Hot headed

[differenceblog]

Evers et al (2005) performed an amusing experiment in which they determined anger expression by allowing subjects to give hot sauce to an imaginary rater who had given them randomly assigned positive or negative feedback on an essay. Negative ratings called the subjects "naive" and "immature." Evers et al found that men and women experienced

Comments

[puf_almighty]

Wouldja mind if I did, though?

In response to
"However, anger is a more comfortable reaction than it was in my life before testosterone. Anger used to feel like being out of control; now it feels like a more controllable response than fear."
Check this out:

Gender differences in social representations of aggression: The phenomenological experience of differences in inhibitory control?
Abstract:
Women are more likely than men to experience acts of aggression as expressive (a loss of self-control) than as instrumental (control over others).We propose that this might arise from differences in behavioural restraint. If women have better inhibitory control, aggressive behaviour should occur less frequently yet should be experienced as more emotionally ‘out of control’ because women can tolerate higher levels of anger before inhibitory control is breached. Participants (N ¼ 606) aged 13-24 completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) and Expagg. A more expressive view of aggression was associated with higher levels of STAXI anger control and higher levels of MPQ constraint. However, it was the harm avoidance component of constraint, rather than control versus impulsivity, that was the stronger predictor. While behavioural inhibition is built on an infrastructure of fear, the latter may be more important in explaining gender differences in social representations of aggression.

Just seemed pretty relevant, thought I'd share.

[differenceblog]

That is a very relevant paper, thanks! I definitely feel less fear since testosterone became part of my life (the most profound effect I've noticed was the sense of invulnerability I got when I first started taking T.) So, if Driscoll et al are correct about the harm-avoidance aspect of behavioral inhibition (e.g.: I don't want to get angry because I don't want people to get angry at me) that would really explain the shift in my attitude towards anger.

I do notice that they're specifically using a very young sample in this experiment, and I haven't been very impressed with most of the "personality questionairres", but this definitely deserves a closer read. Thank you for pointing it out.

For other people who may be interested in more information, but don't want to register to download the paper, this is Driscoll et al (2006)

[differenceblog]

psst... if you comment, it will only encourage me. ;)