Hostile attributional biases in severely aggressive adolescents

Article Abstract:

To evaluate relationships between different types of aggressive behavior and attributional biases (assuming hostile intentions on part of another), 128 boys from a maximum security prison for juvenile offenders were selected for study, and tested to assess the presence and severity of aggressive conduct disorder. Of the 75 percent of the boys who fully participated in the study, 47 percent were black, 4 percent were Hispanic, and 44 percent were white. Their average age was 16 years. Scripts were written to describe problematic social events, and adolescent actors were hired to act out four versions of each script on videotape. In each version, the intent of the antagonist was either hostile, accidental, prosocial or ambiguous. Study subjects were asked to imagine themselves as the protagonist in each video, and to attribute intent to the antagonist. After controlling for ethnic and sociodemographic factors, results demonstrated that the tendency to attribute hostile intent to peer antagonists was related to severity of conduct disorder and number of past crimes. Measures of reactive (interpersonal) aggression, including behaviors such as temper tantrums, negativity, irritability, and blaming of others, as well as measures of proactive (socially delinquent) aggression, including disruptive behaviors such as domination, boasting, teasing, and deliberate cruelty, were both shown to be related to hostile attributional biases. However, hostile attributional biases tended to play a more significant role in initiating angry, reactive aggression than in inciting proactive (anticipated) aggression. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Demographic aspects, Criminal behavior, Aggressiveness (Psychology) in adolescence, Adolescent aggressiveness, Status offenders

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Social information-processing patterns partially mediate the effect of early physical abuse on later conduct problems

Article Abstract:

A study of European American and African American children for lifetime episodes of physical abuse reveals that abuse during the first five years after birth leads to a fourfold greater risk for externalizing conduct problems in grades 3 and 4. This pattern is not explained by child effects or ecological factors. The hypothesis that the relationship between early physical abuse and later externalizing problems is partially mediated by social information-processing patterns was supported. The processing patterns investigated include encoding errors, hostile attributions, access to aggressive responses and positive evaluation of aggression.

Research, Child abuse, Behavior disorders in children, Childhood mental disorders, Social perception in children, Childhood social perception

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A formal cognitive model of the Go/No-Go discrimination task: Evaluation and implications

Article Abstract:

A formal cognitive model is proposed and tested for the go/no-go discrimination task in which the performer chooses whether to respond to stimuli, receives rewards for responding to certain stimuli and punishments for responding to others. An evaluation of three cognitive models shows that a cue-dependent model presupposing that participants can differentiate between cues was the most accurate and parsimonious.

Cognition, Reinforcement (Psychology), Individual differences, Individual differences (Psychology), Stimuli (Psychology)

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