Measuring Avoidance-Related Trait Anger: American and Polish Versions of the Avoidance Motivated Response to Anger Scale (AMRAS)

Anger is often associated with approach motivation, and most self-report scales measuring trait anger tap this approach orientation. However, some research has suggested that individuals occasionally experience anger and respond with avoidance motivation. This suggests that individuals may differ in chronic tendencies toward responding to anger with avoidance. The current research introduces a new self-report instrument, the Avoidance Motivated Response to Anger Scale, designed to assess this trait. We report findings of four studies conducted with American and Polish individuals. The studies provide evidence of the scale’s internal consistency, test–retest reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity

Further examinations of attitudes toward discrete emotions, with a focus on attitudes toward anger

The present research aimed to better understand individual differences in attitudes towards emotions with a focus on anger. We report findings of four studies conducted with American and Polish individuals. Results showed that individuals who have more positive attitudes toward anger are higher in trait anger (Studies 1–4), are more likely to think about getting revenge (Study 1), and expect that getting revenge will make them feel good (Studies 1–2). In addition, these individuals are lower in agreeableness and lower in the tendency to engage in avoidance when angered (Studies 1–4). They score lower in humility (Studies 3–4), lower in secure romantic attachment but higher in anxious and avoidance attachment (Study 3). Finally, they are more likely to believe a wide range of conspiracies (Studies 2–4). Discussion focuses on the implications of these results

Aggressive Motivation: An Introduction and Overview

This article introduces a special issue on Aggressive Motivation. After briefly considering some important concepts and definitions in the psychological study of aggression and aggressive motivation, this article provides short summaries of the 8 contributions to this special issue. These articles focus on contemporary theory and research, and they come from a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches in biological, developmental, social, personality, and clinical psycholog

Protocol for project MIME: Motivation, inflammation, and Mood in Emerging Adults

Background: Atypical inflammatory biology is gaining evidence as a risk factor for mood psychopathology; however, little work has attempted to integrate inflammation into extant psychosocial frameworks of risk. Recent work using secondary data analysis has investigated the possibility of an immunocognitive model of mood disorders, in which cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., rumination on positive or negative affect) increase the effect that arousal-related characteristics (e.g., reward sensitivity) have on inflammatory biology in ways that may confer risk for depression and hypo/mania symptoms. Project MIME (Motivation, Inflammation, and Mood in Emerging Adults) was designed to test this model in the context of a novel, reward-salient stressor (the Anger Incentive Delay Task, AIDT). Methods: This NIMH-funded study will result in a dataset of approximately 100 college undergraduates from a large university in Pennsylvania, United States of America. Eligible participants are recruited from an online screener, have to be 18–22 years old, fluent in English, and successfully answer several items designed to test whether participants randomly answer questions on the screener. Eligible participants are invited to an in-person visit in which they completed the AIDT, blood draws pre- and 50 minutes post-AIDT, and self-report questionnaires. Participants also complete a set of online questionnaires two weeks after the in-person visit. Discussion: Consistent with calls from the NIH director, this study seeks to diversify the tools used in stress research by validating a novel reward-salient stressor (in contrast to the field's reliance on social stressors) with respect to affective and immunological stress reactivity. In addition to this methodological goal, Project MIME is the first study specifically designed to test the immunocognitive model of mood psychopathology. Given the integration of several malleable treatment targets (approach behavior, emotion regulation, inflammation) into this model, results from this study could inform comprehensive, flexible intervention strategies for mood disorder prevention and treatment

Motivation and Motor Control: Hemispheric Specialization for Approach Motivation Reverses with Handedness

(SSH), according to which the hemispheric laterality of affective motivation depends on the laterality of motor control for the dominant hand (i.e., the “sword hand," used preferentially to perform approach actions) and the nondominant hand (i.e., the “shield hand," used preferentially to perform avoidance actions).To determine whether the laterality of approach motivation varies with handedness, we measured alpha-band power (an inverse index of neural activity) in right- and left-handers during resting-state electroencephalography and analyzed hemispheric alpha-power asymmetries as a function of the participants' trait approach motivational tendencies. Stronger approach motivation was associated with more left-hemisphere activity in right-handers, but with more right-hemisphere activity in left-handers.The hemispheric correlates of approach motivation reversed between right- and left-handers, consistent with the way they typically use their dominant and nondominant hands to perform approach and avoidance actions. In both right- and left-handers, approach motivation was lateralized to the same hemisphere that controls the dominant hand. This covariation between neural systems for action and emotion provides initial support for the SSH

Interpersonal emotion regulation in team sport: mechanisms and reasons to regulate teammates' emotions examined

The interpersonal dimension of emotion regulation in the field of sport has lately received a burgeoning interest. Nevertheless, how and why athletes regulate their teammates' emotions in competitive setting remains unclear. Across two studies within a team sport context, we uncovered athletes' mechanisms for, and reasons to regulate teammates' emotions during competition. In Study 1, we investigated how rugby (N = 22 males) players' emotions were self- and interpersonally regulated during games. Findings revealed the emergence of a continuum of self-involvement in the regulatory processes, wherein two forms of emotion regulation co-existed: self-regulation (total self-involvement) and interpersonal regulation, which included co-regulation (partial self-involvement; regulation with others) and extrinsic regulation (no self-involvement; regulation by/of others). In Study 2, we examined the motives that lead rugby (n = 30 males) players to use interpersonal extrinsic regulation strategies during games. Interview data indicated that players regulated teammates' emotions for altruistic reasons (to help a teammate), egoistic reasons (for one's own benefits), or both. Overall, our findings further knowledge to better understand interpersonal emotion regulation within competitive team sport contexts. From an applied perspective, findings highlight the role that both individual goals and ego involvement may play in optimising efficient interpersonal regulation during competition at team level

Utilization of Actively-induced, Prompt Radiation Emission for Nonproliferation Applications

The pulsed Photonuclear Assessment (PPA) technique, which has demonstrated the ability to detect shielded nuclear material, is based on utilizing delayed neutrons and photons between accelerator pulses. While most active interrogation systems have focused on delayed neutron and gamma-ray signatures, the current requirements of various agencies necessitate bringing faster detection and acquisition capabilities to field inspection applications. This push for decreased interrogation times, increased sensitivity and mitigation of false positives requires that detection systems take advantage of all available information. Collaborative research between Idaho National Lab (INL), Idaho State University’s Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC), Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has focused on exploiting actively-induced, prompt radiation signatures from nuclear material within a pulsed photonuclear environment. To date, these prompt emissions have not been effectively exploited due to difficulties in detection and signal processing inherent in the prompt regime as well as an overall poor understanding of the magnitude and yields of these emissions. Exploitation of prompt radiation (defined as during an accelerator pulse/(photo) fission event and/or immediately after (< l ms)) has the potential to dramatically reduce interrogation times since the yields are more than two orders of magnitude greater than delayed emissions. Recent preliminary experiments conducted at the IAC suggest that it is indeed possible to extract prompt neutron information within a pulsed photon environment. Successful exploitation of prompt emissions is critical for the development of an improved robust, high-throughput, low target dose inspection system for detection of shielded nuclear materials