Developing a Cognitive Control Theory of Emotion Regulation Through the Lens of Hostility, Anger, and Aggression

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。对轻微挑衅的强烈情绪反应可能有害于个人及其周围人的心理和身体健康。心理学文献表明，这种强烈的反应并不是所有人的特征，人们在被激怒时感受到的愤怒程度有很大的不同。然而，为什么个体对挑衅的反应不同还没有得到充分的研究。该项目提出，一些人对轻微的挑衅反应强烈，因为他们在这种情况下失去了控制自己注意力、思想和行为的能力。这种能力的丧失，反过来又使这些人容易做出冲动和短视的行为，比如试图伤害不应该受到指责的人。实验方法将用于检查这种类型的反应性效应的机制。出现令人反感的噪音或观看先前显示会引起中等程度愤怒的电影片段（相对于中性、非挑衅条件），会诱发挑衅。随后，控制注意力、思想和行为的能力将通过充分验证的认知任务进行评估。据推测，通常倾向于愤怒反应的个体在受到挑衅后会表现出控制注意力、思想和行为的缺陷。此外，这种类型的缺陷应该预示着在实验室、日常生活中的攻击性行为，以及在应激诱导下的较高血压水平。总的来说，该项目试图确定一些人在受到激怒时如何以及为什么会失去心理自控能力。在某种程度上，这项工作的重要性来自于愤怒在暴力犯罪中所起的作用，它对社会关系（包括婚姻和父母关系）造成的伤害，以及它的其他影响（例如，心血管疾病的风险）。鉴于对这些有害影响背后机制的强调，研究结果应该在发展科学合理的愤怒管理努力方面具有相当大的效用，这些努力直接针对这些个体在被激怒时失去自我控制的途径。例如，在某种程度上，这些高度反应的个体在挑衅后控制注意力方面表现出特殊的缺陷，寻求改善注意力控制的干预措施应该在促进有效的愤怒控制方面是有效的。此外，虽然该项目侧重于控制愤怒的困难，但这项工作对其他与自我控制问题相关的问题也有启示，这些问题会导致个人和社会功能的中断。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Strong emotional reactions to minor provocations can be detrimental to the psychological and physical health of individuals and those around them. The psychology literature has shown that such strong reactions are not characteristic of all individuals and that people differ substantially in the extent to which they experience anger when provoked. Yet, why individuals differ in reactivity to provocation has been insufficiently studied. The project proposes that some individuals react strongly to minor provocations because they lose their ability to control their attention, thoughts, and behaviors under such circumstances. The loss of such abilities, in turn, renders these individuals vulnerable to impulsive and short-sighted actions such as attempting to harm someone who is not blameworthy. An experimental approach will be used to examine the mechanisms underlying reactivity effects of this type. Provocation will be induced by the presentation of aversive noise or exposure to film clips previously shown to arouse moderate levels of anger (versus neutral, non-provocation conditions). Subsequently, abilities to control attention, thoughts, and behaviors will be assessed using well-validated cognitive tasks. It is hypothesized that individuals generally predisposed to react with anger will exhibit deficits in controlling attention, thoughts, and behaviors following provocation. Further, deficits of this type should predict aggressive behavior in the laboratory, daily life, and also higher levels of blood pressure in response to stressful inductions. Overall, the project seeks to determine exactly how and why some individuals appear to lose their psychological self-control when provoked. In part, the significance of this work comes from the role that anger plays in violent crimes, the harm it creates in social relationships (including marital and parental ones), and its other effects (e.g., risk for cardiovascular disease). Given the emphasis on the mechanisms behind these detrimental effects, the results should be of considerable utility in developing scientifically sound anger-management efforts that directly target the pathways by which these individuals lose their self-control when provoked. For example, to the extent that these highly reactive individuals exhibit particular deficits in controlling attention following provocation, interventions seeking to improve the control of attention should be efficacious in promoting effective anger-control. Moreover, while the project focuses on difficulties in controlling anger, this work has implications for other problems that are related to issues of self-control and lead to disruptions of personal and social functioning.