DOCUMENT RESUME ED 257 562 PS 015 160 AUTHOR Block, Jack; Gjerde, Per F. TITLE Distinguishing between Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol. SPONS AGENCY National Inst. of Mental Health (DREW), Bethesda, Md.; Norwegian Research Council for Sc:zrace and the Pumanities. PUB DATE Apr 85 GRANT NIMH-MH-16080; NRCSH-B68-80-006 NOTE 66p.; Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, April 25-28, 1985). PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143) -- Speeches /Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adolescents; *Antisocial Behavior; Child Rearing; *Children; Daughters; Drug Use; Longitudinal Studies; *Personality Assessment; Personality Traits; Predictor Variables; Q Methodology; Self Concept; *Self Control; Sex Differences; Sons IDENTIFIERS Constructs; Impulsiveness; *Undercontrol (Psychology) ABSTRACT This paper examines the conceptual and empirical relationships differentially associated with antisocial behavior and undercontrol, two concepts that frequently are confused. The personality characteristics conceptually associated with antisocial behavior were specified by seven psychologists using the California Child Q-sort (CCQ) to describe independently a prototypically antisocial adolescent. Next, CCQ descriptions of each adolescent in a longitudinal study of ego and cognitive development of 3-, 4-, 5-, 7-, 11-, and 14-year-olds were correlated with the prototype. The congruence between an actual CCQ description and the prototype was the index of antisocial personality. Undercontrol was operationalized similarly. Indices of antisocial personality and of undercontrol then were related to indices of adolescent drug usage, self-concept, and parental child-rearing practices. Numerous external correlates distinguished between antisocial personality and undercontrol. Antisocial personality, but not undercontrol, predicted drug usage at age 14 in both sexes. The value systems of antisocial males reflect aspirations for wariness and uninvolvement. Parental child-rearing values foretold antisocial behavior and undercontrol more frequently in girls than in boys. (Author/RH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** el To appear in Block Olweus, Radke-Yarrow (Eds.), M. J. & D. e Research, Behavior: Development Prosocial and Antisocial, of New York, Academic Press, 1965. Theories, and Issues. tV .c) U.& DIMPAMOVAIMIT Of SOUCATION SAVONA& INSTITUTE Of EDUCATION Lim EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORINATION CENTER JERK) )(r document nee been reproduced se LC modeled from dm wean or atomization Ong 4. (1J Li Woe champs have been midi to improve reproduction quaky U./ Points*, view or opinions Mated in dee docu- official NIE 00 not rimmeterilv nipment ment position or policy Distinguishing Between Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol Jack Block and Per F. Gjerde University of California, Berkeley -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Running head: Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Health of Mental This study was supported by National Institute to Jack Block and Jeanne H. Block. Per F. Gjerde MH 16080 Grant CC) Norwegian from the B68-80-006 was partly by Grant supported rim( We would like to Research Council for Science and the Humanities. lUr:) Kevin Kerig, Feld, thank Ruth Butler, Phillip Cowan, Peter Pat Avril Thorne, and Denise Watson for providing prototypi- Lanning, prosocial We child. cal descriptions of the antisocial and the contribution of Susan Keyes in gratefully acknowledge the also 1:54 reprints Requests for creating the illegal substance use index. Jack Block, Department of Psychology, Tolman should sent be to Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Abstract con- psychological The often diffuse and overlapping character of Hence, delineation of structs leads to their frequent conflation. This useful. be the differences between related constructs can the conceptual and empirical relationships dif- examines chapter undercontrol, ferentially associated with antisocial behavior and personality confused. are frequently The concepts that two behavior antisocial characteristics conceptually associated with seven psychologists each using the California specified by were an- prototypically Child Q-sort (CCQ) to describe independently a Next, CCQ descriptions of each adolescent in tisocial adolescent. The prototype. the with our longitudinal study were correlated congruenCe between an actual CCQ description and the prototype was operation- Undercontrol was our index of antisocial personality. indices of antisocial personality and of Our similarly. alized drug adolescent of indices related undercontrol then were to practices. child-rearing parental and self-concept, usage, antisocial per- Numerous external correlates distinguished between Antisocial personality, but not under- sonality and undercontrol. value The control, predicted drug usage at age 14 in both sexes. antisocial males reflect aspirations for wariness and of systems antisocial Parental child-rearing values foretold uninvolvement. 3 3 Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol than in boys. undercontrol more frequently in girls and behavior empirical Substantively, the results articulate the conceptual and personality and the constructs of antisocial between differences these of undercontrol and deepen our developmental understanding useful in The methodology employed should br.! equally two domains. often analyzing relations between other, conceptually related but confounded individual difference constructs. Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol longstanding This chapter is a first attempt to respond to a antisocial and pro- we have had with the way the study of concern there believe We social behavior has proceeded over the years. general failure to consider closely enough the rela- been has a what is control and tionship between what is called poor impulse Theory and research on the antisocial called antisocial behavior. prosocial personality) in our personality (or for that matter, the too casually equated or assimilated antisocial behavior view has an We believe there is impulse. to the notion of undercontrol of between the societally-defined category called linkage important this but under-control antisocial behavior and the construct of The main purpose of this relationship is far from an equival differences between these chapter, therefore, is to articulate the constructs and to evaluate the utility, empirically, of main- two per- the We AM first establish taining their distinctiveness. psychologists consider to distin- that characteristics sonality We behavior. guish between undercontrol of impulse and antisocial then go on to present some empirical relationships differen- will tially associated with the two constructs. in Theorists of many persuasions have found it necessary to 2 Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol something akin to the construct an explanatory construct voke as been have Because many of these invocations of impulse control. and theoretically systematic than rather casual and hoc ad and conceptual required construct the descriptively, has a have sought to offer (cf., e.g., J. we which basis, behavioral Block, 1950, J. H. Block, 1951; J. H. Block & J. Block, 1980). from an derives Our own formulation, termed "ego-control," integrate aspects of psychoanalytic theory (cf, Feni- attempt to dynamics of chel, 1945) with the theorizing of Lewin regarding the Based on the motivational states (Lewin, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1951). (the degree of mutu- Lewinian formulation of boundary permeability influence between subsystems), ego control refers to the modal al or- ego individual's degree of impulse control characterizing an When dimensionalized, the underlying continuum at the ganization. impermeability boundary excessive one end--overcontrol--implies resulting in containment of impulse, delay of gratification, inhi- distractors. bition of behavior, and insulation from environmertal The opposite end of the continuum-- undercontrol -- implies excessive modulation of im- boundary permeability resulting in insufficient direct translation of needs into behavior, immediate and pulse, Whereas each of these two modes and vulnerability to distractors. of behavior can serve adaptive functions under a restricted set of continuum the of end circumstances, extreme placement at either can be expected to he dysfunctional in the long run. 3 Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol control of ego the location of individuals on this dimension provides implicative and predictive informations about how indivi- cognitive duals will behave in a wide variety of situations, about and the articulation of experience, and about psycho- functioning to be Behaviorally, the overcontroller appears social adaptation. and inhibited, to show minimal expression of personal constrained categorical toward tend organized, to highly emotions, to be able to continue working on unintslresting tasks to be thinking, to intolerant of ambigui- for relatively long periods of time, to relatively nar- ty, to be over-conforming, indecisive, and to have undercontroller the Behaviorally, row and unchanging interests. unduly spontaneous, to readily manifest emotional appears be to towards tend to reactions, to tend to disregard social customs, of personal desires, even when such gratification immediate the have widely gratifications are at odds with ultimate goals, and to associative processes that often produce unusual thoughts ranging (that may or may not be of high "quality.") Considerable clinical and research effort has been devoted to labeled as an- the nature of individuals societally understanding in- Descriptions of the antisocial or the psychopathic tisocial. insufficient impulse con- converge in finding generally dividual For example, the to be a central personality characteristic. trol influential psychiatric Diagnos- most recent version of the highly one as tic and Statistical Manual (DMS-111) includes impulsivity 4 Antisocial Behavior and Underco ,itrol diagnostic criteria defining the DMS-III category, major the of Antisocial Personality Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, discourages the use, of the term 'antisocial per- DMS-III 1980). of sonality disorder' with individuals less than years eighteen With regard to children, the term "impulse-ridden personali- age. ty' has been recommended (Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, (The remaining four were irresponsibility, superficiality 1966). impair- of affect, inability to profit from past experience, and that antiso- ment of conscience.) McCord and McCord have suggested immedi- cial behavior can be traced to an individual's search for He is a man "The psychopath is highly impulsive. pleasure. ate for whom the moment is a segment of time detached from all others. whims" (McCord & McCord, are unplanned and guided by actions His Rabin also has placed major emphasis on the inabil- 1964, p. 16). capacity for of antisocial individuals to develop an adequate ity im- The psychopath "continues to be egocentric and self-control. fulfillment of being solely concerned with the immediate pulsive, Since he can suffer no delay or postponement and can- his needs. by the environment, he thwarted when frustration tolerate not remains rather childish in this respect" (Rabin, 1979, p. 327). these various why recognize conceptually to easy It is antisocial personality descriptions of the societally-oriented Socie- central component. find inadequate impulse control to be a definitions of antisocial behavior generally have referred to tal Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol 5 face as obvious, flagrant, immediately disruptive behaviors such behaviors, and violations of social violence, criminal face to the so- codes designed to facilitate the everyday functioning of ciety. definition of antisocial (generally-held) Given this for behavior, it follows that undercontrol may set stage a the variety of antisocial behaviors. looked at conceptually Yet, rather than in the narrow terms set by operationalizing antisocial behavior in terms of reported violations or encounters with police may drunkenness, it or number ,.-)f traffic violations or recorded be that the current emphasis on the relationship between the well excessive two concepts, undercontrol and antisocial behavior, is preventing viewing an antisocial recognitions. deeper and By control, impulse predisposition largely in terms of insufticient psychological insights regarding different kinds of an important behavior Conceiving of antisocial tisocial behavior may be lost. broader terms involving rejection or unawareness of the social in contract, inability to empathize with unfortunate others, and an absence of inhibitions regarding the manipulation and exploitation of others, one can readily see how individual--antisocial in an latter way-- could well have sufficient ability to modulate this kind, this A configuration of personality qualities of impulse. conjoining control with of impulse absence of empathy and an stage for internalization of social codes, is likely to set the premeditated, (and sinister) antisocial behaviors consequential, generally and ulti'qately, in contrast to the spontaneous, local, Antisocial Behavior and Undercontrol 6 of antisocial undercon- characteristic behaviors self-defeating trollers. J.H. Block and J.Block (1980) Cleckley earlier and (1964) can be planful and premeditated as psychopaths that noted have well as shortsighted and impulsive. But, due to an absence of in- moments, psychopaths are unable to during affective trospection place themselves in the affective situation others of and a-es constrained in their behavior than more empathic less therefore, When it is further recognized that individuals. ego-control is, functionally, unrelated to introspectiveness--there can be intros- pective or non-introspective undercontrollers, introspective or that the two con- follows overcontrollers--it non-introspective antisociality structs of should kept impulse control and be separate and the separate implications of the two constructs esta- Such efforts are likely to provide understanding of blished. the differential developmental factors that foretell individuals later characterized as undercontrolled and as antisocial, respectively. that the In addition to ample anecdotal evidence suggesting extremely mild-mannered and person assaultive appeared often empiricism has well-controlled prior to the aggressive act, some Megargee (Megargee, 1966; on this topic. brought bear been to Mendelsohn, 1967) Megargee & Mendelsohn, 1962; Megargee, Cook & criminals were more controlled reported extremely violent that individuals. The normal than either nonassaultive criminals or 10