265 research outputs found

    A Decade of Research Exploring Biology and Communication

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    The study of communication has come a long way since Aristotle\u27s conceptualization of persuasion in Rhetoric from the 4th century B.C. Today, scholars conceptualize communication in much more comprehensive ways than did those Greek Aristotelian philosophers. Still, much of the discipline of communication focuses on the way that messages have an impact on individuals or societies. Since the late 1970s a small group of communication scholars, greatly influenced by their peers in other social-science disciplines (i.e., psychology) began to direct their attention to the way that communication influences and is influenced by processes in the human body. During the early 1990s, a group of researchers proposed a set of meta-theoretic axioms leading to the goal that specific theories could be generated related to the ways that the human body influences communicative messages and behaviors. These researchers called this set of propositions a communibiological paradigm. In this article, we present the following review of recent and relevant literature on the biological dimensions of human communication

    How can a video game cause panic attacks? 1. Effects of an auditory stressor on the human brainstem

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    The auditory brainstem response (ABR) was recorded during simultaneous binaural presentation of two types of sounds: 1) condensation clicks presented through in-the-ear earphones at 43.1/sec, 60dB nHL; and 2) recordings of breathing sounds, presented through supra-aural headphones, at levels adjusted by participants to be equivalent to the clicks. In alternate blocks, the breathing sounds were either: 1) a recording of quiet breathing (blocks 1, 3, 5); or 2) a recording of erratic (stressed) breathing (blocks 2, 4). The erratic breathing was modeled on a video game soundtrack in which the character was represented as running, wounded, and frightened. Four 2048-sweep ABR waveforms were collected in each of the five blocks, and the mean amplitude of ABR peak V was calculated over each set of four waveforms. Results indicate a significant decrease in the amplitude of ABR peak V during erratic breathing vs. quiet breathing. Implications include: 1) new evidence of the effect of selective attention on the ABR; 2) the potential for using auditory stressors to study the central physiology of emotional responses in humans; and 3) clues to physiological correlates of the effects of certain video games known to evoke panic attacks in susceptible players

    Stress, Theory of Mind and emotional and behavioural difficulties in children.

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    This review focuses on the nature of individual differences in Theory of Mind (ToM) and examines evidence concerning the links between ToM and children's emotional and behavioural problems. An introduction to ToM is given, followed by a brief synopsis of what is known about the influences on individual differences in ToM. The review considers ToM in relation to peer rejection, attention and behavioural difficulties, bullying and emotional difficulties. Research in these areas is in its infancy and the review describes the difficulties intrinsic to this type of research (for example, measuring ToM) as well as drawing the reader to the importance and potential implications of ToM research in child development and the development of psychological difficulties. Ideas for further research are proposed

    Regulating Anger under Stress via Cognitive Reappraisal and Sadness

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    Previous studies have reported the failure of cognitive emotion regulation (CER), especially in regulating unpleasant emotions under stress. The underlying reason for this failure was the application of CER depends heavily on the executive function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), but this function can be impaired by stress-related neuroendocrine hormones. This observation highlights the necessity of developing selfregulatory strategies that require less top-down cognitive control. Based on traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine, which examine how different types of emotions promote or counteract one another, we have developed a novel emotion regulation strategy whereby one emotion is used to alter another. For example, our previous experiment showed that sadness induction (after watching a sad film) could reduce aggressive behavior associated with anger [i.e., “sadness counteracts anger” (SCA)] (Zhan et al., 2015). Relative to the CER strategy requiring someone to think about certain cognitive reappraisals to reinterpret the meaning of an unpleasant situation, watching a film or listening to music and experiencing the emotion contained therein seemingly requires less cognitive effort and control; therefore, this SCA strategy may be an alternative strategy that compensates for the limitations of cognitive regulation strategies, especially in stressful situations. The present study was designed to directly compare the effects of the CER and SCA strategy in regulating anger and anger-related aggression in stressful and non-stressful conditions. Participants’ subjective feeling of anger, anger-related aggressive behavior, skin conductance, and salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels were measured. Our findings revealed that acute stress impaired one’s ability to use CR to control angry responses provoked by others, whereas stress did not influence the efficiency of the SCA strategy. Compared with sadness or neutral emotion induction, CER induction was found to reduce the level of subjective anger more, but this difference only existed in non-stressful conditions. By contrast, irrespective of stress, the levels of aggressive behavior and related skin conductance after sadness induction were both significantly lower than those after CER induction or neutral emotion induction, thu

    Mechanisms driving the effects of violent and non-violent media on aggression and mood

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    This aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of violent and non-violent media on aggression and mood. The results of Chapter 3 indicate that viewing violent heroes, rather than violent villains, leads to a greater chance of reactive aggression. Graphic violence portrayals that fostered anger and anxiety inhibited likelihood of aggressive behaviour. Chapter 4 highlighted a significant positive relationship between positive affect and reactive aggression for male participants who viewed a violent hero. The results from chapter 5 demonstrate that positive affect increases after viewing non-violent media correlate with instrumental aggression. Results of chapter 6 indicate that playing a positive affect inducing, non-violent video game led to an increased likelihood of reactive and instrumental aggression. Playing a graphically violent video game did not lead to a aggression. Results of chapter 7 suggest that trait aggression and identification with a violent protagonist predict instrumental aggression in graphically violent video game players. The results of this thesis suggest that for the general population, violent content is not the key characteristic of media that leads to aggression. However, players who enjoy playing graphically violent media and identify with the violent main character may be the most likely to instrumentally aggress

    Watching down cortisol levels? Effects of movie entertainment on psychophysiological recovery

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    Research on recovery from stress demonstrated that entertaining movies increase psychological detachment and relaxation. In addition, entertainment experiences foster feelings of vitality and thereby contribute to well-being. The current study tested whether movies can be beneficial after stressful situations in order to recover. Saliva cortisol was assessed to relate a physiological measure to experiences of recovery and vitality. In an experiment (N = 60), participants were stressed before they either watched a hedonic, a eudaimonic, or a calm, neutral movie. Results demonstrated that media stimuli amplify recovery experiences when they convey more entertainment experiences (hedonic and/or eudaimonic). Further, cortisol levels influenced vitality by enhancing energetic arousal and affect. These results are discussed regarding the interpretation of physiological indicators to study work strain

    Self-Esteem, Failure Feedback, and Physiological Reactivity: Implications for Working Memory and Aggression

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    Research has recently begun to focus on separable conscious and subconscious aspects of self-esteem. Meanwhile, research on aggressive behavior has found that some individuals with high self-esteem are more prone to aggressive behavior. Based on a biopsychosocial approach, research has shown that appraisals of threat/challenge are marked by distinct physiological responses – threat appraisals are marked by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, whereas challenge appraisals are marked by activation of the sympathetic adrenal-medullary axis. The present study examines the relationship between failure feedback, implicit and explicit self-esteem, appraisals, working memory and aggression in a series of three experiments. Experiment 1 examined the impact of failure feedback on stress physiology and found that individuals who displayed a physiological response to failure feedback consistent with a challenge response, as indicated by an increase in blood pressure without a concurrent increase in salivary cortisol, were the most likely group to become aggressive. Experiment 2 examined the relationships between implicit and explicit self-esteem in predicting aggressive behavior. Implicit self-esteem predicted behavioral inhibition in response to negative feedback such that higher implicit self-esteem was associated with fewer behavioral inhibition errors. In Experiment 3, threat/challenge motivations were manipulated to determine their impact on working memory performance. Increases in feelings of threat were associated with greater working memory performance, whereas increases in feelings of challenge were associated with decreases in working memory performance. The present study is the first to examine aggression in the context of threat/challenge appraisal responses. Overall, this study suggests that appraisals and physiology can assist in predicting aggressive behavior, although the cognitive mechanism by which this occurs remains elusive

    An Integrative Model of Aggression: The Role of Cognitions in Responses to Stressors in Forensic and Non-Forensic Populations

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    This PhD aimed to further the understanding of aggression through the integration of research findings with theoretical models. As a result, a Stratified Integrated Model of Behavioural Aggression (SIMBA) that specifies and stratifies the roles of stress, cognitive structures and information processing was proposed. This may help guide therapeutic interventions aimed at the reduction of aggressive behaviour and inform risk assessment. A systematic literature review of 77 papers was conducted to assess the relationship between stress systems’ activity and aggression. The results showed that this relationship is likely present and can be both positive and negative. Thematic analysis of these papers identified six themes: 1) the impact of testosterone on the relationship between activity of stress response systems and aggression is undetermined; 2) the presence of sex differences in the relationship between stress response and aggression depends on the stress system and type of aggression; 3) specific disorders do not influence the relationship between stress and aggression; 4) experience of victimisation does not have a clear influence on the relationship between stress systems’ activity and aggression; 5) the relationship between stress response markers and aggression differs among those with high stress exposure; and 6) history of aggression affects the relationship between stress response markers and anger-based aggression. These results highlighted that the stress-aggression relationship is present, but is likely to be indirect. However, the extraneous variables consistently affecting this relationship were not identified. Addressing this issue, study one recruited 20 male students and 11 patients from a high secure hospital to establish the effects of aggression supportive cognitions and stress on aggressive behaviour. To assess aggression after a stress-evoking task, the Taylor Aggression Paradigm was used. It was predicted that while the presence of aggressive Implicit Theories (ITs) would be positively associated with aggressive behaviour towards a stranger, the association of stress would differ between the samples. This was partially supported, as only one specific IT (“I am the law”) was associated with aggression. Furthermore, only elevated skin conductance, but not changes in the heart rate, during the stress task was positively associated with aggression, and only among patients. Study two involved 100 participants (49 men, 48 women, three not disclosed) with an average age of 29. It aimed to investigate the relationship between history of aggressive behaviour, affective states, and neutral and emotional information processing. Event Related Potentials (ERPs) during a Go/No-Go task were utilised to capture cognitive resources allocation, with a “supervisor – employee” laboratory paradigm used to assess aggression. Contrary to expectations, results showed that trait aggressiveness was only related to aggressive behaviour at higher levels of inhibitory processing. The hypothesis that artificially provoked changes in negative and positive affect would be related to aggressive behaviour was also not supported. However, as expected, feeling hostile was associated with short-lived aggressive behaviour, but only for those who had low response inhibition. Moreover, partially supporting expectations, a history of aggressive behaviour moderated the relationship between change in negative affect and aggressive behaviour. The last hypothesis, proposing emotional processing to be a mediator between response inhibition and aggressive behaviour, was also not confirmed. Study three included 462 participants, of whom 300 were adults aged 26 or older (151 men, 149 women), and 162 representing transitional aged youth, aged between 18 and 25 (21 men, 141 women). This study aimed to identify direct and indirect effects exerted by aggression supportive cognitive structures, working memory problems, and stress on aggression by building a Structural Equation Model. It was expected that a direct cognitive pathway from aggression supportive cognitions directly to aggression would be identified. This hypothesis was supported. Meanwhile, the second hypothesis proposing an indirect relationship between stress and aggression was only partially supported, with maladaptive coping style being the only mediator identified. The current research demonstrated that aggression-supportive cognitive structures are the primary facilitators of aggressive behaviour. Meanwhile, the effect exerted by situational demands is contingent on the preferred coping style. Furthermore, despite the indirect nature, the influence of information processing was present for multiple precursors of aggression. Consequently, all these elements were included in the SIMBA and are suggested as primary targets for therapeutic aggression interventions. The results are discussed with attention to this proposed model, capturing further directions for future research

    The effects of subliminal weapons effect on aggressive behavior in college level students

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    This study evaluated the difference in displayed aggression in subjects randomly assigned to either a subliminal weapons effect condition or to a controlled condition. 30 students from a small public University in New Jersey signed up for the study to receive credit for their introductory psychology course. The subjects were then randomly assigned to one of the two conditions; the subliminal weapons effect conditioned consisted of a poster of Scarface holding a gun pointed toward the subject on the blackboard (the poster had a sign asking that it not be removed by a professor). The controlled condition had no stimuli on the blackboard. The subjects then completed a survey dealing with their attitude of the dining hall. The results showed that the subjects in the weapons effect condition showed a significantly higher level of aggression than the control group did

    Efekti igranja nasilnih video-igrica na decu i mlade

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    Violent video games, as a modern digital media, have attracted increasing attention of children and adolescents in recent decades, causing many detrimental consequences, most notably aggressive behavior. Therefore, the goals of the paper are: presentation of research findings that testify to the influence of playing violent video games on aggressive cognition, aggressive feelings, physiological arousal, desensitization to violent scenes, as processes that play a significant role in the expression of aggressive behavior; review of research indicating significant effects of playing violent video games on aggressive behavior; summarizing and displaying the factors that mediate and moderate the link between violent video game play and aggressive behavior. Based on the findings of meta-analytic, longitudinal, experimental and correlational studies, it is clear that playing violent video games is positively related to aggressive behavior and underlying processes.Nasilne video-igrice, kao noviji digitalni medij, poslednjih decenija privlače sve veću pažnju dece i adolescenata, izazivajući pritom brojne štetne posledice, od kojih se posebno izdvaja agresivno ponašanje. Stoga su ciljevi rada: prikaz rezultata istraživanja koji svedoče o uticaju igranja nasilnih video-igrica na agresivnu kogniciju, agresivna osećanja, fiziološku uzbuđenost, desenzitizaciju na nasilne scene, kao procesa koji imaju značajnu ulogu u ispoljavanju agresivnog ponašanja; pregled istraživanja koja ukazuju na značajne efekte igranja nasilnih video-igrica na agresivno ponašanje; sumiranje i prikaz faktora koji posreduju i moderiraju vezu između igranja nasilnih video-igrica i agresivnog ponašanja. Na osnovu navedenih nalaza metaanalitičkih, longitudinanih, eksperimentalnih i korelacionih studija, nameće se jasan zaključak da je igranje nasilnih video-igrica u pozitivnoj vezi sa agresivnim ponašanjem i procesima koji stoje u njegovoj osnovi
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