L18: Aggression and Antisocial Behaviour

Instrumental aggression

• Aimed at achieving a goal (getting a possession, winning a game)

• Physical aggression (direct aggression)

Relational aggression

Aimed at harming others’ interpersonal relationships (e.g. exclusion, gossiping), (indirect aggression)

Antisocial behaviour

Behaviour which violates rules or conventions of society

Are Antisocial and Prosocial Behaviours Direct Opposites?

• Traditionally thought as opposite ends of the same thing

• Evidence suggests they’re correlated but distinct

  • Different developmental patterns 

  • Different predictors and outcomes 

• Can be both antisocial and prosocial

Patterns of Aggression with Age

• Aggressive behaviour starts early, seen at 18 months of age (Hay et al., 2021)

• 18 months-3 years, increase in physical aggression

• From 3 years through childhood, psychical aggression generally decreases 

  • NOTE: This is around when language develops properly, theory that with language you don’t need to use physical aggression in the same way

• Relational aggression increases from toddlerhood to childhood

Antisocial behaviour increases into adolescence, peaking at age 17-18 years

Moffitt (1993): Life-Course Persistent Antisocial Behaviour

• See a small number of people that have aggressive behaviour in early life that persists into adult life

• Adolescence Limited

  • Just have antisocial behaviour in that age group (peaking 17/18)

• Life-course Persistent

  • Persistent antisocial behaviour through life

  

Genetic Factors of Aggression: Adoption Studies (Cloninger et al., 1982)

• Looked at biological (genetic) parent criminality and adoptive (environment) parent criminality as predictors for rate of child criminality

• Conclusions

  • Genetic factors are important (increases rate of child criminality x4)

  • BUT the interaction most important (40% if genetic and environmental)

Early and Prenatal Risk Factors

• Maternal age

  • Younger parenthood associated with child aggression

• Parental antisocial behaviour

• Maternal stress (Rice et al., 2008)

  • Associations between maternal stress during pregnancy and child aggression

  • Postnatal stress (not the whole answer)

  • Plausible biological pathways

Individual Factors that Influence Aggression

• Temperament

  • Difficult temperament in infancy/toddlerhood associated with later aggression and delinquency

• Aggressive behaviour in young children can elicit poorer interactions and additional risk factors (e.g. peer rejection)

Emotion Recognition and Aggression

• Poorer emotion recognition in those who engage in aggressive and antisocial behaviour

• Difficulty in identifying negative emotions (anger and fear)

• Lack of emotion recognition associated with reduced empathy

Hostile attribution bias

Aggressive children see more hostile intent in social situations

What three parenting styles are associated with adjustment issues

• Authoritarian

• Permissive

• Uninvolved

What type of peer associations is a stronger predictor for aggressive behaviour: Concurrent or Predictive

Concurrent (what happens now is more important to what I do now than what has happened before)

Peer Influences in the Classroom (Bushcing & Krahe, 2018)

• Classroom self-reported antisocial behaviour

• Collected data at 14 and 16 years old

• Results

  • Individuals that reported non-divance at 14 increased deviance significantly at 16 if around deviant peers

What type of ‘Peer Association’ group is associated with aggression both cross-sectionally and longitudinally

Rejected (Socioeconomic Statu: Bukowski et al., 2012)

Societal Factors: Central Mexican towns (Fry, 1988)

Central Mexican towns (Fry, 1988)

• Observational comparison of children in two Central Mexican towns

• Violent town

  • Children twice as likely to engage in violent acts

What does evidence that neighbourhood effect violence

Shows that not just direct interaction influences aggression but also the general environment

How genes, prenatal experiences and postnatal environments are correlated

Mothers with a history of aggression are more likely to:

• Have children with antisocial men

• Become depressed in pregnancy

• Their infants are more likely to have difficult temperaments and show early signs of angry aggressiveness

• Parents who may have their own difficulties with anger and aggression may be especially challenged by such infants 

• These parents are more likely to model anger and aggression and have poorer parenting methods 

• Also more likely to live in more violent neighbourhoods

Summary

• Aggressive behaviour relatively normative in very young children and adolescence but much less so inbetween (and afterwards)

• Much continuity for some individuals

• Risk of aggressive behaviour associated with individual, family and broader factors (often bidirectional effects)

  • These risk factors likely to work together, rather than separately