Emotional Dysregulation, Moral Character and Attitude towards Violence in Young Adults

Thesis Title: Emotional Dysregulation, Moral Character and Attitude towards Violence in Young Adults

Student Name: Hibah Ahmad

Supervisor: Faiz Younas

Degree: BS

Year: 2014-2018

Department: Institute of Applied Psychology

University: Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan

Corresponding Address: Department of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Email: chairperson@appsy.pu.edu.pk, Phone: 92-42-9231245

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship among emotional dysregulation, moral character and attitude towards violence in young adults. It was hypothesized that there would be i) a positive relationship between emotional dysregulation and attitude towards violence, ii) a negative relationship between moral character and attitude towards violence, while iii) the emotional dysregulation would predict attitude towards violence and iv) the moral character would predict attitude towards violence. Through a cross-sectional correlational research design, a sample of (N = 100) young adults including (n = 48 women and n = 52 men) (M = 21.74, SD = 1.40) was recruited by employing a non- probability convenient sampling strategy from GC University, Lahore. A self-constructed demographics Information Sheet, Emotional Dysregulation Scale (Powers, Stevens, Fani & Bradley, 2015), The Self- Importance of Moral Identity Scale (Aquino & Reed, 2002) and Revised Attitude towards Violence Scale (Anderson, Benjamin, Wood & Bonacci, 2006) were used to assess the study variables. Results were generated by running Pearson product moment correlation and simple linear regression analysis through SPSS version 20.0, which showed a significant positive relationship between emotional dysregulation and attitude towards violence while a negative relationship between moral character and attitude towards violence. Further, the results also indicated that both emotional dysregulation and moral character predicted attitude towards violence in young adults. This study has implications in developing insight into the relationship among the study variables which can be further employed in research, policy making and counseling services.

Keywords: Emotional dysregulation, attitude towards violence, moral character, young adults.