Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:37:24.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Get them before they get you: Trust, trustworthiness, and social cognition in boys with and without externalizing behavior problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2011

Carla Sharp*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Carolyn HA
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Peter Fonagy
Affiliation:
University College London
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Carla Sharp, Department of Psychology, 126 Heyne Building, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77024; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

Economic exchange games have rarely been applied to examine psychopathology in youth. In the current study we adapted a trust game to investigate the relations between externalizing behavior problems, trust, and trustworthiness. We were particularly interested in the differential modulating impact of “known identity” (vs. anonymous) condition of the task. Second, we examined whether anomalies in trust behavior would correspond to social cognition manifested in children with externalizing problems. A total of 171 (79 age-matched pairs) boys (mean age = 12.84; SD = 1.80) were recruited from community groups where social networks and relationships amongst peers have been established. A trust game was played under two conditions: an anonymous version where the identity of the trust game partner was not known and a “known identity” version where identities were revealed. Results supported the conclusion that boys with externalizing behavior problems are generally less trustworthy, but not less trusting and that this was true especially for the known identity version of the game. Moreover, anomalies in trust behavior were associated with hostile intentions, but not reflective of a general theory of mind deficit. This study contributes to an emerging literature using economic exchange games to investigate real-time, real-life exchanges in relation to psychopathology.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implication of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for ASEBA school-age forms and profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth & Families.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Ashraf, N., Bohnet, I., & Piankov, N. (2006). Decomposing trust and trustworthiness. Experimental Economics, 9, 193208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelrod, R. (1986). An evolutionary approach to norms. American Political Science Review, 80, 1095–1011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron Cohen, S., Jolliffe, T., Mortimore, C., & Robertson, M. (1997). Another advanced test of theory of mind: Evidence from very high functioning adults with autism or Asperger Syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 38, 813822.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001). The “Reading the mind in the eyes,” test revised version: A study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42, 241251.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J., & Clubley, E. (2001). The Autism–Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31, 517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berg, J., Dickhaut, J., & McCabe, K. (1995). Trust, reciprocity, and social-history. Games and Economic Behavior, 10, 122142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernath, M. S., & Feshbach, N. D. (1995). Children's trust: Theory, assessment, development and research directions. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 4, 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, G. E., & Ockenfels, A. (2000). ERC: A theory of equity, reciprocity, and competition. The American Economic Review 90, 166193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camerer, C. (2003). Behavioral game theory: Experiments in strategic interaction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Camerer, C., & Hogarth, R. M. (1999). The effects of financial incentives in economics experiments: A review and capital–labor–production framework. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 18, 742.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camerer, C. F., & Weigelt, K. (1988). Experimental tests of the sequential equilibrium reputation model. Econometrica, 56, 136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cillessen, A. H. N., & Bukowski, W. M. (2000). Recent advances in the measurement of acceptance and rejection in the peer system. San Francisco, CA: Jossey–Bass.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 3746.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Delgado, M. R., Frank, R. H., & Phelps, E. A. (2005). Perceptions of moral character modulate the neural systems of reward during the trust game. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 16111618.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A. (1980). Social cognition and children's aggressive behavior. Child Development, 51, 162170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A. (1993). Social–cognitive mechanisms in the development of conduct disorder and depression. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 559584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Burks, V. S., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., Fontaine, R., et al. (2003). Peer rejection and social information-processing factors in the development of aggressive behavior problems in children. Child Development, 74, 374393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodge, K. A., & Somberg, D. R. (1987). Hostile attributional biases among aggressive boys are exacerbated under conditions of threats to the self. Child Development, 58, 213224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dufwenberg, M., & Gneezy, U. (2000). Measuring beliefs in an experimental wallet game. Games and Economic Behavior, 30, 163182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood in society. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Falk, A., & Fischbacher, U. (2006). A theory of reciprocity. Games and Economic Behavior, 54, 293315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fehr, E., & Schmidt, K. M. (1999). A theory of fairness, competition, and cooperation. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114, 817868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., & Target, M. (2007). The parent–infant dyad and the construction of the subjective. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 288328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fonagy, P., & Sharp, C. (2008). Treatment oucome of childhood disorders: The perspective of social cognition. In Sharp, C., Fonagy, P. & Goodyer, I. M. (Eds.), Social cognition and developmental psychopathology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1997). Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 697700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fonagy, P., Twemlow, S. W., Vernberg, E. M., Nelson, J. M., Dill, E. J., Little, T. D., et al. (2009). A cluster randomized controlled trial of child-focused psychiatric consultation and a school systems-focused intervention to reduce aggression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 607616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, M. S., Bird, H., & Jaramillo, B. S. (1993). Correspondence between statistically derived behavior problem syndromes and child psychiatric diagnoses in a community sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 21, 287313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, J., Stanley, C., & Peters, S. (2007). Disorganized attachment representation and atypical parenting in young school age children with externalizing disorder. Attachment and Human Development, 9, 207222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenberg, M. T., Speltz, M. L., DeKlyen, M., & Endriga, M. C. (1991). Attachment security in pre-schoolers with and without externalizing behavior problems: A replication. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 413430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, M. T., Speltz, M. L., DeKlyen, M., & Jones, K. (2001). Correlates of clinic referral for early conduct problems: Variable- and person-oriented approaches. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 255276.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harbaugh, W. T., Krause, K., Liday, S. G., & Vesterlund, L. (2003). Trust in children. In Ostrom, E. & Walker, J. (Eds.), Trust, reciprocity and gains from association: Interdisciplinary lessons from experimental research. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Holmbeck, G. N., Thill, A. W., Bachanas, P., Garber, J., Miller, K. B., Abad, M., et al. (2008). Evidence-based assessment in pediatric psychology: Measures of psychosocial adjustment and psychopathology. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 33, 958980, Discussion 981–952.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2008). Does executive function matter for preschoolers' problem behaviors? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenni, K. E., & Loewenstein, G. (1997). Explaining the “identifiable victem effect.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 14, 235257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lovett, B. J., & Sheffield, R. A. (2007). Affective empathy deficits in aggressive children and adolescents: A critical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malhotra, D. (2004). Trust and reciprocity decisions: The differing perspectives of trustors and trusted parties. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 94, 6173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCabe, K. A., Smith, V. L., & LePore, M. (2000). Intentionality detection and “mindreading”: Why does game form matter? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97, 44044409.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McClure, E. B., Parrish, J. M., Nelson, E. E., Easter, J., Thorne, J. F., Rilling, J. K., et al. (2007). Responses to conflict and cooperation in adolescents with anxiety and mood disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 567577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mischel, W. (1961). Preference for delayed reinforcement and social responsibility. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62, 17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mischel, W., & Gilligan, C. (1964). Delay of gratification, motivation for hte prohibited gratification, and resistance to temptation. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 69, 411417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mize, J., & Ladd, G. W. (1988). Predicting preschoolers' peer behavior and status from their interpersonal strategies: A comparison of verbal and enactive responses to hypothetical social dilemmas. Developmental Psychology, 24, 782788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mize, J., & Pettit, G. S. (2008). Social information processing and the development of conduct problems in children and adoelscents: Looking beneath the surface. In Sharp, C., Fonagy, P. & Goodyer, I. M. (Eds.), Social cognition and developmental psychopathology (pp. 141174). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montague, P. R., King-Casas, B., & Cohen, J. D. (2006). Imaging valuation models in human choice. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 29, 417448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mowrer, O. H., & Ullman, A. D. (1945). Time as a determinant in integrative learning. Psychology Review, 52, 6190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orobio de Castro, B., Veerman, J. W., Koops, W., Bosch, J. D., & Monshouwer, H. J. (2002). Hostile attribution of intent and agressive behavior: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 73, 916934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pillutla, M. M., Malhotra, D., & Murnigham, J. K. (2003). Attributions of trust and the calculus of reciprocity. Jounral of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 448455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rotter, J. B. (1967). A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust. Journal of Personality, 35, 651665.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rotter, J. B. (1971). Generalized Expectancies for Interpersonal Trust. American Psychologist, 443452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, C. (2008). Theory of mind and conduct problems in children: Deficits in reading the “emotions of the eyes.” Cognition and Emotion, 22, 11491158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, C., Croudace, T. J., Goodyer, I. M. (2007). Biased mentalizing in children aged seven to 11: Latent class confirmation of response styles to social scenarios and associations with psychopathology. Social Development, 16, 181202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, C., & Fonagy, P. (2008). Social cognition and attachment-related disorders. In Sharp, C., Fonagy, P., & Goodyer, I. (Eds.), Social cognition and developmental psychopathology (pp. 269302). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, C., Fonagy, P., & Goodyer, I. M. (2008). Introduction: Social cognition and developmental psychopathology. In Sharp, C., Fonagy, P., & Goodyer, I. M. (Eds.), Social cognition and developmental psychopathology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, T., & Fehr, E. (2005). The neuroeconomics of mindreading and emphathy. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 95, 340345.Google Scholar
Sutter, M., & Kocher, M. (2007). Trust and trustworthiness across different age groups. Games and Economic Behavior, 59, 364382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutton, J., Reeves, M., & Keogh, E. (2000). Disruptive behaviour, avoidance of responsibility and theory of mind. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 18, 111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van den Bos, W., Westenberg, M., Van Dijk, E., & Crone, E. A. (in press). Development of trust and reciprocity in adolescence. Cognitive Development.Google Scholar
Verhulst, F. C., & Van der Ende, J. (1992). Agreement between parents' reports and adolescents' self-reports of problem behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 33, 10111023.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vitaro, F., Tremblay, R. E., & Bykowski, W. M. (2001). Friends, freinships and conduct disorders. In Hill, J. & Maughan, B. (Eds.), Conduct disorders in childhood and adolescence (pp. 346376). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, S. L., Emde, R. N., & Sroufe, L. A. (2000). Internal representations: Predicting anxiety from children's play narratives. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 100107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warren, S. L., Oppenheim, D., & Emde, R. N. (1996). Can emotions and themes in children's play predict behavior problems? Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 35, 13311337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wentzel, K. R. (1991). Relations between social competence and academic achievement in early adolescence. Child Development, 62, 10661078.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werner, N. E., & Crick, N. R. (1999). Relational aggression and social-psychological adjustment in a college sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 615623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, T. L., & Kirimani, A. (1977). Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness and shoplifting in high school. Psychological Reports, 41, 11651166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed