Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 2006. / Not embargoed. Vita. Bibliography: 90-100.

Dissertation (Ph.D) -- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 2006. / Vita. Bibliography: pp. 192-222.

Bakgrund: Beröring är en integrerad del av det mänskliga beteendet och kan öka välbefinnandet samt ge en stunds lugn och ro. Inom omvårdad har intresset för kompletterande och alternativa behandlingar ökat för att behandla demensrelaterade symtom, såsom agitation och aggressivitet. Expressiv beröring är av intresse då det är kostnadseffektivt och biverkningarna är få. Syfte: Att undersöka vilka effekter expressiv beröring har på agiterat och aggressivt beteende hos personer med demenssjukdom. Metod: Litteraturöversikt innehållande tio vetenskapliga artiklar med kvantitativ ansats. Artiklarna söktes i databaserna CINAHL, MEDLINE och PubMed. Resultat: I studierna där handmassage och akupressur erhölls minskade agitation och aggressivitet signifikant. I studier där mjukmassage och fotmassage erhölls framkom varierade resultatet och både minskningar och ökningar av agitation och aggressivitet sågs. Slutsats: Då inte alla studier var av tillräckligt hög kvalitet, var det svårt att dra slutsatser och generalisera resultatet om beröringens effekt. Det fanns dock en trend vad gäller minskat agiterat och aggressivt beteende när personer med demenssjukdom blev berörda. Klinisk betydelse: Kunskap och information om beröringens effekter för att minska agiterat och aggressivt beteende hos personer med demenssjukdom saknas. Att som sjuksköterska ha kunskap om beröringens effekter är därför av betydelse. / Background: Touch is an integral part of human behavior and can improve well-being and provide a moment of peace and quiet. In nursing, an interest in complementary and alternative therapies has increased to treat dementia-related symptoms, such as agitation and aggression. Expressive touch in the form of massage and acupressure are of interest since these treatments are cost-effective and side effects are limited. Aim: To examine the effects of expressive touch on agitated and aggressive behavior in people with dementia. Method: Literature review containing ten scientific articles with quantitative approach. Articles were searched in the databases CINAHL, MEDLINE and PubMed. Result: The findings demonstrate that when receiving hand massage and acupressure, agitation and aggression were significantly decreased. When soft massage and foot massage were received results varied, agitation and aggression both decreased and increased. Conclusion: Since not all studies were of adequate quality, it was difficult to draw conclusions and generalize the results of the power of touch. However, a trend in decreased agitated and aggressive behavior was observed when people with dementia were touched. Clinical significance: Knowledge and information about the effects of expressive touch to reduce agitated and aggressive behavior in people with dementia are missing. To have knowledge about the effects of touch are therefore of importance as a nurse.

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to examine retrospective experiences of bullying among a diverse sample of ethnic minority and lesbian, gay, and bisexual college students. This study examined the language that college students used to describe forms of peer aggression that they may have experienced or observed during their elementary, middle school, or high school years. The ways in which they made meaning of their experiences of peer aggression and interpreted effects of such experiences were assessed. The specific meanings that participants attached to the term `bullying' were also explored. This study attended to the influence of multicultural group memberships on language usage and meaning-making of peer aggression. Finally, this inquiry included an exploration of the impact of stigma upon assuming or avoiding personal identification as a victim of peer aggression. This qualitative investigation employed individual interviewing with college students in order to explore the primary research questions and utilized constructivist grounded theory methods and analysis. According to the results, issues of cultural identity and cultural context emerged as strong themes in this investigation. Peer aggression experienced by culturally diverse individuals often involved identity-specific peer interactions which occurred within or emerged out of cultural context. The implications of these results are that attending to culture and context may be crucial to gaining an understanding of the social worlds of minority-identified people and to developing more culturally relevant research and practice. The findings also support calls for continued research on the role of culture in the nature of and meanings associated with bullying. Moreover, the results indicated that the participants tended to minimize experiences and outcomes of bullying and to distance themselves from stigmatized victim identities. These factors may undermine constructions of bullying as a social problem and thus warrant further attention by claims-makers interested in drawing attention to this issue.

Coexistence among ecologically similar species is often facilitated through temporal or spatial partitioning mechanisms that reduce or eliminate direct interaction. However, in many communities exhibiting guild structure, wherein potential competitors may also prey on one another, sympatric relationships persist despite species' similar life history strategies, spatial and temporal restrictions imposed by ephemeral habitats, and resource limitations that promote competition and predation. To identify the ecological roles of species-specific behavioral patterns within aquatic guilds, I quantified larval intraspecific agonistic behavior among two species of intraguild (IG) predators, Ambystoma opacum and A. tigrinum, and their shared intraguild prey, A. maculatum. All species exhibited similar ontogenetic patterns of aggression, characterized by peaks of aggression early in development and subsequent gradual decreases through metamorphosis. However, the intensity of aggression varied considerably among guild species through development, as did behavioral responses to varying levels of ambient water temperature, invertebrate prey density, and presence of predatory odonate naiads. The observed patterns suggest that guild species, despite morphological and physiological similarities, exhibit unique behavioral responses through ontogeny and in response to habitat variables, suggesting that temporally staggered breeding phenologies have contributed to behavioral divergence among these sympatric congeners. However, in situ observations of larval behavior, although largely in agreement with laboratory results on timing of increased aggression, indicated that IG predators exhibited pond-level species partitioning and do not necessarily co-occur despite being regarded as sympatric. These results, taken together with observed species-specific impacts of IG predators on IG prey, suggest that ecologically similar IG predators exert widely differing predatory pressure on shared prey, and that similarities among guild species may ultimately result in habitat partitioning across local scales.

This study examined the role of birth complications, delinquent peers and siblings, and specific dopamine receptors on the development of externalizing behavior in children and adolescents, along with the role of heritability in aggression and delinquency. Specifically, it was hypothesized that increased birth complications, presence of specific dopamine receptor (DRD2 and DRD4) risk alleles, and delinquent peers or siblings would be related to increased externalizing behavior at follow-up. The sample consisted of 65 twin pairs, aged six to 16 (mean age = 9.06 years) who originally participated in the Southern Illinois Twins and Siblings Study (SITSS) at age five. Significant results were found for the stability of aggression from age five to follow-up and heritability of parent-rated aggression and delinquency measures was shown. Presence of delinquent peers or siblings was positively related to aggressive and delinquent behavior. Those with more delinquent peers and with the DRD2 risk allele were rated as more delinquent. In contrast, those without the DRD4 risk allele were also rated as more delinquent. Presence of birth complications was positively related to aggressive and delinquent behavior ratings by parents at follow-up. However, birth complications were negatively related to delinquency on youth-rated measures. Finally, those with fewer complications and more delinquent siblings engaged in more reported delinquent behavior. The present study provided important information concerning the effects of birth complications, delinquent peers and siblings, and specific dopamine receptors on the development of externalizing behavior in children and adolescents, along with the role of heritability in aggression and delinquency.

Research into the origins of our own social behavior begins with understanding how environmental elements lead to complex social interaction. Social structure emerges from these interactions as a bottom-up process, whose patterning constitutes the very framework of a society. Studies of behavioral mechanisms are important in determining the full repertoire that results in the social and dominance structures of a species. Hormones such as oxytocin and cortisol facilitate and fluctuate in response to social interactions and measuring their relative values among individuals is a valuable tool in testing functional hypotheses of behavioral mechanisms. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate several fundamental, under-, or previously unstudied behavioral mechanisms and hormonal correlates that shape the unique social system of bonobos. The first study describes the pattern of expression of harassment behavior among immatures and tests predictions generated by the Exploratory Aggression and Rank Improvement hypotheses. Results demonstrate that immatures use harassment to test the nature of existing inter-individual relationships and to explore the parameters of aggressive behaviors and furthers our understanding of juvenile development of aggression and integration into the dominance hierarchy. The second study describes the pattern of occurrence of infant handling and tests predictions generated by several functional hypotheses, including examining the relationship between oxytocin and handling behaviors. Results show a significant sex difference in expression of handling where, during adolescence, male interest in infants sharply declines whereas females continue to handle infants, the expression of which was correlated with oxytocin. These results primarily support the Learning-to-Mother hypothesis and provide insight into the role oxytocin may play in facilitating care-giving behaviors in young females. The final study explores the patterning of female sexual behavior and male aggression, and investigates whether male constraint of female choice imposes a cost to females through induction of a stress response. Results show that while females exercise unconstrained mate choice through proceptive behaviors, males influence female receptivity through aggression and sexual coercion, shedding light on the degree to which rank related asymmetry in male mating success reflects female choice vs. constraint of choice. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished co-authored material.

The primary objective of the current study involved examining the influence of psychopathy on aggression and antisocial behavior. Reports of parental attachment, peer relationships, and exposure to community violence were examined as potential moderators of these relationships. Parental attachment styles and peer delinquency were also assessed with respect to the outcomes. A total of 172 students at a Midwestern college participated. Parental attachment, peer attachment, and exposure to community violence were not significant moderators between psychopathy and the outcome variables. Peer delinquency and exposure to community violence were both predictors of aggression; however, only peer delinquency was a predictor of antisocial behavior. Moreover, there was a significant group difference between those with secure attachment and the other attachment styles with respect to scores for aggression. These findings have implications for prevention and intervention strategies for the community. However, potential problems with data collection and experimental design are discussed. Additional research needs to be performed to determine directional and causal mechanisms of the relationships found in this study.

Text in Afrikaans / The aim of this study was to determine the value of Gestalt Play Therapy with the aggressive child in middle childhood. Literature regarding the different etiological theories on aggression, as well as the physical, cognitive, emotional, social and moral development of the aggressive child in his middle childhood was explored. The main concepts in Gestalt Play Therapy were discussed, followed by an outline of an intervention programme with the aggressive child in middle childhood in order to set objectives and establish a structure for the case study. The empirical part of the study was divided into a qualitative component consisting of the case study and unstructured interviews with the parent and teacher of the participant, while the participant's level of aggression before and after intervention was determined quantitatively by means of the Aggression Questionnaire of Buss and Perry. Analysis of the results showed a reduction in the level of anger, verbal and physical aggression and hostility of the participant. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Spelterapie)

abstract: Negative behaviors targeting gay men and lesbians range from violent physical assault to avoiding social or physical contact, with very different implications for those targeted. However, existing theoretical accounts of sexual prejudices are unable to differentially predict these various behaviors, leaving a large theoretical hole in the literature and hindering the design of effective interventions. I propose (a) that homosexuality and pro-gay ideology are conceptualized by many lay persons as contaminants analogous to infectious diseases and (b) that anti-gay behaviors can thus be viewed as strategic attempts to prevent, contain, treat, or eradicate the "pathogens" of homosexuality and pro-gay ideology. In three preliminary studies I demonstrate that sexually prejudiced individuals do view homosexuality and pro-gay ideology as contagious, and that sexually prejudiced people report being more likely to engage in aggressive (versus avoidant) anti-gay behavior in conditions that predict an aggressive pathogen-combating response – highly interconnected social networks. The current study explores the effect of a social network manipulation on actual behavioral responses to a gay (versus straight) interaction partner. In this study I show that sexually prejudiced participants engage in more aggression towards a gay partner compared to a straight partner under a highly interconnected network manipulation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2015