Relations between forms and functions of aggression and moral judgments of aggressive transgressions

Abstract

The present study sought to examine the influence of aggressive behavior, psychopathy, and gender on moral judgments of aggressive transgressions. A two‐dimensional conceptualization of aggression was used, such that proactive relational aggression, reactive relational aggression, proactive physical aggression, and reactive physical aggression were treated as distinct subtypes of aggression and also as distinct subtypes of moral judgments of aggression. Participants were 421 emerging adults (215 women). Self‐report measures of aggression, psychopathy, and moral judgments were collected. Peer‐reports of aggression and psychopathy were obtained from a randomly assigned subsample of 73 participants (46 women) for validity purposes. Unique associations were found between subtypes of aggression and corresponding moral judgments of the same subtypes.

Emotional States Related to Sexual Offending Versus Violent Offending Using a Schema Therapy Perspective

“…These findings are in line with Raghavan et al (2014) who specified that threats of physical force, humiliation/intimidation, pressure, and bullying are common tactics of sexual coercion. Similarly, victims of domestic violence or other non-sexual violence typically experience intimidation and coercive control (Hart & Ostrov, 2020; Policastro & Finn, 2021).…”

If it Bothers Someone it’s a Mistake! How Chinese College Students Conceptualize Transgressions

“…However, prior initial research has been limited to studying children’s and adolescents’ experiences. Therefore, less is known regarding how college students, who are in a unique period and environmental setting in terms of opportunities for moral development (Hart & Ostrov, 2020; Mayhew et al, 2016), make sense of their and others’ social and moral mistakes and how they learn from these negative experiences. Moreover, although a great deal of research has been conducted to understand how people evaluate moral and social transgressions (Adams & Inesi, 2016; Allemand & Olaru, 2021; Hart & Ostrov, 2020; Ramdass & Hogg, 2019; Riordan et al, 1984), fewer studies have investigated individuals’ own definitions and examples of transgressions and what makes them transgressive.…”

“…Therefore, less is known regarding how college students, who are in a unique period and environmental setting in terms of opportunities for moral development (Hart & Ostrov, 2020; Mayhew et al, 2016), make sense of their and others’ social and moral mistakes and how they learn from these negative experiences. Moreover, although a great deal of research has been conducted to understand how people evaluate moral and social transgressions (Adams & Inesi, 2016; Allemand & Olaru, 2021; Hart & Ostrov, 2020; Ramdass & Hogg, 2019; Riordan et al, 1984), fewer studies have investigated individuals’ own definitions and examples of transgressions and what makes them transgressive. Thus the current study contributes to the literature by investigating how Chinese college students, one of the largest populations of young adults in the world 1 , not only interpret behaviors to be transgressive but also aim to correct their own transgressions, which has implications for how educators may encourage college students’ moral agency.…”

Positive Effects of Prosocial Cartoon Viewing on Aggression Among Children: The Potential Mediating Role of Aggressive Motivation

“…The concepts of aggression can be thoroughly defined or explained as developmentally relevant to young children. For example, the development and rapidly changing nature of aggression in early childhood (Crick et al, 2006;Perry et al, 2021); the shift from physical to more verbal and relational form (Grotpeter and Crick, 1996;Swit et al, 2018;Ostrov et al, 2019;Hart and Ostrov, 2020). In the present study, we use an "artificial measure of aggression" (spicy hot sauce given to a child) as the operational definition of aggressive behavior in laboratory settings for ethical reasons based on previous research (e.g., Lieberman et al, 1999).…”