Back to Search
Start Over
Empathy and Cognitive Distortion: Examining Their Relationship with Aggression in Adolescents
- Publication Year :
- 2007
-
Abstract
- The relationship between empathy and aggression has been widely studied and this relationship has typically have been found to be indirect. The relationship between cognitive distortions and aggression has also been studied and it appears that cognitive distortions tend to be associated with aggressive behavior. However, both empathy and cognitive distortions have not been studied together to examine their relationship with aggression. There were four aims of the current study. The first two were to examine whether empathy can predict physical aggression and whether cognitive distortions can predict physical aggression. The third aim was to examine the combined effects of empathy and cognitive distortions on aggression. The fourth was to examine the influence of age and gender on cognitive distortions, empathy, and physical aggression. Two hundred and thirty-nine high school students in grades 10, 11, and 12 completed a questionnaire assessing their levels of affective and cognitive empathy, a questionnaire of cognitive distortions, and a questionnaire of physical aggression. The results indicated that cognitive distortions have a strong relationship with physical aggression in that high levels of cognitive distortions were associated with higher levels of physical aggression. Both types of empathy (affective and cognitive) were found to be negatively related to physical aggression, but neither type of empathy was able to predict participants’ aggression levels. The combination of empathy (affective and cognitive) and cognitive distortions did not turn out to be a significant predictor of physical aggression. It is concluded that the present results have important implications for future research, particularly with adolescent aggression.
- Subjects :
- Psychology, Clinical
aggression
empathy
cognitive distortions
adolescents
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenDissertations
- Publication Type :
- Dissertation/ Thesis
- Accession number :
- ddu.oai.etd.ohiolink.edu.bgsu1180535095