Disengagement Processes Research Articles

Inducing and blocking the goal to belong in an experimental setting: goal disengagement research using Cyberball

In the present research, the Cyberball ostracism paradigm was adapted for experimental goal disengagement (GD) research: the goal to belong to a particular group is first induced in participants (via social interaction) and then blocked (via social exclusion) to trigger GD processes. In an online group setting, we experimentally tested the procedure’s suitability to investigate goal disengagement processes. A pilot study demonstrated successful induction of the goal to belong. In the main study (N = 180), exclusion from the group reduced participants’ perceived goal attainability (indicating goal blockage) and desirability (indicating goal disengagement) and their well-being. Regarding the regulatory functions of GD, results were mixed. During work on individual tasks, goal desirability decreased further and well-being was largely restored. However, GD changes were correlated only with changes in negative affect (and not other well-being measures). Findings suggest the procedure’s suitability for studying GD experimentally and employing it to investigate other measures of GD processes and their functionality in more detail.

Disengaged but Still Radical? Pathways Out of Violent Right-Wing Extremism

ABSTRACT Research has overwhelmingly focused on pathways into violent extremism, but few empirically grounded analyses have examined pathways out of violent extremism. Even less is empirically known about the interactions between processes of disengagement and deradicalization from violent extremism. To address this gap, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten Canadian former right-wing extremists who were actively involved in violent racist skinhead groups, with interview questions provided by thirty Canadian law enforcement officials and ten local community activists. Participants were asked about their pathways out of violent extremism with a particular emphasis on processes of disengagement and deradicalization. Overall, our study findings highlight the multifaceted and multidimensional nature of pathways out of violent extremism as well as how radical beliefs persist beyond disengagement from violent extremism. We conclude with a discussion of the study limitations and avenues for future research.

Exiting far-right extremism: a case study in applying the developmental core need framework

ABSTRACT This article presents a case study of voluntary exit from a far-right group in the United States. Our analysis of ‘Tom’ (a pseudonym) foregrounds the role of psychological development in ‘Tom’s' narrative of disengagement. While developmental factors are sometimes referenced in the radicalization/deradicalization literature, they are often reduced to risk factors or early environmental adversities that are viewed as predictors for subsequent involvement in extremism. By contrast, we offer a deeper understanding of psychological developmental factors as a ‘core need.’ While the core need originates in normative development and attachment history, it also arises out of an individual’s idiographic context and unique path through development, helping to establish identity security and acting as the tacit background driver across entry and exit. In this case study, and in our qualitatively informed model, the developmental core need is crucial to understanding the often idiosyncratic processes of radicalization, disengagement, and deradicalization.

Desradicalización y desvinculación: aspectos formales y teóricos

Radicalization is currently one of the biggest social and security challenges. Nonetheless, the increase in arrests that has taken place the last years has moved the focus towards deradicalization and disengagement processes. In an attempt to converge academic knowledge on the topic, this article provides a literature review where relevant deradicalization, disengagement, and rehabilitation factors and models are identified and evaluated. Initially, the article will conceptualize deradicalization, understood as a social and psychological process in which individuals engaged actively in violent radicalization reduce their commitment to the cause, up to the point there is no risk of supporting and participating in violent activities. Then, it will differentiate disengagement as the process by which individuals change their role or function in a way that reduces their participation in violence. Afterwards, the main deradicalization push and pull factors will be analyzed, highlighting, on the one hand, disappointment with the strategy or actions of the radical group and, on the other hand, external relationships and family commitments. Subsequently, seven theoretical models from different disciplines are described, which explain disengagement, deradicalization and rehabilitation. Amongst the models, we find the six-phase disengagement trajectory, the investment model, the 3N model, the pro-integration model, the reinforcement loops model, the disengagement dynamics model, and the phoenix disengagement model. Finally, similarities and differences, and limitations of these models are discussed.

Development and Validation of the Ethnic Moral Disengagement Scale.

Research has underlined that moral disengagement processes, by which people switch off their moral values and act aggressively without experiencing guilt, are highly connected with contextual factors. However, research on situational variations in moral disengagement is limited, especially considering the associations with characteristics such as the ethnic origin of potential victims. The general aim of the present study was to develop a brief, specific measure of ethnic moral disengagement able to catch individual justification used in the case of ethnic bullying and cyberbullying, and test its validity and reliability. An eight items scale was developed and administered in study 1, in a sample of 961students attending several Italian high schools (53.5% female; Mage 15 years). Considering the results of the CFA, we modified one of the items and the scale was administered again, in a second sample of 1,229 students (49.9% female; Mage 15.62 years) in study 2. A one-factor model of ethnic moral disengagement fit the data well and internal consistency showed to be good. As an additional step, we found that the model was invariant across Italian adolescents and youths with a different ethnic or culture of origin (having at least one parent born abroad) strengthened our confidence regarding the factorial integrity of the scale. Last, the scale showed to be positively associated with ethnic bullying and cyberbullying. Generally, findings suggested that the Ethnic Moral Disengagement scale can be a useful tool for those interested in measuring moral disengagement and evaluating how it impacts bullying and cyberbullying of minority groups.

"If you don’t give me the required equipment, I won’t be able to do anything": the contribution of the analysis of activity to the understanding of commitment and disengagement processes at work”

Cet article se propose de revisiter la question de l’engagement et du désengagement au travail, en étudiant ces derniers dans leurs liens avec l’activité de travail, telle qu’elle est quotidiennement menée par les professionnels en situation. Il mobilise pour ce faire différentes perspectives théoriques, issues de la psychopathologie et des cliniques du travail ; ainsi que des données issues d’une intervention en clinique de l’activité menée dans un service municipal de la propreté. En s’appuyant sur un exemple, il identifie une configuration particulière d’engagement et de désengagement au travail, ses liens avec l’activité, ainsi que ses implications subjectives et ses effets sur le travail.

Motion Characteristics of a Clutch Actuator for Heavy-Duty Vehicles with Automated Mechanical Transmission

Clutch control has a great effect on the starting quality and shifting quality of heavy-duty vehicles with automated mechanical transmission (AMT). The motion characteristics of a clutch actuator for heavy-duty vehicles with AMT are studied in this paper to investigate the clutch control strategy further. The modeling principle of the automatic clutch system is analyzed, and a simulation analysis is given to prove its validity and rationality. Normalized velocity and velocity modulation percentage are proposed as evaluation parameters for the clutch actuator driven by pulse width modulation (PWM) signals. Based on an AMT test bench, the actuator motion characteristics are analyzed. Experimental results show that the range of normalized velocity and velocity modulation percentage are obtained for the clutch engagement and disengagement processes. By analyzing the experimental data, the engaging velocity and disengaging velocity of the actuator are estimated using the solenoid valves in combination. The research results provide a fundamental basis for precise controlling of the clutch and improving the smoothness of heave-duty vehicles.

Motivation and Healthy Aging: A Heuristic Model.

Building on the seminal definition of "healthy aging" by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015; 2020), we present a model of motivation and healthy aging that is aimed at identifying the central psychological constructs and processes for understanding what older persons value, and how they can attain and maintain these valued aspects of their lives. This model places goals at its center, and then proceeds from motivational processes of goal setting, pursuit, and disengagement, to contextual factors (cultural, social, technological, physical, organizational, and life-history related aspects) that provide opportunities and constraints to the healthy aging of individuals. We briefly introduce each of these constructs and processes, thereby setting the scene for the articles included in this supplement that each address one or more of the facets of the heuristic model of motivation and healthy aging.

The Self-Regulation of Healthy Aging: Goal-Related Processes in Three Domains.

As people age, they experience typical age-graded challenges and opportunities, for example, their own retirement, changes in their social networks, or a decline in health condition. The extent to which people successfully process, respond to, and act on these challenges and opportunities is highly important for their health, at the core of which the WHO sees the possibility of "doing what one has reason to value." In this article, we posit that individuals can play an active role in determining whether they can, in response to these age-graded influences, continue doing what they have reason to value, and that they can do so by deploying the self-regulatory processes of goal setting (including reengagement in new goals after disengaging from a previous goal), goal pursuit, and goal disengagement. We discuss the role of these self-regulatory processes in three important goal domains: work/retirement, interpersonal relationships, and health. Across these domains, we consider typical challenges and opportunities including the increased availability of daily time in old age, the long past that lies behind older adults, and their limited future time perspective. Finally, we derive open research questions that may be studied to better understand how the very old may self-regulate their response to age-graded influences.

Effect of Cognitive Control on Attentional Processing of Emotional Information Among Older Adults: Evidence From an Eye-Tracking Study.

Background: Although numerous studies have suggested that the gradually increasing selective preference for positive information over negative information in older adults depends on cognitive control processes, few have reported the characteristics of different attention stages in the emotional processing of older individuals. The present study used a real-time eye-tracking technique to disentangle the attentional engagement and disengagement processes involved in age-related positivity effect (PE).Methods: Eye movement data from a spatial-cueing task were obtained for 32 older and 32 younger healthy participants. The spatial-cueing task with varied cognitive loads appeared to be an effective way to explore the role of cognitive control during the attention engagement and disengagement stages of emotion processing.Results: Compared with younger adults, older participants showed more positive gaze preferences when cognitive resources were sufficient for face processing at the attention engagement stage. However, the age-related PE was not observed at the attention disengagement stage because older adults had more difficulty disengaging from fearful faces than did the younger adults due to the consumption of attention by the explicit target judgment.Conclusion: The present study highlights how cognitive control moderates positive gaze preferences at different attention processing stages. These findings may have far-reaching implications for understanding, preventing, and intervening in unsuccessful aging and, thus, in promoting active and healthy aging.

Moral Disengagement Strategies in Online and Offline Bullying

Bullying and cyberbullying perpetration can involve cognitive processes of moral disengagement; however, there is no clear evidence about which strategies have the greatest influence on this type of behaviour. The aim of this paper was to examine which dimensions of moral disengagement were associated to bullying (off/online) and to explore the effect of gender and age. A total 1,274 students (48.6% girls, aged 11 to 17 years old) from the south of Spain were surveyed (M = 13.63, SD = 1.31). Multivariate multiple regression analyses showed that age and all moral disengagement mechanisms were associated with both offline and online bullying. Univariate regressions revealed that cognitive restructuring was the most strongly associated with both. The interaction between age and cognitive restructuring was only related to offline bullying. Simple slope analyses showed different effects for younger and older classmates at high levels of cognitive restructuring. Specific moral disengagement strategies have special significance for adolescent bullying and cyberbullying perpetration, with cognitive restructuring in particular promoting bullying perpetration in younger students. The results are discussed in relation to practical implications to prevent bullying and cyberbullying.

Temperature Analysis of Wet Clutch Surfaces During Clutch Engagement Processes Based on Friction Pad Patterns

Temperature distributions of wet clutch contact during engagement and disengagement processes are investigated considering lubricant flow behaviors in the gap between the friction pad and steel separator. Frictional heat generated by wet clutch contact in repeated operational modes that simulates high thermal endurance performance of a wet clutch system is modeled. This study applies CFD analysis to the lubricant convective flows that remove most of the frictional heat with respect to groove patterns on the frictional pad surface. Based on fluid flow analysis between the friction pad gap and the steel separator that includes the effects of pattern shapes on the friction pad, frictional heat, convective cooling behaviors and temperature distributions are computed with the repeated modes of varying sliding velocities and applied loads. The cooled frictional heat is investigated considering the convective flows in the gap of friction pad and separator. Frictional temperature variations on a wet clutch surface are computed for the effects of groove pattern shapes on the friction pad, waffle, and radial-arc types for better cooling effects. It is expected that the computational results will provide design methods for higher heat resistance durability and stable frictional torque transfer and effective cooling performance in wet clutch systems.

Leaving Gangs in Cape Town: Disengagement as Role Exit

A lack of scholarship on gang leaving in Cape Town, South Africa creates the impression that joining gangs is a death sentence. However, this paper shows that gang members can disengage, even amidst the scarcity of an emerging city. It combines life history research with Ebaugh’s (2013) role exit theory in an analysis of the disengagements of 24 former gang participants. Research considers the various stages of out-of-gang transitions, profiling the drivers and impediments to gang exit. Specific focus is placed on understanding how violence both catalyzes and challenges out-of-gang transition during the differential processes of disengagement. Findings indicate a lengthy and challenging transitional process from the point the first doubts emerge to the time a person successfully becomes an ex-gangster. Progress through different phases of gang exit is generally uneven and unpredictable, and carried out in a context with significant social, economic, and security challenges. Still, those interviewed for this study offer compelling examples to show that disengagement is possible. Their journeys yield insights that can be leveraged to design better informed efforts to reduce gang violence—whether in Cape Town, or in other similarly inequality prone and insecure cities around the world.

Violent Extremism and Moral Disengagement: A Study of Colombian Armed Groups.

Violent extremism is commonly conditioned by a variety of psychological processes and mechanisms that when activated or deactivated aid implication in extreme behavior, including destructive actions with a large dose of cruelty against people and groups. One of those processes is moral disengagement, which was originally postulated by Bandura. To test this relationship, the present research focused on studying these mechanisms in members of Colombian illegal armed groups. Total sample size was 18 (14 males and four females) demobilized members of the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia [AUC]) and guerrilla organizations (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], National Liberation Army [ELN], among others), which had participated directly or indirectly in violent actions against people and groups, which included murders, tortures, and massacres. Qualitative methodology was used, specifically in-depth interviews and content analysis. This analysis led to the verification in the narratives of the participants of the use of all the mechanisms of moral disengagement described by Bandura aiming to justify their behavior within the armed group. The most noteworthy mechanisms were those that minimized participation (especially, attributing behavior to obeying orders: displacement of responsibility) and moral justification, especially, the context of confrontation. Moral disengagement processes are found in armed group members (such as insurgency, terrorist organizations, or militias). These mechanisms cancel ordinary psychological reactions of rejection, fear, and moral controls that oppose the carrying out of cruelty and extreme violence.

Imitation of Goal Engagement and Disengagement Processes in Romantic Relationships

Individual differences in goal engagement and goal disengagement processes have been demonstrated to be related to goal attainment, health, and emotional well–being. However, there is a dearth of studies on the developmental conditions of individual differences in these processes. Social learning processes contribute to the formation of individual dispositions even in adulthood. As one pathway of learning, we investigated observational learning of goal regulation processes in romantic relationships in two experimental studies. Study 1 ( N = 67 couples, M = 32.65 years) replicated a previous finding that observing partners imitated their partner's goal regulation processes in the same task and extended it by showing transfer effects to another task. Study 2 ( N = 60 couples, M = 25.9 years) demonstrated that—given a lack of praise of the modelled actions—partners still imitated goal regulation processes but to a smaller extent. These findings lend support for observational learning as a pathway to individual differences in the application of goal regulation processes. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology

Attentional bias for alcohol cues in visual search—Increased engagement, difficulty to disengage or both?

Cognitive models emphasise the importance of attentional bias in addiction. However, many attentional bias tasks have been criticised for questionable psychometric properties and inability to differentiate between engagement and disengagement processes. This study therefore examined the suitability of two alternative tasks for assessing attentional bias within the context of alcohol use. Participants were undergraduate students (N = 169) who completed the Visual Search Task and Odd-One-Out Task, the latter of which is designed to differentiate between engagement and disengagement processes of attention, at baseline and one week later. Participants also completed baseline measures of alcohol consumption, craving, and alcohol use problems. Internal consistency was adequate for the Visual Search Task index, and weak for the Odd-One-Out Task indices. Test-retest reliability was weak for both tasks. The Visual Search Task index and the disengagement (but not the engagement) index of the Odd-One-Out Task showed a positive association with alcohol consumption. This study was restricted to a non-clinical student sample. The relatively high error rate of the Odd-One-Out Task might have reduced its sensitivity as an index of attentional bias. Both tasks showed some merit as attentional bias measures, and results suggested that attentional disengagement might be particularly related to alcohol use. However, the reliability of the current measures was inadequate. One potential explanation for the low reliability is that non-clinical samples may have weak and unstable attentional biases to alcohol. Future efforts should be made to improve the psychometric qualities of both tasks and to administer them in a clinical sample.

Ideology and Disengagement: A Case Study of Nationalists and Islamists in Chechnya

Disengagement from militant groups has often been explained in individual terms such as battle fatigue or the desire to rejoin family and friends. We seek to examine empirically which other factors, beyond individual-level determinants, have influenced disengagement processes among militants belonging to different types of Chechen militant organisations. Drawing empirical insights from unique in-depth interviews with former members of the Chechen insurgency, their relatives, eyewitnesses to the Chechen wars and experts with first-hand knowledge of the researched phenomena, this study examines disengagement among jihadist and nationalist Chechen militants. Focusing on group-level factors, such as the capacity to resist external pressures, the use of violence, in-group social bonds and group cohesion, this article demonstrates that disengagement has been a less viable course of action for Chechen jihadists than for nationalist militants.

Pathway to Defection from Extremist Groups – Confronting the Disengagement Process of a Jihadi Foreign Fighter and a Right-Wing Extremist

The aim of our article is to analyse the disengagement process of a Swiss returnee from Syria and the emergence of dissonances during his involvement with the Islamic State (IS) and to compare this evolution to the pathway of a right-wing extremist willing to leave the violent extremist group Blood & Honour. Although the contexts of these extremist groups are very different, a number of elements – as the ideology based on hate, the groups’ internal pressure and the affinity for violence – are quite similar. The disengagement process of both extremists is analysed by means of reconstructive methods and the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1957), as well as by the current state of research on disengagement processes. This serves as a theoretical framework. The findings show that comparing their pathway to defection reveals a number of parallels: the experiences within the extremist groups, especially violent acts against group members, increased their dissonances and provided a trigger to an opening process and ultimately the attempt to opt out of the group.

Trabajo en red: desarrollo de proyectos innovadores inclusivos ante el desenganche y el abandono escolar

En este artículo se presentan los resultados del trabajo en red desarrollado por equipos interinstitucionales e inter-servicios en dos provincias de la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía ante una misma problemática: el desenganche y abandono escolar, entendido éste como un proceso multidimensional que se produce y desarrolla en los contextos educativos y sociales a los que pertenece el alumnado. El objetivo general de este estudio se centra, por tanto, en la construcción de redes locales que abordan los procesos de desenganche escolar, creando una red de trabajo y apoyo entre centros educativos y organizaciones sociales e investigadores de una misma localidad o zona como espacio de colaboración e intercambio de conocimiento, experiencia y prácticas inclusivas sobre el tema. Desde un enfoque metodológico, participativo y emancipatorio se desarrolla en el seno de cada equipo distintos proyectos educativos inclusivos e innovadores que abordan esta problemática bajo la perspectiva de la Educación Inclusiva. Los resultados obtenidos señalan por una parte, el beneficio e impacto que supone el abordaje de un fenómeno tan complejo como es el desenganche y abandono escolar desde el trabajo en red de instituciones y organizaciones bajo una misma mirada y distintas posiciones institucionales. Por otra parte, el desarrollo del estudio nos muestra la diversidad y riqueza de respuestas educativas (proyectos educativos inclusivos) desarrolladas en función de las necesidades y contextos singulares.

Pinpointing mechanisms of a mechanistic treatment: Dissociable roles for overt and covert attentional processes in acute and long-term outcomes following Attention Bias Modification.

Biased patterns of attention towards threat are implicated as key mechanisms in anxiety which can be modified through automated intervention (Attention Bias Modification; ABM). Intervention refinement and personalized dissemination efforts are substantially hindered by gaps in understanding the precise attentional components that underlie ABM's effects on symptoms-particularly with respect to longer-term outcomes. Seventy adults with transdiagnostic anxiety were randomized to receive 8 sessions of active ABM (n=49) or sham training (n=21). Reaction time and eyetracking data, collected at baseline, post-training, and 1-month follow-up, dissociated multiple core attentional processes, spanning overt and covert processes of engagement and disengagement. Self-reported symptoms were collected out to 1-year follow-up. Covert disengagement bias was specifically reduced by ABM, unlike all other indices. Overt disengagement bias at baseline predicted acute post-ABM outcomes, while covert engagement bias was non-specifically predictive of symptom trajectories out to 1-year follow-up. Results suggest unique and dissociable roles for each discrete mechanism.