A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Moral Disengagement and Aggressive Behavior

Adolescent aggression is a global public health with long-lasting and costly emotional, social, and economic consequences, and it is of vital importance to identify those variables that can reduce these behaviors in this population. Therefore, there is a need to establish the protective factors of aggressive behavior in adolescence. While some research has demonstrated the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and various aggressive responses in adolescence, indicating that EI—or the ability to perceive, use, understand, and regulate emotions—could be considered a protective factor for the development of aggressive behavior in adolescence, the strength of this effect is not clear. The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature concerning the relationship between aggressive behavior and EI in adolescents and provide a reliable estimate of the relationship between both constructs through a meta-analysis. For this purpose, we searched for relevant articles in English and Spanish in Medline, PsycINFO, and Scopus, obtaining 17 selectable articles based on the search terms used in research in the adolescent population. These studies provide scientific evidence of the relationship between the level of EI assessed from the three theoretical models of EI (performance-based ability model, self-report ability model, and self-report mixed model) and various aggressive responses, showing that adolescents with higher levels of EI show less aggressive behavior. Implications for interventions and guidelines for future research are discussed.

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A Meta-Analytic Review of Moral Disengagement and Cyberbullying

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.681299 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Lijun Zhao ◽

Junjian Yu

Keyword(s):

Moral Disengagement ◽

Web Of Science ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Cultural Background ◽

Inclusion Criteria ◽

Cultural Variables ◽

Analytic Review ◽

Correlate Factor ◽

Online Library ◽

The Relationship

With the development of technology, cyberbullying prevalence rates are increasing worldwide, and a growing body of the literature has begun to document cyberbullying behavior. Moral disengagement is often considered a key correlate factor in cyberbullying. This article aims to conduct a meta-analysis review of the relationship between moral disengagement and cyberbullying and some psychosocial and cultural variables. Based on the PRISMA method, a random-effects meta-analysis is employed in this study to obtain reliable estimates of effect sizes and examine a range of moderators (age, gender, measure method, and cultural background). Relevant studies, published from 2005 to February 30, 2021, were identified through a systematic search of the Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Pubmed, EBSCO, and Wiley Online Library. Finally, 38 studies (N=38,425) met the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis conclusion demonstrated that moral disengagement positively correlated medium intensity with cyberbullying (r=0.341). Age, gender, and cultural background had moderated the relationship between moral disengagement and cyberbullying.

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The Relationship Between Fear of COVID-19 and Online Aggressive Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589615 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Baojuan Ye ◽

Yadi Zeng ◽

Hohjin Im ◽

Mingfan Liu ◽

Xinqiang Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Aggressive Behavior ◽

Moral Disengagement ◽

Family Cohesion ◽

Moderated Mediation ◽

Mediation Model ◽

Online Behavior ◽

Chinese College Students ◽

Moderated Mediation Model ◽

The Relationship

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, fear has run rampant across the globe. To curb the spread of the virus, several governments have taken measures to drastically transition businesses, work, and schooling to virtual settings. While such transitions are warranted and well-intended, these measures may come with unforeseen consequences. Namely, one’s fear of COVID-19 may more readily manifest as aggressive behaviors in an otherwise incognito virtual social ecology. In the current research, a moderated mediation model examined the mechanisms underlying the relation between fear of COVID-19 and overt and relational aggressive online behavior among Chinese college students. Utilizing a large sample of Chinese college students (N = 2,799), results indicated that moral disengagement mediated the effect of fear of COVID-19 on college students’ overt and relational online aggressive behavior. A positive family cohesion buffered the effect of moral disengagement on relational aggressive behavior, but only for females. The findings, theoretical contributions, and practical implications of the present paper are also discussed.

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Aggression, Moral Disengagement and Empathy. A Longitudinal Study Within the Interpersonal Dynamics of Bullying

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703468 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Falla ◽

Eva M. Romera ◽

Rosario Ortega-Ruiz

Keyword(s):

Aggressive Behavior ◽

Moral Disengagement ◽

Cognitive Empathy ◽

Traditional Bullying ◽

Interpersonal Dynamics ◽

Mediating Role ◽

Emotional Sensitivity ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

Moral disengagement and empathy have been linked to aggression in traditional bullying. A number of longitudinal studies have focused on how these variables predict aggressive behavior within the dynamics of bullying. However, no conclusive results have been produced as to whether aggressive behavior in bullying can predict lower levels of empathy, and to date, no studies have explored in depth the mediating role of moral disengagement strategies in this relationship, which is the aim of this study. A total of 1,810 students (51.0% girls; Mage = 14.50; SD = 1.05) completed a survey in three waves at 6-month intervals. The results showed that aggressive behavior in bullying at Time 1 was inversely related to affective and cognitive empathy at Time 3. Minimization of responsibility, distortion of consequences and dehumanizing mediated in the aggressive behavior exhibited by the bullying aggressors and in cognitive empathy, while cognitive restructuring and the distortion of consequences mediated in affective empathy. We discuss the impact on moral and emotional sensitivity of the continued aggression occurring in the interpersonal dynamics of bullying, as well as the relationship between certain strategies of moral disengagement and the different types of empathy. We also comment on the need to design intervention programs to address the lowering of moral criteria and empathy in young people and adolescents involved in traditional bullying.

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Relationship between total plasma homocysteine and the risk of aneurysms – a meta-analysis

VASA ◽

10.1024/0301-1526/a000891 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Hanji Zhang ◽

Dexin Yin ◽

Yue Zhao ◽

Yezhou Li ◽

Dejiang Yao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Single Species ◽

Total Plasma ◽

Control Groups ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Randomized Controlled Studies ◽

The Difference ◽

The Relationship ◽

Healthy Participants

Summary: Our meta-analysis focused on the relationship between homocysteine (Hcy) level and the incidence of aneurysms and looked at the relationship between smoking, hypertension and aneurysms. A systematic literature search of Pubmed, Web of Science, and Embase databases (up to March 31, 2020) resulted in the identification of 19 studies, including 2,629 aneurysm patients and 6,497 healthy participants. Combined analysis of the included studies showed that number of smoking, hypertension and hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) in aneurysm patients was higher than that in the control groups, and the total plasma Hcy level in aneurysm patients was also higher. These findings suggest that smoking, hypertension and HHcy may be risk factors for the development and progression of aneurysms. Although the heterogeneity of meta-analysis was significant, it was found that the heterogeneity might come from the difference between race and disease species through subgroup analysis. Large-scale randomized controlled studies of single species and single disease species are needed in the future to supplement the accuracy of the results.

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A Meta-Analysis of Interviews and Cognitive Ability

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000091 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 157-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Philip L. Roth ◽

Allen I. Huffcutt

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Ability ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Incremental Validity ◽

Employment Interviews ◽

Moderator Analysis ◽

The Future ◽

Research Questions ◽

Meta Analyses ◽

The Relationship

The topic of what interviews measure has received a great deal of attention over the years. One line of research has investigated the relationship between interviews and the construct of cognitive ability. A previous meta-analysis reported an overall corrected correlation of .40 ( Huffcutt, Roth, & McDaniel, 1996 ). A more recent meta-analysis reported a noticeably lower corrected correlation of .27 ( Berry, Sackett, & Landers, 2007 ). After reviewing both meta-analyses, it appears that the two studies posed different research questions. Further, there were a number of coding judgments in Berry et al. that merit review, and there was no moderator analysis for educational versus employment interviews. As a result, we reanalyzed the work by Berry et al. and found a corrected correlation of .42 for employment interviews (.15 higher than Berry et al., a 56% increase). Further, educational interviews were associated with a corrected correlation of .21, supporting their influence as a moderator. We suggest a better estimate of the correlation between employment interviews and cognitive ability is .42, and this takes us “back to the future” in that the better overall estimate of the employment interviews – cognitive ability relationship is roughly .40. This difference has implications for what is being measured by interviews and their incremental validity.

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The Relationship Between Immorality and Cleansing

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000349 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (5) ◽

pp. 303-309 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jedidiah Siev ◽

Shelby E. Zuckerman ◽

Joseph J. Siev

Keyword(s):

Effect Size ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Weighted Mean ◽

The Relationship

Abstract. In a widely publicized set of studies, participants who were primed to consider unethical events preferred cleansing products more than did those primed with ethical events ( Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006 ). This tendency to respond to moral threat with physical cleansing is known as the Macbeth Effect. Several subsequent efforts, however, did not replicate this relationship. The present manuscript reports the results of a meta-analysis of 15 studies testing this relationship. The weighted mean effect size was small across all studies (g = 0.17, 95% CI [0.04, 0.31]), and nonsignificant across studies conducted in independent laboratories (g = 0.07, 95% CI [−0.04, 0.19]). We conclude that there is little evidence for an overall Macbeth Effect; however, there may be a Macbeth Effect under certain conditions.

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