Differential effects of rude coworkers and patients on nurses' safety performance: an emotional labor perspective

PurposeThis paper examines how nurses differentially respond, both emotionally and behaviorally, to incivility from coworkers (i.e. other healthcare staff) and from their patients. Specifically, the authors explore how coworker and patient incivility distinctly influence the extent to which nurses engage in emotional labor, which in turn, may impact nurses' safety performance. The authors further examine how nurses' hostile attribution biases exacerbate and mitigate these effects.Design/methodology/approachA three-week longitudinal study was conducted with 187 nurses in which they reported their experiences with incivility, surface and deep acting, hostile attribution biases and safety performance (i.e. safety compliance and participation).FindingsPatient incivility led to more surface acting across all nurses. Further, the effects of coworker incivility on emotional labor strategies were conditional on nurses' hostile attribution biases (HAB). Specifically, coworker incivility led to more surface acting among nurses higher on HAB, and coworker incivility led to less deep acting among those lower on HAB. Finally, surface acting was associated with reduced safety participation, and deep acting was associated with greater safety compliance and safety participation.Originality/valueThe nursing context allowed the current research to extend understanding about how incivility affects an unexplored outcome—safety performance. The current research also offers a rare examination of the effects of incivility from multiple sources (i.e. coworkers and patients) and demonstrates the different processes through which incivility from these different sources impacts nurses' ability to perform safely.

The Relationship Between Difficulty in Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia With Hostile Attribution Bias and Anger in in Adolescent Boys With High Bullying: a Path Analysis

IntroductionAdolescence is one of the critical stages and the period of evolution of human physical and mental development that occurs between childhood and youth. Successful completion of this course plays a role in mental health and personality. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Difficulty in Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia with Hostile attribution bias and Anger in adolescent boys with bullying, which plays an important role in developmental outcomes in adolescents. Methods345 male students in Zanjan, iran participated in this study.To measure self-reporting tools, Gertz and Roemer(2004) Difficulty in emotion regulation Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Questionnaire(TAS-20), McBril, Milich & Handley (2003 hostile attribution bias Questionnaire, and Eiseng and Glenn Wilson (2003) Aggression Questionnaire(2009) were evaluated. Path analysis method was used to analyze the causal model. The results show a good fit of the model with the experimental data. ResultsThe results also showed a direct and significant effect between anger and Difficulty in Emotion Regulation (β =0.19, p <0.05), Alexithymia (β = 0.17, p <0.05) and Hostile attribution bias in male adolescents (β =0.32, p<0.05) with high bullying. As well the mediating role of Hostile attribution bias in the relationship between Difficulties in emotion regulation with anger is significant (β = 0.32). Moreover the mediating role of Hostile attribution bias in the relationship between Alexithymia with anger is significant (β = 0.20). ConclusionThese results contribute to the theoretical knowledge of how Alexithymia and hostile attribution bias affect anger in adolescent populations. The findings supported the mediating role of hostile attribution bias in the relationship between Difficulty in Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia with anger in adolescents. All three predictor variables are trainable and can be used in anger reduction and bullying interventions in adolescents.

Subtypes of Aggressive Behavior in Children with Autism in the Context of Emotion Recognition, Hostile Attribution Bias, and Dysfunctional Emotion Regulation

The causes of aggressive behavior in children with autism are poorly understood, which limits treatment options. Therefore, this study used behavioral testing and parent reports of 60 children with autism to investigate the interplay of emotion misinterpretation and hostile attribution bias in the prediction of different aggressive behaviors. Further, the additional impact of dysfunctional emotion regulation was examined. Path analyses indicated that hostile attribution bias increased verbal and covert aggression but not physical aggression and bullying. Dysfunctional emotion regulation had an additional impact on bullying, verbal aggression, and covert aggression. Emotion recognition was positively associated with hostile attribution bias. These findings provide a first insight into a complex interplay of socio-emotional variables; longitudinal studies are needed to examine causal relationships.

Hostile Attribution Biases in Vulnerable Narcissists Depends on the Socio-Relational Context

Narcissism, especially the vulnerable kind, is associated with anger and hostility. In a sample of outpatients, group psychotherapy ( N = 74) and community members ( N = 153), we replicated and extended previous work linking vulnerable, but not grandiose, narcissism to hostile attributions across different socio-relational contexts. We also examined if the level of ambiguity of social situations, assessed from the other-referent position, influences the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and attributing hostile intentionality, and whether narcissistic individuals distinguish hostile interpretations, depending on the level of ambiguity of the scene. In ambiguous vignettes, assessed from the self-referent position, higher levels of vulnerable narcissism were associated with a greater tendency to infer more attributions of hostile intentions with people with whom there was no close relationship (except for authority in the patient group). In the case of visual scenes, the positive relationship between vulnerable narcissism and attributed hostile intentionality appeared in accidental scenes, but not in hostile and ambiguous ones. In addition, the higher the vulnerable narcissism the lower the ability to differentiate between contextual nuances (e.g., the level of ambiguity). We replicated previous research indicating a relationship between vulnerable narcissism and hostile attribution bias, but shed new light on the phenomenon of this bias in that it appears to depend on the socio-relational context and the level of ambiguity of the situation.

Stress reactivity and social cognition in pure and co-occurring early childhood relational bullying and victimization

This study tested the independent effects and interactions of sympathetic nervous system reactivity and hostile attribution biases (HAB) in predicting change in pure and co-occurring relational bullying and victimization experiences over one year. Co-occurring and pure relational bullying and victimization experiences were measured using a dimensional bifactor model, aiming to address methodological limitations of categorical approaches, using data from 300 preschoolers (Mage = 44.70 months, SD = 4.38). Factor scores were then saved and used in nested path analyses with a subset of participants (n = 81) to test main study hypotheses regarding effects of HAB and skin conductance level reactivity (SCL-R). Bifactor models provided good fit to the data at two independent time points. HAB and SCL-R interacted to predict increases in co-occurring relational bullying/victimization with evidence for over- and underarousal pathways.

Exposure to violent and prosocial video games: effects on hostile attribution bias, aggression, aggressive driving tendencies, and empathy

The present study aimed to investigate the possible relation between reported video game play (i.e., violent, aggressive driving, and prosocial types) and four outcomes of social behaviour: hostile attribution bias, aggression, aggressive driving tendencies, and empathy. A sample of 136 university students (67 males and 69 females), age 17 to 58 (M = 20.66), completed various self-report measures. Data were analyzed both in terms of the whole sample and separately according to participant sex. The results provide partial evidence that there are links between violent games and aggressive attitudes (i.e., physical, but not relational, aggression); aggressive driving games and aggressive driving tendencies/punitive attitudes toward a convicted driver; violent games and hostile attribution bias; and violent games and lower empathy ratings. No support was found for the link between prosocial games and higher empathy. Future research directions for research on video games effects are outlined.