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Abstract
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Forty-three subjects from secondary school took part in a correlation study investigating the nature of cognitive processes involved in the presentation of violent behaviour. Measures of violence were scores on "aggression items" of a self-report questionnaire. The experimental procedure involved binocular tachistoscopic presentation of neutral and violent slide pairs. Descriptions of the composite stimuli were scored for violent content. The main finding was that subjects who had reported more involvement in violent acts also reported seeing more violence in the stimulus array. This association held irrespective of age, IQ, socio-economic status and starting mood. It is argued that these findings indicate a perceptual, rather than a response, bias. A role for this bias as a possible maintaining condition in the presentation of aggressive behaviour is presented. The implications of the present findings for interventions with young people are discussed. It is suggested that cognitive techniques may prove more effective than traditional behavioural programmes.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this research by May was to investigate the nature of the cognitive processes involved in the violent behavior exhibited by young people. The study takes the information processing approach, with particular focus upon the area of selective attention.
METHODOLOGY:
The author employed a quasi-experimental cross-sectional design with a non-probability sample of 40 fourth form boys, aged 14 to 15 years, from a secondary school in London. Information relating to socioeconomic status was obtained from the Year Head at the school, and the self-administered Mill Hill vocabulary test, Junior Scale, was used to measure intellectual abilities. A mood rating scale was developed from the "profile of mood states" in order to measure anger or hostility at the time of the testing. The "Self-Report Questionnaire of Deviant Behavior" provided a total number of deviant acts, while a subset of seven aggression items examined past involvement in violent activities. The Year Head at the school rated each of the subjects on ease of disciplining, disobedience, roughness with peers and outside the school, reaction to criticism and competitiveness. The level of violence cognitively perceived by the individual was measured by an external violent stimulus. Each subject was shown four slides using a tachistoscope (T-scope). Two were resting slides, one showing a cross and the other a circle. These resting slides were shown in between the experimental slides. There were six pairs of the experimental slides, each pair consisting of a violent and a neutral slide which were shown simultaneously for half a second. Responses to the slides, in relation to which slide the subject had perceived, were recorded verbatim and later scored. Analysis included multiple regressions and correlations.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The author found that all three measures of deviance - the aggression score of the delinquency questionnaire, the teacher rating and the total score of the delinquency questionnaire - correlated with the T-scope score, with the aggressive delinquency score accounting for 61% of the T-scope variance, even after age, IQ and socioeconomic status were controlled for. An unexpected finding was that no relationship was found between starting mood and T-scope score. The author concluded that boys who reported a history of aggression also reported seeing more violence in the experiment, suggesting a biased cognitive process of selective attention to violence. The author suggested that the cause of this selective attention might be due to a developmental increase in sensitivity to violence as children mature, and that chronic exposure to violent behavior predisposes one to the process of selective attention to violent cues. The use of cognitive behavioral therapy in treating violent youth might help reduce a vulnerability to environmental stressors that is left after the use of behavioral therapy alone, by teaching individuals to change their perception of provoking situations. The author concluded on the note that further research should be conducted in order to clarify the role of cognitive processes in the development and continuation of violent behavior.
EVALUATION:
The author presents an interesting paper on the role of cognitive processes in the violent behavior of young people. However, the small sample size calls into question the reliability of the results. The use of a vocabulary test as a measure of IQ might not accurately present a measure of general intelligence, and the criteria of determining the seven aggression items from the delinquency questionnaire were not specified. The problematic nature of self-report data causes concern about the truth of the subjects' reports, and the use of only six slide pairs might not have been able to accurately determine the subjects' cognitive processes. Despite these limitations, the author presents an important and compelling argument for the use of cognitive as well as behavioral therapy programs for the treatment of the violent youth, and for continued research into the cognitive processes that might underlie violent behavior. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Foreign Countries
KW - England
KW - Behavior Causes
KW - Cognitive Processing
KW - Cognitive Behavioral Treatment
KW - Juvenile Development
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Male
KW - Male Offender
KW - Male Violence
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Offender Treatment
KW - Juvenile Treatment
KW - Violence Treatment
KW - Treatment Recommendations
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Offender Characteristics
Language: en |