W-2.-Theory,
assessment, research and therapy of attitudes toward offense
W-1.-THE IMPACT OF
COMMUNITY VIOLENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN: CURRENT RESEARCH AND
METHODOLOGICAL ADVANCES
Linares, L. Oriana
New York University Child Study Center, New York, USA.
Exposure to community
violence is a serious public health issue in the U.S.
In spite of the decline of serious violence crime in major US cities,
children and mothers in poor inner-city neighborhoods across the nation are
exposed to high levels of local violent episodes of chronic interpersonal
violence, social disorder, and fear of crime.
The purposes of this workshop are:
to critically review
current research findings on the impact of community violence on the young
child (PTSD symptomatology, anxiety and depression, aggression) and on the
social world view from the child’s perspective;
to review current
assessment tools of trauma-related events and challenges of assessment for
children during the preschool years;
to present a new
methodology of observing real life mother-child interactions of dyads
exposed to high levels of community violence; and
to discuss possible
partnerships for cross-cultural research involving similar research goals
and methodologies.
W-2.-Theory,
assessment, research and therapy of attitudes toward offense
Organizers:
Pereyra, Mario
Departament of Psychology, River Plate Adventist University, Entre Ríos,
Argentina.
Moreno, José Eduardo
Interdisciplinary Research Center of Experimental and Mathematical
Psychology
National Research Council, Argentina.
Workshop Abstract
Aggression, interpersonal
violence and prosocial behaviour are very important issues in contemporary
society. When a person is offended, the aggression damages the relationship,
bringing multiple harmful repercussions at a personal and social level, demand
research efforts and the search for therapeutic strategies to reconstruct the
interpersonal relations. In this workshop we present:
1) an Interpersonal
Aggression Model (IAM) and some considerations in contrast to other models and
theories;
2) an instrument to measure
attitudes towards a person who is injured psychologically or physically in
different situations -Attitude Scale Towards Offenders, ASTO-;
3) the results of
psychometric validation, crosscultural and clinical research;
4) a psychotherapeutic
intervention model for resolving disputes, oriented toward forgiveness and
reconciliation.
W-2.1.-Research and
Therapy of Attitudes Toward Offender
Pereyra, M.
Departament of Psychology, River Plate Adventist University, Entre Ríos,
Argentina.
The issues I consider and
the activities correspond to the following points:
1)
Crosscultural research . I present
investigations that we carry out with the purpose of evaluating the scales of
the ASTO in different sociocultural context, in Argentina and foreign countries:
a) inside the Argentina (n=1200), they were administered in Buenos Aires, Entre
Ríos and other areas of this country. We study particularly, the variables:
sex, age, systems of values and religious practice. We were found that there
were significant differences in the ratings among the groups. The most
significant result was the gravitation of the religious practice in prosocial
and passive behaviors; b) outside
of the Argentina (n=728) we investigate undergraduate students in different
countries: Ecuador (n=100), Brazil (n=450), Puerto Rico (n=81) and USA (n=97).
We find that the versions in Portuguese and in English of the ASTO exhibited
psychometric properties similar to the original version in Spanish. We discuss
each population's profiles considering cultural variables.
2) Clinical research. We
carry out comparative studies of different clinical inpatient samples, with
cancer (n=50), heart (n=50), chronic renal failure (n=59) and psychiatric with
attempted suicide (n=50), contrasted with their respective control groups
(n=209). The passive and aggressive behaviors showed significant differences
according to the pathologies, as long as, the answers prosociales was more
homogeneous, probably for mediation of the cultural factors. We make a brief
presentation and discussion of some typical clinical cases.
3) Psychotherapeutic
intervention model for resolving disputes. We expose an intervention model in
cases of rupture of the relationship oriented toward forgiveness and
reconciliation, based on the evangelical parable of the “prodigal son.” We
identify different stages with their own problems in the process of repairing
the damaged bond. We present some cases to illustrate and to discuss with the
participants of the workshop, with the purpose of highlighting strategies and
specific techniques of intervention
W-2.2.-Attitudes
Toward Offenders: Theory and Scale Development.
Moreno, J.E.
Interdisciplinary Research Center of Experimental and Mathematical Psychology
National Research Council, Argentina.
1) Theory. I present a
research review about aggressiveness, pasive response, forgiveness and
reconciliation. Then I shall consider an Interpersonal Aggression Model (IAM)
and prosocial behaviour. Benefit and harm in the psychology of interpersonal
relations shall receive theoretical attention, specially forgiving as the
forgoing of vengeful behaviour. The research review and the model are based on
E. Fromm (1971), R. P. Fitzgibbons (1986), R. Enright (1994) and M. E. Mc
Cullough (1998).
2) Scale Development.
Aggresion, interpersonal violence and prosocial behaviour are very important
issues in contemporary society that demand research efforts. In this workshop I
present an instrument to measure attitudes towards offenders. The evaluation of
these attitudes give us information to develop knowledge and techniques which
might reduce harmfull aggresion and improve prosocial behaviour.
The ASTO (Attitude Scale
Toward Offenders;Moreno, Pereyra, 1995) is an instrument composed of seven
scales: forgiveness, demand, hostile reaction, revenge, resentment, negation and
submission. The subjects must answer a series of items after reading ten brief
vignettes that describe different situations in which a person is injured or
offended. The results of a factor analysis (n=1200) revealed seven dimensions
and confirmed the construct of ASTO (validity). Correlations with some scales of
SIV (L. Gordon) and MMPI showed a satisfactory level of convergence validity.
Reliability tests showed also a satisfactory level of ASTO scales
alfa de Cronbach, scales mean = .75). We must consider that each scale
includes five different grievance situations.