Justification of interpersonal aggression in Japanese,American, and Spanish students

Six hundred and thirty‐two university students of both sexes—242 Japanese (137 males and 105 females), 190 Spanish (71 males and 119 females), and 200 American (100 males and 100 females)—completed a questionnaire that examined their attitudes toward various kinds of aggression directed at other people in different situations that ranged from self‐defense to a method of overcoming communication problems. Factor analysis revealed three factors: physical aggression (killing, torture, and hitting), direct verbal aggression (shouting and rage), and indirect verbal aggression (being ironic and hindering). The basic factor structure of the Japanese, the Spanish, and the USA samples was similar. In all samples, men showed a higher justification of physical aggressive acts in any situation and of indirect verbal aggression in nondefensive circumstances. Cultural differences were found in the degree of justification of the three factors: in all kinds of situations, Japanese students showed a lower justification of indirect verbal aggression but a higher justification of direct verbal aggression than USA and Spain samples. Physical aggression in defensive situations is justified more by Americans than by Japanese and Spanish students. These findings suggest the existence of a common basic moral code about physical aggressive acts, but there seems to be a cultural influence on moral codes concerning verbal aggressive acts. Oriental cultures, with an interdependent construal of self, seem to be more permissive of direct verbal aggression compared with Western cultures, but they have less tolerance for indirect verbal aggression. There were practically no significant differences between American and Spanish scores. Aggr. Behav. 25:185–195, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Aggressive behavior of pigeons: Suppression by archistriatal lesions

The agonistic responses of pigeons to the introduction of a stick and the experimenter's hand into their home cages is described. The effects of lesions of the archistriatum, a presumed homologue of the mammalian amygdala, of lesions of the overlying neostriatum and of control sham operations on this behavior in selected aggressive pigeons are reported. Only archistriatal lesions lead to a persistent depression of the aggressive and a converse increment of the avoidance components of the pigeon's response to both test stimuli. The results are discussed in relation to other evidence on the role of the avian archistriatum and this structure's correspondence with the amygdala.     

Relations and effects of transformational leadership: a comparative analysis with traditional leadership styles

This study has two main goals: (a) to compare the relationship between transformational leadership and other important leadership styles (i.e., democratic versus autocratic or relations- and task-oriented leadership) and (b) to compare the effects of transformational leadership and the other styles on some important organizational outcomes such as employees' satisfaction and performance. For this purpose, a sample of 147 participants, working in 35 various work-teams, was used. Results show high correlations between transformational leadership, relations-oriented, democratic, and task-oriented leadership. On the other hand, according to the literature, transformational leadership, especially high levels, significantly increases the percentage of variance accounted for by other leadership styles in relevant organizational outcome variables (subordinates' performance, satisfaction and extra effort).     

Responsibility and obsessive-compulsive disorder: an experimental test

To test the causal status of responsibility in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), an experiment was executed in which responsibility was experimentally manipulated. OCD patients, non-OCD anxiety controls, and non-patients executed a classification task in either a high or a low responsibility (LoRes) condition. Subjective ratings related to danger and responsibility indicated that the manipulation was successful. Subjective OCD-like experiences and checking behaviors were higher in OCD patients in the high responsibility (HiRes) condition than in all other groups. Although the checking subscale of the Padua Inventory correlated with subjective ratings in the OCD patients in the HiRes condition, it was not associated with checking behaviors. The results confirm the hypothesis that responsibility plays a causal role in OCD.     

Empathy and the Limits of Thought Experiments

This article criticizes what it calls perspectival thought experiments, which require subjects to mentally simulate a perspective before making judgments from within it. Examples include Judith Thomson's violinist analogy, Philippa Foot's trolley problem, and Bernard Williams's Jim case. The article argues that advances in the philosophical and psychological study of empathy suggest that the simulative capacities required by perspectival thought experiments are all but impossible. These thought experiments require agents to consciously simulate necessarily unconscious features of subjectivity. To complete these experiments subjects must deploy theory‐theoretical frameworks to predict what they think they would (or ought to) do. These outputs, however, systematically mislead subjects and are highly prone to error. They are of negligible probative value, and this bodes poorly for their continued use. The article ends with two suggestions. First, many thought experiments are not problematically perspectival. Second, it should be possible to carry out “in‐their‐shoes” perspectival thought experiments by off‐loading simulations onto virtual environments into which philosophers place subjects.     

Variants of biculturalism in migrant and host adolescents living in Italy and Spain: Testing the importance of life domains through the Relative Acculturation Extended Model

Several variants of biculturalism have recently been proposed (Schwartz, Birman, Benet‐Martínez, & Unger, 2016). Nevertheless, few studies have identified different types of bicultural individuals, and no one has addressed the possibility that these types could depend on acculturation domains. By using the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM), this study aimed to explore if different variants of biculturalism could be individuated, and if some of these variants were sensitive to life domains. Four samples of migrant and host adolescents living in Italy (n = 173 and n = 186) and Spain (n = 139 and n = 156) answered a questionnaire about acculturation perceptions and preferences in central and peripheral life domains. Together with acculturation options consistent with Berry's (1997) model (full‐assimilation, full‐separation and full‐marginalisation), some variants of biculturalism emerged from the latent class analysis: full‐high and full‐low integration, which were not sensitive to life domains; and “alternate” acculturation options that were sensitive to life domains, with participants switching from their original culture to the host culture according to the peripheral and central domains. Acculturation options varied across the four samples, with Italians switching more from one culture to another, and Spanish adolescents being more full‐high or full‐low integrated.     

SOCIAL CONFORMITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION12

This study examined the role of socialization experiences in the development of psychological differentiation. In each of three countries (Holland, Italy, Mexico) two villages were selected as presenting a contrasting picture with regard to degree of emphasis on conformity to family, religious and political authority. It was hypothesized that within the pair of villages in each country children from the village which stressed social conformity would tend to be more field dependent and show other signs of less developed differentiation than children from the village in which social conformity was less emphasized. In each of the six villages approximately 100 children (boys and girls, aged 9–11 and 13–15) were studied. Differentiation was assessed by a battery of tests of field-dependence-independence and the figure-drawing test. In every comparison of mean test scores between pairs of villages, in each of the three countries, children from the village in which social conformity was stressed obtained scores reflecting less differentiated functioning. Village differences were significant for every measure of differentiation in all three countries. Addition alanalyses of the data from the tests of differentiation and other tests used yielded results essentially consistent with findings from previous studies.     

Validation of the Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS)

Efforts to determine the prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in preschool-aged children have been hampered by the lack of a validated measure. The Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS) is a multi-dimensional measure that assesses the psychosocial functioning of children aged 3–7 years. The concurrent validity and reliability of the PECFAS were assessed in a sample of 30 preschool-aged children in a large Head Start program in Ventura, California. PECFAS ratings based on in-depth interviews were significantly related to parental ratings that the children had mental health problems, psychiatric diagnoses, teacher ratings of the child's need for mental health evaluations, teacher ratings of behavior problems on a standardized screening inventory (DIAL-R), and actual referrals for mental health evaluations. Interrater reliability for the total PECFAS score was high (r = .90) as was internal consistency of the five subscales (alpha = .86). Using the PECFAS scores as a standard, the weighted prevalence of serious emotional disturbance in this West Coast Head Start program was 17%, at the lower end of the current estimated rate of SED for older children in low income samples (18–26%).     

Tri-ethnic alcohol use and religion,family, and gender

Nine different behavioral responses to alcohol by over two hundred ninth-graders in Austin, Texas, were examined in a survey designed to identify the relationship between adolescents' alcohol use, religious affiliation, religiosity, and gender. The relationship between alcohol use and family adaptability was also examined. While religious affiliation was found to be mildly predictive of use, religiosity determined only specific behavior. Gender differences in alcohol use appeared to be narrowing. Family adaptability was the most predictive variable, showing a relationship with six of the nine kinds of alcohol behavior. Future studies of family influences on adolescents' alcohol behavior and alcohol use among females are recommended.