A comparison of two processes for the control of mentation was undertaken. I compared externally mandated thought suppression to more internally motivated mood management to clarify the mechanisms whereby insulted men regulate and repair their angry mood state. The one hundred and eight male undergraduates completed the Beck-Depression Inventory and the Vengeance Scale, then volunteered for a one-hour study about 'Education and the Job Market.' The men were assigned randomly to one of six treatment conditions of a 2 (Suppression Relevance: suppression of an anger-relevant word vs. suppression of an anger-irrelevant word) x 3 (Retaliatory Motivation: insult-retaliation vs. insult-no retaliation vs. no insult-no retaliation) factorial design; Stimulus Word Valence (affectively angry stimulus words vs. affectively neutral stimulus words) served as a within-subject variable I predicted that when insulted men not anticipating retaliation were told to suppress an anger-relevant word, they would generate word associations higher in anger-related content and respond faster than their baseline controls. Marginally supportive findings indicated that this enhanced accessibility of anger-related word associations occurred when the men gave their second response to angry stimulus word prompts, but not when responding to neutral ones. Methodological limitations and improvements are offered, and findings are discussed by comparing the thought suppression paradigm of Wegner and Erber (1992; Wegner, Erber, and Zanakos, 1993) to the mood management model of Zillmann and Bryant (1985; Taylor, 1992) / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_24729 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Contributors | Frankel, Paul Ivan (Author), O'Neal, Edgar C (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
Page generated in 0.0138 seconds