How can we use knowledge about the neurobiology of emotion recognition in practice?

Laura M. Hunnikin (Cardiff University, UK) and Stephanie H. M. van Goozen (Cardiff University, UK; Leiden University, The Netherlands) published in Journal of Criminal Justice Volume 65 (November–December 2019)

Highlights

• There are limited effective treatment options for young people who engage in serious and persistent antisocial behaviour.
• To improve outcome, treatments need to be tailored to the individual’s specific cognitive and emotional needs.
• Improving emotion recognition represents a viable option for intervention.
• Teaching antisocial youth to recognise emotions in others is associated with a reduction in re-offence severity.
• Emotion recognition interventions in high-risk children should be carried out before the onset of a criminal career.

Abstract

Children with antisocial behaviour show consistent emotion recognition difficulties that are thought to contribute to their aggressive and negative behaviours.

Current treatments for antisocial youths are limited in effectiveness but research is beginning to show that emotion recognition training is a viable treatment option.

This article considers the role of emotion recognition in antisocial behaviour, the neurobiological factors thought to contribute to emotion recognition impairments and current research showing that training these individuals to recognise emotions in others represents a feasible and potentially successful treatment option.

We have outlined a program of research that once implemented will improve our understanding of the causal role of emotion recognition in the development of serious and persistent antisocial behaviour in youth.

I homed in on this one because my husband and I are having problems with a young friend of ours. Even without reading the whole article I can see that this approach could be very useful.

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Understanding the Cycle of Pain: How to Transmute Anger into Empathy

a post by Joshua Kauffman for the Tiny Buddha blog


“When we get angry, we suffer. If you really understand that, you also will be able to understand that when the other person is angry, it means that she is suffering. When someone insults you or behaves violently towards you, you have to be intelligent enough to see that the person suffers from his own violence and anger. But we tend to forget … When we see that our suffering and anger are no different from their suffering and anger, we will behave more compassionately.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

There is so much to be angry about every day because life is unfair.

My own situation right now is infuriating. I left my job and my home country in large part to return back to the US and help my mom care for my father. During that time, my mother’s frustration with her role as caregiver, along with the emotional stresses and practical limitations it placed on her, often boiled over into rage directed at me. This situation persisted for ten months.

Immediately after that, she herself became terminally ill, and now my role is caregiver. My whole life plan has had to change as a result, so my hopes of going back to my old life now need to take a backseat to my mother’s illness, which was brought about by her own behavior (smoking). For so many years I had asked her to quit, to which she reacted—you guessed it—angrily.

When it was clear she wasn’t doing well, I encouraged her to see a doctor. She got angry with me.

While in the hospital, she was frustrated at being confined to a bed. She took her anger and frustration out on me for that too.

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How We Can Stop Arguing and Start Understanding Each Other

a post by Sara Fabian for the Tiny Buddha blog


“Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” ~Rumi

One of the most common sources of conflict among people is in the way we communicate. Often times, conflicts arise because of the variety of our opinions and beliefs, and also from the way we express our thoughts and communicate disagreement.

A blaming, sometimes even aggressive tone of voice can seep into our language, which invites confrontation instead of collaboration, and conveys a closed “my way or no way” kind of approach.

Looking back on my past, I can recall myself during my childhood years, when anything felt possible. In my world, full of playfulness, creativity, and fun, things were straightforward and clear. Whenever I was hungry, I made sure my mother knew about that. When I was afraid, sad, or upset, I said so. Whenever I wanted anything, I asked for it.

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Hazel’s comment:
This is one of the most constructive pieces I have read in ages for me.
I hope that it helps somebody else too.

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Four Tips for Being Assertive, Not Aggressive

a post by Billy Burgess for the Happy (serious learning) blog

Assertiveness is about standing up for yourself and getting your voice heard, without being aggressive. In this blog, Billy Burgess explains four key components for being assertive that you can put into place right away, both at work and in your personal life.

Headings:

1. Stand up for yourself
2. The importance of saying no
3. Exercise diplomacy
4. Effective listening

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Workplace bullying as a gendered phenomenon

an article by Denise Salin (Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland) and Helge Hoel (Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK) published in Journal of Managerial Psychology Volume 28 Issue 3 (2013)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that bullying is a gendered, rather than gender-neutral, phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews empirical findings on gender and bullying and identifies and discusses theoretical frameworks that can provide explanations for identified gender differences.

Findings
The paper shows that there are gender differences not only in reported prevalence rates and forms of bullying, but that gender also matters for the way targets and third parties make sense of and respond to bullying. It is shown that gendered conceptions of power, gender role socialisation theory and social identity theory are all relevant for explaining reported gender differences.

Research limitations/implications
The theoretical frameworks that have been selected should not be seen as exhaustive, but rather as useful examples. The authors encourage researchers in the field of bullying to pursue cross-disciplinary research and actively apply existing theoretical frameworks to integrate their findings more firmly in existing research on related themes.

Practical implications
The finding that bullying is gendered rather than gender-neutral has implications above all for the way managers, organisational representatives and policy-makers should address and prevent workplace bullying.

Originality/value
The paper questions the prevailing notion that bullying is gender-neutral and demonstrates the importance of gender in the experience of workplace bullying. It further identifies gaps in research and puts forward an agenda for future research in this area.

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