On this page, you will be able to learn more about the team’s current research projects.

Dr. Johnson

The Influence of Personality and Motivational Factors on Sentencing Severity

• Limited empirical research has been done to assess the public’s view of what sentences are appropriate and the individual factors that contribute to these views. Much of the limited existing research on this topic has been constrained to demographic variables or prior experiences involving interactions with the justice system (e.g., U.S. Sentencing Commission, 1997). That said, this study will be seeking to address three questions: (1) How do individual personality traits relate to the severity of sentences?, (2) How do punishment motivations relate to the severity of sentences?, and (3) Do personality traits predict sentencing severity, in part due to personality playing a role in the development of punitive attitudes?

Alexandria Archer

When Honor Is Threatened: Examining the Psychological Processes Linking Masculine Honor Ideology to Reactive Aggression 

• This study seeks to investigate the psychological processes that link masculine honor ideology to reactive aggression. Prior research proposes relationships between MHI, anger, impulsivity, and aggression; less is known about how these factors function together in explaining reactive aggression. Therefore, the current study seeks to examine whether perceived disrespect and anger help explain the association between MHI and reactive aggression and whether impulsivity strengthens the relationship between anger and reactive aggression. It is hypothesized that (1) MHI will be positively associated with perceived disrespect. (2) Perceived disrespect will be positively associated with anger. (3) Anger will be positively associated with reactive aggression. Lastly, (4) impulsivity will moderate the relationship between anger and reactive aggression, such that the association between anger and aggression will be stronger among individuals higher in impulsivity compared to those lower in impulsivity. 

The Dark Side of Masculinity: Masculine Honor as a Moderator for the Psychopathy – Aggression Link

• This study seeks to investigate whether masculine honor beliefs moderate the relationship between psychopathic traits and aggressive responses to status-threatening provocations. Psychopathy is a strong predictor of aggression in response to status-threatening situations (Cale & Lilienfeld, 2006), but such aggressive behavior is not consistently shown (Veit et al., 2010), suggesting an influence of outside moderators. Masculine honor beliefs, for example, state men must assert dominance and are expected to retaliate with physical aggression when they receive status-threatening provocations (O’Dea et al., 2017, 2018; Saucier et al., 2016), possibly creating a condition when psychopathy is more likely to be expressed as aggression.

Projects from Lab Alum:

Laughlin Aschenbrenner

Investigating Sexual Coercion: Gender Differences and Mediating Mechanisms Linking Psychopathic and Narcissistic Traits

• 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

• 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.