On this page, you will be able to learn more about the team’s current research projects.
Laughlin Aschenbrenner
Investigating Sexual Coercion: Gender Differences and Mediating Mechanisms Linking Psychopathic and Narcissistic Traits
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Laughlin’s thesis examines how personality traits, specifically narcissism and psychopathy, contribute to the likelihood of engaging in sexually coercive behaviors. The project investigates potential mechanisms such as Rape Myth Acceptance, pornography consumption, and deficits in empathy in predicting coercive tendencies. This project also aims to investigate specific coercion strategies endorsed by gender.Hypotheses: It is expected that:(1) Men will report greater endorsements of sexually coercive behaviors than women.(2) Individuals who endorse higher levels of narcissistic and psychopathic traits are predicted to have a positive association with sexually coercive behaviors.(3) The relationships between narcissistic or psychopathic traits and sexual coercion will be partially mediated by RMA, pornography consumption, and lack of empathy.Additionally, an exploratory analysis will be conducted to examine the associations between personality (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism) and specific sexual coercion strategies (e.g., emotional manipulation, intoxication) for each gender.
Kirsi Michael
Rejection, Regulation, and Retaliation: Trait Antagonism in a Moderated Mediation Model of Aggression
- This project examines emotional and personality mechanisms underlying aggressive responses to social rejection. The study tests a moderated mediation model in which maladaptive emotion regulation strategies explain the association between rejection sensitivity and reactive aggression, while trait antagonism moderates the relationship between rejection sensitivity and emotion regulation. It is hypothesized that maladaptive emotion regulation will partially mediate the relationship between rejection sensitivity and aggression, and that the association between rejection sensitivity and maladaptive emotion regulation strategy selection will be stronger among individuals higher in antagonism. By integrating affective vulnerability, regulatory processes, and personality pathology within a dimensional framework, the overall aim of this research is to clarify individual differences in rejection-based aggression and improve theoretically informed models of violence risk assessment and intervention.
Personality Profiles and Offense Type: A Person-Centered Analysis of Offender Heterogeneity
- This project examines heterogeneity in offender personality functioning using a person-centered analytic approach. Rather than estimating average trait effects, this study uses latent profile analysis to identify naturally occurring configurations of maladaptive (e.g., antagonism) and adaptive (e.g., high agreeableness) personality traits among incarcerated individuals and to examine whether these profiles relate to violent versus nonviolent offending. It is hypothesized that distinct personality profiles reflecting meaningful combinations of maladaptive and adaptive traits would emerge, and that profiles characterized by elevated antagonism and emotional dysregulation would be more strongly represented among violent offenders compared to profiles reflecting greater self-regulation and prosocial functioning. The overall aim is to advance personality-based models of offender heterogeneity and inform risk-stratification approaches in forensic assessment.
Context Matters: Provocation Type as a Moderator of the Psychopathy-Aggression Link
- This project examines whether inconsistencies in findings linking psychopathic traits to reactive aggression can be explained by differences in provocation type. Using an experimental design, this study tests whether provocation context (status-threat versus frustration) moderates the association between psychopathic traits and aggression, with the hypothesis that psychopathic traits will predict greater reactive aggression specifically following status-threatening challenges rather than frustration alone. Exploratory analyses will assess whether masculine honor ideology moderates the relationship between psychopathic traits and aggression under status-threat conditions and whether dominance motivation accounts for unique variance in aggression beyond psychopathic traits and provocation type using hierarchical regression. The overall aim is to clarify situational and motivational factors that elicit aggression in individuals high in psychopathic traits, thereby refining theoretical models of psychopathy and informing violence risk assessment and management.
The Double-Edged Sword of Rejection Sensitivity: Aggressive versus Prosocial Outcomes
- This project examines why social rejection leads some individuals to respond with aggression while others engage in prosocial behavior aimed at restoring social connection. Using an experimental social exclusion paradigm, the study tests whether rejection sensitivity moderates behavioral responses following interpersonal rejection. It is hypothesized that individuals high in rejection sensitivity will exhibit increased aggression and reduced prosocial responding following exclusion, reflecting heightened sensitivity to interpersonal threat. The overall aim is to clarify how rejection sensitivity shapes divergent behavioral responses to social rejection and contributes to individual differences in aggression and social functioning.