Do attachment patterns predict aggression in a context of social rejection? An executive functioning account. Issue 4 (7th February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Yuanxiao; Ma, Haijing; Chen, Xu; Ran, Guangming; Zhang, Xing
• Is Part Of: Aggressive behavior. Volume 43:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 408
• Page End: 418
• Publication Date: 2017-02-07
• Subjects: attachment pattern -- executive functioning -- GAM -- provoked aggression -- social rejection -- unprovoked aggression; Aggressiveness -- Periodicals; Violence -- Periodicals; Psychology, Experimental -- Periodicals; Agressivité -- Périodiques; Agressivité chez les animaux -- Periodiques; 152.232
• DOI: 10.1002/ab.21700
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0096-140X

Abstract

Abstract : People tend to respond to rejection and attack with aggression. The present research examined the modulation role of attachment patterns on provoked aggression following punishment and proposed an executive functioning account of attachment patterns' modulating influence based on the General Aggression Model. Attachment style was measured using the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory. Experiments 1a and b and 2 adopted a social rejection task and assessed subsequent unprovoked and provoked aggression with different attachment patterns. Moreover, Experiment 1b and 2 used a Stroop task to examine whether differences in provoked aggression by attachment patterns are due to the amount of executive functioning following social rejection, or after unprovoked punishment, or even before social rejection. Anxiously attached participants displayed significant more provoked aggression than securely and avoidantly attached participants in provoked aggression following unprovoked punishment in Experiments 1 and 2. Meanwhile, subsequent Stroop tests indicated anxiously attached participants experienced more executive functioning depletion after social rejection and unprovoked aggression. The present findings support the General Aggression Model and suggest that provoked aggression is predicted by attachment patterns in the context of social rejection; different provoked aggression may depend on the degree of executive functioning that individuals preserved in aggressive situations. The current study contributes to our understanding of the importance of the role of attachment patterns in modulating aggressive behavior accompanying unfair social encounters.