TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1990//
TI  - Violent behaviour and interpretative bias: an experimental study of the resolution of ambiguity in violent offenders
JO  - British journal of clinical psychology
A1  - Copello, A. G.
A1  - Tata, P. R.
SP  - 417
EP  - 428
VL  - 29
IS  - 4
N2  - The present study used an information-processing approach to investigate differences in interpretation of sentences which were ambiguous for violent or neutral meaning across three groups of subjects: violent offenders, non-violent offender controls and a group of non-offender controls. Subjects were presented with unambiguous and ambiguous sentences. The ambiguous sentences were selected so that they could be interpreted in either a threatening or neutral manner. A recognition memory test indicated that both offender groups were more likely to interpret violent ambiguous sentences in a threatening fashion, with the opposite being shown by the non-offender group. This difference was found to be significant. A control condition suggested that the interpretative bias was specific to violent material and not a general anxiety response. Furthermore, the tendency to infer violent threat was found to correlate with hostility. The results are discussed in relation to cognitive theories of anger and aggression.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0144-6657
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -