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 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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