41 research outputs found
Toddlers' preference for prosocial versus antisocial agents: No associations with empathy or attachment security
Research has indicated that the majority of infants and toddlers prefer prosocial to antisocial agents, but little research has examined interindividual differences in children's preference. This study examined whether 24-month-olds' (n = 107) sociomoral preference was associated with attachment security or empathy, assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort and the Empathy Questionnaire. Toddlers were presented with a puppet play, in which a protagonist tried to open a box and was helped by a prosocial agent and hindered by an antisocial agent. Then, toddlers were asked to pick up either the prosocial or the antisocial agent (manual choice), as a measure of their sociomoral preference. Of the 107 toddlers included in this study, 60.7% chose the prosocial over the antisocial agent. Neither empathy nor parent-child attachment was associated with children's preference. Our findings indicate a slight overall preference for the prosocial agent, but with notable interindividual differences not explained by empathy or attachment
Virtual Reality for Aggression Assessment:The Development and Preliminary Results of Two Virtual Reality Tasks to Assess Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Males
Validly measuring aggression is challenging because self-reports are plagued with biased answer tendencies and behavioral measures with ethical concerns and low ecological validity. The current study, therefore, introduces a novel virtual reality (VR) aggression assessment tool, differentially assessing reactive and proactive aggression. Two VR tasks were developed, one in an alley environment (N = 24, all male, M(age) = 23.88, 83.3% students) and an improved second one in a bar (N = 50, all male, M(age) = 22.54, 90% students). In this bar VR task, participants were randomly assigned to either the reactive condition where they were triggered by a cheating and insulting dart-player or to the proactive condition where they could earn extra money by aggressing. Participants’ level of self-reported aggression and psychopathy was assessed, after which they engaged in either the reactive or proactive VR task. Changes in affect and blood pressure were also measured. Aggression in the reactive VR task was evidenced to mostly display convergent validity because it positively correlated with self-reported aggression and total and fearless dominance factor scores of psychopathy, and there was a trend relationship with increased systolic blood pressure. The validity of the proactive aggression variant of our VR bar paradigm received less support, and needs more refinement. It can be concluded that VR is a potentially promising tool to experimentally induce and assess (reactive) aggression, which has the potential to provide aggression researchers and clinicians with a realistic and modifiable aggression assessment environment
The Association Between Callous-Unemotional Traits, Externalizing Problems, and Gender in Predicting Cognitive and Affective Morality Judgments in Adolescence
Morality deficits have been linked to callous-unemotional traits and externalizing problems in response to moral dilemmas, but these associations are still obscure in response to antisocial acts in adolescence. Limited evidence on young boys suggested that callous-unemotional traits and externalizing problems were associated with affective but not cognitive morality judgments. The present study investigated these associations in a community sample of 277 adolescents (M age = 15.35, 64 % females). Adolescents with high callous-unemotional traits showed deficits in affective but not cognitive morality, indicating that they can identify the appropriate moral emotions in others, but experience deviant moral emotions when imagining themselves committing antisocial acts. Externalizing problems and male gender were also strongly related to deficits in affective morality, but they had smaller associations with deficits in cognitive morality too. Implications for treatment and the justice system are discussed
Explosive Matters: Does Venting Anger Reduce or Increase Aggression? Differences in Anger Venting Effects in Violent Offenders
The current study aims to investigate if venting anger reduces or increases aggression. Therefore, we allowed venting anger and measured its effect on aggression after two different anger provocation paradigms in a sample of forensic psychiatric offenders (FPO, N = 45) and penitentiary offenders (PO, N = 22). These provocation paradigms included an Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) comprising anger stories, and a harassing body opponent bag (BOB) measuring punching force. To determine aggression pre/post provocation, implicit anger and self-reported aggression was assessed. Further, the relation between provocation paradigm response, aggression, and psychopathy was evaluated. Results indicate that venting anger reduces aggression in FPO, but not in PO, where even evidence for increase in one aggression index was found. Furthermore, groups differed in immediate responses during provocation, with FPO showing significantly more verbal aggressive responses during ATSS but less physically aggressive responses during BOB than PO. Moreover, results show a correlation between automatic cognitive anger biases during provocation and psychopathy in FPO. In PO, aggressive behavioral intentions and anger control problems during provocation were both related to self-reported aggression. For clinical practice, ATSS could be utilized as a paradigm exploring the actual state of specific cognitive biases toward anger
Amygdala connectivity and aggression
Neurobiological models propose that reactive aggression is predicated on impairments in amygdala-prefrontal connectivity that subserves moral decision-making and emotion regulation. The amygdala is a key component within this neural network that modulates reactive aggression. We provide a review of amygdala dysfunctional brain networks leading to reactive aggressive behavior. We elaborate on key concepts, focusing on moral decision-making and emotion regulation in a developmental context, and brain network connectivity factors relating to amygdala (dys)function-factors which we suggest predispose to reactive aggression. We additionally discuss insights into the latest treatment interventions, providing the utilization of the scientific findings for practice.</p
Screening for psychopaths: a validation with norm scores of the Dutch psychopathic personality inventory-screening device
e current study reports validation results for the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) and its subscales, and for a newly developed PPI-Short Form (PPI-SF) in forensic and non-forensic populations. We also provide criterion refer- ence scores for the PPI and the PPI-SF. In Study 1, we used PPI data from 1,065 participants and supplementary PCL-R data from a subsample of 91 forensic offenders. Mokken scale analysis was used to construct the PPI-SF. In Study 2, PPI-SF and PCL-R data were collected from 60 participants. The study yielded promising but preliminary support for the construct validity of the PPI and the PPI-SF. The PPI-SF is of interest for risk assessment because of its (a) strong relationship with the PCL-R total score and (b) subscales known for their predictive value for violence and criminal recidivism
Grandparental support and maternal postpartum mental health: A review and meta-analysis
Purpose. Support from grandparents plays a role in mothers’ perinatal mental health. However, previous research on maternal mental health mainly focused on influences of partner support or general social support and neglected the roles of grandparents. In this narrative review and meta-analysis, the scientific evidence on the association between grandparental support and maternal perinatal mental health is reviewed. Methods. Searches in PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus, and PsycINFO yielded 11 empirical studies on N = 3381 participants, reporting on 35 effect sizes. A multi-level approach to meta-analysis was applied to test the association between grandparental support and maternal mental health. Results. The results showed a small, statistically significant association (r = .16; 95% CI: 0.09 - 0.25). A moderator test indicated that the association was stronger for studies reporting on support from the maternal grandmother in particular (r = .23; 95% CI: 0.06 - 0.29). Conclusion. Our findings suggest that involved grandparents, in particular mother’s own mother, constitute a protective factor for the development of maternal postpartum mental health problems. These findings have clear implications for interventions. Future studies should examine whether stimulating high-quality support from grandparents is a fruitful avenue for enhancing maternal postpartum mental health