Intervention Programme to assist and improve the behaviour of anti-social youth. If you have youngsters in your school who find it difficult to fit in and understand the standards and values required by your school these programmes could be ideal for you. Use these specialist tools to help your difficult youngsters to integrate and make the most of heir educational opportunities.

2. Do some of your pupils.....
o Fail to value education
o Fail to value learning
o Fail to value their school
o Fail to value their teachers
o Fail to value themselves as learners
o Fail to value their future
o Fail!

3. • ENCULTURATION, VALUES AND ANTI-SOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR
• The early years experience of children can be very different and have a
profound and significant impact on their development as adults, together
with their ability to function as a responsible and caring member of
society.
• For many the experience will be positive and encourage personal growth
together with a sense of individual worth and self esteem, leading to
engagement in society as a responsible and socially mature member. But
regretfully for a minority life’s experiences will be less positive and have a
negative impact on their maturation.
• As a result of impoverished early experiences some of these children may
grow up to be anti social and fail to engage in main stream society where
they could make a positive contribution to the success of the society and
culture they live in.

4. • By the time that a child gets to secondary school and enters the
challenging experience of adolescence there are many previous life
experiences, received values and learned behaviours that will assist them
in gaining academic success, or in a minority of cases entering a world of
personal, social and educational failure, frequently leading to conflict and
disruption in the classroom.
• Whilst this continuous disruption may be low level and take the form of
various irritants to the teacher and the remainder of the class, the result is
a disrupted and frequently dysfunctional lesson where little or no learning
goes on and the teacher is constantly involved in challenging the
miscreants about their behaviour, rather than teaching the class. In turn
this can lead to frustration by the remainder of the class and a lack of
purpose and concentration.
• This may lead to complete alienation, exclusion from the classroom in
some form and from there permanent exclusion from the school.
• The pupil has failed to engage in education, whilst the school has failed to
provide remedial support which might allow the pupil to retain their place
in the school and progress to employment, training or further education.

5. • Unfortunately there is considerable evidence
to show that such exclusion may well lead to
a life of anti-social activity, including crime.
Failure to adequately support these young
people during their early years and
adolescence can therefore prove to be a very
costly decision by society, which may well be
required to finance further social exclusion in
the form of prison and a life of minimal
contribution to society.

8. If so why do they fail to accept the values
of school and society?
o Antisocial tendencies ...”result from a complex interplay of nature
and nurture”
o (Rutter, 1997, p.390)
o encompasses partially neurophysiological variables such as difficult
temperament and hyperactivity, whilst
o encompasses not only relatively direct effects such as those of abuse
and neglect but also the indirect macrocontexts such as social class,
negative youth culture and economic disadvantage.”
o (Gibbs, 2014, p.152)
o So within such a context what might be the
limitations that characterise antisocial youth?

9. Indicators of anti-social ‘nature’
o “This inflated sense of one’s rights and readiness to see
oneself as wronged reflect a self-centred ego that is either –
o (a) GRANDIOSE
o from a sense of superiority or
o (b) VULNERABLE
o from a sense of potential inadequacy.”
o (Gibbs 2014, p. 158)

10. Pro-active Anti-Social Nature
o “ The pro-active.......takes for granted that his rights are
supreme and confidently imposes them on other people.”
o (Beck 1999,pp.138 -139)
o “...the individual perceives and treats others as weaker
beings who should not dare to interfere and who can be
manipulated or controlled through violence. Aggression,
then, is part of his basic approach to life. ”
o Gibbs, (2014)

11. Further indicators of anti-social ‘nature’
o “In the vulnerable version of the self- centred ego, the individual views the
world mainly as a place where people do not adequately respect (and may
actively seek to humiliate) him; he becomes violence-prone when he
perceives (or misperceives) a threat or insult.”
o (Beck 1999,pp.138 -139)
o “.....evidence inflated self-esteem (Baumeister, 1997) or narcissism
(e.g.,Thomaes, Stegge, Olthof, Bushman, & Neziek, 2011)....feels that nobody
recognises his rights and reacts with anger and sometimes violence when
others reject him or do not show him respect”
o Beck 1999, pp.138 – 139)
o “Susan Harter (2012) noted that, in contrast to high esteem that is healthy
(reality based, authentic and relatively secure), the inflated self esteem
associated with aggression tends to be unrealistic, fragile and defensive.”
o (cf. Thomaes, Brummelman, Reij. & Bushman,2-13)
o “In a study of young adolescents, those high in narcissism were especially
likely to react to shame or ridicule with ‘humiliated’ fury.”
o (Thomaes et al, 2011, p.786)

12. Yet more indicators of anti-social ‘nature’
o “..anti-social behaviour stems in part from moral perception
based on developmentally delayed morality.….immature
morality is composed of pronounced egocentric bias, or, more
broadly, superficial social and moral cognition.”
o Gibbs, 2014, p.153).
o “In these respects, the violent adolescents’ narratives differ
from those of nonviolent adolescents and were comparable to
the superficial discourse characteristic of young children.”
o (Wainryb, Komolova & Florsheim, 2001; Krettenauer, Malt & Sokol, 2008)

13. o“Their energy tends to go into asserting their needs and desires and
making the world accommodate them. They have a supersensitive
Unfairness Detector when it comes to finding all the ways that people
can be unfair to them. But they have a big blind spot when it comes to
seeing all the ways they aren’t fair to others and all the ways parents
and others do things for them.”
oLickona, (1983, p.149)
o“....His only defense (sic) seemed to be, “Well, I wanted a lighter”.
When further challenged, “Yes, you wanted a lighter but how about
going to such lengths as to steal it from someone?” he grew quite
irritated. “How the hell do you expect me to get one if I don’t swipe it?
Do I have enough money to buy one?” ...The act...was quite justifiable
to him.... “I want it, there is no other way, so I swipe it.”
oRedl and Wiseman (1957, pp. 154-155)

14. o “To continue his Self-Centred attitude and anti-social
behaviour….typically develops protective rationalisation, or
secondary cognitive distortions, These …. protect the offender
against certain types of psychological stress that tend to be
generated by his (or her) harm to others.”
o (Gibbs, 2014, p.159)
o Nonetheless, secondary distortions can function as a
perversely effective coping mechanism. Through their use, the
anti-social individual can reduce the stresses of empathy and
inconsistency (as well as other stresses, such as humiliation)
and preserve his primary Self-Centred orientation as well as
self esteem. Higher self-esteem children with anti-social
tendencies are more likely to use self-serving cognitive
distortions ( minimising the harm of their aggression or
blaming their victims).
o (Menon, Tobin, Corby, Menon Hodges & Perry, 2007)

15. oExamples of Self Centred Cognitive Distortions, (Gibbs 2014, ps.161-174)
Do they frequently blame others for their
failure...
o “...displacing responsibility for their problems onto
some other person or circumstance. When we ask a
youth why he got into trouble he will say his parents
were messed up, or he had the wrong friends, or the
police were out to get him, or the teachers hated
him, or his luck turned bad. Projecting, denying,
rationalising and avoiding, he becomes an expert at
escaping responsibility.”
o Vorrath and Brendtro (1985, p.37)
© David Rowse 2014. All Rights Reserved

16. oDo they display a pronounced immature
egocentric bias which is consistently self
serving.....
o “....The secondary distortions, including Blaming Others, were also thematic. In
high school, McVeigh insisted that his flagging interest in academics was “the
teachers’ fault”. His list of blameworthy agents included “crooked politicians,
overzealous governmental agents, high taxes, political correctness, gun laws.”
He even blamed “American Women” for “sexually shortchanging the opposite
sex”.
o (Michel & Herbeck, 2001, p.32)
o and
o “Their energy tends to go into asserting their needs and desires and making the
world accommodate them. They have a supersensitive Unfairness Detector
when it comes to finding all the ways that people can be unfair to them. But they
have a big blind spot when it comes to seeing all the ways they aren’t fair to
others and all the ways parents and others do things for them.”
o (Lickona, 1983, p.149)
© David Rowse 2014. All Rights Reserved

17. But why don’t they share the same
values as the school?
o Alternative ‘In Group’ Solidarity
o “...it also “binds and builds” (Haidt & Kesebir, 2010, p.798) the ‘we’ into (alternative) group
solidarity. Egoistic or selfish tendencies are biologically based, but so are counteracting
institutions such as loyalty to one’s (alternative) in-group. As the (alternative) culture
cultivates the rudimentary institutions, the child internalises the group ‘custom complex’ or
‘dense webs of shared meaning’ (Graham & Haidt, 2012, p.13). The self begins to be
crafted in accordance with a .... framework [of] (alternative) cultural roles, institutions and
values (Harter, 2012, p.50). Indeed, the growing child comes to identify with and derive self-esteem
as well as a sense of personal security from his or her (alternative) group (Brewer,
2007; Taiajfel & Turner 1979). (Haidt, 2001).”
o (Gibbs, 2014, p.18)
• “(Distorted) Morality, then, serves to bind the individual to his or her social group, culture
or (alternative)“moral system”. Such systems are (alternative) sets of values, virtues,
norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies and evolved psychological
mechanisms....and make coordinated (alternative) social life possible”
• (Graham & Haidt, 2012, p.14).
o Parentheses inserted by DWR
© David Rowse 2014. All Rights Reserved

18. Leading to…..
Problematic Tendencies shown by Antisocial Youth
Inadequate
Social
Competences/
Skills
Delayed
Moral
Maturity
Self
Serving
Cognitive
Distortions
o Negative Values
o Deviant Attitudes
o Anti-social Behaviour
Developed from Gibbs, 2004
© David Rowse 2014, All Rights Reserved