Reflectivity and learning from aversive events: Toward a psychological mechanism for the syndromes of disinhibition.

Abstract

Gorenstein and Newman (1980) proposed that poorly modulated responding for reward is the common diathesis underlying disinhibited behavior in several traditionally distinct person categories: psychopathy, hysteria, early onset alcoholism, childhood hyperactivity, and nonpathological impulsivity (e.g., extraversion). The authors extend this proposal by theorizing a psychological mechanism that highlights relations among disinhibition, reflection, and failures to learn from aversive feedback. The hypothesized mechanism is presented as 4 generic stages of response modulation: the dominant response set, the reaction to an aversive event, the subsequent behavioral adaptation, and the immediate and long-term consequences of reflection, or the lack thereof. The mechanism has implications for disinhibited individuals' impulsivity and provides a point of departure to study factors responsible for similarities and differences among these syndromes.

Cites (9)

1. Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control Processes
   Atkinson, R.C., Shiffrin, R.M. · 1968 · Psychology of Learning and Motivation
2. Mood and memory
   Bower, Gordon H. · 1981 · American Psychologist
3. The effect of emotion on cue utilization and the organization of behavior
   Easterbrook, J. A. · 1959 · Psychological Review
4. On the ability to inhibit thought and action: a theory of an act of control
   Logan, Gordon D., Cowan, William B. · 1984 · Psychological Review
5. Unpredictable and uncontrollable events: A new perspective on experimental neurosis.
   Mineka, Susan, Kihlstrom, John F. · 1978 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
6. Controllability and predictability in acquired motivation
   Mineka, S, Hendersen, R W · 1985 · Annual Review of Psychology
7. Inherited predisposition to alcoholism: characteristics of sons of male alcoholics
   Pihl, Robert O., Peterson, Jordan, Finn, Peter R. · 1990 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
8. Probability of punishment and suppression of behavior in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders
   Siegel, Richard A. · 1978 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
9. The relation between childhood attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and adult antisocial behavior reexamined: The problem of heterogeneity
   Lilienfeld, Scout O., Waldman, Irwin D. · 1990 · Clinical Psychology Review

Show all 9 references

Cited by (53)

1. Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales
   Carver, Charles S., White, Teri L. · 1994 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2. Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health
   Kashdan, Todd B., Rottenberg, Jonathan · 2010 · Clinical Psychology Review
3. Emotion, regulation, and moral development
   Eisenberg, Nancy · 2000 · Annual Review of Psychology
4. Biological sensitivity to context: I. An evolutionary-developmental theory of the origins and functions of stress reactivity
   BOYCE, W. THOMAS, ELLIS, BRUCE J. · 2005 · Development and Psychopathology
5. The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ) as a measure of Gray's anxiety and impulsivity dimensions
   Torrubia, Rafael, Ávila, César, Moltó, Javier, Caseras, Xavier · 2001 · Personality and Individual Differences

See all 656