Aggression (Psychology)

The aim of the current study was to examine whether moral disengagement and defender self-efficacy at individual level and collective efficacy to stop peer aggression at classroom level were associated with defending and reinforcing in school bullying situations in late childhood. Self-reported survey data were collected from 1060 Swedish students from 70 classrooms in 29 schools. Multilevel analysis found that greater defender self-efficacy at individual level and collective efficacy to stop peer aggression at classroom level were associated with greater defending. We also found that greater moral disengagement and less (but very weakly) defender self-efficacy at individual level and less collective efficacy to stop peer aggression at classroom level were associated with greater reinforcing. The positive relationship between moral disengagement and reinforcing and the negative relationship between defender self-efficacy and reinforcing were less strong in classroom high in collecti...

Human communication can be characterized in terms of game theory as competing motivations in a social game in which one person desires “winning” in terms of obtaining compliance. Another theory, signal-detection theory posits that decision making takes place on a continuum of uncertainty in which many decision are made with complete certainty while others have higher levels of ambiguity and stress. The purpose of this case study is to explore the analysis of conflict escalation by a police detective with experience in domestic violence cases viewed a videotaped session depicting marital conflict in which a wife comes home after a long day at work only to criticize her partner for violating expectations of a good meal. The police detective was asked to stop the video at any time and to write down the verbal and nonverbal (NV) signals that people put out to indicate that conflict is escalating and that they may lash out. These signals are sometimes referred to as costly signals, a concept from evolutionary biology. A content analysis was done of verbal and nonverbal cues as well as the timing of the signals in terms of how often they were noticed. The case study presents a summary of the verbal (e.g., sarcasm) and nonverbal codes (e.g., contempt, breathing) that the detective noticed. Since the detective has expertise with conflict escalation, we argue that this case study sets up a standard of comparison for future research with peoples with various degrees of abuse in their abuse ranging from those who have suffered a great deal of verbal and physical abuse to those who have very little experience with coercive conflict tactics. Results are discussed in terms of game and signal detection theories from an evolutionary perspective.

From Hogwarts to the Boxing ring: Courage, creativity and psychological wellbeing.
In this public lecture Martin will be reflecting on psychological wellbeing and the ways in which it is
linked to courage and creativity. He will of course draw on insights from counselling psychology but
this will be supplemented by insights from a range of other areas, fields as diverse as the Harry Potter
stories, the sport of boxing and MMA and lesbian and gay psychology. Martin will explore and
question the place of such experiences as courage, risk, creativity and standardisation in relation to
psychological wellbeing in our age of ever increasing risk averseness.

The present study tests whether aggression and prosocial behavior can coexist as part of a socially functional and adaptive profile among early adolescents. Using a person-centered approach, the study examined early adolescents' likelihood of being classified into profiles involving aggressive and prosocial behavior, social status (popular, liked, cool), machiavellianism, and both affective and cognitive components of empathy (empathic concern and perspective taking, respectively).  Participants were 1170 early adolescents (10-12 years of age; 52% male) from four schools in metropolitan Santiago, Chile. Through latent profile analysis, three profiles emerged (normative-low aggressive, high prosocial-low aggressive, and high aggressive-high popular status). Both empathic concern and perspective taking were higher in the high prosocial-low aggressive profile, whereas the high aggressive-high popular status profile had the lowest scores on both empathy components as well as machiavellianism. No profile emerged where aggressive and prosocial behaviors were found to co-exist, or to be significantly above the mean. The results underscore that aggressive behavior is highly contextual and likely culturally specific, and that the study of behavioral profiles should consider social status as well as socio-emotional adjustment indicators. These complex associations should be taken into consideration when planning prevention and intervention efforts to reduce aggression or school bullying and to promote positive peer relationships.

The research explores the role of gender and temperament in explaining direct and indirect aggression in first-grade primary school pupils. It is precisely at this age that some forms of aggression - which have been tolerated previously - become unsuitable in the school context and in peer relations. Due to the complexity of the topic, direct and indirect aggression were taken as relevant forms of aggression. Research participants were 146 first-grade primary school pupils and four class teachers. In order to assess pupils? direct and indirect aggression we constructed the Scale for assessing aggression by the class teacher, and to assess pupils? temperament we used a modified Scale for assessing temperament by the class teacher. Research results have revealed that at this age boys exhibit a higher level of both direct and indirect aggression. In order to determine the predictive value of temperament for pupils? aggression, in addition to gender, the predictive model also included t...

Due to ongoing concerns about adolescent interpersonal aggression and debates surrounding violent media, this study assesses the potential impacts of parental mediation and parenting style on mature videogame play and fighting behaviors using a longitudinal, random-digit-dial survey of adolescents (N = 2,722). By simultaneously considering fighting, M-rated videogame play, parental restrictions on media use, parenting style, and important covariates, we aim to provide further nuance to existing work on risk and protective factors for interpersonal aggression. Our results show that parental restriction has a significant, linear relationship with later fighting, whereby higher restrictions on a child’s M-rated videogame play predict decreases in reported fighting behavior. Authoritative parenting, high in both warmth and supervisory attention, also relates to decreased levels of fighting compared to other styles. Parenting style also moderated the effects of restriction, such that restriction was not equally predictive of fighting behavior across all parenting styles. However, the association between restriction and fighting was similar for highly demanding parenting styles, suggesting that authoritative parenting is not inherently superior to authoritarian. The effects of restriction were significant despite controlling for multiple covariates. Parental restriction of media use may be an effective strategy for parents concerned about violent games. Given some limitations in our dataset, we call for continued study in this area.

Research often paints a dark portrait of power. Previous work underscores the links between power and self-interested, antisocial behavior. In this paper, we identify a potential bright side to power—namely, that the powerful are more likely to intervene when they witness workplace incivility. In experimental (Studies 1 and 3) and field (Study 2) settings, we find evidence suggesting that power can shape how, why, and when the powerful respond to observed incivility against others. We begin by drawing on research linking power and action orientation. In Study 1, we demonstrate that the powerful respond with agency to witnessed incivility. They are more likely to directly confront perpetrators, and less likely to avoid the perpetrator and offer social support to targets. We explain the motivation that leads the powerful to act by integrating theory on responsibility construals of power and hierarchy maintenance. Study 2 shows that felt responsibility mediates the effect of power on increased confrontation and decreased avoidance. Study 3 demonstrates that incivility leads the powerful to perceive a status challenge, which then triggers feelings of responsibility. In Studies 2 and 3, we also reveal an interesting nuance to the effect of power on supporting the target. While the powerful support targets less as a direct effect, we reveal countervailing indirect effects: To the extent that incivility is seen as a status challenge and triggers felt responsibility, power indirectly increases support toward the target. Together, these results enrich the literature on third-party intervention and incivility, showing how power may free bystanders to intervene in response to observed incivility.

Vor dem Hintergrund des demographischen Ungleichgewichts von Männern und Frauen in Asien beschäftigen sich diverse Autoren mit möglichen Konsequenzen eines Frauen- oder Männermangels, unter anderem für die Gewaltinzidenz in den betroffenen Gesellschaften oder Regionen. Allerdings präsentieren sich die bisherigen theoretischen Ansätze wie auch die empirische Evidenz als uneinheitlich. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über sozialwissenschaftliche und evolutionstheoretische Perspektiven auf die Fragestellung und versucht diese zu integrieren. Darüber hinaus werden empirische Befunde dargestellt und eingeordnet sowie eigene Projekte vorgestellt und Forschungsdesiderata formuliert.

Cultural differences in aggression are still poorly understood. The purpose of this article is to assess whether a tool for measuring aggression has the same meaning across cultures. Analyzing samples from Spain (n = 262), the United States (n = 344), and Hong Kong (n = 645), we used confirmatory factor analysis to investigate measurement invariance of the refined version of the Aggression Questionnaire (Bryant & Smith, 2001). The measurement of aggression was more equivalent between the Chinese and Spanish versions than between these two and the U.S. version. Aggression does not show invariance at the cultural level. Cultural variables such as affective autonomy or individualism could influence the meaning of aggression. Aggressive behavior models can be improved by incorporating cultural variables.

Past scientific investigations of paranormal/superstitious assertions have proven that they have no basis in objective reality. However, there have been a number of studies on the supposition that the full moon causes an increase in aberrant behaviors in human beings and although the studies with negative results seem to be preponderant, a handful have appeared with (questionable) positive results. In 2016 three instances of a “supermoon” occurred, wherein the moon’s perigee to the Earth was the closest. Several state penitentiaries were contacted and their records requested for during those periods. The supposed effect of a full moon would have presumably increased due to the increased proximity of the satellite yet no significant increase in violent behaviors were evident during the “supermoon.”

Resumen
En México la investigación sobre policías se sigue relacionando con aspectos críticos y negativos como la corrupción omitiendo la detección de necesidades psicológicas en los policías como el burnout y sus posibles consecuencias negativas como la agresividad. Por ello este trabajo explora la existencia de estas dos variables en policías ministeriales mexicanos con el objetivo de coadyuvar en el conocimiento de este colectivo en el país. Método: Investigación exploratoria, descriptiva y transversal basada en el estudio de casos de tres policías ministeriales mexicanos que contestaron el Inventario de Burnout de Maslach (Maslach y Jackson, 1981) y el Cuestionario de Agresividad (Buss y Perry, 1992). Resultados: De
acuerdo a los análisis descriptivos realizados se hallaron niveles medios-altos de burnout y algunos resultados contradictorios en los niveles de agresividad. Se interpretan los resultados a
la luz de los antecedentes teóricos disponibles sobre burnout en policías. Conclusiones: Al tratarse de un estudio exploratorio y no concluyente se sugiere que, desde una perspectiva de la psicología policial, se continúe investigando con el estudio del burnout en el sector policial para poder prevenir sus consecuencias indeseables como la agresividad.
Palabras clave: Burnout, agresividad, policía, mexicano.

Abstract
ABSTRACT
In Mexico research about police is still associated with critical and negative issues as corruption detection omitting psychological needs in the policemen as the presence of burnout and its negative consequences as aggressiveness. Therefore, this paper explores the existence of these two variables in Mexican judicial policemen in order to assist in the understanding of this group in the country. Method: exploratory, descriptive and transversal research based on case
studies of three Mexican judicial police who answered the  Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1981) and Aggression Questionnaire (Buss and Perry, 1992). Results: According to the descriptive analysis there were burnout medium-high levels and some contradictory levels of aggressiveness were found. Results were interpreted in light of the theoretical background available on burnout in police. Conclusions: Exploratory and inconclusive results of this work suggested that, from the perspective of police psychology, it is necessary more research of burnout in the police sector to prevent its undesirable consequences such as aggressiveness.
Keywords: Burnout, aggressiveness, policemen, Mexican.

The author examined the relation between anonymity and aggression in violent interpersonal assaults that occurred in Northern Ireland. Of the 500 violent attacks that the author studied, 206 were carried out by offenders who wore disguises to mask their identities. The findings revealed that significant positive relationships existed between the use of disguises and several measures of aggression. Disguised offenders inflicted more serious physical injuries, attacked more people at the scene, engaged in more acts of vandalism, and were more likely to threaten victims after the attacks. The author discussed these results within the framework of deindividuation theory.

Signal detection theory has evolutionary foundations in which our ancestors who were able to detect signals of aggression survived, while those who could not were extinguished. The purpose of this study is to examine the detection of conflict escalation signals in a domestic argument in a married couple as a consequence of history with prior victimization and perpetration of violence.  The purpose of this study is threefold: 1. escalation detection differences between a trained special victim’s detective and untrained individuals, 2. escalation detection for individuals with domestic violence victimization, and 3. physiological arousal during escalation detection.  A series of hypotheses and research questions tested untrained people’s signal detection abilities with a trained, special victim’s unit police investigator as a consequence of male and female-initiated conflict.  Untrained viewers reported fewer aggression signals than the police investigator.  A repeated measures general linear model using two measures of physiological arousal revealed significant effects on electrodermal activity while watching escalating conflict as a function of victimization history.  Results are discussed in terms of signal detection and excitation transfer theories towards explaining responses to escalating conflict.

This forthcoming (rewritten) paper argues for the significance of swearing as a different type of language (a "proto-language") - one that serves to project and express unbearable, pre-verbal frustration, fear and feelings about Life's struggle, as well as truly awesome beauty. It is pitched somewhere in the psyche as an intermediary between feeling and action, before thinking makes its mark as a modifying agent.

A detailed exploration of the various unconscious meanings of different types of swearing modes is undertaken, and swearing is revealed as a complex and important form of emotional communication, notwithstanding its basis in the "primitive" origins of infantile anxiety.
The paper - originally a conference presentation with audio and video excerpts - is currently being updated (from its pre HBO-Netflix original form) because times have changed significantly in the past decade re Swearing no longer being quite the taboo that it once was.
During "renovations" this draft for the conference presentation is being made available, temporarily, and comments are welcomed - although the audio-visual elements are absent, and some paragraphs are still in shorthand form.

One of the main concerns that has constantly been raised against video games is that most of the games feature aggressive elements. This has led many people to assert that this may have a detrimental effect on individuals who play such games. Despite continuing controversy for over 15 years, there has been little in the way of systematic research. This article reviews the empirical studies in this area, including research methodolo- gies such as the observation of free play, self-report methods, and experimental studies. The article argues that all the published studies on video game violence have methodological problems and that they only include possible short-term measures of aggressive conse- quences. The one consistent finding is that the majority of the studies on very young children—as opposed to those in their teens upwards—tend to show that children do become more aggressive after either playing or watching a violent video game. However, all of these come from the use of one particular research methodology (i.e., observation of children’s free play).

Background and aims: Our primary goal was to determine and compare the anger expression strategies used by players of the two most popular online games, League of Legends and Fortnite Battle Royale, as well as those used by non-gamers.

Methods: The study sample was comprised of 450 subjects, of whom 338 were males and 112 females. The sample was further divided into four groups: 1. Non-gamers; 2. League of Legends gamers; 3. Fortnite gamers; and 4. League of Legends and Fortnite gamers. Anger attributes were measured using the validated Hungarian version of the 20-item Anger Expression Scale (Oláh 1987; Spielberger, 1985). Multinomial Logistic Regression was used to analyze the role of age and gender of the subjects to predict whether subjects were non-gamers or gamers. Subjects were further assessed by employing the Anger Expression Scale, which determines Anger-In (turning anger inwards or suppressing anger) and Anger-Out (expressing anger outwardly) profiles of individuals. The Anger-In and Anger-Out variables were added to the model.

Results: Compared to League of Legends gamers, Fortnite gamers had a more passive (Anger-In) anger expression strategy. Fortnite and League of Legends gamers possessed a more passive anger expression strategy relative to nongamers.

Discussion and conclusion: Further research is needed to determine whether the games themselves have a determining influence on the gamers anger expression strategy, or whether the gamers personality and anger expression strategy predisposed them to choose one game over the other.

We explored the relationship between dimensions of the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5; Harkness &
McNulty, 1994) of the Adolescent Version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-A; Butcher
et al., 1992) and borderline personality features as measured by the adolescent version of the Personality
Assessment Inventory (PAI-A; Morey, 2007) in a sample of 606 adolescents from an inpatient setting. Multiple
regression analysis indicated that a combination of Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality, Disconstraint,
Introversion/Low Positive Emotionality and Aggressiveness accounted for 54% of the variance in the PAI-A
Borderline Features Scale. Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality emerged as the strongest predictor. Although
females demonstrated higher mean scores across all PAI-A Borderline Scales, multivariate multiple regression
within the path analysis framework revealed no marked gender differences in the relationships between PSY-5
predictors and borderline features. The combination of Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality and Aggressiveness
was most strongly predictive of affective instability, identity problems and negative relations. Self-harm was best
predicted by a combination of Disconstraint, Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality and Aggressiveness.

La conducta agresiva constituye un problema que afecta a los individuos y a la sociedad. El Modelo de Agresión General integra un conjunto de variables que influyen en la probabilidad de exhibir una conducta agresiva entre las cuales está la regulación emocional y la frustración. Esta investigación evalúa las relaciones entre la regulación emocional cognitiva y la intolerancia a la frustración. A 419 sujetos adultos se les administraron la Escala de Intolerancia a la frustración, la Escala de Regulación Emocional Cognitiva y el Cuestionario de Agresión. Se hallaron relaciones positivas en la mayoría de las estrategias desadaptativas cognitivas de regulación emocional y relaciones negativas entre la mayoría de las estrategias cognitivas adaptativas
de regulación emocional con la conducta agresiva, y relaciones positivas entre todas las dimensiones de la intolerancia a la frustración y la conducta agresiva. El Análisis de Regresión Múltiple muestra que las variables que producen un cambio significativo en la agresividad son la catastrofización y culpar a otros, así como la intolerancia a la frustración referida a derechos. Mediante path análisis se verificó que estas tres variables mencionadas permiten explicar un 41% de la variabilidad en la agresividad.

Negative emotions are usually avoided in daily life, yet often appreciated in artistic
endeavours. The present study investigated emotional experiences induced by Death Metal music with extremely violent themes, and examined whether enjoyment of this genre of music is associated with personality traits. Fans (N=48) and non-fans (N=97) listened to 60- second excerpts of Death Metal music and rated their emotional experiences. Compared with non-fans, fans experienced a wide range of positive emotions including power, joy, peace, and wonder. In contrast, non-fans reported uniformly negative experiences, including tension, anger and fear. Fans and non-fans were also distinguished by personality traits, with fans lower in conscientiousness and agreeableness, and in their motivations for listening to music. Results suggest that individuals with certain personality and music-listening motivations are drawn towards aggressive music with violent themes, and their enthusiasm for this genre promotes a range of positive emotional responses to this music.

""Largely based on pre-theory that ties high testosterone (T) to masculinity, and low T to femininity, high T is mainly studied in relation to aggression, mating, sexuality, and challenge, and low T with parenting. Evidence, however, fails to support this, and the social variability in T is better accounted for by a competition–
nurturance trade-off as per the Steroid/Peptide Theory of Social Bonds (van Anders et al., 2011). Four key domains are discussed: adult–infant interactions, sexual desire, sexual behavior, and partnering. Empirical engagements with gender/sex are shown to lead to important insights over assumptions about masculinity–femininity. Humans are discussed within a comparative framework that attends to cross species principles informed by human insights alongside human-specific particularities like social constructions, which are critical to evolutionary understandings of the social role of T. This paper thus integrates seemingly orthogonal perspectives to allow for transformative approaches to an empirically supported social phenomenology of T.""

In accordance with the social information processing model, how adolescents attribute cause to a particular social situation (e.g., bullying) they witness or participate in, influences their online social information processing, and hence, how they will act in the situation.
Objective 
The aim of the present study was to explore how older teenagers explain why bullying takes place at school, and whether there were any differences in explaining bullying due to gender.
Methods 
Two hundred and fifteen Swedish students in upper secondary school responded to a questionnaire. Mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative methods) were used to analyze data.
Results 
The qualitative analysis resulted in three main categories and nine subcategories regarding accounts of bullying causes. According to the findings, the youth explained bullying much more often with individualistic explanations (bully attributing and victim attributing) than non-individualistic explanations (social context attributing). Furthermore, girls tended to provide a greater number of bullying explanations and were more likely to attribute bullying causes to the bully and the victim, as compared to boys.
Conclusions 
The findings provide insights into older teenagers’ understanding of why bullying occurs in school. The study also identified some gender differences but also some mixed findings regarding gender differences in comparison with previous research with younger participants. The authors concluded that more research has to be done to investigate age and gender differences.

In a time characterized by wars, students and employees being shot at their desks, and corporate executives raiding pension funds, aggression has taken on considerable prominence in our society. Aggressive people capture our interest because they are the ones who desire to harm others. Considerable progress has been made in recent years in understanding the aggressive personality. Psychology now has a much better idea of the defensive cognitive processes that aggressive people use to create a false sense of rationality for their aggressive acts. This knowledge of defensive processes was used to design a new measurement system to identify aggressive individuals. The new measurement system is based on a ‘‘cover’’ task in the form of an inductive reasoning problem. The use of reasoning to cover the measurement of aggression is made possible because aggressive people use the illusion of rational analyses to create defenses for their harming of others. The measurement system builds on this process by constructing answers to inductive reasoning problems that are grounded in the same defensive, self-illusionary thinking that aggressive people use to rationalize harming others. Aggressive people tend to be drawn to these answers (the answers in the previous sentence). This is because people who habitually engage in creating falsely rational defenses find reasoning based on the same types of protective thinking to be logically compelling.

The aim of this study was to determine the difference of aggression and stress among the selected Handball and Basketball players. Also the study aimed to find the relationship between the stress and aggression among Handball and Basketball Players. Hundred participants (50 men Handball players and 50 men Basketball players) who participated in the intercollegiate championships of University of Calicut during the year 2021 with age ranging from 18 to 25 year were selected for the study. Independent t test was used to determine the difference of stress and Aggression among Handball and Basketball Players. Handball Players exhibited higher Stress than the Basketball Players (Mean and SD of Handball players was 48.50 & 1.31 and Mean of Basketball Players was 43.52 & 2.72). Handball players exhibited higher aggression than the basketball players (Mean and SD of Handball players was 12.88 & 3.66and Mean and SD of Basketball players was 10.88 & 2.68). Pearson Product Moment correlation was used to determine the relationship of stress and aggression among Handball and Basketball players. There was a significant relationship between stress and aggression among the Handball and Basketball Players

Findings offer evidence of the “Conductor Effect,” which posits that violent video game play extends an angry mood, leading to triggered displaced aggression. Triggered displaced aggression is when an already agitated person lashes out in response to a mild annoyance. In an experiment of 28 women, subjects who were induced into an angry mood and then played a violent video game were significantly more likely to displace their aggression more intensely after a triggering annoyance than those who were induced into a happy mood and played the game. We also found evidence of a gendered “Proteus Effect.” Subjects playing using male avatars during violent video game were more likely overall to displace their aggression more intensely following a trigger than those playing as female avatars. This effect was heightened in the angry mood induction condition. Results are discussed in relation to extensions to the model of triggered displaced aggression.

THE AFTERMATH of any major terrorist event brings with it blanket media coverage. The immediate questions address who might be responsible and which targets might be next. After a few days, the intensity of the coverage wavers, and with it, different kinds of inter- viewees are consulted. National security pundits and terrorism analysts welcome the reprieve, and are temporarily replaced by psychologists and other social scientists approached for a different kind of perspective. For these experts, the questions are as predictable as they are deceptive in their simplicity: ‘Why do you think they did it’ or ‘What causes someone to become a terrorist?’ Faced with what appears......

The paper focuses on the methods of identification of potentially aggressive persons. The results are based on studies of the signals from facial expressions and other relationships between human behavior and hostile intentions. The author of this article shows the issue of profiling offenders based on behavioral traces under analysis.