Top

Published in:

01-04-2021 | Original Article

Trait Anger Moderates the Relation Between Facial Affect Recognition Ability and Perpetration of Male-to-Female Physical and Psychological Intimate Partner Aggression

Authors: Donald A. Godfrey, Victoria E. Bennett, Julia C. Babcock

Published in: Journal of Family Violence | Issue 3/2021

Abstract

Researchers have sought to identify deficits in affect recognition as a precipitating factor in intimate partner aggression (IPA) perpetration, but results from these studies have produced mixed findings. This may be due to the unlikelihood that deficits in affect recognition abilities would prompt perpetration of IPA without affective predispositions toward aggression, such as trait anger. The current study sought to examine the relation between negative affect recognition ability and men’s past perpetration of physical and psychological IPA across levels of trait anger. Heterosexual couples (N = 83) completed self-report measures regarding the frequency of male-to-female IPA perpetration within their relationship. Additionally, males completed measures of trait anger and were administered a facial affect recognition test. Decreased ability in decoding negative facial affect was associated with increased perpetration of physical and psychological IPA, but only for men high in trait anger. There was no relation between negative facial affect recognition ability and IPA perpetration at low levels of trait anger. Results from this study indicated that the highest rates of physical and psychological IPA perpetration within the sample were among those with co-occurring high trait anger and decreased ability to decode negative facial affect. Our findings suggest that perpetration of IPA is associated with an interaction of affective traits and deficits in social cognitive processing. Treatments aimed at reducing aggression and violence among intimate partners would benefit from improving affect recognition when high trait anger is present.

Babcock, J. C., Green, C. E., & Webb, S. A. (2008). Decoding deficits of different types of batterers during presentation of facial affect slides. Journal of Family Violence, 23, 295–302.CrossRef

Babcock, J. C., & Michonski, J. D. (2019). Sensitivity to facial affect in personality disordered batterers: Expression recognition and physiological responses. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 11(3), 213–224. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-12-2018-0396.CrossRef

Bauer, D. J., & Curran, P. J. (2005). Probing interactions in fixed and multilevel regression: Inferential and graphical techniques. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 40, 373–400.CrossRef

Bazargan-Hejazi, S., Kim, E., Lin, J., Ahmadi, A., Khamesi, M. T., & Teruya, S. (2014). Risk factors associated with different types of intimate partner violence (IPV): An emergency department study. The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 47(6), 710.CrossRef

Binder, A. S., Lancaster, K., Lengenfelder, J., Chiaravalloti, N. D., & Genova, H. M. (2019). Community integration in traumatic brain injury: The contributing factor of affect recognition deficits. Journal Of The International Neuropsychological Society: JINS, 25(8), 890–895.CrossRef

Birkley, E. L., & Eckhardt, C. I. (2015) Anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and intimate partner violence perpetration: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 37, 40–56.

Birkley, E. L., & Eckhardt, C. I. (2019). Effects of instigation, anger, and emotion regulation on intimate partner aggression: Examination of “perfect storm” theory. Psychology of Violence, 9, 186–195. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000190.CrossRef

Blair, R. J. R. (1995). A cognitive developmental approach to morality: Investigating the psychopath. Cognition, 57, 1–29.CrossRef

Blair, R. J. R., Mitchell, D. G. V., Peschardt, K. S., Colledge, E., Leonard, R. A., Shine, J. H., Murray, L. K., & Perrett, D. I. (2004). Reduced sensitivity to others’ fearful expressions in psychopathic individuals. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1111–1122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2003.10.008.CrossRef

Bozikas, V. P., Dardagani, A., Parlapani, E., Ntouros, E., Lagoudis, A., & Tsotsi, S. (2019). Improved facial affect recognition in patients with first-episode psychosis. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 13, 977–983. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12738.CrossRefPubMed

Bueso-Izquierdo, N., Verdejo-Román, J., Contreras-Rodríguez, O., Carmona-Perera, M., Pérez-García, M., & Hidalgo-Ruzzante, N. (2016). Are batterers different from other criminals? An fMRI study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(5), 852–862. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw020.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Coker, A. L., Davis, K. E., Arias, I., Desai, S., Sanderson, M., Brandt, H. M., & Smith, P. H. (2002). Physical and mental health effects of intimate partner violence for men and women. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24, 260–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(02)00514-7.CrossRef

Cunradi, C. B., Todd, M., Mair, C., & Remer, L. (2013). Intimate partner violence among California couples: Multilevel analysis of environmental and partner risk factors. Partner Abuse, 4(4), 419–443. https://doi.org/10.1891/1946-6560.4.4.419.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Curran, P. J., West, S. G., & Finch, J. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1, 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.1.1.16.CrossRef

Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17(2), 124–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030377.

Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1976). Measuring facial movement. Environmental Psychology and Nonverbal Behavior, 1(1), 56–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01115465.CrossRef

Finkel, E. J., DeWall, C. N., Slotter, E. B., McNulty, J. K., Pond, R. S., & Atkins, D. C. (2012). Using I³ theory to clarify when dispositional aggressiveness predicts intimate partner violence perpetration. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(3), 533–549. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025651.CrossRefPubMed

Hayes, A. F., & Preacher, K. J. (2013). Conditional process modeling: Using structural equation modeling to examine contingent causal processes. In Quantitative Methods in Education and the Behavioral Sciences: Issues, Research, and Teaching. Structural equation modeling: A second course, 2nd ed (pp. 219–266). Charlotte, NC, USA: IAP Information Age Publishing.

Hofmann, D. A., & Gavin, M. B. (1998). Centering decisions in hierarchical linear models: Implications for research in organizations. Journal of Management, 24, 623–641. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-2063(99)80077-4.CrossRef

Holmbeck, G. N. (2002). Post-hoc probing of significant moderational and mediational effects in studies of pediatric populations. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27, 87–96.CrossRef

Jackson, M. A., Sippel, L. M., Mota, N., Whalen, D., & Schumacher, J. A. (2015). Borderline personality disorder and related constructs as risk factors for intimate partner violence perpetration. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 24, 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.04.015.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Kolla, N. J., Meyer, J. H., Bagby, R. M., & Brijmohan, A. (2017). Trait anger, physical aggression, and violent offending in antisocial and borderline personality disorders. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 62, 137–141. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.13234.CrossRefPubMed

Kosson, D. S., Suchy, Y., Mayer, A. R., & Libby, J. (2002). Facial affect recognition in criminal psychopaths. Emotion, 2(4), 398–411. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.2.4.398.CrossRefPubMed

Lagdon, S., Armour, C., & Stringer, M. (2014). Adult experience of mental health outcomes as a result of intimate partner violence victimization: A systematic review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.24794.CrossRef

Maldonado, R. C., Watkins, L. E., & DiLillo, D. (2015). The interplay of trait anger, childhood physical abuse, and alcohol consumption in predicting intimate partner aggression. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 30(7), 1112–1127. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260514539850.CrossRefPubMed

Mancke, F., Herpertz, S. C., Kleindienst, N., & Bertsch, K. (2017). Emotion Dysregulation and trait anger sequentially mediate the association between borderline personality disorder and aggression. Journal of Personality Disorders, 31, 256–272. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi_2016_30_247.CrossRefPubMed

Marshall, A. D., & Holtzworth-Munroe, A. (2010). Recognition of wives’ emotional expressions: A mechanism in the relationship between psychopathology and intimate partner violence perpetration. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(1), 21–30.CrossRef

Mauricio, A. M., Tein, J.-Y., & Lopez, F. G. (2007). Borderline and antisocial personality scores as mediators between attachment and intimate partner violence. Violence and Victims, 22, 139–157. https://doi.org/10.1891/088667007780477339.CrossRefPubMed

Owen, J. M. (2011). Transdiagnostic cognitive processes in high trait anger. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 193–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.10.003.CrossRefPubMed

Pardini, D. A., & Phillips, M. (2010). Neural responses to emotional and neutral facial expressions in chronically violent men. Journal Of Psychiatry & Neuroscience: JPN, 35, 390–398. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.100037.CrossRef

Peterson, C., Kearns, M. C., Mcintosh, W. L., Estefan, L. F., Nicolaidis, C., McCollister, K. E., et al. (2018). Lifetime economic burden of intimate partner violence among U.S. adults. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 55, 433–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2018.04.049.CrossRef

Preacher, K. J., Curran, P. J., & Bauer, D. J. (2006). Computational tools for probing interactions in multiple linear regression, multilevel modeling, and latent curve analysis. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 31, 437–448. https://doi.org/10.3102/10769986031004437.CrossRef

Rigon, A., Turkstra, L. S., Mutlu, B., & Duff, M. C. (2018). Facial-affect recognition deficit as a predictor of different aspects of social-communication impairment in traumatic brain injury. Neuropsychology, 32, 476.CrossRef

Ross, J. M., & Babcock, J. C. (2009). Proactive and reactive violence among intimate partner violent men diagnosed with antisocial and borderline personality disorder. Journal of Family Violence, 24, 607–617. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-009-9259-y.CrossRef

Sinzig, J., Morsch, D., & Lehmkuhl, G. (2008). Do hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention have an impact on the ability of facial affect recognition in children with autism and ADHD? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 17, 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-007-0637-9.CrossRef

Smith, S. G., Chen, J., Basile, K. C., Gilbert, L. K., Merrick, M. T., Patel, N., Walling, M., & Jain, A. (2017). The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey (NISVS): 2010–2012 state report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Spielberger, C. D. (1988). Manual for the state-trait anger expression inventory. Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.

Spielberger, C. D., Jacobs, G., Russell, S., & Crane, R. (1983). Assessment of anger: the state-trait anger scale. In J. N. Butcher, & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Advances in personality assessment, vol. 2. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associative.

Straus, M. A., Hamby, S. L., Boney-McCoy, S., & Sugarman, D. B. (1996). The revised conflict tactics scales (CTS2): Development and preliminary psychometric data. Journal of Family Issues, 17(3), 283–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/019251396017003001.CrossRef

Taft, C. T., Macdonald, A., Creech, S. K., Monson, C. M., & Murphy, C. M. (2016). A randomized controlled clinical trial of the strength at home men's program for partner violence in military veterans. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 77(9), 1168–1175. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.15m10020.CrossRefPubMed

Tavakol, M., & Dennick, R. (2011). Making sense of Cronbach’s alpha. International Journal of Medical Education, 2, 53–55. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Tsotsi, S., Kosmidis, M. H., & Bozikas, V. P. (2017). Improved facial affect recognition in schizophrenia following an emotion intervention, but not training attention-to-facial-features or treatment-as-usual. Psychiatry Research, 254, 135–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.04.038.CrossRefPubMed

Veenstra, L., Bushman, B. J., & Koole, S. L. (2018). The facts on the furious: A brief review of the psychology of trait anger. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 98–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.014.CrossRefPubMed

Wagner, H. L. (1993). On measuring performance in category judgment studies of nonverbal behavior. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 17(1), 31.

Zangara, A., Blair, R. J. R., & Curran, H. V. (2002). A comparison of the effects of a beta-adrenergic blocker and a benzodiazepine upon the recognition of human facial expressions. Psychopharmacology, 163(1), 36–41 (12185398).CrossRef

Zarling, A., Bannon, S., & Berta, M. (2019). Evaluation of acceptance and commitment therapy for domestic violence offenders. Psychology of Violence, 9(3), 257–266.CrossRef

Title: Trait Anger Moderates the Relation Between Facial Affect Recognition Ability and Perpetration of Male-to-Female Physical and Psychological Intimate Partner Aggression
Authors: Donald A. Godfrey
Victoria E. Bennett
Julia C. Babcock
Publication date: 01-04-2021
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Family Violence / Issue 3/2021
Print ISSN: 0885-7482
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2851
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-020-00162-4

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Trait Anger Moderates the Relation Between Facial Affect Recognition Ability and Perpetration of Male-to-Female Physical and Psychological Intimate Partner Aggression

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 3/2021

Perceptions of College Campus Alcohol and Sexual Violence Prevention among Students with Disabilities: “it Was a Joke”

The Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and a History of Childhood Abuse on Mental Health and Stress during Pregnancy

Association between Husband’s Alcohol Consumption and Women’s Physical Violence Experience in Nigeria: Moderating Role of Husband’s Controlling Attitudes

Assessing The Evidence: How Systems That Address Intimate Partner Violence Evaluate The Credibility And Utility Of Research Findings

Coercive Control During Pregnancy, Birthing and Postpartum: Women’s Experiences and Perspectives on Health Practitioners’ Responses

Students’ Perceptions of Justice: Application of Sanctions, Guilt, and Responsibility in Campus Sexual Assault Cases