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Browsing by Author "White, Bradley A."

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    Angry rumination and effortful control: Mediating effects on reactive but not proactive aggression
    White, Bradley A.; Turner, K. Amber (2013-08-01)
    Anger rumination and self-regulation deficits have been previously identified as risk factors for aggression. We hypothesized that anger rumination would relate to reactive but not proactive aggression, and that this association would be mediated by lower levels of trait selfregulation. Undergraduate students (N = 359) completed self-report measures of anger rumination, effortful control, and aggression. Mediation was tested using PROCESS (Hayes, 2012). After controlling for proactive aggression, anger rumination was associated with reactive aggression, and this relationship was partially mediated by effortful control. Anger rumination was also uniquely related to proactive aggression, but without mediation by effortful control. Gender did not moderate these relationships. Effortful control may be a viable treatment target for reactive aggression, whereas addressing anger rumination may help reduce both reactive and proactive aggression.
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    Attentional control mediates fearful responding to an ecologically valid stressor
    Richey, John A.; White, Bradley A.; Valdespino, Andrew; Ghane, M.; Schmidt, N. B. (Taylor & Francis, 2016-01-02)
    Background and Objectives: Attentional control (AC) is defined as the ability to voluntarily shift and disengage attention, and is thought to moderate the relationship between pre-existing risk factors for fear and the actual experience of fear. Design: This longitudinal study elaborates on current models of attentional control by examining whether AC moderates or mediates effects of an ecologically valid stressor (a college exam), and also whether AC is predictive of state-like fear over longer timescales than previously reported. Methods: Based on previous findings we hypothesized that AC would moderate the relationship between trait anxiety and affective distress in response to the exam stressor. We also tested a competing mediational model based on attentional control theory (Eysenck et al., 2007). These models were tested in two separate samples (Sample 1 N=219; Sample 2 N=129; Total N= 348) at two time points, at the beginning of a college semester in a large undergraduate class, and five minutes prior to a college exam. Results: Mediation but not moderation of anxiety by AC was supported in both samples using multiple dependent measures. Conclusion: We conclude that AC may be useful in predicting affective distress in naturalistic settings, particularly in cases where anxiety is anticipatory.
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    A Behavioral Genetic Study of the Links Between Working Memory and Aspects of Attention in Middle Childhood
    Wang, Zhe (Virginia Tech, 2010-11-05)
    The purpose of the current study was to explore the genetic and environmental association between working memory and different behavioral aspects of the attention network (i.e., executive attention, alerting attention, and orienting attention), using a twin design. Data were from 131 monozygotic (39% male) and 173 same-sex dizygotic (44% male) twins. Individual differences in working memory performance and behavioral measures of executive attention, alerting attention, and orienting attention were found to be moderately heritable. A modest nonshared environmental effect was found for all variables. Individual differences in working memory were significantly correlated with variability in executive and alerting attention, but not orienting attention. All of the association between working memory and executive as well as alerting attention was statistically mediated by genetic influences, indicating a common genetic mechanism or mechanisms underlying the links between working memory and certain behavioral indicators of attention.
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    Co-development of internalizing and externalizing behaviors during middle childhood and potential moderators of the process
    Chen, Nan (Virginia Tech, 2014-10-08)
    Child internalizing and externalizing problems co-vary during development and lead to maladjustment outcomes, such as substance abuse, academic failure, antisocial behaviors and psychopathology. The proposed study aims to examine the co-development process of internalizing and externalizing problems during middle childhood and the potential moderators of this reciprocal relationship. Children and their families recruited in the Study of Early Childhood Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) constitute the sample of the current study. Participants in the study were recruited from nine states in the United States and followed from birth to adolescence. Though a few studies have examined the developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems over time, the findings are not consistent in terms of the directions of the relationship and very few have examined individual difference in the co-development process. To address this gap in knowledge, two moderating effects are examined, with one moderator being time-invariant, i.e., children's gender, and the other moderator being time-variant, i.e. parent-child conflicts. Longitudinal growth modeling and longitudinal difference score modeling are used to examine the dynamic relationship and the moderating effects. Comparisons of the two approaches are made with respect to the specific hypotheses of change tested by each model, model convergence, parameter and fit estimates, and the interpretation of the results.
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    Comorbid ADHD: Implications for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Youth with a Specific Phobia
    Halldorsdottir, Thorhildur (Virginia Tech, 2014-03-04)
    Objective: Although findings have been mixed, accumulating evidence suggests that co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and symptoms negatively predict cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) outcomes for anxious youth. The current study extends past research by examining the association of not only ADHD but also other features of ADHD with treatment outcomes of youth who received an intensive CBT for a specific phobia. Method: 135 youth (ages 6-15; 52.2% female; 88.2% white) were randomized to either an individual or parent-augmented intensive CBT targeting a specific phobia. Latent growth curve models were used to explore the association of ADHD symptoms, effortful control, sluggish cognitive tempo, maternal depression and the two treatment conditions (i.e., individual versus parent-augmented) with pre-treatment severity of the specific phobia and the trajectory of change in the severity of the specific phobia from pre-treatment to the 6-month follow up after the intervention. Results: As expected, higher levels of ADHD symptoms were associated with lower levels of effortful control and increased maternal depression at pre-treatment. Contrary to expectations, ADHD symptoms and its associated difficulties were not significantly associated with treatment outcomes. Conclusion: Overall, the findings lend support to the generalizability of intensive CBT for a specific phobia to youth with comorbid ADHD and associated difficulties. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.
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    The Effect of Mindfulness on Stress in Mothers of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Emotion Regulation Framework
    Conner, Caitlin Mary (Virginia Tech, 2013-05-03)
    Parents, especially mothers, of a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are more likely to experience higher levels of stress, and adaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as mindfulness and acceptance, may decrease stress among parents of children with ASD. Research has shown that mindfulness-based interventions reduce perceived stress among parents of typically developing children and improve the parent-child relationship, and similar interventions may be helpful for mothers of children with ASD. However, research has not yet established that mindfulness is related to decreased stress among parents. It is important to first establish this relationship, given the possibility that other factors, such as child behavioral difficulties or parental psychopathology are stronger predictors of maternal stress than the mother's regulation strategies. This study examined the unique contribution of maternal mindfulness to maternal stress in a sample of mothers (n = 154) who completed an online battery of measures. As predicted, maternal mindfulness significantly predicted level of maternal stress, above and beyond child behavior problems and maternal psychopathology, and this relationship was not moderated by child's ASD diagnosis. Maternal emotion regulation and effortful control were also significantly related to maternal stress, and may account for the explained variance of mindfulness. These findings and their implications are discussed.
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    Emotion Regulation Treatment of Disruptive Behavior: A Preliminary Investigation
    Turner, K. Amber (Virginia Tech, 2017-09-20)
    Children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) can have heterogeneous presentations due to varying combinations of the eight criterion A symptoms. Researchers have identified a subtype of ODD for children with primarily angry/irritable mood symptoms and who are at risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders. Despite the prevalence of anger and mood issues in children with ODD, established treatments for disruptive behavior disorders typically focus primarily on teaching caregivers more effective parenting strategies to address oppositional and defiant behaviors, rather than directly targeting children's difficulties with emotions. To address the dearth of emotion-focused treatments for ODD, a novel emotion regulation intervention was developed based on a framework offered by Southam-Gerow (2013). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the initial feasibility of this intervention and to explore its efficacy for reducing ODD and associated emotion regulation problems in middle childhood. Following a non-concurrent multiple baseline design, children ages 8-12 were assessed with semi-structured diagnostic interviews to determine study eligibility, and subsequently enrolled in a 13-week intervention with their caregivers. Treatment feasibility was supported by participant satisfaction ratings as well as treatment fidelity results. Treatment protocol adherence in terms of delivery by the therapist was high, but caregiver symptom reporting was less consistent. Nevertheless, multiple metrics support the efficacy of the intervention in reducing symptoms of ODD as well as some efficacy in improving child emotion regulation abilities. Overall, results support further research into emotion regulation-focused intervention for ODD.
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    Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control Skills at Four Years of Age
    Watson, Amanda J. (Virginia Tech, 2014-04-30)
    Inhibitory Control (IC), a vital facet of childhood development, involves the ability to suppress a dominant response, as well as the ability to suppress irrelevant thoughts and behaviors. This ability emerges during the first year of life and develops rapidly during the preschool years. A variety of tasks have been developed to measure IC in this age group and, recently, research has demonstrated important differences in task performance according to various distinctions among these tasks. One under-researched distinction is that of whether an IC task requires the child to give a verbal or a motoric response. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine, in 4-year-old children, the differences and similarities among IC tasks requiring either a verbal or a motoric response. Differences were explored with respect to the contributions to verbal and motoric IC performance of language, intelligence, temperament, and frontal encephalography, as well as with respect to social and school readiness outcomes. IC was best described by a two-component model, distinguishing verbal and motoric IC. Both baseline and task electrophysiology contributed to task performance in the verbal Yes-No task as well as the motoric IC composite. Language and intelligence, too, were associated with both verbal and motoric IC, although nonverbal intelligence was less strongly correlated with verbal IC than it was with motoric IC. All laboratory measures of IC related to parent report of children’s IC as well as to other parent-reported temperament scales and factors. Children’s verbal and motoric IC were associated, too, with children’s social development, surprisingly showing the most consistent associations with social inhibition. Asocial behavior positively correlated more strongly with motoric IC than with verbal IC. Children’s laboratory IC positively correlated with their school readiness, even when controlling for their intelligence although children’s emergent literacy more positively related to their motoric, rather than verbal, IC. An interaction of intelligence and IC contributed to social variables, but not to school readiness. This research supports the important distinction between verbal and motoric IC, and demonstrates the utility of including an array of measures of both in early childhood research.
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    Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control Skills at Three Years of Age
    Watson, Amanda Joyce (Virginia Tech, 2011-04-15)
    Seventy-three children participated in an investigation of inhibitory control (IC) at 3 years of age. Child IC was measured under various conditions in order to determine the impact that nonverbal and/or motivational task demands had on child IC task performance. Furthermore, task performance was examined with respect to measures of language, temperament, and psychophysiology. Tasks showed different patterns of relations to each of these variables. Furthermore, performance on the Hand Game, our measure of nonverbal IC, was explained by frontal EEG activity and, surprisingly, by language abilities. In contrast, performance on two other IC tasks, Day-Night and Less is More, was not related to measures of language or frontal EEG, perhaps because children performed at chance level on these tasks, indicating that these tasks may be too difficult for 3-year-old children. Implications of these findings are discussed.
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    Interactions of Parent and Adolescent Temperament Dimensions in Relation to the Emotion Regulatory System
    Walters, Jeanette Marie (Virginia Tech, 2015-09-03)
    Extant research on temperament shows that it may be related to certain developmental outcomes. However, according to the goodness-of-fit hypothesis (Chess and Thomas, 1999), developmental outcomes are the result of how well the biological tendencies of an individual (i.e. temperament) fit with the contextual demands of their environment. Thus, temperament should only affect developmental outcomes as a function of their environmental context. The current study proposes that parent temperament may serve as an environmental context that interacts with adolescent temperament to affect the development of the adolescent emotion regulatory system. Structural equation modeling results revealed parent temperament, specifically parent effortful control, to moderate the relationship between adolescent temperament and the adolescent emotion regulatory system. Several gender differences were also found for both main and interaction effects. Adolescent negative affect was negatively related to emotion regulation for girls only. Parent effortful control moderated the relationship between adolescent effortful control and suppression use also for girls only. Parent effortful control moderated the relationship between adolescent surgency and emotion lability for boys only, and parent effortful control moderated the relationship between adolescent surgency and suppression for both boys and girls, but in opposite directions. The interaction term was negatively related to suppression for girls, and it was positively related to suppression for boys. Results have several implications for potential parenting interventions and may inform programs that teach emotion regulation strategies.
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    Mechanisms of Empathic Behavior in Children with Callous-Unemotional Traits: Eye Gaze and Emotion Recognition
    Delk, Lauren Annabel (Virginia Tech, 2016-11-16)
    The presence of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (e.g., shallow affect, lack of empathy) in children predicts reduced prosocial behavior. Similarly, CU traits relate to emotion recognition deficits, which may be related to deficits in visual attention to the eye region of others. Notably, recognition of others' distress necessarily precedes sympathy, and sympathy is a key predictor in prosocial outcomes. Thus, visual attention and emotion recognition may mediate the relationship between CU traits and deficient prosocial behavior. Elucidating these connections furthers the development of treatment protocols for children with behavioral problems and CU traits. This study seeks to: (1) extend this research to younger children, including girls; (2) measure eye gaze using infrared eye-tracking technology; and (3) test the hypothesis that CU traits are linked to prosocial behavior deficits via reduced eye gaze, which in turn leads to deficits in fear recognition. Children (n = 81, ages 6-9) completed a computerized, eye-tracked emotion recognition task and a standardized prosocial behavior task while parents reported on the children's CU traits. Results partially supported hypotheses, in that CU traits predicted less time focusing on the eye region for fear expressions, and certain dimensions of eye gaze predicted accuracy in recognizing some emotions. However, the full model was not supported for fear or distress expressions. Conversely, there was some evidence that the link between CU traits and deficient prosocial behavior is mediated by reduced recognition for low intensity happy expressions, but only in girls. Theoretical and practical implications for these findings are considered.
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    Mindfulness Training for Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study
    Conner, Caitlin Mary (Virginia Tech, 2017-04-05)
    Despite the rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), interventions for the adult population, most of whom do not achieve independent living, are limited (Seltzer, Shattuck, Abbeduto, and Greenberg, 2004). Additionally, many individuals with ASD experience impaired emotion regulation (ER), which is thought to contribute to higher rates of psychiatric comorbidities among adults with ASD as well as indirect effects upon adaptive functioning, interpersonal relationships, and vocational status ( Mazefsky et al., 2013; Samson, Huber, and Gross, 2012). The primary purpose of the current study was to investigate the initial feasibility and efficacy of an adapted mindfulness-based individual therapy for adults with ASD to target ER difficulties, and evaluate ER as a potential change process. Initial feasibility of mindfulness-based approaches among adults with ASD was supported by acceptable treatment fidelity and participant satisfaction ratings. Efficacy of the intervention was partially supported; four of the participants demonstrated significant improvements in impulse control, access to ER strategies, and emotional acceptance, and two of the participants evidenced significant decreases in emotional symptom distress. Analysis of ER as a potential change process found significant improvement for four participants, but slopes demonstrated that improvement initiated before treatment, a confound for determination of change processes. Further research is recommended, including additional timepoints, a clinical cutoff-derived sample, and further understanding of the role of self-regulatory deficits for individuals with ASD.
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    A moderated transactional link between child behavioral problems and parenting: A longitudinal- and behavioral- genetic study
    Wang, Zhe (Virginia Tech, 2013-05-16)
    Parenting behaviors and a variety of behavioral problems in children covary. The current study first aimed to examine how and why parenting and child behavioral problems are linked in middle childhood. In particular, a longitudinal design (1364 children assessed from 54 months to 5th grade) was used to examine whether the developmental link between parenting and child behavioral problems were reciprocal. A twin design (131 pairs of monozygotic and 173 pairs of dizygotic twins assessed from 6 to 8 years of age on average) was used to examine the underlying genetic and nongenetic etiology of this link. In addition, using these two samples, the current study also aimed to examine whether parental attributes, including negative affect, executive function, and social cognitive factors, modulate the link between parenting and child behavioral problems. Results across these two studies suggested that parenting and child behavioral problems mutually influenced the development of each other over time, potentially through both evocative and passive gene-environment correlation processes and environmental transmissions. In addition, maternal dispositional anger modulated the effects of child behavioral problems on changes in maternal parenting quality over time. Finally, implications of the current study were also discussed.
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    Negative Affect in the Relationship between Internalizing Symptoms and Aggression: The Role of Effortful Control
    Turner, K. Amber (Virginia Tech, 2013-03-01)
    Although comorbidity is common between internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression and externalizing symptoms such as aggression, the reason for this co-occurrence remains unclear. High negative affect is one factor that has been proposed to explain the connection between anxiety and depression, as well as between these internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms including aggression; however, on its own, it may not explain the common association between symptoms. Research on anxiety suggests that effortful control moderates the relationship between negative affect and anxiety. Low levels of effortful control have also been tied to symptoms of depression and aggression. It was hypothesized that effortful control would moderate the impact of negative affect in associations between internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) and aggression such that individuals who have both high levels of negative affect and low levels of effortful control will be more likely to experience both internalizing symptoms and aggression. It was further proposed that, among the functional subtypes of aggression, this relationship would hold only for reactive aggression, and not for proactive aggression. These predictions were tested via hierarchical regression analyses of self-report data from a large sample of undergraduate students. Findings suggest that effortful control moderates the relationship between negative affect and depression; however, it functions as an additive predictor for both anxiety and reactive aggression. These findings and their implications are discussed.
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    Physical Investigation of Field Scale Groundwater Recharge Processes in the Virginia Blue Ridge Physiographic Province
    White, Bradley A. (Virginia Tech, 2005-12-05)
    Physical and geophysical data collected at the Fractured Rock Research Site in Floyd County, Virginia indicate that recharge rates to the subsurface are controlled by a small scale thrust fault associated with regional thrust faulting within the Blue Ridge Province. Recharge rates appear to be correlated to spatial variation in the hydraulic conductivity of the regolith, which has been influenced by weathering rates and the metamorphic and structural history of the underlying parent material. Previous studies conducted at the Fractured Rock Research Site suggest that recharge potential can be separated into two regions: one over a vertically oriented shear zone associated with the small scale thrust fault, and the other overlying a thrust fault hanging wall. The angle of dip of the thrust fault shear zone and the fracturing within the crystalline rock adjacent to the fault plane appear to serve as geologic controls that preferentially direct infiltrated meteoric water to a deeper confined aquifer. The structural competence of the granulite gneiss thrust fault hanging wall appears to act as a barrier to deeper groundwater recharge, causing the formation of a shallow semi-confined aquifer within the overlying regolith. In-situ analysis of matric potential and moisture content shows two distinctly different recharge processes that are spatially correlated with the structure of the shallow subsurface (regolith overlying the vertically oriented shear zone and regolith overlying the thrust fault hanging wall), and have been shown to have strong temporal correlations with the dynamics of the underlying saturated conditions. Recharge flux estimates within the regolith overlying the thrust fault hanging wall are uncharacteristically high, and appear to be offset within the monitored region by the upward hydraulic gradient associated with the potentiometric surface of the underlying semi-confined aquifer. Because of the influence exerted by the upward hydraulic gradient on matric potential within the unsaturated regolith overlying the semi-confined aquifer, accurate recharge estimates could not be obtained from the matric potential data recorded by the tensiometers along this portion of the transect. Recharge flux within the regolith overlying the vertically oriented shear zone is strongly controlled by the orientation and aerial extent of the thrust fault shear zone, and highlights the importance of accurate delineation of recharge areas in crystalline rock aquifer systems.
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    Piloting the Use of Acceptance, Cognitive Defusion, and Values, in Reducing Experiential Avoidance and its Consequences Among Youth Rejected by Peers
    Halliburton, Amanda E. (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-30)
    Peer rejection (PR) can be damaging to cognitive and emotional well being and lead to risky behavioral consequences (e.g., violence, increased peer pressure susceptibility), particularly for adolescents (Sebastian et al., 2010; Williams, 2007). Interventions designed to minimize the impact of and repair damage related to PR in youth have been somewhat successful (e.g., Mikami et al., 2005), although the need for further research into potentially pliable mechanisms underlying adolescent peer relationships remains. One suggested mediating factor is experiential avoidance (EA), which is the major target of acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; see Hayes, 2004 for a review). The present study built on the recommendations of Biglan et al. (2008) and Theodore-Oklota et al. (2014) in designing and implementing a prevention program aimed at reducing EA of PR experiences, with the hope of minimizing cognitive, emotional and behavioral consequences of PR. For this initial pilot, selected ACT components (acceptance, cognitive defusion, and values) were presented in age-appropriate form to six participants over five individual intervention sessions. The program was successful in reducing EA and cognitive fusion and/or improving mindfulness and acceptance for most participants, with some exceptions. Additionally, results showed a decrease in existing symptomatology for several participants (e.g., anger, depression, poor self-concept, overall stress). However, value congruence was not significantly improved for any of the six completers. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications and recommendations for further research, particularly in terms of how the existing pilot intervention could be altered and augmented to maximize effectiveness.
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    Primary Versus Secondary Diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Youth: Is the Distinction an Important One?
    Ollendick, Thomas H.; Jarrett, Matthew A.; White, Bradley A.; White, Susan W.; Grills, Amie E. (Springer, 2016-08-01)
    Examine whether children with a primary diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) differ from children with a secondary diagnosis of GAD on clinician, parent, teacher, and youth-report measures. Based on consensus diagnoses, 64 youth referred to a general outpatient assessment clinic were categorized as having either a primary or secondary diagnosis of GAD. A semi-structured diagnostic interview was used to guide diagnostic decisions and assign primary versus secondary diagnostic status. We predicted that youth with a primary GAD diagnosis would present with greater anxiety symptomatology and symptom impairment on a variety of anxiety-related measures than youth with a secondary GAD diagnosis. Contrary to our hypotheses, no differences were found between those with primary versus secondary GAD diagnoses on measures of symptom severity and clinical impairment, comorbid diagnoses, or youth and teacher-report measures. Our findings have potential implications for the current practice of requiring primary anxiety diagnostic status as an inclusion criterion in clinical research and treatment outcome studies. Assuming our findings are confirmed in larger samples and with other anxiety disorders, future clinical trials and basic psychopathology research might not exclude youth based on absence of a particular anxiety disorder as the primary disorder but rather include individuals for whom that anxiety disorder is secondary as well.
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    The protective effects of religiousness and forgiveness for the link between peer victimization and mental health in adolescence
    Walters, Jeanette Marie (Virginia Tech, 2013-05-08)
    Previous research has shown peer victimization during adolescence to have strong lasting effects on mental health. Religiousness and forgiveness are two factors that are positively related to mental health and the current study proposes that they may have a protective influence against the negative effects of peer victimization. Additionally, religiousness and forgiveness may be related in that forgiveness may be a link in the religiousness/health relationship. The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among religiousness, forgiveness and mental health in the context of peer victimization during adolescence. Mental health was measured by internalizing symptomatology and emotion regulation. Analyses were conducted using Structural Equation Modeling. Results indicate that forgiveness may indeed be a link in the religiousness/health relationship but only when examining private religious practices. Results further show that religiousness may not be a strong protective factor in the context of peer victimization and that certain dimensions of forgiveness (specifically benevolence motivations) may actually exacerbate the effects of peer victimization on internalizing symptomatology rather than act as a protective factor.
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    Psychological and Sociological Mechanisms Linking Low SES and Antisocial Behavior  
    Guerra, Roberto Carlos (Virginia Tech, 2018-05-03)
    Antisocial behavior, both criminal and noncriminal, is a prominent yet poorly understood public health concern. Research on antisocial behavior typically focuses on either individual or environmental risk factors, rarely integrating risks across levels of analysis. Although low objective SES is clearly associated with antisocial behavior, the reasons why are unclear. Sociological theories suggest this relationship is due to neighborhood and environmental characteristics that create social disorganization and reduce informal social controls in the community. On the other hand, psychological theories suggest that elevated levels of psychological distress and psychopathic traits may influence individual risk for antisocial behavior. The purpose of this study was to integrate sociological and psychological models to examine how certain individual and environmental risk factors intersect in predicting antisocial behavior. In a demographically diverse adult male sample (N = 462), environmental (neighborhood distress) and individual (psychological distress) risk factors each mediated the SES – antisocial behavior relationship (as predicted), although findings depended on which definition of SES was used (objective versus subjective). In addition, psychopathic dimensions (specifically, meanness and disinhibition) were observed to exacerbate the effects of neighborhood and psychological distress on antisocial behavior, as hypothesized. Supplemental analyses also considered index variables comprising neighborhood disadvantage. Overall, results of this study help inform psychological and sociological theories of antisocial behavior, and may assist in clarifying potential neighborhood- and individual-level foci for interventions to prevent and reduce antisocial behavior in the community.
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    Psychopathy and Incapacity to Love: Role of Physiological Arousal
    Tanaka, Akiho (Virginia Tech, 2011-05-10)
    Psychopathy is a rare and unique disorder, primarily associated with an emotional deficiency and an inclination towards violent antisocial behavior. Among the various symptoms, the affective experience of the incapacity for love has received little empirical attention, despite having been established as one of Cleckley's 16 classic characteristics. Moreover, the role of physiological responding in their romantic experiences has yet to be examined. The proposed study examined physiological reactivity (i.e., heart rate, HR; skin conductance, SC) as a mediator and moderator in the relationship between psychopathic features and romantic experiences (i.e., passionate love, companionate love, Ludus love, relationship satisfaction, relationship history) in college men. As hypothesized, physiological reactivity mediated and moderated the relationship between psychopathic features and romantic experiences. Specifically, low physiological arousal for the partner partially mediated the relationship between psychopathic features and passionate love. Also, it was found that the interaction between low physiological arousal for the significant other and high physiological arousal for the opposite-sex friend moderates the relationship between psychopathic features and deficient romantic experiences. By gaining a better understanding of the impact on their romantic experiences, this study is intended to contribute to improved identification and assessment of psychopathic men.