Approach Motivation, Anger & Positive Affects

Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

Several existing theories of emotion and motivation assume that positive emotion is consistently associated with approach motivation (the urge to move toward the environment) and that negative emotion is consistently associated with withdrawal motivation (the urge to move away from the environment). Recent research on the negative emotion of anger has revealed that it is associated with approach rather than withdrawal motivation, highlighting the importance of considering motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) as a separate dimension from valence (positive vs. negative). This suggests the possibility that anger, although negative, may have important associations with certain types of positive emotions, because of their underlying associations with approach motivation. The proposed research will investigate how anger and approach-oriented positive emotion influence each other, and specifically test the novel, counterintuitive hypothesis that positive emotion high in approach motivation may increase anger responses. Experiments will be conducted to examine the effect of positive emotions that differ in approach motivational intensity on anger responses. Additional experiments will examine facial/body expressions of approach-oriented positive emotions and how they relate to facial/body expressions of anger. In the proposed experiments, emotions will be evoked in the laboratory and multiple system measurements of the physiological, behavioral, and subjective features of emotion will be taken.  The research will extend the understanding of the structure and function of emotions, and provide a more detailed understanding of the interplay between emotion, cognition, and behavior. The results of the proposed research will yield a more complete understanding of how certain positive emotions may increase anger and aggression, whereas other positive emotions may decrease anger and aggression. The increased understanding gained by the proposed research will assist in what therapists, educators, and educated lay persons learn and advise or use when applying research on positive emotions to life tasks and relationships.