Spontaneous Inferences Made from Child Behaviors by Low Risk and High Risk Parent

描述（由申请人提供）：本R03小额资助申请的总体目标是研究儿童身体虐待（CPA）风险背后的社会认知过程的新方法。本研究首次将错误认知范式应用于研究不同程度CPA风险父母的自发特质推断。尽管错误识别范式是社会认知研究中使用的一种行之有效的方法，但它在旨在检查自发推断特征类型和数量的个体差异的研究中的应用直到最近才被探索。此外，使用错误识别范式收集的数据适用于加工分离分析，这允许检查控制（即，缓慢，努力）认知过程和自动（即，快速，有效）认知过程在多大程度上有助于高（相对于低）CPA风险父母的自发特征推断。本研究源于社会信息处理模型（CPA），该模型认为父母的预先存在的图式和信息处理的方式可能导致父母的虐待行为。迄今为止的研究表明，有CPA高风险的父母对孩子的性格形成了更多的消极和/或更少的积极推断；然而，这种差异的位置仍然不清楚（即，高CPA风险父母的推论是更消极，更不积极，还是两者兼而有之？）了解自发推断特征的模式（以及这些特征推断在多大程度上是自动得出的，或者是更慢的、更受控制的过程的结果）与干预措施的设计有关，这些干预措施旨在改变认知过程，作为减少父母攻击的策略。在拟议的研究中，将招募200名具有不同程度CPA风险的父母来完成错误识别范式，该范式包括观看儿童的照片，这些照片与旨在强烈或模糊地暗示某种特征的行为描述配对。令人感兴趣的是：1)与低CPA风险的父母相比，高CPA风险的父母是否自发地从孩子的行为中形成更多的消极和/或更少的积极推论，2)当特征被模糊暗示（与强烈暗示相比）时，CPA风险组在自发推断特征方面的差异是否更大，以及3)与各种类型推论相关的自动过程和控制过程的程度是否因父母CPA风险状况而不同。最终，本研究的结果将有助于我们理解印象形成、父母认知和儿童身体虐待的假设前因。澄清与CPA风险相关的社会认知过程是重要的基础研究，旨在支持有效和理论驱动的干预措施的发展，旨在减少父母对儿童的攻击风险。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this R03 Small Grant application is to investigate new methods of studying the social cognitive processes that underlie child physical abuse (CPA) risk. The proposed study is the first to apply the false recognition paradigm to the study of spontaneous trait inferences in parents with varying degrees of CPA risk. Although the false recognition paradigm is a well-established method used in social cognitive research, its application to research designed to examine individual differences in the types and amounts of spontaneously inferred traits has only recently been explored. Moreover, data collected using the false recognition paradigm are amenable to process dissociation analyses, which allow for examination of the extent to which controlled (i.e., slow, effortful) cognitive processes and automatic (i.e., fast, efficient) cognitive processs contribute to the spontaneous trait inferences made by high (versus low) CPA risk parents. The proposed study stems from the Social Information Processing model of (CPA) which posits that parent' pre-existing schemata and the manner in which information is processed may contribute to abusive parenting behaviors. Research to date suggests that parents that are at high risk for CPA form more negative and/or less positive inferences about children's dispositions; however, the locus of this difference remains unclear (i.e., are the inferences made by high CPA risk parents more negative, less positive, or both?). Understanding the patterning of spontaneously inferred traits (and extent to which such trait inferences are derived automatically or are the result of slower more controlled processes) are relevant to the design of interventions that seek to alter cognitive processes as a strategy for reducing parental aggression. In the proposed study, 200 parents with varying degrees of CPA risk will be recruited to complete the false recognition paradigm, which involves viewing photographs of children paired with behavior descriptions intended to strongly or vaguely imply a trait. Of interest is whether: 1) high, compared to low, CPA risk parents spontaneously form more negative and/or less positive inferences from children's behaviors, 2) whether CPA risk group differences in spontaneously inferred traits are larger when traits are vaguely (versus strongly) implied, and 3) whether the extent to which automatic versus controlled processes associated with various types of inferences varies by parental CPA risk status. Ultimately, the results of this research will contribute to our understanding of impression formation, parenting cognitions, and the hypothesized antecedents of child physical abuse. Clarifying the social cognitive processes associated with CPA risk is important foundational research designed to support the development of efficacious and theory-driven interventions designed to reduce risk of parental aggression toward children.