IMPULSIVITY AND LOW SELF-ESTEEM AS PREDICTORS OF JUSTIFICATION OF VIOLENCE: THE MODERATING ROLE OF GENDER AND PSYCHOPATHY

Abstract

Understanding justification of violence requires looking beyond aggressive attitudes to the intricate interplay between impulsivity, psychopathy self-esteem and gender. The present study assessed whether low self-esteem and impulsive reactions predict justification of violence and also exploring the moderating role of psychopathy and gender. The data was gathered from 314 young individuals having equal number of males and females using convenience sampling method aged from 16 to 30 years old. The subjects filled in the validated instruments regarding their impulsivity, self-esteem, psychopathy and attitude towards violence (justification of violence was operationalized as attitude towards violence). The findings showed that Impulsivity strongly predict justification of violence while Self-Esteem failed to predict justification of violence. Gender differences were seen among the constructs as males reported higher justification of violence than females.  In relevance to moderating effects, Psychopathy does moderate the relationship between impulsivity and attitude towards violence such that higher the levels of psychopathy stronger the association between impulsivity and attitude towards violence. Meanwhile, psychopathy does not moderate the relationship between self-esteem and attitude towards violence so the effect of self-esteem remains non-significant on justification of violence across varying levels of psychopathic traits. Furthermore, gender does not moderate the relationship between impulsivity/self-esteem and attitude towards violence.