The Role of Positive Affect in Aggression Chester, David S.
Current directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society,
08/2017, Letnik:
26, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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Aggressive behavior hurts us all and is studied across psychology’s subdisciplines. Classical theories discuss the causes of aggression in the context of negative affect (e. g., frustration, pain). ...However, more recent research implicates positive affect as an important correlate and cause of aggression. Such aggressive pleasure likely evolved from ancient predatory tendencies that later yielded reproductive benefits, holds across reactive and proactive forms of aggression, and is used strategically as an item in many people’s emotion-regulation toolkit. Findings from psychological and neural sciences have converged to detail aggression’s hedonically pleasant qualities and the motivational and biological mechanisms through which they occur. This new approach generates novel hypotheses and might lead to effective interventions that mollify mankind’s aggressive tendencies.
Research suggests that both performing prosocial behaviors (i.e. acts of kindness towards others) and simply recalling them can increase well-being. Do performing and recalling prosocial behaviors ...impact well-being equally? To investigate this question, we conducted a study with a 2 × 2 design in which participants were randomly assigned either to perform prosocial behaviors, recall prosocial behaviors, both perform and recall prosocial behaviors, or do neither (control). Participants in all conditions assigned to perform and/or recall prosocial behaviors increased in well-being more than those in the control condition. However, participants in the three prosocial conditions did not significantly differ in their well-being gains. Presumably, it is much easier to recall, rather than perform, prosocial behavior. Accordingly, our results suggest that happiness seekers and well-being interventionists consider recalling acts of kindness as a cost-effective practice to raise well-being.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been linked to sleep disturbances. Limited work has explored how positive affect processes may account for this relationship. Advancing research in ...this area, we utilized a multi-study design to investigate the role of positive affect processes (levels of positive affect, positive emotionality, hedonic deficits, negative affect interference) in the PTSD-sleep association.
Data from 149 trauma-exposed firefighters (Mage = 38.93 ± 9.65, 5.40 % women) were collected between September 2021 and November 2021, and data from 119 trauma-exposed community members (Mage = 29.60 ± 8.67, 68.10 % women) were collected between February 2021 and December 2021. Participants completed an online survey on PTSD symptoms, sleep disturbances, and positive affect processes.
Positive affect levels (b = 0.03, 95 % confidence interval CI 0.01, 0.06; firefighter sample), positive emotionality (b = 0.07, CI 0.03, 0.13; community sample), and negative affect interference (b = 0.06, CI 0.01, 0.14; community sample) significantly accounted for the associations between PTSD symptom severity and sleep disturbances controlling for the effects of gender and age.
Findings highlight the role of positive affect processes in the link between PTSD and sleep, and support addressing positive affect processes as potential targets in clinical interventions for co-occurring PTSD-sleep problems.
•We examined the role of positive affect processes in PTSD-sleep associations.•Samples included 149 firefighters and 119 community members.•Positive affect levels/emotionality accounted for PTSD-sleep associations.•Negative affect interference accounted for PTSD-sleep associations.
Over twenty years of research have examined the cognitive consequences of positive affect states, and suggested that positive affect leads to a broadening of cognition (see review by Fredrickson, ...2001). However, this research has primarily examined positive affect that is low in approach motivational intensity (e.g., contentment). More recently, we have systematically examined positive affect that varies in approach motivational intensity, and found that positive affect high in approach motivation (e.g., desire) narrows cognition, whereas positive affect low in approach motivation broadens cognition (e.g., Gable & Harmon-Jones,
2008a
; Harmon-Jones & Gable, 2009). In this article we will review past models and present a motivational dimension model of affect that expands understanding of how affective states influence attentional and cognitive breadth. We then review research that has varied the motivational intensity of positive and negative affect and found that affect of low motivational intensity broadens cognitive processes, whereas affect of high motivational intensity narrows cognitive processes.
Expatriates’ life satisfaction is related to the success of international assignments and has long been the focus of expatriate research. However, our understanding of why and when positive work ...experiences (e.g., daily meaningful work) influence expatriates’ life satisfaction is limited. Grounded in affective event theory, we proposed that expatriates’ daily meaningful work, as salient work-related affective events, trigger positive affect, which in turn improves their life satisfaction. Furthermore, we suggest that calling—the persistent way in which expatriates view their work—moderates the effect of meaningful work on positive affect. A daily within-person examination of 71 Chinese working expatriates stationed in foreign countries who completed surveys for 14 consecutive days (within-person N = 815) revealed that expatriates’ experiences of daily meaningful work were positively associated with life satisfaction through positive affect. These effects were stronger for expatriates with a weak (vs. strong) calling. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.
People differ in their self-reported propensities to experience positive affect (PA). Even those prone to internalizing symptoms show varied proclivities to PA; social anxiety (SA), for instance, ...unlike other types of anxiety, shows a strong negative association with PA that cannot be explained by diminished reward sensitivity. Heightened reliance on suppression of emotional displays (expressive suppression; ES) may be an alternate contributor to attenuated PA among people with elevated SA, relative to people with other types of anxiety. A first step toward testing this hypothesis is clarifying the ES-PA association and examining whether it varies as a function of anxiety type (social anxiety vs. other types of anxiety).
This meta-analysis (k = 41; n = 11,010) revealed a significant, negative association between ES and PA (r = −0.158); however, this relationship was not significant for individuals with social or other anxiety disorders. Moreover, two moderators (sample culture—Western: r = −0.16; Eastern: r = 0.003; type of emotion suppressed—Negative: r = 0.18; Positive: r = −0.12) accounted for significant heterogeneity in effect sizes. This review synthesizes the literature on ES and PA in healthy and anxious samples; findings suggest moderating variables merit closer attention in future studies.
•Higher expressive suppression is associated with lower positive affect.•Expressive suppression is not associated with positive affect among anxious people.•Culture moderates the link between expressive suppression and positive affect.•The type of emotional expression being suppressed plays an important role.
Distress tolerance has emerged as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology but has received little theoretical attention in the depression literature. Evidence strongly suggests that ...individuals who have trouble tolerating distress display greater symptoms of depression, however. The lack of overlap between literatures is an important oversight, as the depression literature provides unique perspectives that have yet to be addressed in the distress tolerance literature. The current review thus (1) integrates findings from different literatures on distress tolerance and symptoms of depression, (2) discusses how this synthesis can inform clinical science and burgeoning distress tolerance treatments, (3) outlines important gaps in the distress tolerance and depression literatures, and (4) describes how they may be addressed by incorporating recent theoretical advances.
Affective functioning is central to most contemporary models of alcohol use. However, the affective structure at the within- and between-person levels is rarely investigated nor is the differential ...predictive value of specific affect dimensions assessed across state and trait formats. We examined a) the structure of state and trait affect using experience sampling methodology (ESM) and b) predictive associations between the empirically derived affect facets and alcohol use. Participants were 92 heavy drinking college students aged 18–25 who completed 8 momentary assessments of their affect and drinking a day for 28-days. We found evidence for a single positive affect factor at both the within- (i.e., state) and between-person (i.e., trait) levels. We found a hierarchical factor structure for negative affect, represented by a general, superordinate dimension as well as facet-level sadness, anxiety, and anger dimensions. Associations between affect and alcohol use differed across trait and state levels and across specific types of negative affect. Lagged state positive affect and sadness as well as trait positive affect and sadness were inversely associated with drinking. Lagged state anxiety and trait general negative affect were positively associated with drinking. Thus, our study demonstrates how associations between drinking and affect can be studied in relation to general (e.g., general negative affect) and more specific aspects of affective experiences (e.g., sadness versus anxiety) concurrently within the same study and across trait and state levels of assessment.
•Positive affect exhibited a unidimensional factor structure within- and between-persons.•Negative affect exhibited a nuanced factor structure within- and between-persons.•Lagged state and trait positive affect were inversely associated with drinking.•Lagged state anger and anxiety were positively associated with drinking.•Drinking events were characterized by increased positive affect, sadness, and anger.
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