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Does the Situational Action Theory explain rule-breaking and dissocial behaviour committed together with friends?

Sara-Marie Schön, University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg; Monika Daseking, University of the Federal Armed Forces, Hamburg

The Situational Action Theory (SAT; e.g., Wikström, 2019) states that amoral behaviour, like crime or aggression, is the result of a situation-dependent perception-choice process. The perception-choice process is based on the interaction between the individual propensity to show amoral behaviour (based on morality & self-control) and environmental/situational characteristics that hinder or foster (e.g., unstructured socializing) amoral behaviour. Research on assumptions of the SAT shows, inter alia, that moral standards and moral emotions moderate the effect of self-control as well as situational characteristics on amoral behaviour (for an overview see Pauwels, Svensson, & Hirtenlehner, 2018). It is the main aim of the present study to examine, for the first time, whether the moderation effects of moral emotions are also evident for rule-breaking and dissocial behaviour committed together with friends. In addition, it is tested if effects of moral emotions vary depending on how they are measured (cross-situational: guilt-proneness & situation-specific: anticipated emotions in moral conflicts (AEMC)). A total of N 87 adolescents (60.90% female; MAge 14.11 years; SD 1.88; Min 12 to Max 21 years) filled out a self-report questionnaire battery. Independent of the operationalization, no moderation effect of moral emotions was found for neither (a) the association between self-control and rule-breaking-dissocial behaviour with friends nor (b) the association between unstructured socializing and rule-breaking-dissocial behaviour with friends. Analyses of the main effects indicate that AEMC, but not guilt-proneness, self-control and unstructured socializing (independently) contribute to the explanation of rule-breaking-dissocial behaviour with friends. Theoretical and methodological explanations for the results as well as their scientific and practical relevance are discussed.

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