Aggressive Situations Research Articles

The Capacity to Intervene: Bullying, Social Pain, and Bystander Empathy

This article is an interdisciplinary exploration of social pain (rejection, exclusion, and humiliation) and its effect on bystanders. It dives deeply into social theory, only to surface and become expository around current neurological research on pain and mirror neurons. It seeks to broaden and advance scholarship around bullying dynamics in order to inform interventions that privilege bystander response. Significantly, the article grounds bullying in intersubjective dances of identity construction, launching it at the very edges of Goffman's social critique: the neuropsychological implications of failed impression management. Does witnessing social pain give rise to empathic responses? This central question leads to an explication of the functioning of mirror neurons as they relate to empathy. Understanding their working bridges to the theorizing of George Herbert Mead and raises the following sociological questions: (1) Do mirror neurons function on the level of Mead's “gestures”? (2) Do cultural realities—for example, social media and narcissism—impair a bystander's capacity to perceive pain/respond to it in others? Exploring the interface between cultural dynamics and neurological capacities paves the way for more effective responses to bullying. What can we expect of bystanders, and what it might take to prompt their intervention in socially aggressive situations?

Volunteer Movement in Ukraine in the Situation of External Aggression

Volunteer Movement in Ukraine in the Situation of External Aggression

Computer games and the aggressiveness, aggression/aggressive behaviour of children and adolescents. A contribution to the psychopedagogical analysis of the problem

The article deals with the problem of (theoretical) dependencies between playing (aggressive) computer games and aggressiveness, aggression/aggressive behaviours of children and adolescents in the context of Albert Bandura's social learning theory and their empirical description based on a meta-analysis/analysis of existing (selected) research data of the topical problem (due to the available sources and the accepted logic of analysis this text is a contribution to the psychopedagogical analysis of the problem). The author starts from a brief discussion of the essence of the theory of social learning of Albert Bandura, then the problem of the role of ludic activity and computer games in the life of (contemporary) man is raised. Next, the problem of dependencies between computer games and aggressiveness, aggression/aggressive behaviours is outlined, and original theoretical models of dependencies between playing the (aggressive) computer games and other aggressive situations and aggressive behaviours are presented. At the end, meta-analysis/analysis of the existing data on the status of the (selected) research of the problem is presented and based on it the relevant final conclusions are drawn as a summary.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЕМОЦІЙНИХ ПРОЯВІВ У ВИХОВАТЕЛІВ З РІЗНИМИ РІВНЯМИ ПРОФЕСІЙНИХ ДЕФОРМАЦІЙ СТАТЬИ

The article analyzes the peculiarities of deformations, clarifies the defining characteristic of the concept of professional deformation of the educator and outlines the key determinants of deformation of educators. It covers also the empirical research of deformations among preschool teachers, and their connection with empathy, aggressiveness and behavior in conflict situations. On the basis of the realized theoretical analysis of scientific sources, the definitions of the concept of professional deformation of the educator as a set of destructive changes of his personality, determined by the specifics of the activity, the stage of professionalization, objective and subjective factors, were clarified. The key determinants of deformities of educators are: conflict, lack of conflict competence, heteroaggression and autoaggression, low level of empathy, unconscious or pragmatic motives for choosing a profession, immunity to innovations, lack of communicative skills, self-reflexive ability and self-relaxation, anxiety, infantilism, pessimism; the contingent (children, parents, colleagues, administration) and the need for effective interaction with everyone; propensity for stereotyping of activity and behavior; with children (contributes to the tendency to simplify, clarify); low prestige of the profession; experience; feminization of the team; absence of the right to mistake, time for entertainment or rest, permanent staying in a supervising adult with a high level of responsibility for the life and health of the pupils, accompanied by inhibition of their own emotions, states and their manifestations for the well-being of others, personality disorder, violation of the balance work -privacy. On the basis of the obtained results it was determined that deformations of preschool teachers are quite common; educators with a high level of deformity are characterized by dissatisfaction with their own activities, high rates of autoaggression and heteroaggression, the style of competition used in conflict situation. It was found out that the growth of the level and severity of signs of deformation among educators is influenced by the growth of destructive activity in relation to oneself; reducing the ability to jointly choose an alternative option in a conflict situation, increasing the desire to achieve their interests, reducing the level of satisfaction with the content and conditions of their work, aggressive attitude to others. It is assumed that the reduction of autoaggression and heteroaggression, competition in interaction, in particular conflict with other participants in the educational process, increasing job satisfaction, mastering such styles of conflict interaction as a compromise and cooperation of educators with a high level of deformation can act as psychological conditions of correction of the deformation.

An experimental study on feature engineering and learning approaches for aggression detection in social media

With the widespread of modern technologies and social media networks, a new form of bullying occurring anytime and anywhere has emerged. This new phenomenon, known as cyberaggression or cyberbullying, refers to aggressive and intentional acts aiming at repeatedly causing harm to other person involving rude, insulting, offensive, teasing or demoralising comments through online social media. As these aggressions represent a threatening experience to Internet users, especially kids and teens who are still shaping their identities, social relations and well-being, it is crucial to understand how cyberbullying occurs to prevent it from escalating. Considering the massive information on the Web, the developing of intelligent techniques for automatically detecting harmful content is gaining importance, allowing the monitoring of large-scale social media and the early detection of unwanted and aggressive situations. Even though several approaches have been developed over the last few years based both on traditional and deep learning techniques, several concerns arise over the duplication of research and the difficulty of comparing results. Moreover, there is no agreement regarding neither which type of technique is better suited for the task, nor the type of features in which learning should be based. The goal of this work is to shed some light on the effects of learning paradigms and feature engineering approaches for detecting aggressions in social media texts. In this context, this work provides an evaluation of diverse traditional and deep learning techniques based on diverse sets of features, across multiple social media sites.

Gewalt in der Notfallmedizin – gegenwärtiger Stand in Deutschland

During the last years healthcare personnel is more often faced with different degrees of violence and aggression while doing their jobs. However, systematic data with respect to offender profiles, reasons, frequency and types of violence in emergency medicine in Germany has not been systematically analyzed. The aim of this article is to overview the data of present German studies. Only a few German studies could be included. Data suggest that violence in emergency medicine is an underreported but ubiquitous, persistent problem. 90% of the participants in the surveyed rescue staff and 75% of the participants in the surveyed emergency departments had experienced occasional verbal or physical violence within the last months before survey started. Most participants felt poorly prepared to react on aggressive situations. There is a need for appropriate training in de-escalation skills and self defence. Moreover a constant presence of security services was demanded to reduce violence in emergency departments.

Cultural diplomacy in countering hybrid threats

Purpose of the article is to identify cultural diplomacy as a tool of countering hybrid threats in the context of state strategic communications. International conflicts and disputes are furthermore solved by nonmilitary means. It attracts more attention to various soft power tools. The methodology of research includes general scientific approaches such as analysis, synthesis, comparative approach, studying official documents. Scientific novelty is the determination of cultural diplomacy as an integral part of public diplomacy that is one of the key elements of state strategic communications that are aimed at the promotion of its national interests. Conclusions. In fact, cultural diplomacy is a soft power tool and has to facilitate traditional diplomacy efforts. Especially actual it becomes in the situation of hybrid aggression against Ukraine. A great step in the practical implementation of such a mechanism is an establishment of appropriate structures in the system of Ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine such as Public diplomacy division and the Ukrainian institute under MFA.

Electrophysiological correlates of empathic processing and its relation to psychopathic meanness.

A lack of empathy and the presence of predatory tendencies are considered key features of psychopathic meanness. Previous electrophysiological studies on empathy in relation to psychopathic traits have focused mainly on empathy for pain; therefore, little is known about the electrophysiological correlates of empathy in aggressive situations that are particularly relevant for psychopathic meanness. We employed electroencephalography in a community sample (n = 70), the majority of whom had attained a higher level of education. All participants were screened for not having psychiatric conditions or criminal history. The P3 and late positive potential (LPP) event-related potentials and mu rhythm suppression were examined as indices of empathic processing during the observation of situations in which victims of aggression were depicted. As predicted, it was found that persons with elevated levels of psychopathic meanness scored lower on trait empathy and assigned higher positive valence to the aggression scenes. It is interesting that those scoring higher on meanness also scored higher on empathy for the perpetrator. In addition, it was found that psychopathic meanness was negatively related to LPP amplitudes following pictures of aggressive situations. No significant associations were found between meanness and the P3 or between meanness and mu suppression. This study was the first to assess the electrophysiological signature of empathy during the processing of pictures depicting aggressive situations and the relationships with psychopathic meanness. The outcomes highlight the need for more integrative approaches to further study the complex pattern of relationships between empathy and psychopathic meanness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Violence in health care settings: rethinking actions

To present a reflection on the forms of violence in health care settings and on preventive actions. This is a theoretical reflection about the phenomenon of violence and its possible coping actions. Nurses and other professionals working in health care environments may experience situations of aggression and disrespect through institutional or managerial violence, horizontal violence and patient violence. Violent practices are not applicable in any workplace, especially in care settings. Actions or measures of control should be taken in pursuit of healthier environments and in harmony with the culture of peace.

Degree of Anger During Anger-Generating Situations Among Psychiatric Staff Nurses: Association Between Nurses' Attitudes Toward Service Users' Aggression and Confidence in Intervening in Aggressive Situations.

Some situations require psychiatric staff nurses to respond to service users' negativity or aggression. As a result, psychiatric staff nurses may experience anger. The current study examined how anger levels of psychiatric staff nurses triggered by anger-generating situations by service users affected nurses' confidence and attitudes. A questionnaire survey was administered among 386 psychiatric staff nurses. The questionnaire surveyed anger levels in anger-generating situations, aggressiveness, nurses' attitudes toward aggression, and self-efficacy of intervening in aggressive situations. Path analysis revealed differences between male and female nurses. Male nurses' anger in response to physical aggression was mild when they were confident in handling aggression. Furthermore, female nurses who had high confidence in intervening in an aggressive situation had low anger levels. Confidence in intervening in aggressive situations appeared to dissipate anger and ease nurses during aggressive interactions. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 56(9), 51-59.].

A Comprehensive Approach to Empowering Victims and Understanding Perpetrators

We unequivocally agree with the root of Cortina, Rabelo, and Holland's (2018) argument about the danger in focusing mostly on the victim in situations of workplace aggression. Workplace aggression is indeed initiated by the perpetrator (or perpetrators if there are two equally responsible parties in enacting the aggression). Where we believe Cortina et al.’s arguments are lacking is the hard-drawn line that the perpetrator should be the only subject of study. No, the victim should not hold any blame nor insinuations of blame. However, we hold the premise that both sides (i.e., perpetrator and victim) must be considered, and thus both are inherently subjects of interest in order to thoroughly capture the essence of these scenarios. Therefore, our position is that a focus on the victim is not only important, but it is actually an essential component when contemplating workplace aggression. Furthering research in this area will only be successful if we have candid conversations around the inappropriate nature of a solely victim-focused approach to workplace aggression and discuss the explicit differences (or nuanced ones) that may exist across varying perspectives on workplace aggression in order to more fully understand it. Therefore Cortina et al. have rightly initiated an important conversation within industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology.

Enlisting friends to reduce sexual victimization risk: There's an app for that… but nobody uses it

ABSTRACTObjective: The Circle of Six (Co6) phone application (app), winner of the White House's Apps Against Abuse Challenge, seeks to incorporate friends into sexual victimization risk reduction. Despite its growing presence on college campuses, the feasibility/acceptability of the app to college women is unknown. This mixed methods study sought to fill this gap. Participants: College women (n = 44) participated in summer/fall 2015. Methods: Participants completed questionnaires, used the Co6 app for 2 months, and returned to report their experiences. Results: Consistent with the app's aim, women reported greater intentions to help friends versus strangers in sexually aggressive situations. However, app use was low over follow-up. Reasons women gave for not using the app included redundancy with existing smart phone features and discomfort with group messaging. Some saw the app as an emergency only resource. Conclusions: The Co6 app may not meet the real world needs of college women.

Challenges in Prognosis, Systemic Therapy, and Survival in Patients with HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer candidates to systemic chemotherapy

Abstract In patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer who are not candidates for endocrine therapy, several regimens are approved, but there is no consensus on which should be preferred. The impressive gains in progression-free survival achieved by combining two cytotoxic drugs or chemotherapy plus bevacizumab have not consistently translated into overall survival benefits. Survival in this population depends on a wide range of biological and clinical factors, some of which remain unclear. International guidelines recommend that combination regimens should be limited to clinically aggressive situations. However, an evidence-based definition that could help guide treatment decisions and trial design has not been established for so-called ‘poor-prognosis’ or ‘aggressive’ tumors. In this article, we summarize the current literature regarding prognosis and treatment of patients with no endocrine options for HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The choice of optimal systemic therapy should be based on robust prognostic factors, the biologic characteristics of the tumor, and the type and severity of comorbidities. Furthermore, we suggest that combination regimens (chemotherapy doublets or bevacizumab-based regimens) may be considered appropriate options for patients with well-defined criteria representing poor-prognosis disease.

Aggression Management Education for Acute Care Nurses: What’s the Evidence?

Aggression Management Education for Acute Care Nurses: What’s the Evidence?

Haloperidol for psychosis-induced aggression or agitation (rapid tranquillisation).

Haloperidol used alone is recommended to help calm situations of aggression or agitation for people with psychosis. It is widely accessible and may be the only antipsychotic medication available in limited-resource areas. To examine whether haloperidol alone is an effective treatment for psychosis-induced aggression or agitation, wherein clinicians are required to intervene to prevent harm to self and others. We searched the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Study-Based Register of Trials (26th May 2016). This register is compiled by systematic searches of major resources (including AMED, BIOSIS CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and registries of clinical trials) and their monthly updates, handsearches, grey literature, and conference proceedings, with no language, date, document type, or publication status limitations for inclusion of records into the register. Randomised controlledtrials (RCTs) involving people exhibiting aggression and/or agitation thought to be due to psychosis, allocated rapid use of haloperidol alone (by any route), compared with any other treatment. Outcomes of interest included tranquillisation or asleep by 30 minutes, repeated need for rapid tranquillisation within 24 hours, specific behaviours (threat or injury to others/self), adverse effects. We included trials meeting our selection criteria and providing useable data. We independently inspected all citations from searches, identified relevant abstracts, and independently extracted data from all included studies. For binary data we calculated risk ratio (RR), for continuous data we calculated mean difference (MD), and for cognitive outcomes we derived standardised mean difference (SMD) effect sizes, all with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and using a fixed-effect model. We assessed risk of bias for the included studies and used the GRADE approach to produce 'Summary of findings' tables which included our pre-specified main outcomes of interest. We found nine new RCTs from the 2016 update search, giving a total of 41 included studies and 24 comparisons. Few studies were undertaken in circumstances that reflect real-world practice, and, with notable exceptions, most were small and carried considerable risk of bias. Due to the large number of comparisons, we can only present a summary of main results.Compared with placebo, more people in the haloperidol group were asleep at two hours (2 RCTs, n=220, RR 0.88, 95%CI 0.82 to 0.95, very low-quality evidence) and experienced dystonia (2 RCTs, n=207, RR 7.49, 95%CI 0.93 to 60.21, very low-quality evidence).Compared with aripiprazole, people in the haloperidol group required fewer injections than those in the aripiprazole group (2 RCTs, n=473, RR 0.78, 95%CI 0.62 to 0.99, low-quality evidence). More people in the haloperidol group experienced dystonia (2 RCTs, n=477, RR 6.63, 95%CI 1.52 to 28.86, very low-quality evidence).Four trials (n=207) compared haloperidol with lorazepam with no significant differences with regard to number of participants asleep at one hour (1 RCT, n=60, RR 1.05, 95%CI 0.76 to 1.44, very low-quality of evidence) or those requiring additional injections (1 RCT, n=66, RR 1.14, 95%CI 0.91 to 1.43, very low-quality of evidence).Haloperidol's adverse effects were not offset by addition of lorazepam (e.g. dystonia 1 RCT, n=67, RR 8.25, 95%CI 0.46 to 147.45, very low-quality of evidence).Addition of promethazine was investigated in two trials (n=376). More people in the haloperidol group were not tranquil or asleep by 20 minutes (1 RCT, n=316, RR 1.60, 95%CI 1.18 to 2.16, moderate-quality evidence). Acute dystonia was too common in the haloperidol alone group for the trial to continue beyond the interim analysis (1 RCT, n=316, RR 19.48, 95%CI 1.14 to 331.92, low-quality evidence). Additional data from new studies does not alter previous conclusions of this review. If no other alternative exists, sole use of intramuscular haloperidol could be life-saving. Where additional drugs are available, sole use of haloperidol for extreme emergency could be considered unethical. Addition of the sedating promethazine has support from better-grade evidence from within randomised trials. Use of an alternative antipsychotic drug is only partially supported by fragmented and poor-grade evidence. Adding a benzodiazepine to haloperidol does not have strong evidence of benefit and carries risk of additional harm.After six decades of use for emergency rapid tranquillisation, this is still an area in need of good independent trials relevant to real-world practice.

Influence of acculturation strategies on the judgement and punishment of an offender of North African descent

ABSTRACTVery few studies have examined the influence of the acculturation strategies of an offender of foreign descent on the way a third party judges the personality and action of that offender. The aim of our study was thus to measure the effect of three variables (Seriousness of the harm suffered by the victim; Type of acculturation strategy of the offender; Level of Social Dominance Orientation [SDO]) of the person making the judgement) on the judgements and decisions made by a sample of students faced with a situation of physical aggression committed by a man of North African descent living in France. After reading a scenario describing a criminal act committed by a man of North African descent, who had or had not adopted French culture, 168 French students completed a judgement scale concerning the criminal act and the offender and an SDO scale. The results show that the crime was perceived as less serious when the perpetrator had adopted French culture than when he had not. The perpetrator was also judged less severely. Participants with higher levels of SDO advocated harsher punishment and attributed the crime to the offender’s personality. We discuss these results and identify new avenues for research.

Do attachment patterns predict aggression in a context of social rejection? An executive functioning account.

People tend to respond to rejection and attack with aggression. The present research examined the modulation role of attachment patterns on provoked aggression following punishment and proposed an executive functioning account of attachment patterns' modulating influence based on the General Aggression Model. Attachment style was measured using the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory. Experiments 1a and b and 2 adopted a social rejection task and assessed subsequent unprovoked and provoked aggression with different attachment patterns. Moreover, Experiment 1b and 2 used a Stroop task to examine whether differences in provoked aggression by attachment patterns are due to the amount of executive functioning following social rejection, or after unprovoked punishment, or even before social rejection. Anxiously attached participants displayed significant more provoked aggression than securely and avoidantly attached participants in provoked aggression following unprovoked punishment in Experiments 1 and 2. Meanwhile, subsequent Stroop tests indicated anxiously attached participants experienced more executive functioning depletion after social rejection and unprovoked aggression. The present findings support the General Aggression Model and suggest that provoked aggression is predicted by attachment patterns in the context of social rejection; different provoked aggression may depend on the degree of executive functioning that individuals preserved in aggressive situations. The current study contributes to our understanding of the importance of the role of attachment patterns in modulating aggressive behavior accompanying unfair social encounters.

Socioanthropological Views on Transgressive Behaviors in Congolese Handball Players

The present survey is aimed at outlining a picture of the behavioral situation of aggression in the Handball in Congo according to the type of aggression (instrumental, hostile) and that of the gender. In sum, 48 handballers of the senior teams among whom 28 men were observed during the semi-finals and finals 2012-2013 sports season. The videos sequences of various matches have been analyzed by confederal referees on the basis of Coulomb, Rascle and Pfister methodology. The outcome obtained, enable to observe that men present a highest level of any type of aggression compared to women. Furthermore, the opposition attitudes (percussions, blows, repulsions) are the most experienced. Thus, we are going to support the hypothesis that the congolese handball is the hub of the occurrence of some forms of aggressiveness, legalized in sport like nowhere else.

The understated ugly side of police–citizen encounters: situation, suspect, officer, decision-making, and force predictors of officer injuries

ABSTRACTPolicing is one of the most dangerous occupations and is consistently placed in the top five occupations for injuries and fatalities as a result of occupational violence [Prenzler, T. (2012). Policing and security in practice: challenges and achievements. New York: Palgrave Macmillan]. Police–citizen encounters that involve the use of force present a high risk of injuries to officers. This study used official data from an Australian jurisdiction to explore injuries sustained by officers in 202 police–citizen encounters involving force. The study examined situation, suspect, and officer characteristics, as well as officers’ decision-making and the force level chosen relative to the suspects’ level of resistance. Multiple regression showed the most predictive factors of officer injury were encounters with physically aggressive suspects and situations where police used lower levels of force compared to suspect resistance. Significant effects were also found for crime event and suspect-related variables. The findings of this research help identify what types of incidents provide the greatest risk for police and develop risk reduction strategies.

Evaluation of an Education and Training Program to Prevent and Manage Patients' Violence in a Mental Health Setting: A Pretest-Posttest Intervention Study.

Workplace violence can lead to serious consequences for victims, organizations, and society. Most workplace violence prevention programs aim to train staff to better recognize and safely manage at-risk situations. The Omega education and training program was developed in Canada in 1999, and has since been used to teach healthcare and mental health workers the skills needed to effectively intervene in situations of aggression. The present study was designed to assess the impact of Omega on employee psychological distress, confidence in coping, and perceived exposure to violence. This program was offered to 105 employees in a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, Canada. Eighty-nine of them accepted to participate. Questionnaires were completed before the training, after a short period of time (M = 109 days) and at follow-up (M = 441 days). Repeated-measures ANOVAs and Cohen’s d effect sizes were calculated. Results demonstrated statistically significant improvements in short-term and follow-up posttest scores of psychological distress, confidence in coping, and in levels of exposure to violence. This study is one of very few to demonstrate the positive impact of this training program. Further research is needed to understand how to improve the effectiveness of the program, especially among participants resistant to change.