Naslov
The Relationship between Empathy, Social Anxiety and Different Types of Aggressive Behaviour in Students

Autori
Lacković, Dora ; Vrselja, Ivana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, ostalo

Izvornik
Book of abstracts 3rd International Scientific Conference of the Department of Psychology at the Catholic University of Croatia, “Coping with Crisis – Pathways Towards Resilience” / - , 2021, 136-136

Skup
3. međunarodni znanstveno-stručni skup Odjela za psihologiju Hrvatskog katoličkog sveučilišta “Suočavanje s kriznim situacijama – putevi jačanja otpornosti”

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 09.12.2021. - 11.12.2021

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Domaća recenzija

Ključne riječi
cyber aggression, relational aggression, affective empathy, cognitive empathy, social anxiety

Sažetak
Aggressive behaviour is an ongoing issue among the youth, and lately it has also become more present on the Internet (cyber aggression). Specific factors related to the online context, such as anonymity and lack of direct contact, can interfere with some individual factors such as empathy and facilitate the occurrence of aggressive behaviour. Factors important for aggression in a person do not necessarily work the same way in cyber aggression, so it is important to investigate how this difference manifests itself. Relational aggression is a form of aggressive behavior that has been explored less frequently than verbal or physical aggression, but its prevalence has been shown to increase with age and it is also present among young adults. Within the social information processing model, low empathy and high social anxiety have been shown to be associated with deficits in some of the phases of social information processing, which can result in aggressive behaviours. In that context, empathy has often been viewed as a one-dimensional construct, but it has been shown that the emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy are differently related to aggression so it is important to focus on both aspects in research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the relationship between empathy, social anxiety, and relational and cyber aggression in students. The sample consisted of 219 female and 110 male students from various fields of study in the Republic of Croatia. Participants completed the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, the Relational Aggression Scale and the Cyberbullying Perpetration Scale. The results showed that low cognitive empathy, but not emotional empathy, was a significant predictor of both relational and cyber aggression. Social anxiety moderated the relationship between low emotional empathy and the perpetration of relational aggression, in a way that this relationship was more significant for participants with high levels of social anxiety. Also, higher relational aggression predicted higher cyber aggression perpetration. Results suggest that interventions based on improvement of social skills, such as taking other’s perspective and preventing hostile attribution biases, could help reduce aggressive behaviour in both the real and online environment.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija

POVEZANOST RADA