Antisocial and aggressive behavior - Schonenberg & Justyte (2014) facial cues in antisocial violent offenders

13 important questions on Antisocial and aggressive behavior - Schonenberg & Justyte (2014) facial cues in antisocial violent offenders

How is the hostile attribution bias defined

As the incorrect decoding of change of facial expressions, which leads to hostile interpretation of emotions and intetions.

What is the research problem of this study

There is only weak evidence for the existence of hostile perception of others in neutral face interpretation.
aggressive individuals attribute hostile intent in ambiguous situations but there is no clear evidence if that holds true for facial cues.

What is the aim of present study

Aim of the present study is to achieve a deeper understanding of the hostile response bias by assessing response styles to ambiguous facial cues in population of antisocial violent offenders compared to matched control subjects.

the study wants to gain insight into the decision making process, by creating choice decision task in which individuals have to indicate the perceived intensity level of each displayed expression
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart

Which variables did this study assessed

Ambivalent facial stimuli (happy or angry expressions blended), specificity of hostile response bias and the response bias

What is expected if hostile response bias holds in this study

It is expected that participants show an angry response to the first 2 expression sets, no group difference in 3rd expression set and higher indication of intensity for angriness in the 4th set

What were the participants of this study

55 male antisocial violent offenders
55 control groups

How did they measure the aim of this study

- Buss perry aggresion questionnaire; 4 components of aggression

- mini international neuropsychiatric interview
- AVO (PPI-R); which assesses self reported psychopathic traits

- ambivalence task

What were the results of this study on the response bias

AVO tended to make more angry judgments on the angry happy as well as the angry fearful dimension .
This effect was most prominent in the ambivalent intensity levels

What were the results of perceived intensity ratings

Hostile response bias was associated with an enhanced perceived intensity of hostile information in the AVO as opposed to the control group

What is the discussion of this research

- control participants exhibit a less hostile interpretation when confronted with maximally ambiguous angry happy morphs, whereas AVO infer hostile intent from these facial expressions

hostile attribution bias depends on the presence of subtle angry faces features in presented stimuli

What does the developmental model posits

That attribution biased are universally acquired in early life, but children usually learn to make kind attributions which aids in regulationg the bias.

What does this study suggest in the discussion

That agressive individuals show reduced, rather than increased, sensitivity to facial signals of anger. This can be seen in the insentivity to unambiguous facial expressions displaying threat and make hostile attributions in ambigious social situation

What is the face perception bias

Is thought to represent a general precursor, which might stand relation with agressive behavior (modified by convention therapy or computer based training

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo