Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding
Introduction: Victims of bullying often show interpersonal problems, such as having less high-quality interpersonal relationships compared to non-involved individuals. Research suggests that interpersonal struggles are associated with diminished emotional intelligence and competence and can lead to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729835/full |
| _version_ | 1818582371906093056 |
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| author | Minita Franzen Peter J. de Jong Wim Veling Marije aan het Rot |
| author_facet | Minita Franzen Peter J. de Jong Wim Veling Marije aan het Rot |
| author_sort | Minita Franzen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: Victims of bullying often show interpersonal problems, such as having less high-quality interpersonal relationships compared to non-involved individuals. Research suggests that interpersonal struggles are associated with diminished emotional intelligence and competence and can lead to mental health problems such as depression. Therefore, we examined emotion recognition abilities, empathic accuracy, and behavioral responses to emotions in bullying victims and non-involved individuals. Based on previous research, we expected victims to show diminished skills in all three domains.Methods: Adolescents (Mage=17years; 67% female; no “other” gender participants) with (N=24) and without (N=21) a self-reported history of bullying victimization in high school completed a Virtual Reality facial emotion recognition task (ERT-VR), an empathic accuracy task (EAT) using videos of people recounting real-life autobiographical events, and a computer task in which they indicated their likely behavioral responses to facial emotions.Results: The two groups only significantly differed in recognizing emotions when taking their depression symptoms into account. Across emotions, victims had lower recognition accuracy than non-involved individuals. When examining emotion-specific differences, victims showed lower accuracy for neutral faces which they mainly mistook for angry faces.Conclusion: In contrast to expectations, adolescents with a high-school history of bullying victimization mostly showed similar emotional intelligence and competence skills as non-involved individuals. Nonetheless, we found some subtle differences regarding emotion recognition. Victims misjudged neutral as angry faces. This suggests a hostile attribution bias which might help explain victims’ interpersonal problems as well as their increased risk for mental health problems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:48:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0ce595cb9c5841e2aed8a6e62dc99936 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:48:20Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-0ce595cb9c5841e2aed8a6e62dc999362022-12-21T22:38:54ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-10-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.729835729835Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and UnderstandingMinita Franzen0Peter J. de Jong1Wim Veling2Marije aan het Rot3Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsIntroduction: Victims of bullying often show interpersonal problems, such as having less high-quality interpersonal relationships compared to non-involved individuals. Research suggests that interpersonal struggles are associated with diminished emotional intelligence and competence and can lead to mental health problems such as depression. Therefore, we examined emotion recognition abilities, empathic accuracy, and behavioral responses to emotions in bullying victims and non-involved individuals. Based on previous research, we expected victims to show diminished skills in all three domains.Methods: Adolescents (Mage=17years; 67% female; no “other” gender participants) with (N=24) and without (N=21) a self-reported history of bullying victimization in high school completed a Virtual Reality facial emotion recognition task (ERT-VR), an empathic accuracy task (EAT) using videos of people recounting real-life autobiographical events, and a computer task in which they indicated their likely behavioral responses to facial emotions.Results: The two groups only significantly differed in recognizing emotions when taking their depression symptoms into account. Across emotions, victims had lower recognition accuracy than non-involved individuals. When examining emotion-specific differences, victims showed lower accuracy for neutral faces which they mainly mistook for angry faces.Conclusion: In contrast to expectations, adolescents with a high-school history of bullying victimization mostly showed similar emotional intelligence and competence skills as non-involved individuals. Nonetheless, we found some subtle differences regarding emotion recognition. Victims misjudged neutral as angry faces. This suggests a hostile attribution bias which might help explain victims’ interpersonal problems as well as their increased risk for mental health problems.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729835/fullvictims of bullyingemotion recognitionempathysocial behaviorinterpersonal skills |
| spellingShingle | Minita Franzen Peter J. de Jong Wim Veling Marije aan het Rot Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding Frontiers in Psychology victims of bullying emotion recognition empathy social behavior interpersonal skills |
| title | Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding |
| title_full | Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding |
| title_fullStr | Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding |
| title_full_unstemmed | Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding |
| title_short | Victims of Bullying: Emotion Recognition and Understanding |
| title_sort | victims of bullying emotion recognition and understanding |
| topic | victims of bullying emotion recognition empathy social behavior interpersonal skills |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.729835/full |
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