Attentional bias to negative emotion as a function of approach and withdrawal anger styles: an ERP investigation.
Open accessAbstract
Although models of emotion have focused on the relationship between anger and approach motivation associated with aggression, anger is also related to withdrawal motivation. Anger-out and anger-in styles are associated with psychopathology and may disrupt the control of attention within the context of negatively valenced information. The present study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine whether anger styles uniquely predict attentional bias to negative stimuli during an emotion-word Stroop task. High anger-out predicted larger N200, P300, and N400 to negative words, suggesting that aggressive individuals exert more effort to override attention to negative information. In contrast, high anger-in predicted smaller N400 amplitude to negative words, indicating that negative information may be readily available (primed) for anger suppressors, requiring fewer resources. Individuals with an anger-out style might benefit from being directed away from provocative stimuli that might otherwise consume their attention and foster overt aggression. Findings indicating that anger-out and anger-in were associated with divergent patterns of brain activity provide support for distinguishing approach- and withdrawal-related anger styles.
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A block design could induce a specific emotion in a relatively short time.
“Thus, we used a block design which could induce a specific emotion in a relatively short time (Stewart et al., 2010).”
From Repetitive Religious Chanting Modulates the Late-Stage Brain Response to Fear- and Stress-Provoking Pictures (2017) · cites this paper as Stewart et al., 2010
The Method (Stimuli and Experimental Design; page unavailable) describes short blocks of positive or negative emotion words and says blocked presentation is more effective than intermixed presentation at eliciting emotion-word Stroop interference. It does not show that the blocks induced a specific emotion in participants; Stroop interference is a different outcome. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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Gao, J., Fan, J., Wu, B. W., Halkias, G. T., Chau, M., Fung, P. C., Chang, C., Zhang, Z., Hung, Y.-S., & Sik, H. (2017) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02055 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
- Authors
- Stewart, J. L., Silton, R. L., Sass, S. M., Fisher, J. E., Edgar, J. C., Heller, W., & Miller, G. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- Seattle Children's Hospital (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stewart, Jennifer L.
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Psychophysiology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-04
- Volume
- 76
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-18
- ISSN
- 0167-8760 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2867457
- OpenAlex
- W2049459753
- Cited by
- 78
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 2.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- International Journal of Psychophysiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH-61358, P50MH079485, T32MH019554, T32 MH-19554, R01MH061358)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21DA014111, R21 DA 14111)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- attentional bias, negative emotions, anger-out, anger-in, approach motivation, N400, P300, N2 component, emotion regulation, aggression
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Affect, Anger, Attention, Brain, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Female, Humans, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Photic Stimulation, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reaction Time, Visual Perception, Vocabulary, Bias, Expressed Emotion, Young Adult
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