The current studies assessed the role of trait anger and anger expression styles on
risk decision-making in adulthood, adolescence and childhood. In the first experiment
158 adults completed the STAXI-2 and an inventory consisting of a battery of
hypothetical everyday decision-making scenarios. Participants were also asked to
evaluate the perception of risk for each chosen option and some contextual
characteristics, that are familiarity and salience for each scenario. The study provides
evidence for a relationship between individual differences in the tendency to feel and
express anger and risky decisions and for mediation effects of familiarity and salience
appraisals. Moreover, results indicated that trait anger was predictive of risk
perception and they provide evidence for a positive relationship between risk
decision-making and risk perception.
In the second study, we examined the relationship between specific components of
anger (i.e., cognitive, affective and behavioural) and risk decision-making in
adolescents. 101 subjects completed specific tasks, measuring risk decision-making,
assessed using hypothetical choice scenarios, and anger, evaluated through the
STAXI-CA and the MSAI-R. Results showed that adolescents higher on hostility,
anger experience and destructive expression, make more risky decisions in everyday
life situations. Moreover, regression analyses indicated that destructive expression of
anger and hostility were predictive of adolescents’ risky decisions.
In the third experiment, 104 children completed three tasks: the STAXI-CA, the
MSAI-R and a task measuring risk decision-making in everyday situations. Subjects
were also asked to evaluate the degree of danger, benefit, fun and fear perceived for
each risky choice. Analyses indicated that: (a) risk decision-making was predicted by
both trait anger and outward expression of anger; (b) destructive expression o anger
was predictive of children’s risky decisions; (c) appraisal of danger fully mediated
the relation between trait anger and risk; (d) perceptions of benefit, scare and fun
partially mediated the relationship between trait anger and risk; and (e) appraisal of
danger partially mediated the relationship between outward expression of anger and
risk decision-making. The results provide evidence for a relationship between
dispositional anger and risk decision-making during childhood, suggesting a possible
explanation of the mechanisms below. In particular, risk decision-making can be
viewed as the output of cognitive and emotive processes, linked to dispositional anger
that leads children to be amused, optimistic and fearless in potentially risky
situations.
These findings substantiate the importance of incorporating cognitive and emotive
factors in theories that seek to explain the relationship between personality traits and
risk decision making across a broad range of age.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unibo.it/oai:amsdottorato.cib.unibo.it:1009 |
| Date | 28 April 2008 |
| Creators | Gambetti, Elisa <1979> |
| Contributors | Giusberti, Fiorella |
| Publisher | Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna |
| Source Sets | Università di Bologna |
| Language | Italian |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral Thesis, PeerReviewed |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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