Distraction Attenuates the Association Between Trait Disinhibition and Reactive Physical Aggression
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Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Psychology Theses Department of Psychology 5-3-2017 Distraction Attenuates the Association between Trait Disinhibition and Reactive Physical Aggression Olivia Subramani Olivia Subramani Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/psych_theses Recommended Citation Subramani, Olivia, "Distraction Attenuates the Association between Trait Disinhibition and Reactive Physical Aggression." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2017. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/psych_theses/163 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Psychology at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DISTRACTION ATTENUATES THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TRAIT DISINHIBITION AND REACTIVE PHYSICAL AGGRESSION by OLIVIA SUBRAMANI Under the Direction of Dominic J. Parrott, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Research has implicated biased attention allocation as a proximal mechanism in the association between trait disinhibition and physical aggression. The current study tested a laboratory-based intervention manipulation that targets this putative cognitive mechanism by incentivizing a shift of attention from a provoking stimulus to a neutral stimulus during a laboratory aggression paradigm. Participants were 119 undergraduate men. The sum/difference method of hierarchical linear regression indicated that distraction from strong emotional stimuli attenuated the association between trait disinhibition and reactive physical aggression. This study is the first to provide experimental evidence of (a) the relation between trait disinhibition and reactive physical aggression, and (b) a potential method for attenuating this association. i These findings contribute to the broader literature by supporting biased attention allocation toward emotional cues as a mechanism for the relation between trait disinhibition and a variety of risk-taking behavior. INDEX WORDS: Trait disinhibition, Physical aggression, Reactive aggression, Attentional biases ii DISTRACTION ATTENUATES THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TRAIT DISINHIBITION AND REACTIVE PHYSICAL AGGRESSION by OLIVIA SUBRAMANI A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2017 iii Copyright by Olivia Scalise Subramani 2017 iv DISTRACTION ATTENUATES THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN TRAIT DISINHIBITION AND REACTIVE PHYSICAL AGGRESSION by OLIVIA SUBRAMANI Committee Chair: Dominic Parrott Committee: Robert Latzman David Washburn Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2017 v iv DEDICATION I would like to extend my appreciation to my family and friends who have unconditionally supported me during my years in graduate school. I appreciate the many home cooked meals, celebrations, study groups, and coffee shop conversations. I would further like to thank my mentors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. John Curtin, Daniel Bradford, Mark Starr, and Dr. Joseph Newman, who provided invaluable opportunities for my professional growth, and encouraged my scientific curiosity. iv v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge all of my personal and professional guides and mentors throughout my personal and professional development. Most notably, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Dominic Parrott, for his patience and invaluable feedback throughout this truly iterative process. I believe his openness to and encouragement of new ideas and methods has vastly served my professional development and the larger scientific field. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. Robert Latzman and David Washburn for their ongoing support and guidance on this project. v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... x 1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Theoretical Explanations for the Link between Trait Disinhibition and Aggression 2 1.2 The Role of Attention-Allocation ........................................................................ 3 1.2.1 The CABA Model ............................................................................................ 4 1.2.2 Attentional Control Theory ............................................................................ 8 1.2.3 Alcohol Myopia Theory .................................................................................. 9 1.2.4 Desynchronized Dual Cognitive and Emotional System ............................. 10 1.3 Integration of Attention-Allocation Models ..................................................... 10 1.4 Distraction as an Intervention ........................................................................... 11 1.5 Overview of the Study and Hypotheses ............................................................ 12 2 EXPERIMENT ......................................................................................................... 15 2.1 Participants and Recruitment ........................................................................... 15 2.2 Experimental Design .......................................................................................... 17 2.3 Materials ............................................................................................................. 17 2.3.1 Demographic Form ...................................................................................... 17 vi vii 2.3.2 Externalizing Spectrum Inventory – Brief Form (ESI-BF; Patrick et al., 2013). 17 2.3.3 Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss & Perry, 1992). ............................... 18 2.3.4 Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; Taylor, 1967). .................................... 19 2.3.5 Deception Manipulation ............................................................................... 20 2.3.6 Provocation ................................................................................................... 20 2.3.7 Distraction Task ............................................................................................ 21 2.4 Procedure ............................................................................................................ 22 3 RESULTS .................................................................................................................. 26 3.1 Manipulation Check ........................................................................................... 26 3.1.1 Aggression tasks check ................................................................................. 26 3.1.2 Distraction task check................................................................................... 26 3.2 Preliminary Analyses ......................................................................................... 26 3.3 Analytic Plan ....................................................................................................... 27 3.3.1 Centering and coding of predictor variables ............................................... 27 3.3.2 Sum/Difference regression method (Hope, 1975; Judd et al., 2001).......... 28 3.4 Regression Analyses ........................................................................................... 29 3.4.1 Between-subjects effects ............................................................................... 29 3.4.2 Within-subjects effects .................................................................................. 29 4 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................... 31 vii viii 4.1 Does Distraction Reduce the Effect of Trait Disinhibition on Aggression? .. 31 4.2 Theoretical Implications .................................................................................... 34 4.3 Clinical Implications .......................................................................................... 35 4.4 Limitations .......................................................................................................... 36 4.5 Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 37 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 38 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 61 Appendix A: Externalizing Spectrum Inventory-BF ............................................... 61 Appendix B: BAQ ....................................................................................................... 71 Appendix C: Distraction Task ................................................................................... 73 viii ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Participant demographics and descriptives .......................................................... 55 Table 2 Dependent variable descriptives .......................................................................... 56 Table 3 Regression model for