Marion K. Underwood is an American psychologist and provost and executive vice president of Colorado State University. [1] She formerly served as dean of Purdue University's College of Health and Human Sciences, a position she assumed on August 1, 2018. [2] [3] [4] She is a researcher in social aggression [5] and is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. [2]
Underwood graduated from Wellesley College in 1986 and received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duke University in 1991. [2] She joined the faculty at Reed College in 1991, where she received tenure. [6] From 1998 to 2018, she had various roles at the University of Texas at Dallas. [6] In 2008, she was named to an Endowed Chair, as Ashbel Smith Professor. [6] [7] From 2015 to 2018, she served as dean of graduate studies and associate provost. [2]
Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1995. [8] She studies social aggression (also known as relational aggression) in children and teens as well as adolescents' use of social media, text messaging, and other digital forms of communication. Her work has been seen on CNN, The New York Times , and The Atlantic , among others. [5] [9] [10] [11]
As part of a longitudinal study, Underwood provided free BlackBerrys to ninth-graders in exchange for permission to study the teens' text messages. [12] On average, each student sent 1,321 text messages per month (about 43 per day). [13] Underwood and her colleagues found that less than 2% of text messages had antisocial content (such as rule-breaking, drug use, physical aggression, or property crimes.) [12] Many of the text messages included teens "building each other up" and providing support. [13]
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood. Adolescence is usually associated with the teenage years, but its physical, psychological or cultural expressions may begin earlier or end later. Puberty typically begins during preadolescence, particularly in females. Physical growth and cognitive development can extend past the teens. Age provides only a rough marker of adolescence, and scholars have not agreed upon a precise definition. Some definitions start as early as 10 and end as late as 30. The World Health Organization definition officially designates an adolescent as someone between the ages of 10 and 19.
Conduct disorder (CD) is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood or adolescence that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior that includes theft, lies, physical violence that may lead to destruction, and reckless breaking of rules, in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated. These behaviors are often referred to as "antisocial behaviors", and is often seen as the precursor to antisocial personality disorder; however, the latter, by definition, cannot be diagnosed until the individual is 18 years old. Conduct disorder may result from parental rejection and neglect and can be treated with family therapy, as well as behavioral modifications and pharmacotherapy. Conduct disorder is estimated to affect 51.1 million people globally as of 2013.
Antisocial personality disorder, often abbreviated to ASPD, is a mental disorder defined by a chronic pattern of behavior that disregards the rights and well-being of others. People with ASPD often exhibit behavior that conflicts with social norms, leading to issues with interpersonal relationships, employment, and legal matters. The condition generally manifests in childhood or early adolescence, with a high rate of associated conduct problems and a tendency for symptoms to peak in late adolescence and early adulthood.
In sociology, a peer group is both a social group and a primary group of people who have similar interests (homophily), age, background, or social status. The members of this group are likely to influence the person's beliefs and behaviour.
Antisocial behaviours, sometimes called dissocial behaviours, are actions which are considered to violate the rights of or otherwise harm others by committing crime or nuisance, such as stealing and physical attack or noncriminal behaviours such as lying and manipulation. It is considered to be disruptive to others in society. This can be carried out in various ways, which includes, but is not limited to, intentional aggression, as well as covert and overt hostility. Anti-social behaviour also develops through social interaction within the family and community. It continuously affects a child's temperament, cognitive ability and their involvement with negative peers, dramatically affecting children's cooperative problem-solving skills. Many people also label behaviour which is deemed contrary to prevailing norms for social conduct as anti-social behaviour. However, researchers have stated that it is a difficult term to define, particularly in the United Kingdom where many acts fall into its category. The term is especially used in Irish English and British English.
Adolescent cliques are cliques that develop amongst adolescents. In the social sciences, the word "clique" is used to describe a group of 3 to 12 "who interact with each other more regularly and intensely than others in the same setting". Cliques are distinguished from "crowds" in that their members socially interact with one another more than the typical crowd. Crowds, on the other hand, are defined by reputation. Although the word 'clique' or 'cliquey' is often used in day-to-day conversation to describe relational aggression or snarky, gossipy behaviors of groups of socially dominant teenage girls, that is not always accurate. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popularity. Although cliques are most commonly studied during adolescence and in educational settings, they can exist in all age groups and settings.
School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff and attacks by school staff on students. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons to school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is a widely accepted serious societal problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.
Relational aggression, alternative aggression, or relational bullying is a type of aggression in which harm is caused by damaging someone's relationships or social status.
Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, in combination with traits of boldness, disinhibition, and egocentrism. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity to stress, which create an outward appearance of apparent normalcy.
Unpopularity is the opposite of popularity. Therefore, it is the quality of lacking acceptance or approval by one's peers or society as a whole.
In 1993, American psychologist Terrie Moffitt described a dual taxonomy of offending behavior in an attempt to explain the developmental processes that lead to the distinctive shape of the age crime curve. Moffitt proposed that there are two main types of antisocial offenders in society: The adolescence-limited offenders, who exhibit antisocial behavior only during adolescence, and the life-course-persistent offenders, who begin to behave antisocially early in childhood and continue this behavior into adulthood. This theory is used with respect to antisocial behavior instead of crime due to the differing definitions of 'crime' among cultures. Due to similar characteristics and trajectories, this theory can be applied to both females and males.
The media and American adolescent sexuality relates to the effect the media has on the sexuality of American adolescents and the portrayal thereof.
Callous-unemotional traits (CU) are distinguished by a persistent pattern of behavior that reflects a disregard for others, and also a lack of empathy and generally deficient affect. The interplay between genetic and environmental risk factors may play a role in the expression of these traits as a conduct disorder (CD). While originally conceived as a means of measuring the affective features of psychopathy in children, measures of CU have been validated in university samples and adults.
M. Brent Donnellan is a professor of psychology at Michigan State University. He is known for research on social psychology and personality psychology.
Peer contagion refers to the "mutual influence that occurs between an individual and a peer", and "includes behaviors and emotions that potentially undermine one's own development or cause harm to others". Peer contagion refers to the transmission or transfer of deviant behavior from one adolescent to another. It can take many forms, including aggression, bullying, weapon carrying, disordered eating, drug use, self-harm, and depression. It can happen in natural settings where peer dealings occur as well as in intervention and education programs.
Tina Malti is a Canadian-German child psychologist of Palestinian descent. She currently holds an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship for Early Child Development and Health as the first child psychologist and female psychologist in the award's history. She directs the Alexander von Humboldt Research Group for Child Development as research chair at Leipzig University. She is also a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and founding director of the Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy at the University of Toronto.
Ana Mari Cauce is an American psychologist and academic administrator, currently serving as the 33rd president of the University of Washington since October 2015.
Deborah A. Prentice is an American scholar of psychology and university administrator. She serves as the vice-chancellor at the University of Cambridge. She previously served as provost at Princeton University and Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs.
Jenae M. Neiderhiser is an American behavior geneticist who is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she is also co-director of the Gene Environment Research Initiative.
Deborah M. Capaldi is a developmental psychologist known for her research on at-risk male youth and the intergenerational transmission of substance use, antisocial behavior, intimate partner violence, and child abuse. She is a senior scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Her current projects focus on child exposure to family violence and parenting practices of at-risk parents.