Previous research supports the idea that individuals high in trait anger tend to experience more hostile attribution bias. According to the Integrative Cognitive Model, cognitive factors, such as rumination, may increase the risk of hostile attribution bias and any subsequent aggressive behaviors. Sex differences are apparent in rumination and anger expression. The present research explored the potential role trait rumination plays in hostile attribution bias as well as potential conditional effects of sex on this relationship. Participants were asked to complete a number of self-report measures and vignettes of ambiguously hostile situations adapted to improve reliability. Hypotheses were largely supported and trait anger rumination was significantly predictive of hostile attribution bias; however, conditional effects of sex were non-significant. The adapted hostile attribution bias measure had improved reliability and may have utility for a survey-based method to assessing hostile attribution bias. Findings may further our understanding of hostile interpretations and potential for subsequent aggressive behaviors in high trait ruminators in ambiguous situations as well as lead to potential areas of intervention to reduce anger and anger rumination.

Hostile attribution of intent (HAI) is a social information processing pattern that reflects a distorted interpretation of ambiguous social situations as overly negative, personal, and aggressive, leading to further aggression. Previous research has documented the existence of HAI in connection with relational aggression among adolescent girls, but little is known about the role of HAI and physical aggression in this population. This qualitative study explored the experiences of adolescent girls involved in physical fights with another girl in order to determine the types of provocation that led to physical aggression. Participants were 11 girls, ages 15 to 17 years, and 7 parent participants of the girls. School disciplinary records were used to identify participants for the study. All girls who had a disciplinary record for engaging in a physical fight with another female student were invited to participate. A semi-structured interview was conducted, and the parents were given a single-question survey related to socioeconomic status. Data were analyzed using Consensual Qualitative Research as described by Hill, Thompson, and Williams (1997). The study participants reported that relational provocations, such as “talking mess” and “mean mugging,” led to physical aggression. They also noted that the type of help offered by adults to reduce conflict was not effective. Many participants reported receiving messages from adults implying it was acceptable to fight, provided that the participant won the fight. Finally, participants reported that disrespect is an acceptable and expected reason to get into a physical fight. / text

Background: The long-term detrimental impact of childhood emotional maltreatment is being increasingly recognised in the empirical literature. Adulthood trait-aggression is one proposed outcome of childhood emotional maltreatment. However, the pathways by which emotional maltreatment leads to trait-aggression are not well understood. Method: A systematic review was conducted to appraise the current empirical evidence base regarding the relationship between childhood emotional maltreatment and adulthood trait-aggression. Eighteen studies were reviewed and their quality analysed based on a number of pre-defined criteria. An empirical study was conducted using a cross-sectional, survey based design to evaluate hostile attribution bias and emotion regulation difficulties as mediators between childhood emotional maltreatment and adulthood trait-aggression. Participants were men (N = 42) recruited from NHS Forensic Mental Health Services. Results: Results from the systematic review provided support for a positive and significant association between childhood emotional abuse and adulthood traitaggression. There was evidence to indicate that childhood emotional neglect was also positively associated with adulthood trait-aggression, however, only a small number of studies have examined this relationship. The empirical study found significant indirect effects of childhood emotional abuse on self-reported aggression through emotion regulation difficulties. Emotion regulation difficulties did not have a significant effect on the relationship between childhood emotional neglect and aggression. Hostile attribution bias was not found to significantly mediate the relationship between either emotional abuse and aggression or emotional neglect and aggression. Conclusion: Those who experience emotional maltreatment during childhood may be at increased likelihood of engaging in aggressive behaviour in adulthood. Emotion regulation difficulties may play a key role in the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and aggression and this should be taken into consideration when assessing and treating adults who have difficulties with aggression. The routes by which emotional neglect and emotional abuse lead to aggression may differ. Further research is required to better understand the processes which lead from emotional maltreatment to aggression, particularly with regards to emotional neglect.

Children’s social information processing (SIP) encompasses cognitive and behavioral sequence that underlies social responses. SIP in peer interactions is well studied. Less is known about SIP in mother-child interchanges. Youth who show one SIP pattern a hostile attribution of intent (HAI) bias—in peer interactions consistently exhibit externalizing symptoms. This relationship is less consistently observed for HAI biases toward mothers. I hypothesized that this inconsistent association reflects moderating factors; specifically, engaging in foundational parenting practices (monitoring/supervision, consistent discipline) would weaken the relationship between HAI biases toward mothers and externalizing behaviors. Logistic regression yielded limited support for hypotheses. Consistent discipline predicted externalizing behaviors in some contexts; however, moderator effects were not detected. Isolated parenting practices thus may not buffer against the risk of externalizing behaviors linked to HAI biases toward mothers. Future research might examine how different HAI biases (peer, mother, etc.) related to each other and outcome variables.

Research on factors that contribute to the forms and functions of aggression (reactive, proactive, relational, and overt) is important for informing intervention efforts with aggressive youth. Previous research shows that aggressive youth often have cognitive and social deficits associated with their aggressive behavior. For example, aggressive youth may exhibit deficits in social variables such as social intelligence (i.e., the understanding of behaviors of people and ability to predict outcomes of situations). Hypothetically, this lack of social intelligence may be related to how youth interpret social situations, and could conceivably lead to hostile attributional bias, or the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as hostile. The main purpose of this study was to examine whether HAB mediated the relationship between social intelligence and reactive relational aggression in a sample of detained adolescent boys (ages 12-18). The results failed to support this hypothesis. Supplemental analyses explored whether HAB moderated the relationship between social intelligence and the subtypes of aggression, but results were not consistent with this hypothesis.

There is increasing recognition that contextual aspects of social situations are important determinants of children's social information processing. While it is generally accepted that friends influence children's social behavior, the immediate influence of a friend in specific conflict situations is less understood. Contextualized vignettes depicting hypothetical peer conflict situations were developed to examine the impact of situational context, namely a friend's suggested attribution and an antagonist action cue, on students' social information processing. A repeated measures design examined the proximal influence of situational context on 4th and 5th grade students' (N=367) own intent attributions, emotional reactions, and response evaluations to hypothetical peer conflict scenarios. Results indicated that situational context is important to students' social cognition. Students adjusted their social cognition and emotion in response to cues to an antagonist's intent and were influenced by a friend's comments during peer conflict scenarios. Students' responses were more aligned with the antagonist's action than a friend's suggested attribution. However, a friends' attribution was influential in situations where it conflicted with the antagonist's action. Results of this study help to increase knowledge regarding the context of social cognition and can assist in the development of more ecologically valid social skill interventions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of hostile attribution style (HAS) on the processes linking job stressors and CWB. Self and peer data were collected via online questionnaires from employed participants recruited from undergraduate classes and non-student employees. Using data from 147 dyads of employees and coworkers, the effects of HAS on three areas were examined: the influence of HAS on the appraisal of psychosocial (incivility, interactional justice, and interpersonal conflict) and nonsocial (organizational constraints and workload) stressors; HAS as a moderator of the link between stressors and CWB; and HAS as mediator of the link between CWB and the individual difference variables of negative affectivity (NA), trait anger, and Machiavellianism. Regarding appraisals, HAS was more strongly related to psychosocial stressors than to workload (nonsocial stressor). However, results regarding the comparisons of the HAS-psychosocial stressor correlations with the HAS-organizational constraints (nonsocial stressor) correlations were mixed. Moreover, contrary to what was hypothesized, correlations of HAS with interpersonal constraints and job context constraints were not significantly different in magnitude. HAS was shown to moderate the relationship between CWB and the stressors of interpersonal conflict and organizational constraints. Individuals high on HAS engaged in more CWB when stressors were high, whereas individuals low on HAS engaged in low levels of CWB overall. HAS partially mediated the relationship between NA and CWB, in addition to the relationship between trait anger and CWB. It fully mediated the relationship between Machiavellianism and CWB. The influence of Machiavellianism on the occupational stress process also was explored. It was expected that high Machiavellians would appraise and respond to stressors in a negative fashion. However, contrary to what was expected, Machiavellianism was positively associated with informational justice and negatively related to incivility and CWB. Furthermore, it was negatively associated with NA and HAS. An alternative explanation for the results regarding Machiavellianism was presented. Although all hypotheses regarding the effects of HAS were partially supported, results of this study were generally demonstrative of the merits of including attributional processes (i.e., hostile attribution style) in CWB research within the occupational stress framework.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.