Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: does self-love or self-hate lead to violence?

It has been widely asserted that low self-esteem causes violence, but laboratory evidence is lacking, and some contrary observations have characterized aggressors as having favorable self-opinions. In 2 studies, both simple self-esteem and narcissism were measured, and then individual participants were given an opportunity to aggress against someone who had insulted them or praised them or against an innocent third person. Self-esteem proved irrelevant to aggression. The combination of narcissism and insult led to exceptionally high levels of aggression toward the source of the insult. Neither form of self-regard affected displaced aggression, which was low in general. These findings contradict the popular view that low self-esteem causes aggression and point instead toward threatened egotism as an important cause.

Displacement activities as a behavioral measure of stress in nonhuman primates and human subjects

Traditionally, research on human stress has relied mostly on physiological and psychological measures with a relatively minor emphasis on the behavioral aspects of the phenomenon. Such an approach makes it difficult to develop valid animal models of the human stress syndrome. A promising approach to the study of the behavioral correlates of stress is to analyze those behavior patterns that ethologists have named displacement activities and that, in primates, consist mostly of self-directed behaviors. In both nonhuman primates and human subjects, displacement behavior appears in situations characterized by social tension and is likely to reflect increased autonomic arousal. Pharmacological studies of nonhuman primates have shown that the frequency of occurrence of displacement behavior is increased by anxiogenic compounds and decreased by anxiolytic drugs. Ethological studies of healthy persons and psychiatric patients during interviews have found that increased displacement behavior not only correlates with a subjective feeling state of anxiety and negative affect but also gives more veridical information about the subject's emotional state than verbal statements and facial expression. The measurement of displacement activities may be a useful complement to the physiological and psychological studies aimed at analyzing the correlates and consequences of stress.

Selective disruption of displacement behaviour by lesions of the mesolimbic dopamine system

In the wild, organisms generally allocate their time among many behavioural tendencies in response to both current and anticipated motivational requirements. However, activities that are apparently 'irrelevant' often intrude, either during conflict between these behavioural tendencies, or when a strong tendency is thwarted. These 'irrelevant' activities are called displacement behaviours and are widely documented in the ethological literature. We report here that an experimental analogue of displacement behaviour in the rat depends upon the integrity of the mesolimbic dopaminergic projection to the nucleus accumbens septi, olfactory tubercle and associated structures of the forebrain.

Suicide prevention through means restriction: assessing the risk of substitution. A critical review and synthesis

The effectiveness of restricting access to certain means of committing suicide has been demonstrated, at least as regards toxic domestic gas, firearms, drugs and bridges. At the individual level, studies tend to indicate that many persons have a preference for a given means, which would limit the possibility of substitution or displacement towards another method. Similarly, the fact that suicidal crisis are very often short-lived (and, what is more, influenced by ambivalence or impulsiveness) suggests that an individual with restricted access to a given means would not put off his plans to later or turn to alternative methods. This has been more difficult to demonstrate scientifically in population studies. Nevertheless, it appears that, should such a shift occur towards other means, it would be put into effect only in part and over a longer term.

Primate displacement activities as an ethopharmacological model of anxiety

Using a within-subject cross-over, vehicle-controlled design, we investigated the acute effects of benzodiazepine receptor ligands with different mechanisms of action on the displacement activities (scratching, self-grooming, and body shake) of seven male macaques living in social groups. Our aim was to test the discriminative validity of displacement activities as an ethopharmacological model of anxiety. Subjects were given i.m. lorazepam (0.10, 0.20, 0.25 mg/ kg) and FG 7142 (0.1, 0.3, 1.0 mg/kg). The frequency of displacement activities was decreased by the anxiolytic lorazepam and increased by the anxiogenic FG 7142 in a dose-dependent manner. Displacement activities were apparently more sensitive to anxiolytic treatment than other behavior patterns indicative of an anxiety state (i.e., visual scanning of the social environment and fear responses directed to dominant males). These results suggest that primate displacement activities are a valid ethopharmacological model of anxiety.

Displaced aggression is alive and well: a meta-analytic review

Content analysis of 122 social psychology textbooks confirmed that displaced aggression received a surge of attention immediately following J. Dollard, L. W. Doob, N. E. Miller, O. H. Mowrer, and R. R. Sears (1939), but subsequent interest sharply declined. Contemporary texts give it little attention. By contrast, meta-analysis of the experimental literature confirms that it is a robust effect (mean effect size = +0.54). Additionally, moderator analyses showed that: (a) The more negative the setting in which the participant and target interacted, the greater the magnitude of displaced aggression; (b) in accord with N. E. Miller's (1948) stimulus generalization principle, the more similar the provocateur and target, the more displaced aggression; and (c) consistent with the contrast effect (L. Berkowitz & D. A. Knurek, 1969), the intensity of initial provocation is inversely related to the magnitude of displaced aggression.

The displaced aggression questionnaire

Previous measures of aggressive personality have focused on direct aggression (i.e., retaliation toward the provoking agent). An original self-report measure of trait displaced aggression is presented. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a 3-factor conceptualization of the construct. These analyses identified an affective dimension (angry rumination), a cognitive dimension (revenge planning), and a behavioral dimension (general tendency to engage in displaced aggression). The trait measure demonstrated good internal consistency and test-retest reliability as well as convergent and discriminant construct validity. Unlike other related personality measures, trait displaced aggression significantly predicted indirect indicators of real-world displaced aggression (i.e., self-reported domestic abuse and road rage) as well as laboratory displaced aggression in 2 experiments.

Attenuating the Link Between Threatened Egotism and Aggression

Research has found that narcissists behave aggressively when they receive a blow to their ego. The current studies examined whether narcissistic aggression could be reduced by inducing a unit relation between the target of aggression and the aggressor. Experimental participants were told that they shared either a birthday (Study 1) or a fingerprint type (Study 2) with a partner. Control participants were not given any information indicating similarity to their partner. Before aggression was measured, the partners criticized essays written by the participants. Aggression was measured by allowing participants to give their partner loud blasts of noise through a pair of headphones. In the control groups, narcissists were especially aggressive toward their partner. However, narcissistic aggression was completely attenuated, even under ego threat, when participants believed they shared a key similarity with their partner.

Behavioral and neuroendocrine correlates of displaced aggression in trout

In humans and other primates, violent actions performed by victims of aggression are often directed toward an individual or object that is not the source of provocation. This psychological phenomenon is often called displaced aggression. We demonstrate that displaced aggression is either rooted in evolutionarily conserved behavioral and neuroendocrine mechanisms, or represent a convergent pattern that has arisen independently in fish and mammals. Rainbow trout that briefly encountered large, aggressive fish reacted with increased aggression toward smaller individuals. There was a strong negative correlation between received aggression and behavioral change: Individuals subjected to intense aggression were subdued, while moderate assaults induced strong agitation. Patterns of forebrain serotonin turnover and plasma cortisol suggest that the presence of socially subordinate fish had an inhibitory effect on neuroendocrine stress responses. Thus, subordinate individuals may serve as stress-reducing means of aggressive outlet, and displaced aggression toward such individuals appears to be a behavioral stress coping strategy in fishes.

Investigative burying by laboratory mice may involve non-functional, compulsive, behaviour

The burying activity levels of albino mice offered a glass marble and a living scorpion on different occasions, were compared with the levels of exploration/investigation, avoidance, and displacement activities the same subjects performed during these and two other tests, the latter involving exploration with no particular stimulus-object and displacement with locomotion impossible. Although different average response levels were expected to occur in the different tests, it was assumed that the levels of related behavioural patterns correlated over the variation of individual mice. The scorpion elicited more burying than the marble, but the inanimate stimulus-object caused more avoidance. Exploration produced the only consistent, positive, correlation with burying in both female and male subjects. Only negative correlation occurred in males between burying and displacement, suggesting that these were alternative, in part non-functional, patterns. In females and males, while both touching and avoiding the marble decreased with experience over days, burying and displacement did not. The main conclusion is that burying began as an appropriate, investigative, activity, but, following frustrated investigation of the non-reactive stimulus-object, persisted as a compulsive stereotypy in subjects lacking in general experience, as laboratory rodents are in comparison with wild conspecifics. A simple model of compulsive disorder is proposed, in which initially appropriate behaviour goes on with inappropriate repetition when it does not attain its aim and the subject has internal difficulty in finding alternative patterns.

The stress of not being able to perform dustbathing in laying hens

The stress of not being able to perform dustbathing was studied in small groups of laying hens. The birds were reared and kept for 2.5 years in cages with either sand ("sand birds") or wire floors ("wire birds"), and subsequently deprived of sand (sand birds) or given access to sand (wire birds). Before this change, wire birds had a higher incidence of unilateral wing/leg stretching and stereotypic pecking compared to sand birds; however, there was no difference in corticosterone concentrations. Deprivation of sand in the sand birds resulted in a total absence of dustbathing and in a significant increase in corticosterone concentrations. Although the wire birds dustbathed on the wire before the change of floors, there was a significant increase in the incidence of dustbathing after sand was provided, but no changes in the concentrations of corticosterone. Threats and allopecks decreased in the wire birds after access to sand, whereas no changes were found in the sand birds. Stereotypic pecks on feathers were absent in the sand birds, but were frequent in most of the wire birds both before and after they were given sand. Also, in the wire birds, all feather pecking (stereotypic and nonstereotypic) was positively correlated with the concentration of corticosterone, and this kind of pecking may, thus, be an expression of stress in laying hens. We conclude that the nonperformance of dustbathing behavior is associated with the experience of stress.

Tracking the displacement of objects: a series of tasks with great apes (Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla gorilla, and Pongo pygmaeus) and young children (Homo sapiens)

The authors administered a series of object displacement tasks to 24 great apes and 24 30-month-old children (Homo sapiens). Objects were placed under 1 or 2 of 3 cups by visible or invisible displacements. The series included 6 tasks: delayed response, inhibition test, A not B, rotations, transpositions, and object permanence. Apes and children solved most tasks performing at comparable levels except in the transposition task, in which apes performed better than children. Ape species performed at comparable levels in all tasks except in single transpositions, in which chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) performed better than gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and orangutans (Pongo pygmeaus). All species found nonadjacent trials and rotations especially difficult. The number of elements that changed locations, the type of displacement, and having to inhibit predominant reaching responses were factors that negatively affected the subjects' performance.

Scent-marking and cortisol response in the small-eared bushbaby (Otolemur garnettii)

Among prosimians, some types of scent-marking may serve as displacement activities that reduce physiological arousal in stressful situations. Type and frequency of scent-marking was measured for 22 male small-eared or Garnett's bushbabies (Otolemur garnettii) exposed to a novel open field environment, with and without novel objects. Rates of foot rubbing, chest rubbing, urine washing, flank rubbing, and ano-genital marking were measured. Foot and chest rubbing constituted 92.5% of responses. Type and frequency of scent-marking was compared to the magnitude of the animals' cortisol responses in a separate test of restraint stress. Only foot and chest rubbing were systematically related to cortisol levels. The animals that performed these behaviors more in the novel environment also exhibited lower cortisol responses to restraint stress. These results suggest that bushbabies that characteristically employ behavioral coping strategies have a reduced physiological response to psychological stressors.

Acute psychosocial challenge and cardiac autonomic response in women: the role of estrogens, corticosteroids, and behavioral coping styles

Theoretical statements, as well as clinical and experimental data, suggest that the amplitude of cardiovascular reactivity to acute stressors can be a good predictor of preclinical and clinical cardiovascular states. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of estrogens, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical activity, and the behavioral profile in individual cardiac autonomic reactivity to brief laboratory stressors in women. Thirty-six adult, healthy women were exposed to a stress interview and a mental task test, each lasting 5 min. They were assigned to two experimental groups: D4, i.e. 4 days after menses beginning (follicular phase, n=18), and D14, i.e. 14 days after menses beginning (ovulatory phase, n=18). The cardiac measurements in the baseline, stress and recovery periods consisted in heart rate (average R-R interval) and parasympathetic tone (r-MSSD) quantification, while the HPA axis activity and stress reactivity were assessed via plasma cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone concentrations. The ethological profile during the interview was drawn by means of non-verbal behavior analysis. The cardiac, adrenocortical and behavioral responses to the two stressors were similar in groups D4 and D14, despite significantly higher estradiol levels in the latter. Subjects with higher pre-stress cortisol levels had higher heart rate and lower vagal activity in the baseline, stress and recovery phases. Women showing higher level of submission were characterized by higher heart rate acceleration and vagal withdrawal during both the interview and the recovery phase. In addition, the subjects that exhibited greater displacement during the interview were also characterized by lower heart rate increments and less pronounced vagal suppression during post-stress recovery. In conclusion, the present results do not support a clear buffering role of estrogens in cardiovascular response to acute stressors. However, they confirm that baseline HPA axis activity can be predictive of cardiac autonomic activity and stress responsiveness. They also highlight the modulating role of the individual style of behavioral coping in cardiac sympathovagal stress reactivity. Therefore, the objective assessment of the individual behavioral profile via the analysis of non-verbal communication patterns might represent a powerful tool for identifying subjects with higher risk of cardiac events.

An electrical caliper for continuous measurement of relative displacement

An electrical recording caliper for the continuous measurement of relative displacement has been developed. The details of design, operation, and performance are described. The frequency response was uniform (±5%) through 25 cycle/sec. An approximately 0.5% error related to the mechanical impedance of the device was estimated to occur. The system is linear and free of hysteresis. Base-line and gain stability are acceptable.

Submitted on July 21, 1961

Emergence of displacement activities in the male rat following thwarting of sexual behavior

The present study revealed the emergence of displacement drinking and hindlimb scratching in noncopulating castrated male rats and in rats with medial preoptic (mPOA) lesions in tests with sexually attractive stimulus females. By contrast, sexually quiescent rats in the postejaculatory refractory period showed no evidence of displacement activity, and anestrous female rats displayed only moderate increments in drinking and scratching, compared with copulating estrous females. In both castrated and mPOA-lesion males, the amount of displacement activity was inversely related to strength of masculine sexual behavior, and in the former, displacement behavior was entirely suppressed by the subcutaneous implantation of a testosterone-filled Silastic capsule. When no stimulus female was present, no difference in drinking and scratching by control, castrated, and mPOA-lesion individuals could be discerned. Sexually inactive females elicited less displacement activity in castrated rats than did females in estrus. On the other hand, unreceptive stimulus females frequently elicited displacement behaviors in normal sexually active males. The results are discussed in relation to current concepts of the psychological organization of masculine sexual behavior, and it is suggested that the emergence of displacement behavior in castrated and mPOA-lesion males, and in normal males paired with anestrous females, may be due to the thwarting of sexual motivation.