Your Misfortune Is My Fortune: Effect of Aggressive Priming on Level Mood

1. Your Misfortune Is My Fortune: Effect of Aggressive Priming on Level Mood Henderson State University Priscilla A. Chaney Dr. Travis Langley

2. Military Social Organization Transformation Basic Training & Conditioning (Rose,1946)

3. Military personnel share common characteristics (Brotz & Wilson, 1946; Elkin,1946) Distinctive Language Griping Substance Abuse

4. Chronic Stress (Gutirrez, Blume, Schmaling, Stoever, Fonseca, & Russell, 2006) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Aggressiveness & Submissiveness (Clark, 1946)

5. Research Questions In what ways are we able to support the families and soldiers who have experienced postwar anxieties and post traumatic stress disorders? Basic training programs for entrance to the military and basic transitioning programs while exiting the military may be the solution to create a well balanced adaptation.

6. ROTC cadets will respond more aggressively when presented with violent prime. Non-ROTC students will respond less aggressively when presented with the violent prime.

7. Variables for Both Experiments Experimental Independent variable� priming that they receive. Selected Independent Variable � family military background. Dependent Variables � aggression levels and the mood levels of the participants.

8. Participants Study I 16 men and 20 women from Henderson State University. Participants� ages ranged from 19 to 31 years, with mean age of 21.7 years. Design was 3 X 2 (priming condition X military affiliation) factorial.

9. Participants Study II 43 men and 38 women Design was a 4 X 2 (priming condition X military affiliation) factorial design

10. Materials Form A (violent prime) Aggressive Priming Effect Paragraph The neighbor of the married couple stated � I arrived home to find my neighbors, Mark and Amber, engaged in a physical fight in their yard. I saw a pool of blood on the ground.�

11. Materials Form B (nonviolent prime) Non-aggressive Priming Effect �Robert asked his wife what she wanted for their anniversary.�

12. Materials Form C (Neutral Prime) �The power surged last night! If only you would have bought those double A batteries like I told you to, we would not be in this situation!�

13. Materials Aggression Inventory (Gladue, 1991) Thirty questions relating to impulsiveness and avoidance of aggression

14. Aggression Inventory ____1. I enjoy working with my hands doing repetitive tasks. ____2. I admire people who can walk away from a fight or argument. ____3. When a person is unfair to me I get angry and protest. ____4. When a person tries to �cut ahead� of me in line, I firmly tell him/her not to do so. ____5. Whenever I have trouble understanding a problem, I ask others for advice. ____6. When a person criticizes me, I tend to answer back and protest. ____7. When a person tries to boss me around, I resist strongly. ____8. I think it is OK to make trouble for an annoying person. ____9. I get into fights with other people. ____10.When a person criticizes or negatively comments on my clothing or hair, I tell him/her it is none of their business. ____11. I really admire persons who know how to fight with their fists (not using any weapons). ____12. When another person hassles me or shoves me, I try to give him/her a good shove or punch. ____13. When another person picks a fight with me, I fight back. ____14. I prefer to listen to rock-and-roll instead of classical music. ____15. I become easily impatient and irritable if I have to wait.

15. Aggression Inventory  ____16. When another person is mean or nasty to me, I try to get even with him/her. ____17. Whenever someone is being unpleasant, I think it is better to be quiet than to make a fuss. ____18. Others say that I lose patience easily. ____19. I consider myself to be an authority figure for some people. ____20. More often than others, I seem to do things that I regret later. ____21. If a person insults me, I insult him/her back. ____22. I prefer to get out of the way and stay out of trouble whenever somebody is hassling me. ____23. When I am on bad terms with a person, it usually ends up in an argument. ____24. I become easily impatient if I have to keep doing the same thing for a long time. ____25. It often happens that I act to hastily. ____26. Whenever I build something new, I read the instruction booklet before doing anything. ____27. I really admire persons who know how to fight with weapons. ____28. I often act before I have had the time to think. ____29. When I am very angry with someone, I yell at them. ____30. When I have to make up my mind, I usually do it quickly.

16. Materials Mood Survey (Underwood & Froming, 1980) 18 questions which refer to level mood and reaction to mood experiences

17. Mood Survey ____1. I may change from happy to sad and back again several times in a single week. ____2. I usually feel quite cheerful. ____3. I�m frequently �down in the dumps.� ____4. I generally look at the sunny side of life. ____5. Compare to my friends, I�m less up and down in my mood states. ____6. I�m not often really elated. ____7. Sometimes my moods swing back and forth very rapidly. ____8. I usually feel as though I�m bubbling over with joy. ____9. My moods are quite consistent; they almost never vary. ____10. I consider myself a happy person. ____11. Compared to my friends, I think less positively about life in general. ____12. I�m a very changeable person. ____13. I am not as cheerful as most people. ____14. I�m not as �moody� as most people I know. ____15. My friends often seem to feel I am unhappy. ____16. If 1 = extremely sad, 50 = neutral, and 99 = extremely happy, how happy are you in general? ____17. If 1 = hardly ever and 99 = extremely frequently, how frequently do your moods Change? ____18. If 1 = not at all and 99 = extremely intensely, how intensely do you react to mood experiences?

18. Procedure Consent form Demographic survey Form A, B, C, or none Aggression Survey Mood Survey Debrief Tootsie Roll Pops

19. Results Study I The group who received the aggressive paragraph regardless of military affiliation responded in the same manner. The participants rated themselves as being less aggressive therefore applying the priming to their mood. The group who received the non-aggressive paragraph, however, did not respond with an increase in mood.

20. Results Study II The ROTC students who received the violent prime responded as being happier as compared to the non-ROTC students who received the violent prime. The ROTC students who received the neutral prime responded as being less happy as the non-ROTC students who read the neutral prime.

21. Results Mood Survey

22. Graph

23. Results Aggression Inventory

24. Results of Priming Effect

25. Stanley Milgram Theory of Obedience Virtues loyalty, discipline, and self-sacrifice

26. My Lai 1st Lieutenant Rusty Calley Charlie Company 347 men, women , and children were murdered

27. Society February 17, 1970, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, special operations soldier, was later found guilty of the horrific murders of his wife and two children and one unborn child.

28. Kileen Massacre George Hennard, was once a merchant marine and was enlisted In the Navy. He had several charges of drug possession and he murdered 22 people at a Luby�s cafeteria in Killeen, Texas and then took his own life.

29. Society July, 2002, four special operations soldiers return home to Ft. Bragg after deployment to Afghanistan. Within a month they murdered their wives and two committed suicide. October 24, 2002, the nation was shocked when a military sniper killed ten and wounded many. Retired Gulf War Veteran.

30. Society New programs should be set into place to provide the military community with the best healthcare, which includes psychological support. The overall positive effect of the new programs should decrease suicide, homicide, and abuse in the military communities.

31. Who Can Help? Since the recent killings in Ft. Bragg investigators spent several months and concluded that �military culture discourages soldiers and their families from seeking help when domestic problems can be potentially resolved.� The report found that the family support groups were inconsistent with the help they provided and the Army�s programs for soldiers returning from Afghanistan varied from unit to unit.

32. References American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. American Psychological Association, (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. America Psychologists, 57, 1060-1073. Brotz, H., and Wilson, E., (1946). Characteristics of Military Society. The American Journal of Sociology, 371-375. Clark, R. A., (1946). Aggressiveness and Military Training. American Journal of Sociology, 51, 423-432. US: University of Chicago Press. Gladue, B. A., (1991). Qualitative and quantitative sex differences in self-reported Aggressive. Behavior characteristics, Psychological Reports, 68, 675-684. Gutierrez, C. A., Blume, A. W., Schmaling, K. B., Stoever, C. J., Fonseca, C., & Russell, M. L., (2006). Predictors of Aversive Alcohol Consequences in a Military Sample. Military Medicine, 2006, 171(9) 870-874. Kenny, M., (2006). Parental attachment, self-worth, and depressive symptoms Among emerging adults. Journal of Counseling and Development, 84(1), 61-71. Kirchner, E. P., (1971). Undergraduate military training and measures of aggression. Journal of Personality Assessment, 35(4) 350-358. Rose, A., (1946). The social structure of the army. The American Journal of Psychology, 11(5), 359-364. Smith, S., (1996). Self-esteem and reactions to ego threat: A (battlefield investigation. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18(4). US: Lawrence Erlbaum.

33. References Gutierrez, C. A., Blume, A. W., Schmaling, K. B., Stoever, C. J., Fonseca, C., & Russell, M. L., (2006). Predictors of Aversive Alcohol Consequences in a Military Sample. Military Medicine, 2006, 171(9) 870-874. Kenny, M., (2006). Parental attachment, self-worth, and depressive symptoms Among emerging adults. Journal of Counseling and Development, 84(1), 61-71. Kirchner, E. P., (1971). Undergraduate military training and measures of aggression. Journal of Personality Assessment, 35(4) 350-358. Rose, A., (1946). The social structure of the army. The American Journal of Psychology, 11(5), 359-364. Smith, S., (1996). Self-esteem and reactions to ego threat: A (battlefield investigation. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18(4). US: Lawrence Erlbaum.

34. Many Thanks to the Psychology Department at Henderson State University, for their guidance and patience throughout this Capstone Experience.