Measuring adult indirect aggression: The development and psychometric assessment of the indirect aggression scales

This paper describes the development of a psychometric measure of indirect aggression for use in an adult population. Items were generated from a series of qualitative interviews. Two versions of the scale were developed; the Indirect Aggression Scale Aggressor version (IAS‐A) and Target version (IAS‐T). Both versions of the scale were administered to separate samples (n_A=294; n_T=294). Scales were analysed using item analysis of internal consistency, as well as exploratory factor analysis. Both versions were found to have the same consistent three sub‐scales: social exclusion, use of malicious humour, and guilt induction. Preliminary psychometric evaluation suggests that the scales are both sufficiently reliable (with Cronbach's alphas ranging from .81 to .89) and valid. There were no gender differences in either using or being the victim of indirect aggression, and the behaviour was significantly negatively correlated with age. Future validation and potential usage of the measures are discussed. Aggress. Behav. 31:1–14, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Salvation through Relaxation: Proprioceptive Therapy and its Relationship to Yoga

Relaxation constitutes a primary feature of yoga as it is taught in the West today. However, typical modern practices have no precedent in the pre-modern yoga tradition, but derive largely from techniques of proprioceptive relaxation developed in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe and America. These techniques (along with their assumptions of the soteriological value of relaxation) in turn alter the theory and praxis of yoga itself, such that its fundamental enterprise is significantly modified. Does a transformation constitute a development or merely a corruption of the yoga tradition? This article considers the extent to which Modern Yoga fills the cultural space once occupied by ‘relaxationism’.     

Children's understanding of mental states as causes of emotions

Theory of mind studies of emotion usually focus on children's ability to predict other people's feelings. This study examined children's spontaneous references to mental states in explaining others' emotions. Children (4‐, 6‐ and 10‐year‐olds, n = 122) were told stories and asked to explain both typical and atypical emotional reactions of characters. Because atypical emotional reactions are unexpected, we hypothesized that children would be more likely to refer to mental states, such as desires and beliefs, in explaining them than when explaining typical emotions. From the development of lay theories of emotion, derived the prediction that older children would refer more often to mental states than younger children. The developmental shift from a desire‐psychology to a belief‐psychology led to the expectation that references to desires would increase at an earlier age than references to beliefs. Our findings confirmed these expectations only partly, because the nature of the emotion (happiness, anger, sadness or fear) interacted with these factors. Whereas anger, happiness and sadness mainly evoked desire references, fear evoked more belief references, even in 4‐year‐olds. The fact that other factors besides age can also play an influential role in children's mental state reasoning is discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.