Wayne Warburton

Long-Term Relations Among Prosocial-Media Use, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior

Despite recent growth of research on the effects of prosocial media, processes underlying these effects are not well understood. Two studies explored theoretically relevant mediators and moderators of the effects of prosocial media on helping. Study 1 examined associations among prosocial- and violent-media use, empathy, and helping in samples from seven countries. Prosocial-media use was positively associated with helping. This effect was mediated by empathy and was similar across cultures. Study 2 explored longitudinal relations among prosocial-video-game use, violent-video-game use, empathy, and helping in a large sample of Singaporean children and adolescents measured three times across 2 years. Path analyses showed significant longitudinal effects of prosocial- and violent-video-game use on prosocial behavior through empathy. Latent-growth-curve modeling for the 2-year period revealed that change in video-game use significantly affected change in helping, and that this relationship was mediated by change in empathy.

Report of the Media Violence Commission

Editor’s Note: In December, 2011, the International Society for Research on Aggression appointed a special commission to prepare a report on media violence. Their charge was as follows: “The ISRA Violent Media Effects Commission is charged with the task of producing a public statement on the known effects of exposure to media violence, based on the current state of scientific knowledge. If the Commission finds sufficient evidence of harmful effects, then the Commission’s public statement may include public policy recommendations, keeping in mind that effective policies may well differ across countries because of their different legal and cultural traditions and systems. The statement could be an original statement by the Commission, or could be an endorsement or modification of one or more similar statements offered in recent years by other major scientific bodies and/or groups of scientists who have appropriate expertise in the media violence domain. The statement (if sufficiently brief) or an Executive Summary statement (of a longer, more detailed statement) will be published in ISRA’s journal Aggressive Behavior and will appear on the ISRA web site. It may also be published in the ISRA Bulletin.” What follows is the final report of the Media Violence Commission, delivered in May, 2012. This statement was written by a group of internationally recognized active researchers in the field of media violence to summarize current knowledge about the strength of the link between violent media use and aggression, explain the psychological processes by which violent media may increase the risk of aggressive behavior, and offer practical advice on how parents and policy makers can deal with the issue.

Media Violence and Other Aggression Risk Factors in Seven Nations

Cultural generality versus specificity of media violence effects on aggression was examined in seven countries (Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania, the United States). Participants reported aggressive behaviors, media use habits, and several other known risk and protective factors for aggression. Across nations, exposure to violent screen media was positively associated with aggression. This effect was partially mediated by aggressive cognitions and empathy. The media violence effect on aggression remained significant even after statistically controlling a number of relevant risk and protective factors (e.g., abusive parenting, peer delinquency), and was similar in magnitude to effects of other risk factors. In support of the cumulative risk model, joint effects of different risk factors on aggressive behavior in each culture were larger than effects of any individual risk factor.

An Investigation of the Biosocial Model of Borderline Personality Disorder

OBJECTIVES We sought to test the Biosocial Theory of borderline personality disorder (BPD) that posits that borderline traits are due to emotional dysregulation, caused by the interaction between childhood emotional vulnerability and invaliding parenting. METHOD A total of 250 adults (76% female, median age = 32.06 years) from a nonclinical population completed self-report measures assessing current levels of borderline traits and emotional dysregulation. They also completed retrospective measures of childhood emotional vulnerability and parental invalidation. RESULTS Invalidating parenting and emotional vulnerability independently predicted emotion dysregulation, but an interaction effect was not found. Having experienced validating parenting was found to be a protective factor for developing borderline traits but was not significantly related to emotional dysregulation. CONCLUSION Data in this sample did not support the underlying genesis of BPD proposed by the Biosocial Theory and a model that more parsimoniously explains the development of BPD is proposed.

Screen Violence and Youth Behavior.

Violence in screen entertainment media (ie, television, film, video games, and the Internet), defined as depictions of characters (or players) trying to physically harm other characters (or players), is ubiquitous. The Workgroup on Media Violence and Violent Video Games reviewed numerous meta-analyses and other relevant research from the past 60 years, with an emphasis on violent video game research. Consistent with every major science organization review, the Workgroup found compelling evidence of short-term harmful effects, as well as evidence of long-term harmful effects. The vast majority of laboratory-based experimental studies have revealed that violent media exposure causes increased aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiologic arousal, hostile appraisals, aggressive behavior, and desensitization to violence and decreases prosocial behavior (eg, helping others) and empathy. Still, to more fully understand the potential for long-term harm from media violence exposure, the field is greatly in need of additional large-sample, high-quality, longitudinal studies that include validated measures of media violence exposure and measures of other known violence risk factors. Also, although several high-quality media violence intervention studies have been conducted, larger-scale studies with more comprehensive and longer-term assessments are needed to fully understand long-term effects and to inform the development of tools that will help to reduce problems associated with aggression and violence. The evidence that violent screen media constitutes a causal risk factor for increased aggression is compelling. Modern social-cognitive theories of social behavior provide useful frameworks for understanding how and why these effects occur.

Aggression, Social Psychology of

For over seven decades social psychological theories advanced understanding of aggressive behavior. The most recent major model – the General Aggression Model (GAM) – integrates prior theories, thereby encompassing the broadest range of aggressive phenomena. GAM is built on research about factors within a person that predispose them to aggression; factors from the environment that trigger aggression; and the underlying biological, neurocognitive, and psychological processes. This article summarizes historical and modern social psychological theories of aggression, key research methodologies and findings, and challenges of studying violence and aggression in society. It concludes by noting areas for future social psychological research of aggression. Human aggression is a social behavior, and whilst it has been studied from many perspectives, it is theoretical models and empirical research from the field of social psychology that have provided the strongest framework from which to understand it. This article focuses on the contribution of social psychologists to the understanding of human aggression, providing first some key definitions, then major theories (both classic and contemporary) and a brief summary of social psychological approaches to the study of aggressive behavior. An overview of research findings is presented, including those describing factors within a person that increase the likelihood they will aggress, situational cues that can trigger aggression, internal psychological processes that underlie an instance of aggressive behavior, and processes that increase trait aggressiveness. We conclude by suggesting a ‘risk factor’ framework for understanding societal violence and noting directions for future research.

The specificity of the biosocial model to borderline traits

Background A number of theories have been proposed to account for the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The biosocial model considers emotional dysregulation to be central to the disorder, caused in turn by an emotionally vulnerable child being raised in an invalidating environment. This aetiological model is potentially too broad, as many of these constructs may be equally important to other mental health conditions, making the model non-specific to BPD. Method We sought to contrast the explanatory value of the constructs identified by the biosocial model of BPD to an alternate form of psychopathology (chronic worry), using a nonclinical sample (N = 271), via the completion of self-report questionnaires. Results Childhood emotional vulnerability had a similar relationship to chronic worry as to borderline traits, with emotional dysregulation playing an important role in both disorders. Contrary to the biosocial model′s predictions, the interaction effects between the childhood antecedents were not found to play an important role in either psychopathology. Conclusion The lack of an interaction effect between invalidating parenting and emotional vulnerability suggests that this aspect of the biosocial model may not be a strong predictor of BPD. Key elements of the biosocial model may have utility as more generic predictors of psychopathology.

Violent video games, externalizing behavior, and prosocial behavior: A five-year longitudinal study during adolescence.

Decades of research on the effects of media violence have examined associations between viewing aggressive material in the media and aggression and prosocial behavior. However, the existing longitudinal studies have tended to exclusively examine aggression and prosocial behavior as outcomes, with a limited range of potential mediators. The current study examines associations between playing violent video games and externalizing and prosocial behavior over a 5-year period across adolescence. Additionally, the study examines potential mediators of these associations, including empathic concern, benevolence, and self-regulation. Participants included 488 adolescents (Mage of child at Wave 1 = 13.83, SD = 0.98) and their parents, who completed self- and parental measures at three different time points, each 2 years apart. Results revealed that early exposure to video game violence was indirectly associated with lower levels of prosocial behavior as mediated by lower levels of benevolence. Additionally, early video game violence play was associated with higher levels of externalizing behavior at the cross-sectional level, but not 5 years later. Implications of results for adolescents and parents are discussed.

Risk factors for youth violence: Youth violence commission, International Society For Research On Aggression (ISRA)

In March 2018, the President of the International Society for Research on Aggression (ISRA), Mike Potegal, appointed a special commission to prepare a report on youth violence. This commission was “charged with the task of producing a public statement on the known risk factors for youth violence, based on the current state of scientific knowledge. If the Commission finds sufficient evidence of harmful effects, then its public statement may include public policy recommendations.” What follows is the final report of the Youth Violence Commission, delivered in March 2018.This report was written by a group of ISRA researchers with expertise on youth violence. This report is based on a previous youth violence report (Bushman et al., 2016), but it is shorter in length, more accessible in language, contains additional material, and is more up-to-date.