Gender differences in the correlates of reactive aggression

The main aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between four psychopathy dimensions (Interpersonal Manipulation, Callous Affect, Erratic Lifestyle, and Antisocial Behaviour) as well as childhood exposure to violence and reactive aggression in men and women. Participants were a sample of working adults (N = 319) recruited from the University of Security in Poznan. Results indicated that reactive aggression among males formed significant associations with Erratic Lifestyle, Interpersonal Manipulation, and childhood exposure to violence. Only one variable, Erratic Lifestyle, was a significant correlate of reactive aggression in females. These findings are discussed in light of theory and previous research findings. © 2015 Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee for Psychological Sciences

Best of Portland gives brief profiles of unusual people, places, and activities

Best of Portland gives brief profiles of unusual people, places, and activities in Greater Portland

Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives.

This review collates and examines critically a theoretically convergent but widely dispersed body of research on the influence of external environments on the functioning of families as contexts of human development. Investigations falling within this expanding domain include studies of the interaction of genetics and environment in family processes; transitions and linkages between the family and other major settings influencing development, such as hospitals, day care, peer groups, school, social networks, the world of work (both for parents and children), and neighborhoods and communities; and public policies affecting families and children. A second major focus is on the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course as these affect and are affected by intrafamilial processes. Special emphasis is given to critical research gaps in knowledge and priorities for future investigation. The purpose of this article is to document and delineate promising lines of research on external influences that affect the capacity of families to foster the healthy development of their children. The focus differs from that of most studies of the family as a context of human development, because the majority have concentrated on intrafamilial processes of parent-child interaction, a fact that is reflected in Maccoby and Martin's (1983) recent authoritative review of research on family influences on development. By contrast, the focus of the present analysis can be described as "once removed." The research question becomes: How are intrafamilial processes affected by extrafamilial conditions? Paradigm Parameters In tracing the evolution of research models in developmental science, Bronfenbrenner and Crouter (1983) distinguished a series of progressively more sophisticated scientific paradigms for investigating the impact of environment on development. These paradigms provide a useful framework for ordering and analyzing studies bearing on the topic of this review. At the most general level, the research models vary simultaneously along two dimensions. As applied to the subject at hand, the first pertains to the structure of the external systems that affect the family and the manner in which they exert their influence. The second dimension relates to the degree of explicitness and differentiation accorded to intrafamilial processes that are influenced by the external environment. External Systems Affecting the Family Research paradigms can be distinguished in terms of three different environmental systems that can serve as sources of external influence on the family. Mesosystem models. Although the family is the principal context in which human development takes place, it is but one of several settings in which developmental process can and do occur. Moreover, the processes operating in different settings are not independent of each other. To cite a common example, events at home can affect the child's progress in school, and vice versa. Despite the obviousness of this fact, it was not until relatively recently that students of development began to employ research designs that could identify the influences operating, in both directions, between the principal settings in which human development occurs. The term mesosystem has been use to characterize analytic models of this kind Exosystem models. The psychological development of children in the family is affected not only by what happens in the other environments in which children spend their time but also by what occurs in the other settings in which their parents live their lives, especially in a place that children seldom enter-the parents' world of work. Another domain to which children tend to have limited access is the parents' circle of friends and acquaintances-their social network. Such environments "external" to the developing person are referred to as "exosystems." The findings of investigations employing exosystem designs are reviewed below, in the section "Exosystem Models." 72