| Peer-Reviewed

The Role of Emotions and Social Information Processing in the Decision Processes of Aggressive Behavior

Received: 14 July 2019    Accepted: 12 August 2019    Published: 23 August 2019
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

The social information processing (SIP) model is an important element in theoretical accounts of aggressive behavior. Recently, several authors have suggested the integrations of emotions in the SIP model. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the revised SIP model of aggression with Japanese young people. In Study 1, 130 male Japanese students were given three scenarios depicting social conflicts and asked to rate the variables comprising the model. Structural equation analysis showed that hostile intent, anger and positive evaluation of aggressive behavior increased aggressive behavior, on the other hand, adaptive emotion regulation strategies decreased aggressive behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the revised model was significantly better in the prediction of aggression than the original model. In study 2, 82 male Japanese delinquents were given the same materials as study1. The results substantially replicated the results of Study 1, although emotion regulation did not work in this sample. There appear to be two possible interpretations. One possibility is that juvenile delinquents may be likely to engage in aggression because they tend to feel strong anger, and the uncontrolled anger distorts social perception to produce aggressive motivations. The other interpretation is that the research procedures adopted by the study 2 influenced the results. Both studies further indicated that the levels of variables of the revised model were significantly different between high aggressive and low aggressive participants.

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 8, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12
Page(s) 91-99
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Aggression, Social Information Processing, Anger, Emotion Regulation

References
[1] Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child development, 710-722.
[2] Dodge, K. A. (1986). A social information processing model of social competence in children. In M. Perlmutter (Eds.), The Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology., 18 (pp. 77-125). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
[3] Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1994). A review of reformulation of social information processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74-101.
[4] Flavell, J. H. (1974). The development of inferences about others. In T. Mischel (Eds.), Understanding other persons. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield.
[5] Goldfried, M. R., & d’Zurilla, T. J. (1969). A behavioral-analytic model for assessing competence. In C. D. Spielberger (Eds.) Current topics in clinical and community psychology (vol. 1, 151-196). New York: Wiley.
[6] Newell, A., & Simon, H. (1972). Human problem solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-hall.
[7] Hayes, J. R. (1981). The complete problem solver. Philadelphia: The Franklin Institute Press.
[8] McFall, R. M. (1982). A review and reformulation of the concept of social skills. Behavioral assessment, 4 (1), 1-33.
[9] McFall, R. M., & Dodge, K. A. (1982). Self-management and interpersonal skills learning. Self-management and behavior change: From theory to practice, 353-392.
[10] Dodge, K. A. (2010). Social information processing patterns as mediators of the interaction between genetic factors and life experiences in the development of aggressive behavior. In Phillip R. Shaver & Mario Mikulincer (Eds.) Human aggression and violence: Causes, manifestations, and consequences. (pp. 165-186). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
[11] Lemerise, E. A., & Arsenio, W. F. (2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71, 107-118.
[12] Eisenberg, N., Fabes R. A., Guthrie I. K., Murphy, B. C., Maszk, P., Holmgren, R., et al. (1996). The relations of regulation and emotionality to problem behavior in elementary school shildren. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 141-162.
[13] Hubbard, J. A., Smithmyer, C. M., Ramsden, S. R., Parker, E. H., Flanagan, K. D., Dearing, K. F., Relyea, N., & Simons, R. F. (2002). Observational, Physiological, and Self-Report Measures of Children’s Anger: Relations to Reactive versus Proactive Aggression. Child Development, 73, 1101-1118.
[14] Bettencourt, B. A., Talley, A., Benjamin, A. J., & Valentine, J. (2006). Personality and aggressive Behavior under provoking and neutral conditions: A meta-analitic review. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 752-777.
[15] Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: Its causes, consequences, and control. New York: Mcgraw-Hill.
[16] Nomellini, S., & Katz, R. C. (1983). Effects of anger control training on abusive parents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 7, 57-67.
[17] Barbour, K. A., Eckhardt, C. I., Davison, G. C., & Kassinove, H. (1998). The experience and expression of anger in maritally violent and maritally discordant-nonviolent men. Behavior Therapy, 29 (2), 173-191.
[18] Graham, S., Hudley, C., & Williams, E. (1992). Attributional and emotional determinants of aggression among African-American and Latino young adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 28, 731-740.
[19] Lockhman, J. E., & Wells, K. C. (2002). Contextual social-cognitive mediators and child outcome: A test of the theoretical model in the Coping Power program. Development and Psychopathology, 14, 945-67McFall, R. M. 1982 A review and reformulation of the concept of social skills. Behavioral Assessment, 4, 1-35.
[20] de Castro, B. O. (2010). Rage, Revenge, and Precious Pride. In Arsenio, W. F & Lemerise, E. A. (Eds) Emotion, Aggression, and Morality in Children. (pp. 53-74). American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
[21] Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., & Dennis, T. A. (2004) Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Development, 75, 317-333.
[22] de Castro, B. O., Merk, W., Koops, W., Veerman, J. W., & Bosch, J. D. (2005). Emotions in social information processing and their relations with reactive and proactive aggression in referred aggressive boys. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34 (1), 105-116.
[23] Adam, H., Shirako, A., & Maddux, W. W. (2010). Cultural variance in the interpersonal effects of anger in negotiations. Psychological Science, 21 (6), 882-889.
[24] Kornadt, H. J., Hayashi, T., Tachibana, Y., Trommsdorff, G., & Yamauchi, H. (1992). Aggressiveness and its developmental conditions in five cultures. In S. Iwasaki, Y. Kashima & L. Kwok (Eds.) Innnovation in Cross-cultural Psychology. (pp. 220-268), Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
[25] Aizawa, N. (2011) Attribution of hostile intent, avoiding intent interpretations, and emotional reaction in interpersonal conflict situations: a hypothetical-situation questionnaire and its validity. Journal of Japanse Clinical Psychology, 29, 365-370.
[26] Paulhus, D. L., (1991). Measurement and control of response bias. In J. P., Robinson, P. R. Shaver, & L. S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Measure of personality and social psychological attitudes. (pp. 17-59), New York: Academic Press.
[27] Tani, I. (2008) [Development of Japanese Version of Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR-J). The Japanese Journal of Personality, 17, 18-28.
[28] Hamaguchi, Y. (2004). The Creation of Reactive Aggression Scale-for Junior High School Students-The Revised Reactive and Instrumental Aggression Scales (RIS for Jounior High School Students)], Paper session presented at the meeting of The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology, Toyama.
[29] Hamabuchi, Y. (2005). [Study on construction of the self-report type proactive aggression scales for junior high school students. The Japanese Journal of Counseling Scienc, 38, 183-194.
[30] Dodge, K. A. (1991). The structure and function of reactive and proactive aggression. In D. Pepler & K. H. Rubin (Eds.) The development and treatment of childhood aggression. (pp. 201-218). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
[31] de Castro, B. O. (2004). The development of social information processing and aggressive behaviour: Current issues. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1 (1), 87-102.
[32] Toda, M. & Watanabe, K. (2012). Social Information Processing and Development of Interpretative and Reactive Behavior towards Ambiguous Attacks. The Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology. 23 (2), 214-223.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Takeyasu Kawabata, Ken-ichi Ohbuchi. (2019). The Role of Emotions and Social Information Processing in the Decision Processes of Aggressive Behavior. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 8(4), 91-99. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Takeyasu Kawabata; Ken-ichi Ohbuchi. The Role of Emotions and Social Information Processing in the Decision Processes of Aggressive Behavior. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2019, 8(4), 91-99. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Takeyasu Kawabata, Ken-ichi Ohbuchi. The Role of Emotions and Social Information Processing in the Decision Processes of Aggressive Behavior. Psychol Behav Sci. 2019;8(4):91-99. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12,
      author = {Takeyasu Kawabata and Ken-ichi Ohbuchi},
      title = {The Role of Emotions and Social Information Processing in the Decision Processes of Aggressive Behavior},
      journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
      volume = {8},
      number = {4},
      pages = {91-99},
      doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20190804.12},
      abstract = {The social information processing (SIP) model is an important element in theoretical accounts of aggressive behavior. Recently, several authors have suggested the integrations of emotions in the SIP model. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the revised SIP model of aggression with Japanese young people. In Study 1, 130 male Japanese students were given three scenarios depicting social conflicts and asked to rate the variables comprising the model. Structural equation analysis showed that hostile intent, anger and positive evaluation of aggressive behavior increased aggressive behavior, on the other hand, adaptive emotion regulation strategies decreased aggressive behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the revised model was significantly better in the prediction of aggression than the original model. In study 2, 82 male Japanese delinquents were given the same materials as study1. The results substantially replicated the results of Study 1, although emotion regulation did not work in this sample. There appear to be two possible interpretations. One possibility is that juvenile delinquents may be likely to engage in aggression because they tend to feel strong anger, and the uncontrolled anger distorts social perception to produce aggressive motivations. The other interpretation is that the research procedures adopted by the study 2 influenced the results. Both studies further indicated that the levels of variables of the revised model were significantly different between high aggressive and low aggressive participants.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - The Role of Emotions and Social Information Processing in the Decision Processes of Aggressive Behavior
    AU  - Takeyasu Kawabata
    AU  - Ken-ichi Ohbuchi
    Y1  - 2019/08/23
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12
    T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    SP  - 91
    EP  - 99
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7845
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20190804.12
    AB  - The social information processing (SIP) model is an important element in theoretical accounts of aggressive behavior. Recently, several authors have suggested the integrations of emotions in the SIP model. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the revised SIP model of aggression with Japanese young people. In Study 1, 130 male Japanese students were given three scenarios depicting social conflicts and asked to rate the variables comprising the model. Structural equation analysis showed that hostile intent, anger and positive evaluation of aggressive behavior increased aggressive behavior, on the other hand, adaptive emotion regulation strategies decreased aggressive behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the revised model was significantly better in the prediction of aggression than the original model. In study 2, 82 male Japanese delinquents were given the same materials as study1. The results substantially replicated the results of Study 1, although emotion regulation did not work in this sample. There appear to be two possible interpretations. One possibility is that juvenile delinquents may be likely to engage in aggression because they tend to feel strong anger, and the uncontrolled anger distorts social perception to produce aggressive motivations. The other interpretation is that the research procedures adopted by the study 2 influenced the results. Both studies further indicated that the levels of variables of the revised model were significantly different between high aggressive and low aggressive participants.
    VL  - 8
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, Shokei Gakuin University, Natori, Miyagi

  • Open University of Japan, Natori, Miyagi

  • Sections