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Cultural generality versus specificity of media violence effects on aggression was examined in seven countries (Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania, the United States). Participants reported aggressive behaviors, media use habits, and several other known risk and protective factors for aggression. Across nations, exposure to violent screen media was positively associated with aggression. This effect was partially mediated by aggressive cognitions and empathy. The media violence effect on aggression remained significant even after statistically controlling a number of relevant risk and protective factors (e.g., abusive parenting, peer delinquency), and was similar in magnitude to effects of other risk factors. In support of the cumulative risk model, joint effects of different risk factors on aggressive behavior in each culture were larger than effects of any individual risk factor.
Converging evidence emphasizes the role of an interaction between monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype, environmental adversity, and sex in the pathophysiology of aggression. The present study aimed to clarify the impact of this interaction on neural activity in aggression-related brain systems. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 125 healthy adults from a high-risk community sample followed since birth. DNA was genotyped for the MAOA-VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats). Exposure to childhood life stress (CLS) between the ages of 4 and 11 years was assessed using a standardized parent interview, aggression by the Youth/Young Adult Self-Report between the ages of 15 and 25 years, and the VIRA-R (Vragenlijst Instrumentele En Reactieve Agressie) at the age of 15 years. Significant interactions were obtained between MAOA genotype, CLS, and sex relating to amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) response, respectively. Activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during emotional face-matching increased with the level of CLS in male MAOA-L, while decreasing in male MAOA-H, with the reverse pattern present in females. Findings in the opposite direction in the ACC during a flanker NoGo task suggested that increased emotional activity coincided with decreased inhibitory control. Moreover, increasing amygdala activity was associated with higher Y(A)SR aggression in male MAOA-L and female MAOA-H carriers. Likewise, a significant association between amygdala activity and reactive aggression was detected in female MAOA-H carriers. The results point to a moderating role of sex in the MAOAx CLS interaction for intermediate phenotypes of emotional and inhibitory processing, suggesting a possible mechanism in conferring susceptibility to violence-related disorders.
Several personality dispositions with common features capturing sensitivities to negative social cues have recently been introduced into psychological research. To date, however, little is known about their interrelations, their conjoint effects on behavior, or their interplay with other risk factors. We asked N = 349 adults from Germany to rate their justice, rejection, moral disgust, and provocation sensitivity, hostile attribution bias, trait anger, and forms and functions of aggression. The sensitivity measures were mostly positively correlated; particularly those with an egoistic focus, such as victim justice, rejection, and provocation sensitivity, hostile attributions and trait anger as well as those with an altruistic focus, such as observer justice, perpetrator justice, and moral disgust sensitivity. The sensitivity measures had independent and differential effects on forms and functions of aggression when considered simultaneously and when controlling for hostile attributions and anger. They could not be integrated into a single factor of interpersonal sensitivity or reduced to other well-known risk factors for aggression. The sensitivity measures, therefore, require consideration in predicting and preventing aggression.
Several personality dispositions with common features capturing sensitivities to negative social cues have recently been introduced into psychological research. To date, however, little is known about their interrelations, their conjoint effects on behavior, or their interplay with other risk factors. We asked N = 349 adults from Germany to rate their justice, rejection, moral disgust, and provocation sensitivity, hostile attribution bias, trait anger, and forms and functions of aggression. The sensitivity measures were mostly positively correlated; particularly those with an egoistic focus, such as victim justice, rejection, and provocation sensitivity, hostile attributions and trait anger as well as those with an altruistic focus, such as observer justice, perpetrator justice, and moral disgust sensitivity. The sensitivity measures had independent and differential effects on forms and functions of aggression when considered simultaneously and when controlling for hostile attributions and anger. They could not be integrated into a single factor of interpersonal sensitivity or reduced to other well-known risk factors for aggression. The sensitivity measures, therefore, require consideration in predicting and preventing aggression.
BACKGROUND: Aggressive behavior at an early age is linked to a broad range of psychosocial problems in later life. That is why risk factors of the occurrence and the development of aggression have been examined for a long time in psychological science. The present doctoral dissertation aims to expand this research by investigating risk factors in three intrapersonal domains using the prominent social-information processing approach by Crick and Dodge (1994) as a framework model. Anger regulation was examined as an affective, theory of mind as a cognitive, and physical attractiveness as an appearance-related developmental factor of aggression in middle childhood. An additional goal of this work was to develop and validate a behavioral observation assessment of anger regulation as past research lacked in ecologically valid measures of anger regulation that are applicable for longitudinal studies.
METHODS: Three empirical studies address the aforementioned intrapersonal risk factors. In each study, data from the PIER-project were used, a three-wave-longitudinal study covering three years with a total sample size of 1,657 children in the age between 6 and 11 years (at the first measurement point). The central constructs were assessed via teacher-reports (aggression), behavioral observation (anger regulation), computer tests (theory of mind), and independent ratings (physical attractiveness). The predictive value of each proposed risk factor for the development of aggressive behavior was examined via structural equation modeling.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The newly developed behavioral observation measure was found to be a reliable and valid tool to assess anger regulation in middle childhood, but limited in capturing a full range of relevant regulation strategies. That might be the reason, why maladaptive anger regulation was not found to function as a risk factor of subsequent aggressive behavior. However, children’s deficits in theory of mind and a low level in physical attractiveness significantly predicted later aggression. Problematic peer relationships were identified as underlying the link between low attractiveness and aggression. Thus, fostering children’s skills in theory of mind and their ability to call existing beliefs about the nature of more versus less attractive individuals into question may be important starting points for the prevention of aggressive behavior in middle childhood.
Background: Aggression is a severe behavioral problem that interferes with many developmental challenges individuals face in middle childhood and adolescence. Particularly in the peer and in the academic domain, aggression inhibits the individual from making important learning experiences that are predictive for a healthy transition into adulthood. Furthermore, the resulting developmental deficits have the propensity to feedback and to promote aggression at later developmental stages. The aim of the present PhD thesis was to investigate pathways and processes involved in the etiology of aggression by examining the interrelation between multiple developmental problems in the peer and in the academic domain. More specifically, the relevance of affiliation with deviant peers as a driving mechanism for the development of aggression, factors promoting the affiliation with deviant peers (social rejection; academic failure), and mechanisms by which affiliation with deviant peers leads to aggression (external locus of control) were investigated.
Method: The research questions were addressed by three studies. Three data waves were available for the first study, the second and third study were based on two data waves. The first study specified pathways to antisocial behavior by investigating the temporal interrelation between social rejection, academic failure, and affiliation with deviant peers in a sample of 1,657 male and female children and adolescents aged between 6 and 15 years. The second study examined the role of external control beliefs as a potential mediator in the link between affiliation with deviant peers and aggression in a sample of 1,466 children and adolescents in the age of 9 to 19 years, employing a half-longitudinal design. The third study aimed to expand the findings of Study 1 and Study 2 by examining the differential predictivity of combinations of developmental risks for different functions of aggression, using a sample of 1,479 participants in the age between 9 and 19 years. First, profiles of social rejection, academic failure, and affiliation with deviant peers were identified, using latent profile analysis. Second, prospective pathways between risk-profiles and reactive and proactive aggression were investigated, using latent path analysis.
Results: The first study revealed that antisocial behavior at T1 was associated with social rejection and academic failure at T2. Both mechanisms promoted affiliation with deviant peers at the same data wave, which predicted deviancy at T3. Furthermore, both an indirect pathway via social rejection and affiliation with deviant peers and an indirect pathway via academic failure and affiliation with deviant peers significantly mediated the link between antisocial behavior at the first and the third data wave. Additionally, the proposed pathways generalized across genders and different age groups. The second study yielded that external control beliefs significantly mediated the link between affiliation with deviant peers and aggression, with affiliation with deviant peers at T1 predicting external control beliefs at T2 and external control beliefs at T1 predicting aggressive behavior at T2. Again, the analyses provided no evidence for gender and age specific variations in the proposed pathways. In the third study, three distinct risk groups were identified, made up of a large non-risk group, with low scores on all risk measures, a group characterized by high scores on social rejection (SR group), and a group with the highest scores on measures of affiliation with deviant peers and academic failure (APAF group). Importantly, risk group membership was differentially associated with reactive and proactive aggression. Only membership in the SR group at T1 was associated with the development of reactive aggression at T2 and only membership in the APAF group at T1 predicted proactive aggression at T2. Additionally, proactive aggression at T1 predicted membership in the APAF group at T2, indicating a reciprocal relationship between both constructs.
Conclusion: The results demonstrated that aggression causes severe behavioral deficits in social and academic domains which promote future aggression by increasing individuals’ tendency to affiliate with deviant peers. The stimulation of external control beliefs provides an explanation for deviant peers’ effect on the progression and intensification of aggression. Finally, multiple developmental risks were shown to co-occur within individuals and to be differentially predictive of reactive and proactive aggression. The findings of this doctoral dissertation have possible implications for the conceptualization of prevention and intervention programs aimed to reduce aggression in middle childhood and adolescence.
Objective: This study examined the sustained efficacy of a media violence intervention in reducing media violence use, normative acceptance of aggression, and aggressive behavior in adolescents. It used an experimental design to evaluate the effects of the intervention over a period of 30 months. Method: N = 627 German 7th and 8th graders were assigned to a 5-week school-based intervention to reduce media violence use or to a no-intervention control group. Media violence use, normative acceptance of aggression, and aggressive behavior were measured 3 months before the intervention (T1), 7 months post intervention (T2), and at 2 follow-ups 18 (T3) and 30 (T4) months after the intervention. This article focuses on the findings from the 2 follow-ups. Results: Controlling for baseline levels and various demographic covariates, media violence use at T2, T3, and T4 and self-reported physical aggression at T3 were significantly lower in the intervention group, and the indirect path from the intervention to T3 aggression via T2 media violence use was significant. Lower T2 media violence use predicted lower T3 normative acceptance of aggression among participants with lower initial aggression. No effects on nonviolent media use and relational aggression were observed. Conclusion: The findings show that a short class-based intervention can produce lasting changes in media violence use that are linked to a decrease in aggression.
An observational measure of anger regulation in middle childhood was developed that facilitated the in situ assessment of five maladaptive regulation strategies in response to an anger-eliciting task. 599 children aged 6-10 years (M = 8.12, SD = 0.92) participated in the study. Construct validity of the measure was examined through correlations with parent- and self-reports of anger regulation and anger reactivity. Criterion validity was established through links with teacher-rated aggression and social rejection measured by parent-, teacher-, and self-reports. The observational measure correlated significantly with parent- and self-reports of anger reactivity, whereas it was unrelated to parent- and self-reports of anger regulation. It also made a unique contribution to predicting aggression and social rejection.
The Girls Set the Tone: Gendered Classroom Norms and the Development of Aggression in Adolescence
(2015)
In a four-wave longitudinal study with N = 1,321 adolescents in Germany, we examined the impact of class-level normative beliefs about aggression on aggressive norms and behavior at the individual level over the course of 3 years. At each data wave, participants indicated their normative acceptance of aggressive behavior and provided self-reports of physical and relational aggression. Multilevel analyses revealed significant cross-level interactions between class-level and individual-level normative beliefs at T1 on individual differences in physical aggression at T2, and the indirect interactive effects were significant up to T4. Normative approval of aggression at the class level, especially girls' normative beliefs, defined the boundary conditions for the expression of individual differences in aggressive norms and their impact on physically and relationally aggressive behavior for both girls and boys. The findings demonstrate the moderating effect of social norms on the pathways from individual normative beliefs to aggressive behavior in adolescence.
This commentary argues that, rather than providing an "exhaustive review," Elson and Ferguson (2013) discuss a selective sample of empirical studies on violent video game use which corroborate their claim that there is no systematic evidence for a link between violent video game play and aggression. In evaluating the evidence, the authors portray a biased picture of the current state of knowledge about media violence effects. They fail to distinguish between aggression and violence and between everyday and clinical forms of aggression. Furthermore, they misrepresent key constructs, such as mediation, moderation, and external validity, to discredit methodologies used to assess aggression and media violence use. The paper moves the debate backward rather than forward, falling behind existing meta-analytic studies that consider a much wider and more balanced range of studies.