientation, and Aggressive Behavior

Theorists and clinicians have long believed that religious practice may reduce aggression and other destructive behaviors. To date, most evidence for a relationship between religiosity and aggression comes from nonexperimental studies. The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold. First, to examine experimentally whether two religious practices reduce aggressive behavior; second, to determine if specific aspects of religious orientation and spiritual transcendence are related to level of aggression, expressed under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty-two participants assigned to one of three experimental groups (memorize Bible passages, prayer/meditation, or control group) completed a laboratory task of aggression. Participants also completed religious and spirituality instruments, along with self-ratings of aggressive disposition. Results indicated that neither memorization of biblical passages nor meditation reduced aggression. Intrinsic-oriented religiosity participants self-reported lower aggression than extrinsic-oriented participants, but no differences were found on the laboratory task of aggression. Spiritual transcendence showed no behavioral aggression differences .     

The behaviour of children during a first encounter

Abstract.— The behaviour of unacquainted children in a two-child play situation was compared with the behaviour of well acquainted children. Observations were made through a one-way-screen, mainly in accord with categories adopted from ethological child studies. Tape-recorded speech was coded into 27 content categories. Choice of activity and content of play seemed to be determined mostly by the children's sex, whereas nonverbal acts and also some aspects of speech showed considerable differences between strangers and acquaintances. Looking at the other's face, gaze avoidance, immobility, and automanipulation were more frequent among unacquainted children, and walking was less frequent among them. Longer initial silence, smaller total verbal output, and scarcity of suggestions, orders, and negative reactions were characteristic of unacquainted children at the initial stage of meeting. Personal talk (telling about oneself and asking quesrions about the other) was more common among unacquainted children, especially girls.     

Social skills of aggressive and nonaggressive adolescents

Abstract.— Forty 14-year-old boys were selected on the basis of peer ratings to represent characteristic aggressive, controlled extravert, anxious, and controlled introvert patterns of behaviour. Each boy was asked to play the role of either a son or a chum with the corresponding father's or chum's role played by the male E in four tape recorded dialogues. The topics were "getting more pocket money", "holiday making", "choosing a TV channel", and "agreeing on a favourite make of car". The boys' ability to persuade the opponent and to express their disagreement in a socially acceptable manner was studied. In accordance with the hypotheses the results showed that the controlled extraverts were sensible negotiators while the aggressive belittled the other's proposals and showed disagreement and indifference. The controlled introverts conformed passively and the anxious had signs of blocking in their speech. A discriminant analysis revealed that the differences were also very clear on the individual level.     

Personality – a resource or risk for successful development

Personality as a resource or risk for development was discussed in the light of the results of the ongoing Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (FJYLS) which the author has conducted since 1968 when the participants (N = 369, b. 1959) were 8 years of age. A general hypothesis presented within a two‐dimensional framework of self‐control and activity was that the child’s high self‐control of emotions and behavior would be associated with adaptive behavior in adulthood. The results have provided evidence in support for and limitations to the hypothesis. High self‐control was a resource and low self‐control was a risk for development, but there were gender differences that came out consistently in variable‐oriented and person‐oriented analyses. A resource factor for male adult social functioning was, compared to females, a broader construct of self‐control in childhood covering both more passive (compliant) and active (constructive) behavior; only active well‐controlled (constructive) behavior was a resource for female functioning. A risk factor for female functioning was low self‐control combined with passivity (internalizing behavior), whereas low self‐control combined with activity (externalizing behavior) was a risk factor for male functioning. Childhood self‐control was not directly associated with adult psychological functioning such as well‐being but indirectly through social functioning such as career development. Low self‐control in childhood was an antecedent of criminal behavior but only for those male offenders who committed offences in adulthood, not for those who had limited their offending to adolescence.     

An aggression machine II. Interindividual differences in the aggressive defence responses aroused by varying stimulus conditions

PitkÄnen, L. An aggression machine. II. Interindividual differences in the aggressive defence responses aroused by varying stimulus conditions. Scand. J. Psychol., 1973, 14, 65–74.-The subjects, six aggressive and nonaggressive groups of ten 9-year old boys, selected by rating method, were tested with an "aggression machine" (PAM) constructed by the writer. The varying stimulus conditions included two situations of impulsive aggression and six variations of specified attackers. The results showed that (1) the larger part of the variance of the intensity of aggression in the PAM was accounted for by the situational variations than by interindividual differences in coping with thwarting situations as measured by a rating method. (2) The overtly aggressive boys showed strong discrimination between the situations, while the overtly nonaggressive boys were quite insensitive to situational variations. (3) The intensity of aggressive defence towards a boy of the same age correlated most highly with rated aggressiveness. (4) The latency, duration, and number of aggressive responses did not vary as easily as the intensity according to situations.