Ethanol (EtOH) is among the most consumed drugs in the world. The behavior of humans after ingestion of this drug is characteristic: At low doses it may be excitatory and at higher doses, it may induce depressant/sedative effects. Similar effects are observed in the zebrafish experimental model ("Danio rerio"), which has about 70%…

Past research has shown that hostile schemas and adverse experiences predict the hostile attributional bias. This research proposes that seemingly nonhostile beliefs (implicit theories about the malleability of personality) may also play a role in shaping it. Study 1 meta-analytically summarized 11 original tests of this hypothesis (N = 1,659),…

People often displace their anger and aggression against innocent targets, sometimes called scapegoats. Tragic historic events suggest that members of ethnic minority out-groups may be especially likely to be innocent targets. The current experiment examined displaced aggression of Dutch youths against Dutch in-group peers versus Moroccan…

Hostile attribution bias (HAB) has been found to characterize aggressive children. Watching prosocial media has been shown to have positive effects on children, and the general learning model has been used to account for these observations. This study tested the hypotheses derived from this theory that exposure to playful fighting would lead to a…

When children experience habitual peer difficulties, adults often remind them that many people care about them. How do such reminders of support impact children's emotional responses to acute experiences of peer disapproval? Intuitively, support reminders would exert compensatory effects attenuating the emotional impact of acute disapproval.…

We examined independent and interactive associations linking preadolescents' socially anxious feelings and peer victimization experiences with their social behaviors (rated by parents and teachers) and psychophysiological arousal during lab simulations of salient peer stress situations in preadolescence (peer evaluation and peer rebuff).…

The primary aims of the current study were to longitudinally examine the direct relationship between children's temperamental surgency and social behaviors as well as the moderating role of children's emotion regulation. A total of 90 4.5-year-old children participated in a laboratory visit where children's temperamental surgency was rated by…

Aggression in young people has been associated with a bias toward attributing hostile intent to others. However, little is known about the origin of biased social information processing. The current study explored the potential role of peer contagion in the emergence of hostile attribution in adolescents. One hundred thirty-four adolescents (M age…

Examined contextual factors influencing fourth- to sixth-graders' dislike for aggressors and their victims, by varying aggressor's and victim's behavior in scenarios describing camp experiences. Found that children disliked aggressors the most, followed by victims, and by other children in the scenarios. Aggressors were liked more if their victim…

Longitudinal and intervention laboratory studies were conducted to investigate the effects of viewing televised violence on the aggressive behavior of elementary school children. In the longitudinal study 505 children were studied over a 3-year period. The measures used included peer nominated aggression, aggression anxiety and popularity,…

The differences model, which argues that males and females are vastly different psychologically, dominates the popular media. Here, the author advances a very different view, the gender similarities hypothesis, which holds that males and females are similar on most, but not all, psychological variables. Results from a review of 46 meta-analyses…