Autonomic conditioning to monetary and social stimuli and aggression in children

In this study, skin conductance responses in a conditioning task involving both monetary/social reward and punishment as unconditioned stimuli were assessed in 340 male and female 8‐ to 9‐year‐old children from the community. Children reported their reactive and proactive aggression using the Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ; Raine et al., ). Results showed that monetary/social reward and punishment were effective in eliciting physiological classical conditioning in children, and that reduced reward conditioning was associated with high levels of proactive aggression in particular. Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between reactive and proactive aggression when examining antisocial behavior in children, and suggest that reward‐oriented treatment programs may not be effective for children with more proactive, instrumental aggressive behavior.

Source: Aggressive Behavior - November 1, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Yu Gao, Krystal Mendez, Xiaobo Li, Meng ‐Cheng Wang Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research