Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2024-04-24
Abstract： Aggressive behavior serves a certain adaptive function, which may directly manifest in the emotional experience of the aggressor. Numerous experimental studies have found that individual aggressive behavior can enhance positive emotions. The reinforcement model of aggression, from the perspective of group evolution, provides theoretical support for these findings, suggesting that throughout human evolution, aggressive behavior became intrinsically rewarding as it frequently became associated with external benefits. However, experimental studies may suffer from issues of ecological validity, as non-adaptive features of aggressive behavior tend to be more prominent in real-life situations. Baumeister and Campbell’s perspective, along with their proposed opponent-process theory, emphasizes the maladaptive effects of aggression on emotions. As trait aggression increases, negative emotions during aggressive episodes gradually diminish, and positive emotions gradually intensify. This study, grounded in the two aforementioned theories, investigated the impact of individual aggressive behavior on emotional experiences and the moderating role of trait aggression, both in laboratory and real-life settings./t/nIn Study 1, we recruited 170 college students for an experiment. Participants initially completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule(PANAS) to measure baseline emotions, then engaged in the Competitive Reaction-Time Task. After the task, participants reported their emotional experiences during successful noise blasts using PANAS and completed the Angry Aggression Scale. Hierarchical regression analysis was employed to examine the influence of aggressive behavior on emotions and the moderating effect of trait aggression. In Study 2, we recruited 154 college students for a 10-day, five times a day experience sampling measurement. During each measurement, participants reflected on their experiences in the last 30 minutes and completed the Aggression-ES-A along with measures of PANAS. Multi-level regression models were fitted to analyze the relationship between individual aggressive behavior and emotional experiences, as well as the cross-level moderating effect of trait aggression./t/nThe results of Study 1 indicated that aggressive behavior positively predicted individuals’ positive emotions and had no significant association with negative emotions. The moderating effect of trait aggression on the associations was not significant. The results of Study 2 revealed that in real-life situations, individual aggressive behavior negatively predicted positive emotions and positively predicted negative emotions. Trait aggression played a moderating role in the aforementioned associations, specifically manifesting as an increase in trait aggression was associated with a gradual increase in the slope of the former and a gradual decrease in the slope of the latter./t/nFrom the two studies, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) In laboratory situations, aggressive behavior has an adaptive impact on individuals’ emotional experiences, primarily by enhancing positive emotions. (2) In daily life, the impact of aggressive behavior on emotions exhibits non-adaptive characteristics, resulting in a reduction in positive emotions and an increase in negative emotions. Trait aggression moderates this effect, with an increase in trait aggression gradually eliminating the non-adaptive impact of aggressive behavior on emotions and beginning to reveal its positive impact on positive emotions. This study, from an emotional perspective, reflects the adaptive significance of aggression: at the laboratory level, aggressive activities can directly generate a pleasurable effect, and in real-life situations, with an increase in trait aggression, the pleasurable aspect of aggressive behavior begins to appear.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a personality disorder with pervasive disregard for and violation of the rights of others accompanied with high crime propensity. The formation of ASPD is affected by genetic and environmental factors, manifested in abnormalities in neurotransmitter and hormonal system, autonomic nervous system and brain structure and function. To a certain degree, these neurobiological characteristics may cause ASPD to exhibit poor inhibitory control, emotional dysfunction, disregard of punishment and reward dominance. Neurobiological evidence provides judicial implications, such as treatment, risk assessment, conviction and sentencing of ASPD offenders. More research is needed on the diagnostic classification criteria, evidence based practice and influencing factors of ASPD from the perspective of neurobiology.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Aggression is the act of intentionally causing direct harm to others, and can be divided into reactive aggression and proactive aggression. The occurrence of aggression has neurobiological basis. As a key brain area of emotion processing and learning, the amygdala is closely associated with aggression. The fight-flight mechanism model, the violence inhibition mechanism model and the fear dysfunction hypothesis emphasize the importance of the amygdala for aggression. Groups exhibiting aggressive or violent behaviors have structural deficits and dysfunctions in the amygdala, in which dysfunction manifests itself with two opposite abnormalities. In high-risk groups with reactive aggression, the amygdala has an enhanced response to threatening stimuli ('hot' response); whereas groups with proactive aggression, such as psychopathic individuals with callous-unemotional traits, exhibit diminished amygdala responses to threatening stimuli and others’ distress cues, as well as in sufficient activation of the amygdala during fear conditioning learning and moral decision-making ('cold' response). These dysfunctions impair the individuals’ normal levels of threat response, empathy, punishment avoidance and moral decision-making. Future research needs to focus on both population research and process research, pay more attention to the functions of the substructures of the amygdala, explore the neural network foundations of aggression, and explore effective means of violence prevention and intervention.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Aggression can make individuals produce positive emotions, that is, aggression has a pleasant effect. This is not only directly reflected in the individual’s emotional experience of aggressive behavior, but also reflected in the association between some personality traits and aggression. In addition, it is also supported by neuroimaging studies about aggression. The opponent-process theory and the reinforcement model of aggression explain the psychological causes of this effect from two different perspectives: individual’s change and group’s evolution. This effect can consolidate the pattern of individual’s aggressive behavior, which further enriches the meta-theoretical framework of aggressive behavior. The above analysis indicates that cathartic therapy should be used carefully in the intervention of people with high aggressive tendency, and suggests that there may be similarities in the psychological causes of aggressive behavior and addictive behavior. In the future, emotional measurement tools should be improved to clarify the dynamic changes of emotions during aggression. It is also necessary to further explore the influencing factors of aggression’s pleasant effect and improve the ecological validity of the research.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Narcissism is a component of “the dark triad” and it is closely related to maladaptive and even antisocial behaviors. Aggressive behavior is a typical anti-social behavior, and serious aggression constitutes violent crime. Narcissism is often divided into grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Aggression also has many subtypes, such as premeditated and impulsive aggression. Previous studies have shown that narcissists are aggressive, especially when facing provocation. On the one hand, narcissists feel threatened when they are challenged. To maintain their ego and eliminate threat, narcissists may show aggressive behavior, which is explained by the theory of threatened egotism. On the other hand, when challenged, narcissists also show strong negative emotions because of their inflated but fragile ego, leading to out-of-control behaviors and even triggering them to attack others, which is the so-called “narcissistic rage.” However, most studies are in the background of Western culture, and the participants are mainly college students. Most judicial field studies use questionnaires, and experimental studies to confirm the relation of narcissism and aggression are lacking. The mechanism how they operate is also unknown. Previous studies failed to make distinctions of the subtypes of narcissism and aggression, especially the subtype of vulnerable narcissism. To overcome the disadvantages of previous studies, this study explored the relationship between narcissism and aggression with a questionnaire in experiment 1 and analyzed the manipulating function of provocation with a competitive response time in experiment 2. In study 1, we administered the Narcissism Personality Inventory-13, Hypersensitivity Narcissistic Scale, The Trait Anger Scale, Entitlement Scale, and Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scales in 498 violence offenders to establish a structural equation model. Then, the significance of effects was examined using Bootstrap to explore the relationship between narcissism and aggression and its mechanisms. In study 2, we recruited 90 violent offenders for scenario-based experiment. Participants were randomly divided into a provocation group (n = 46) and a no-provocation group (n = 44). Participants in both groups completed the questionnaire for narcissism. Then, they finished the first stage to manipulate provocation. Participants were told to compete with another participant (a fake participant) in racing the speed of reactions. In the provocation group, participants lost the game and received negative feedback from their rivals; in the no-provocation group, participants won the game and received positive feedback from their rivals. Then, they completed the questionnaire for manipulation testing and measured negative affect and perceived threat for the mediating variables. Finally, they finished the second stage in which they could send their rivals’ noises, which can be considered as the aggressive indicator. Experiment 1 showed that narcissism can predict aggression and that the trait anger and entitlement play multiple mediating roles. Significant effects were found in the mediating paths of grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→trait anger→premeditated aggression, grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→trait anger→impulsive aggression, and grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→entitlement→premeditated aggression. However, the effect of the mediating path grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→entitlement→impulsive aggression was not significant. Compared with grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism was a stronger indicator of premeditated and impulsive aggression. Experiment 2 showed that under provocation, grandiose narcissism and aggression exhibited significant correlation. Meanwhile, perceived threat and negative affect served a mediating function. Grandiose narcissism cannot predict aggression behaviors if not provoked, but the mediating role of perceived threat was still significant. For vulnerable narcissism, the influence on aggression and the mediating role of perceived threat and negative affect were all significant whether provoked or not. The following conclusions can be obtained from the two experiments: (1) The association between narcissism and aggression was still effective in violent offenders in Chinese culture; (2) “Threatened egotism” and “Narcissistic rage” could explain the relationship between narcissism and aggression. In specific, “threatened egotism” could predict premeditated aggression rather than impulsive aggression, and “narcissistic rage” could predict both subtypes of aggression; and (3) Vulnerable narcissism was non-adaptive, exerting a larger effect size on aggression and a wider applicability compared with grandiose narcissism. Researchers should pay attention to the effects of vulnerable narcissism on maladaptive behaviors, such as aggression, and distinguish the subtypes of narcissism and aggression. Furthermore, the above results could be used in the prevention of crime and the management and correction of criminals by judicial practice departments.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Emotion is considered to be an important factor affecting aggressive behavior. According to emotion regulation theory, distressed people hope to improve their moods, and the motivation to use aggression to improve mood will increase aggressive behavior. In other words, the expectation of emotions is an important factor in the generation of aggressive behavior. Previous theories and studies mostly focused on the role of negative emotions such as anger in aggressive behavior. Recently, some researchers believe that positive affect plays an equally important role in aggression. Also, negative and positive affect are orthogonal, they should be studied separately. In addition, according to the purpose of aggression, it is often divided into premeditated/ proactive aggression and impulsive/reactive aggression, the mechanism between the two subtypes may exist differences. Finally, most of the previous studies used college students as participants, and the external validity is limited. The present study based on emotion regulation theory, selected violent offenders as participants to explore the role of negative/positive affect in proactive and reactive aggression with 2 studies. In study 1, we recruited 88 violent offenders for a scenario-based experiment. Participants were randomly divided into a reactive aggression group (n = 46) and a proactive aggression group (n = 42) in the adapted reaction time competition paradigm (Taylor Aggression Paradigm). Participants finished the first stage to manipulate types of aggression. Participants were told to compete with another participant (a fake participant) in racing the speed of reactions. In the reactive aggression group, participants lost the game and received negative feedback from their rivals; in the proactive aggression group, participants won the game and received positive feedback from their rivals. Then, they completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the questionnaire of emotion regulation motive. Finally, they finished the second stage in which they could send noises to their rivals, which can be considered as an aggressive indicator. Model 4 of Process in SPSS 23.0 was used to test the mediating role of emotion regulation motive between negative/positive affect and aggression. Participants finished PANAS after the second stage for study 2. Repeated measures ANOVA and regression analysis were used to test the change of emotion before and after aggression. Study 1 showed that the motivation to improve mood played a mediating role between negative emotion and proactive/reactive aggression, but the effect was not significant for positive emotion. Study 2 showed that positive emotions would increase after proactive and reactive aggression; reactive aggression could reduce negative emotions, while proactive aggression could increase negative emotions. The following conclusions can be obtained from the two experiments: (1) In a negative emotional state, violent offenders hope to improve their mood by conducting aggressive behavior. (2) Proactive and reactive aggression can increase the positive emotions of violent offenders, indicating that aggression can produce pleasure. (3) Reactive aggression can reduce negative emotions; proactive aggression can increase the negative emotions of violent criminals. The present study illustrates the relationship between emotion, especially positive emotion, and aggressive behavior in violent offenders. Aggression can produce pleasure, but it may also increase negative emotions, which in turn increases aggressive behavior, forming a feedback loop, which reflects the non-adaptive of aggressive behavior from the perspective of emotion. In practice, especially in prison, we should help individuals to learn a reasonable way to regulate their emotions, such as mindfulness.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2022-12-04
Abstract：
Aggression can make individuals produce positive emotions, that is, aggression has a pleasant effect. This is not only directly reflected in the individual’s emotional experience of aggressive behavior, but also reflected in the association between some personality traits and aggression. In addition, it is also supported by neuroimaging studies about aggression. The opponent-process theory and the reinforcement model of aggression explain the psychological causes of this effect from two different perspectives: individual’s change and group’s evolution. This effect can consolidate the pattern of individual’s aggressive behavior, which further enriches the meta-theoretical framework of aggressive behavior. The above analysis indicates that cathartic therapy should be used carefully in the intervention of people with high aggressive tendency, and suggests that there may be similarities in the psychological causes of aggressive behavior and addictive behavior. In the future, emotional measurement tools should be improved to clarify the dynamic changes of emotions during aggression. It is also necessary to further explore the influencing factors of aggression’s pleasant effect and improve the ecological validity of the research.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Personality Psychology submitted time 2021-10-23
Abstract： Emotion is considered to be an important factor affecting aggressive behavior. According to emotion regulation theory, distressed people hope to improve their moods，and the motivation to use aggression to improve mood will increase aggressive behavior. In other words, the expectation of emotions is an important factor in the generation of aggressive behavior. Previous theories and studies mostly focused on the role of negative emotions such as anger in aggressive behavior. Recently, some researchers believe that positive affect plays an equally important role in aggression. Also， negative and positive affect are orthogonal, they should be studied separately. In addition, according to the purpose of aggression, it is often divided into premeditated/ proactive aggression and impulsive/reactive aggression, the mechanism between the two subtypes may exist differences. Finally, most of the previous studies used college students as participants, and the external validity is limited. The present study based on emotion regulation theory, selected violent offenders as participants to explore the role of negative/positive affect in proactive and reactive aggression with 2 studies. In study 1, we recruited 88 violent offenders for scenario–based experiment. Participants were randomly divided into a reactive aggression group (n = 46) and a proactive aggression group (n = 42) in the adapted reaction time competition paradigm (Taylor Aggression Paradigm). Participants finished the first stage to manipulate types of aggression. Participants were told to compete with another participant (a fake participant) in racing the speed of reactions. In the reactive aggression group, participants lost the game and received negative feedback from their rivals; in the proactive aggression group, participants won the game and received positive feedback from their rivals. Then, they completed the Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the questionnaire of emotion regulation motive. Finally, they finished the second stage in which they could send their rivals’ noises, which can be considered as the aggressive indicator. Model 4 of Process was used to test the mediating role of emotion regulation motive between negative/positive affect and aggression. Participants finished PANAS after second stage for study 2. Repeated measures ANOVA and regression analysis were used to test the change of emotion before and after aggression. Study 1 showed that the motivation to improve mood played a mediating role between negative emotion and proactive/reactive aggression, but the effect was not significant for positive emotion. Study 2 showed that positive emotions would increase after proactive and reactive aggression; reactive aggression could reduce negative emotions, while proactive aggression could increase negative emotions. The following conclusions can be obtained from the two experiments: (1) In the negative emotions, violent offenders hope to improve their mood by conducting aggressive behavior. (2) Proactive and reactive aggression can increase the positive emotions of violent offenders, indicating that aggression can produce pleasure. (3) Reactive aggression can reduce the negative emotions; proactive aggression can increase the negative emotions of violent criminals. The present study illustrates the relationship between emotion, especially positive emotion and aggressive behavior in violent offenders. Aggression can produce pleasure, but it may also increase negative emotions, which in turn increases aggressive behavior, forming a feedback loop, which reflects the non-adaptive of aggressive behavior from the perspective of emotion. In practice, especially in prison, we should help individuals to learn a reasonable way to regulate their emotions，such as mindfulness. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Personality Psychology submitted time 2020-11-12
Abstract： Narcissism is a component of “the dark triad,” and it is closely related to maladaptive and even antisocial behaviors. Aggressive behavior is a typical anti-social behavior, and serious aggression constitutes violent crime. Narcissism is often divided into grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Aggression also has many subtypes, such as premeditated and impulsive aggression. Previous studies have shown that narcissists are aggressive, especially when facing provocation. On the one hand, narcissists feel threatened when they are challenged. To maintain their ego and eliminate threat, narcissists may show aggressive behavior, which is explained by the theory of threatened egotism. On the other hand, when challenged, narcissists also show strong negative emotions because of their inflated but fragile ego, leading to out-of-control behaviors and even triggering them to attack others, which is the so-called “narcissistic rage.” However, most studies are in the background of Western culture, and the participants are mainly college students. Most judicial field studies use questionnaires, and experimental studies to confirm the relation of narcissism and aggression are lacking. The mechanism how they operate is also unknown. Previous studies failed to make distinctions of the subtypes of narcissism and aggression, especially the subtype of vulnerable narcissism. To overcome the disadvantages of previous studies, this study explored the relationship between narcissism and aggression with a questionnaire in experiment 1 and analyzed the manipulating function of provocation with a competitive response time in experiment 2. In study 1, we administered the Narcissism Personality Inventory-13, Hypersensitivity Narcissistic Scale, The Trait Anger Scale, Entitlement Scale, and Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scales in 498 violence offenders to establish a structural equation model. Then, the significance of effects was examined using Bootstrap to explore the relationship between narcissism and aggression and its mechanisms. In study 2, we recruited 90 violent offenders for scenario-based experiment. Participants were randomly divided into a provocation group (n=46) and a no-provocation group (n=44). Participants in both groups completed the questionnaire for narcissism. Then, they finished the first stage to manipulate provocation. Participants were told to compete with another participant (a fake participant) in racing the speed of reactions. In the provocation group, participants lost the game and received negative feedback from their rivals; in the no-provocation group, participants won the game and received positive feedback from their rivals. Then, they completed the questionnaire for manipulation testing and measured negative affect and perceived threat for the mediating variables. Finally, they finished the second stage in which they could send their rivals’ noises, which can be considered as the aggressive indicator. Experiment 1 showed that narcissism can predict aggression and that the trait anger and entitlement play multiple mediating roles. Significant effects were found in the mediating paths of grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→ trait anger→ premeditated aggression (β=0.15, 95%CI[0.065,0.232]; β=0.24, 95%CI[0.151,0.335]), grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→ trait anger→ impulsive aggression (β=0.18, 95%CI[0.077,0.302];β=0.30,[0.195,0.400]), and grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→ entitlement→ premeditated aggression (β=0.03,95%CI[0.006,0.062]; β=0.04,95%CI[0.006,0.075]). However, the effect of the mediating path grandiose/vulnerable narcissism→ entitlement→ impulsive aggression was not significant (β=0.02,95%CI[-0.010,0.048]; β=0.02,95%CI[-0.013,0.052]). Compared with grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism was a stronger indicator of premeditated and impulsive aggression (Δβ=0.26, 95%CI [0.004, 0.503]; Δβ=0.37, 95%CI [0.104, 0.637]). Experiment 2 showed that under provocation, grandiose narcissism and aggression (β=0.50, 95%CI [0.230, 0.772]) exhibited significant correlation. Meanwhile, perceived threat (β=0.09, 95%CI [0.002, 0.233]) and negative affect (β=0.11, 95%CI [0.222, 0.253]) served a mediating function. Grandiose narcissism cannot predict aggression behaviors if not provoked (β=0.03, 95%CI [-0.250, 0.303]), but the mediating role of perceived threat was still significant (β=0.08, 95%CI [0.002, 0.186]). For vulnerable narcissism, the influence on aggression (β=0.31, 95%CI [0.083, 0.508]) and the mediating role of perceived threat (β=0.11, 95%CI [0.028, 0.222]) and negative affect (β=0.13, 95%CI [0.014, 0.281]) were all significant whether provoked or not. The following conclusions can be obtained from the two experiments: (1) The association between narcissism and aggression was still effective in violent offenders in Chinese culture; (2) “Threatened egotism” and “Narcissistic rage” could explain the relationship between narcissism and aggression. In specific, “threatened egotism” could predict premeditated aggression rather than impulsive aggression, and “narcissistic rage” could predict both subtypes of aggression; and (3) Vulnerable narcissism was non-adaptive, exerting a larger effect size on aggression and a wider applicability compared with grandiose narcissism. Researchers should pay attention to the effects of vulnerable narcissism on maladaptive behaviors, such as aggression, and distinguish the subtypes of narcissism and aggression. Furthermore, the above results could be used in the prevention of crime and the management and correction of criminals by judicial practice departments. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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