Emotional intelligence and impulsive aggression in Intermittent Explosive Disorder

Personal Risk and Protective Factors Involved in Aggressive Behavior

The study of aggression plays a prominent role in psychology and public health, because of the important adverse consequences of such behavior for victims, aggressors, and society in general. The General Aggression Model (GAM) provides a general conceptual framework for understanding the aggressive as a result of three stages: (a) inputs: personal and situational factors; (b) present internal states: affect, cognition, and arousal; and (c) outcomes: decision processes with a (non)aggressive result. The main objective of this research was to study the personal protective and risk factors most strongly associated with aggressive behavior acting at the first stage of the GAM model. A total of 282 young adult participants took part in this study. Participants were assessed for aggression levels and a set of the most relevant variables that have been associated with aggressive behavior in the previous literature. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that levels of aggression were mainly associated (73.2% of the explained variance) with the following protective factors: the ability to manage emotions as a component of emotional intelligence (EI), and perspective-taking and personal distress as components of empathy, and with the following risk factors: negative and positive urgency as a component of impulsivity, fantasy as a component of empathy, negative affect, and expressive suppression of emotions. These findings provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying aggressive behavior and provide greater empirical value to the current theoretical models. In addition, this research can help to inform the design of more successful programs for the prevention, control, and treatment of aggressive behavior. Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.

Emotion attribution in intermittent explosive disorder

BACKGROUND

Accurate recognition of the emotions of others is an important part of healthy neurological development and promotes positive psychosocial adaptation. Differences in emotional recognition may be associated with the presence of emotional biases and can alter one's perception, thus influencing their overall social cognition abilities. The present study aims to extend our collective understanding of emotion attribution abnormalities in individuals with Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED).

METHODS

Two-hundred and forty-two adults participated, separated into groups of those diagnosed with IED according to DSM 5 criteria, Psychiatric Controls (PC), and Healthy Controls (HC). Participants completed a modified version of the Emotional Attribution Task wherein they attributed an emotion to the main character of a short vignette.

RESULTS

Participants with IED correctly identified anger stories and misattributed anger to non-anger stories significantly more often than PC and HC participants. They were also significantly less likely than HC participants to correctly identify "sad stories."

LIMITATIONS

We utilized self-report assessments in a community-recruited sample. Replication in a clinical is suggested.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study support the validity of IED as a diagnostic entity and provide important information about how individuals with psychiatric disorders perceive and experience emotional cues.

Emotion processing in intermittent explosive disorder

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED), a disorder characterized by outbursts of affective aggression, is associated with deficits in regulating emotions. However, less is known about specific deficits in understanding and processing emotions in IED. This study sought to fill that gap by examining components of emotion processing (rumination, alexithymia, and empathy) in those with IED. Participants completed diagnostic interviews and self-report measures, and were categorized into three diagnostic groups: IED (n = 177), Psychiatric Control (PC; n = 171), and Healthy Volunteer (HV; n = 144). Those with IED reported more anger rumination and greater difficulty identifying their feelings than PC or HV participants. Interestingly, those with IED reported higher affective empathy scores than those in the HV group, with no other group differences on measures of empathy. Amongst those with IED, increased anger rumination and decreased sadness rumination predicted greater lifetime aggression, while increased sadness rumination predicted poorer quality of life. These findings suggest that although those with IED have a harder time recognizing their emotions, once they identify feeling angry, they spend more time focused this emotion than those with other disorders. These findings also suggest that cognitive intervention techniques may be beneficial for those with IED.

The relationship between aggression and ability emotional intelligence: The role of negative affect

This study aimed to contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between aggressive behaviour and individual levels of ability emotional intelligence (EI). Three hundred and ninety-five participants took part in this study. Participants were assessed on ability EI, negative affect (NA), and aggression by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Buss-Perry Aggression questionnaires, respectively. The results revealed a negative relationship between aggression and ability EI, but this relationship depended on multiple factors: the type of EI branches and aggression dimensions, the influence of NA, and gender. Emotional management ability showed a direct relationship with aggression, while emotional perception ability presented an indirect relationship with aggression through the effect of NA. These EI abilities were related to different aggression dimensions, highlighting the direct relationship with physical aggression. Moreover, gender differences showed that women possess greater EI abilities, higher levels of NA, less aggressive behaviour, and a lower relationship between NA and aggression compared with men. This research offers a better understanding of the psychological processes explaining aggression. The inclusion of our findings in the design of prevention and treatment programs could be of great help in the control of aggressive behaviour.

Aggression modulates neural correlates of hostile intention attribution to laughter in children

The tendency to interpret nonverbal social signals as hostile in intention is associated with aggressive responding, poor social functioning and mental illness, and can already be observed in childhood. To investigate the neural correlates of such hostile attributions of social intention, we performed a functional magnetic imaging study in 10-18 year old children and adolescents. Fifty healthy participants rated videos of laughter, which they were told to imagine as being directed towards them, as friendly versus hostile in social intention. Hostile intention ratings were associated with neural response in the right temporal voice area (TVA). Moreover, self-reported trait physical aggression modulated this relationship in both the right TVA and bilateral lingual gyrus, with stronger associations between hostile intention ratings and neural activation in children with higher trait physical aggression scores. Functional connectivity results showed decreased connectivity between the right TVA and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with increasing trait physical aggression for making hostile social intention attributions. We conclude that children's social intention attributions are more strongly related to activation of early face and voice-processing regions with increasing trait physical aggression.

Generalized hostile interpretation bias regarding facial expressions: Characteristic of pathological aggressive behavior

Individuals with aggression regulation disorders tend to attribute hostility to others in socially ambiguous situations. Previous research suggests that this "hostile attribution bias" is a powerful cause of aggression. Facial expressions form important cues in the appreciation of others' intentions. Furthermore, accurate processing of facial expressions is fundamental to normal socialization. However, research on interpretation biases in facial affect is limited. It is asserted that a hostile interpretation bias (HIB) is likely to be displayed by individuals with an antisocial (ASPD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and probably also with an intermittent explosive disorder (IED). However, there is little knowledge to what extent this bias is displayed by each of these patient groups. The present study investigated whether a HIB regarding emotional facial expressions was displayed by forensic psychiatric outpatients (FPOs) and whether it was associated with ASPD and BPD in general or, more specifically, with a disposition to react with pathological aggression. Participants of five different groups were recruited: FPOs with ASPD, BPD, or IED, non-forensic patients with BPD (nFPOs-BPD), and healthy, non-aggressive controls (HCs). Results suggest that solely FPOs with ASPD, BPD, or IED exhibit a HIB regarding emotional facial expressions. Moreover, this bias was associated with type and severity of aggression, trait aggression, and cognitive distortions. The results suggest that a HIB regarding facial expressions is an important characteristic of pathological aggressive behavior. Interventions that modify the HIB might help to reduce the recurrence of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 43:386-397, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relationships between perceived emotional intelligence, aggression, and impulsivity in a population-based adult sample

A diminished capacity to reason about one's own or others' mood states (part of emotional intelligence, EI) may impair one's ability to respond to threat or frustration, leading to aggression and/or impulsivity. In this study, 1544 adult subjects completed the Trait-Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS), an assessment of perceived EI, in order to examine how attention to emotions, clarity of emotions, and repair of emotions were associated with aggression and impulsivity. Correlations among the TMMS subscales of Attention, Clarity, and Repair were all significant. Clarity moderated the relationship between Attention and Repair such that Attention correlated with Repair only at higher levels of Clarity. Aggression and Impulsivity were both associated with all three dimensions of perceived EI; however, Repair was associated more strongly with Aggression than Impulsivity, whereas the reverse was true for Clarity. Finally, a subsample of participants self-identified as having "anger problems" had lower TMMS scores for Clarity and Repair compared to "non-anger problem" participants. Adding aggression and impulsivity to the model eliminated these group differences. Results suggest that Clarity and Repair may be the most important aspect of perceived EI. Interventions that increase these components, along with effective mood regulation techniques, may potentially ameliorate impulsive aggressive behavior.

Negative urgency and reward/punishment sensitivity in intermittent explosive disorder

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is the sole psychiatric diagnosis in which affective aggression is the cardinal symptom. Previous research has been equivocal with regard to the relationship between IED and impulsivity. This inconsistency may reflect the varied facets of impulsivity, with some aspects of impulsivity (e.g. negative urgency) as well as some overlapping, albeit distinct constructs (e.g. reward and punishment sensitivity) yet to be studied.

METHODS

The present study compared individuals diagnosed with IED (n=81) with psychiatric controls (PCs; n=52) and healthy volunteers (HVs; n=58) on the impulsivity domains of negative and positive urgency, perseverance, sensation seeking, and premeditation, as well as on reward and punishment sensitivity. We hypothesized that individuals with IED would show greater negative and positive urgency, reward sensitivity, punishment sensitivity, with negative urgency independently predicting IED status. We also hypothesized that negative urgency would predict levels of anger, aggression, and aggression control among those with IED.

RESULTS

The IED participants reported greater negative urgency than both comparison groups, and greater levels of positive urgency, reward sensitivity, and punishment sensitivity compared to HVs. Further, heightened negative urgency was the sole predictor an IED diagnosis. Within the IED group negative urgency uniquely predicted decreased aggression control and increased trait anger.

LIMITATIONS

Limitations included reliance on self-report measures to assess RS/PS, impulsivity, and aggression.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that negative urgency is a key factor associated with IED and is associated with dampened control of aggression within those with IED.