Reducing the Tendency to Aggress: Insights from Social and Personality Psychology

The social and personality psychology literature on aggression has largely focused on the factors that are associated with an increase in aggression such as provocation, violent media exposure, and trait anger. This work has been quite important in developing models of aggression. Less emphasis, however, has been placed on examining the factors that reduce this harmful behavior. We use a widely researched model of aggression to examine some factors that are associated with aggression reduction including self‐control, pro‐social experiences, and appraisal processes. These variables reduce the tendency to aggress, and our review addresses some potential processes involved. We suggest that a stronger research focus on the factors that reduce aggression can aid our understanding of not only why aggression occurs but also how to control it.     

Interhemisphärischer Transfer visueller Zweifachwahlen bei kommissurotomierten Tauben

Zusammenfassung Die funktionelle Bedeutung kommissuraler Systeme für den visuellen interhemisphärischen Informationsaustausch wurde bei 71 Tauben an monokular gelernten Zweifachwahlen geprüft (instrumentale Konditionierung nach Skinner). 1 Farb- und 4 Form-Diskriminationen (2 oben-unten- und 2 links-rechts-symmetrische Spiegelbildpaare) wurden verwendet. Bei 21 Tauben war die Decussatio supraoptica (DSO) stereotaktisch durchtrennt worden, bei 20 waren die Commissura tectalis (CT) und die Commissura posterior (CP) durchschnitten. Bei 11 Tauben waren alle 3 Verbindungen unterbrochen. Das Ausmaß der Läsionen wurde durch histologische Kontrolle verifiziert. Der interhemisphärische Transfer war nach DSO-Durchtrennung bei der Farb- und den oben-unten-symmetrischen Formzweifachwahlen stark vermindert. Der Transfer sämtlicher Zweifachwahlen war nach CT+CP-Durchtrennung nicht signifikant verschieden von dem der Kontrolltiere. Es wurde erstmals gezeigt, daß mindestens ein Teil der DSO-Fasern bei Vögeln visuelle Information von einer Hirnhälfte zur andern übermittelt.

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Interhemispheric transfer of two-choice discrimination in commissurotomized pigeons

Summary The role of avian commissural systems in interhemispheric transfer of monocularly learned visual discriminations was investigated in an instrumental conditioning situation (Skinner). Color and pattern (up-down and left-right mirror-images) were used as stimuli. Stereotaxic lesions were placed in the supraoptic decussation of 21 pigeons, in the tectal and posterior commissures of 20 pigeons. In 11 animals all three connections were interrupted. All lesions were histologically verified. After section of the supraoptic decussation interhemispheric transfer was severely impaired for one color and two up-down mirror-image discriminations. No significant impairment in transfer for color, up-down and left-right mirror-image discriminations followed section of the tectal and posterior commissures. These data demonstrate that at least part of the supraoptic decussation is involved in interhemispheric transfer of visual information.

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Mit Unterstützung des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds für wissenschaftliche Forschung, Kredit Nr. 4806 und 3.133.69. Ein Teil dieser Arbeit wurde im Oktober 1969 der European Brain and Behaviour Society in Marseille vorgetragen.

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Hern Prof. Dr. K. Akert danke ich für die Überlassung des Themas und für die wertvolle Unterstützung während meiner Untersuchungen recht herzlich.Herrn Prof. Dr. E. Hadorn danke ich als meinem verehrten Lehrer.Großer Dank gebührt aber vor allem Herrn Dr. M. Cuénod, der mir stets mit Rat und Tat zur Seite stand.Für ihre technische Mithilfe sei Frau M. Müller, Frl. L. Decoppet, Frl. R. Emch, Frl. I. Kost, Herrn A. Fäh, Herrn A. Fidéler und Herrn M. Plattner, sowie Frl. M. Zwicky, die die Reinschrift besorgte, bestens gedankt.     

The Impact of Absolute Importance and Processing Overlaps on Prospective Memory Performance

Prospective memory is the ability to remember an intention at an appropriate moment in the future. Prospective memory tasks can be more or less important. Previously, importance was manipulated by emphasizing the importance of the prospective memory task relative to the ongoing task it was embedded in. This resulted in better prospective memory performance but also ongoing task costs. In the present study, we simply instructed one group of participants that the prospective memory task was important (i.e., absolute importance instruction) and compared them with a group with relative importance instructions and a control group. The results showed that absolute importance leads to an increase in prospective memory performance without enhancing ongoing task costs, whereas relative importance resulted in both increased prospective memory performance and ongoing task costs. Thus, prospective memory can be enhanced without ongoing task costs, which is particularly crucial for safety‐work contexts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Basic needs and complexes: similarities between feeling‐toned complexes,emotional schema and affective states

The aim of this paper is to examine feeling‐toned complexes from a developmental psychological perspective. From this perspective feeling‐toned complexes emerge when basic needs are not met. A very similar theory is put forward by Jeffery Young in his Schema Therapy (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar 2005). His basic needs concept, developed on the basis of empirical research, covers four basic needs which are: attachment, autonomy, and self‐worth, as well as play and spontaneity. My proposition is to deal with this conceptual view from a Jungian perspective insofar as we can integrate the four basic needs, however adding a fifth: the basic need for meaning in the theory of feeling‐toned complexes. Emotional schemas and feeling‐toned complexes are then comparable patterns. The strengths and weaknesses of Analytic Psychology compared to Jeffrey Young's schema therapy are further discussed. The foundation of the feeling‐toned complexes on unmet basic needs lends itself to including a further reference, namely Jaak Panksepp’s neuroscientific findings. Panksepp formulates seven basic affective systems which I discuss first, then I focus on what could be gained from the basic needs concept and finally I turn to the feeling‐complex in an attempt to integrate neuroscientific findings into complex theory.     

Task constraints mask great apes' ability to solve the trap-table task

Researchers have investigated animals' causal knowledge with a task requiring subjects to use a tool to bring a reward within reach whilst avoiding a trap. Previous studies have suggested limitations in the ability of several species to avoid traps in tubes or tables. However, certain features may have inflated task difficulty. We tested 20 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), 7 orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus), 5 bonobos (Pan paniscus), and 5 gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in the trap-table--a task in which subjects have to pull one of two rakes prepositioned behind two rewards on a flat surface. One of the rewards is in front of a trap into which it will fall. We investigated the effect of trap type, tool type, the number of available tools, and reinforcement regime on performance. We replicated previous findings showing that apes failed to choose the correct rake above chance. However, when they could instead choose where to insert a single tool, around 80% of the apes solved the trap-table task in the first trial, revealing an important effect of task constraints on their performance.     

Impulsive and callous traits are more strongly associated with delinquent behavior in higher risk neighborhoods among boys and girls

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the effect of impulsive and callous personality traits on delinquent behavior varied across neighborhood context in a population-based, statewide sample of 85,000 Iowa schoolchildren ages 10-19. Two previous studies examining the association between impulsivity and delinquency across disadvantaged and affluent neighborhoods have yielded contrasting findings. Results of the present study suggested a robust moderating effect of neighborhood context on personality risk for delinquency. The relation between impulsivity and delinquency was greater in neighborhoods low in collective efficacy compared to neighborhoods high in collective efficacy. A similar interaction was found for callous personality traits, indicating the consistency of the moderating effect of neighborhood context on personality risk for delinquency. Gender differences were also examined, and results were replicated in a holdout sample.     

Bringing out the agreeableness in everyone: Using a cognitive self-regulation model to reduce aggression

Research has shown that those individuals high in agreeableness recruit helpful thoughts in hostile contexts, presumably in the service of controlling aggressive behavior. The present experiment follows from such work, but importantly does so in a manner seeking to support causal conclusions. Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental training condition, in which hostile prime words were followed by helpful target words, or to a control condition that did not involve such pairings. Those assigned to the experimental condition subsequently exhibited lower levels of aggression in a laboratory task. Additional considerations and findings support the potential involvement of self-regulation processes. In general terms, the experiment reveals that a brief cognitive manipulation targeting processes thought to underlie aggression control was in fact causally effective in reducing subsequent levels of aggressive behavior.     

Personal values and relational models

In this study, the comprehensive value research by Schwartz (e.g. 1992) was linked to Fiske's relational models theory (RMT, e.g. Fiske, 1991). A sample of 297 people answered the personal values questionnaire (PVQ), the modes of relationship questionnaire (MORQ) and the relationship profile scale (RPS) in a web‐based online survey. As hypothesized, the set of 10 values correlated in a systematic manner—according to the circular structure of personal value systems—with both trait‐like construal of and motivational investment in the relational models communal sharing (CS), authority ranking (AR) and market pricing (MP). Further research concerning a person–environment value congruency approach to predict well‐being is suggested combining the two research traditions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

More conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent events: A study of the bivalency effect

Encountering a conflict triggers an adjustment of cognitive control. This adjustment of cognitive control can even affect subsequent performance. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether more conflict triggers more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. To this end, we focussed on the bivalency effect, that is, the adjustment of cognitive control following the conflict induced by bivalent stimuli (i.e., stimuli with relevant features for two tasks). In two experiments, we tested whether the amount of conflict triggered by bivalent stimuli affected the bivalency effect. Bivalent stimuli were either compatible (i.e., affording one response) or incompatible (i.e., affording two different responses). Thus, compatible bivalent stimuli involved a task conflict, whereas incompatible bivalent stimuli involved a task and a response conflict. The results showed that the bivalency effect was not affected by this manipulation. This indicates that more conflict does not trigger more adjustment of cognitive control for subsequent performance. Therefore, only the occurrence of conflict – not its amount – is determinant for cognitive control.     

Incidental task sequence learning: perceptual rather than conceptual?

In four experiments we investigated whether incidental task sequence learning occurs when no instructional task cues are available (i.e. with univalent stimuli). We manipulated task sequence by presenting three simple binary-choice tasks (colour, form or letter case decisions) in regular repeated or random order. Participants were required to use the same two response keys for each of the tasks. We manipulated response sequence by ordering the stimuli so as to produce either a regular or a random order of left versus right-hand key presses. When sequencing in both, or either, separate stream (i.e. task sequence and/or response sequence) was changed to random, only those participants who had processed both sequences together showed evidence of sequence learning in terms of significant response time disruption (Experiments 1-3). This effect disappeared when the sequences were uncorrelated (Experiment 4). The results indicate that only the correlated integration of task sequence and response sequence produced a reliable incidental learning effect. As this effect depends on the predictable ordering of stimulus categories, it suggests that task sequence learning is perceptual rather than conceptual in nature.