Reappraising the Situation and Its Impact on Aggressive Behavior (original) (raw)
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Don't Apologize Unless You Mean It: A Laboratory Investigation of Forgiveness and Retaliation
Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2004
We experimentally investigated the effects of arousal, offense removal ("making amends"), and apology following a scripted laboratory offense involving undeserved failure feedback. Self-report and behavioral measures of forgiveness and retaliation were influenced differentially by the manipulations. Retaliation was influenced only by the presence of an apology. Consistent with some previous findings, experimenters who committed the offense and apologized were evaluated more negatively than when they did not apologize. The relationship between apology and retaliation was mediated by participants' blame directed at the experimenter. Forgiveness was more complex, and varied depending on arousal, offense removal, and apology. In the high arousal condition, forgiveness was least likely following an "insincere apology" in which the offender did not make amends for the wrong when apologizing. These results are interpreted in terms of a two-stage model of forgiveness in which different variables influence revenge and forgiveness. Although forgiveness has long been conceptualized within the frameworks of theology (Rye et al., 2000) and philosophy (Enright, Gassin, &
The Effects of Analytical Rumination, Reappraisal, and Distraction on Anger Experience
2012
The manner in which individuals recall negative life events has important affective consequences. The present experiment investigated the effects of emotion regulation strategies on anger experience. One hundred and twenty-one undergraduates recalled an anger-inducing memory and were instructed to engage in either analytical rumination, cognitive reappraisal, or distraction for 20 minutes. In the remaining (control) condition, participants were instructed to write about their thoughts but were not given any emotion regulation instructions. Rumination maintained anger, whereas participants in the remaining conditions reported decreased anger following the writing task. Our results suggest that reappraisal facilitates adaptive processing of anger-inducing memories and distraction facilitates rapid reductions in anger experience. These findings have implications for the management of clinical populations that commonly experience difficulty with anger regulation.
2010
Given the many negative consequences of unrestrained anger, understanding successful anger regulation is of critical importance. The present study investigated the effects of two common emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, on self-reported anger and blood pressure. Fifty undergraduate women were insulted by a fictitious participant. Those high in trait reappraisal showed attenuated anger and blood pressure in response to the provocation. These relationships persisted even when controlling for negative emotionality. The results suggest that changing the habitual way in which individuals respond to anger-inducing events could be an important component of anger regulation interventions.
Past research suggests that aggressive individuals are more likely to interpret others' motives and intentions in ambiguous situations as hostile. In addition, there is preliminary evidence that attribution training programs, in which children are trained to endorse benign rather than hostile attributions in response to ambiguous social scenarios, are effective for reducing aggression-related cognitive biases. The present study was designed to replicate and extend the findings reported by Vassilopoulos, Brouzos, and Andreou (2015) by investigating whether a novel attribution training program can reduce hostile attributions and reactive aggression in a sample of primary school children. A sample of children aged 10 to 12 years was trained over three sessions to endorse benign rather than hostile attributions in response to ambiguous social scenarios. This group (n = 84) was subsequently less likely to endorse hostile attributions in response to a new set of ambiguous social situations in a pretest-posttest with control group (n = 45) design. Crucially, self-reported proactive and reactive aggressive behavior was reduced more in the trained group than in the untrained controls, and this effect was greater for reactive aggression. Children who received attribution training also reported less perceived anger than those in the control group. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Frontiers in Psychology
Control of negative emotions (e.g., anger and fear) by political cues perpetuate intractable conflict by mobilizing public support for aggressive actions. Halperin et al. (2013) found that reappraisal-an adaptive form of emotion regulation-decreased negative emotions triggered by anger-inducing information related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and increased support for conciliatory statements. We tested these effects in the context of the conflict between the Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP). Reappraisal training reduced negative emotions produced by a presentation that illustrated FARC's violent actions, and increased support for conciliatory statements (with overall moderate effect magnitudes). We also found that negative emotions mediated the effects of reappraisal on the support for aggressive and conciliatory statements. These findings indicate a high degree of generality of the phenomena, especially considering the differences between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Colombian conflict. Our findings also show promise for replicating these effects on other types of intergroup conflicts and guiding effective public policy.
Downregulation of Anger by Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII)
Frontiers in Psychology
As anger can lead to aggressive behavior aiming at intentionally hurting somebody, the prevention of its destructive consequences with effective emotion regulation strategies is crucial. Two studies tested the idea that mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) interventions would be effective in down-regulating anger. In Study 1, participants who adopted the self-regulation strategy of MCII showed significantly less anger-related negative affect after the anger induction than participants in a control condition, with positive affect staying unaffected. Results from a second study with a control condition plus three self-regulation conditions-a reappraisal, a MCII, and a reappraisal + MCII condition-suggest that participants using MCII were effective in down-regulating anger, irrespective of whether it was supplemented by reappraisal or not. The present research contributes to emotion regulation research by introducing MCII as an effective strategy that can be tailored to satisfy individual emotion regulation demands, such as dealing with experienced anger.
Hate, Revenge and Forgiveness: A Healthy, Ego-Strengthening Alternative to the Experience of Offense
Forgiveness is a choice, a process and an internal response that involves release of negative affect including anger which, when chronic, can develop into hatred. It is not forgetting or condoning, and it does not necessarily lead to reconciliation though that is potentiated. The process of forgiveness includes 1) re-constructuring cognitions about the offender and self and 2) reimaging the offender and re-experiencing self and violator. This object transformation results in ego development since objects and object constellations are the building blocks of ego identity . The ego is empowered to more effectively deal with conflict and associated negative affect due to abatement of anger and decreased internal arousal. This increases the ego's ability for effective communication and conflict resolution.
The Role of Negative Affects and Emotion Dysregulation in Aggression
2018
Objective: Emotion dysregulation, negative affects, and aggression can affect each other. This study aimed to demonstrate the role of the negative effects and emotion dysregulation in aggressio. Methods: The statistical population was Kharazmi University students that 280 of them were selected by random multiphasic sampling method. The study instruments were Buss-Perry aggression questionnaire, the short form of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire and positive affect and negative affect scale. The Pearson correlation, Student t test, and hierarchical regression tests were used to analyse the data. Results: Gender, negative affect and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (rumination, catastrophizing, and others blaming) were correlated with aggression. After controlling for gender and negative affect, maladaptive emotion regulation explained only 0.029% of the aggression variance and in this case and negative affect could explain 11.4% of its variance. Furthermore, by controlling for gender and negative affect, others blaming and catastrophizing strategies could explain 0.077% of the aggression variance. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the more important role of negative affect in predicting aggression. It seems that efficient methods to improve mood state can be helpful in aggression reduction.