Abstract
Research on cognitive processes has primarily focused on cognitive control and inhibitory processes to the detriment of other psychological processes, such as defense mechanisms (DMs), which can be used to modify aggressive impulses as well as self/other images during interpersonal conflicts. First, we conducted an in-depth theoretical analysis of three socio-cognitive models and three psychodynamic models and compared main propositions regarding the source of aggression and processes that influence its enactment. Second, 32 participants completed the Hostile Expectancy Violation Paradigm (HEVP) in which scenarios describe a hostile vs. non-hostile social context followed by a character's ambiguous aversive behavior. The N400 effect to critical words that violate expected hostile vs. non-hostile intent of the behavior was analyzed. Prepotent response inhibition was measured using a Stop Signal task (SST) and DMs were assessed with the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-60). Results showed that reactive aggression and HIA were not significantly correlated with response inhibition but were significantly positively and negatively correlated with image distorting defense style and adaptive defense style, respectively. The present article has highlighted the importance of integrating socio-cognitive and psychodynamic models to account for the full complexity underlying psychological processes that influence reactive aggressive behavior.
Highlights
Severe negative consequences can result from aggressive behaviors and motivate researchers to study the factors that may prevent them
Since we were interested in the impact of a violation of intention expectancies, we looked at the main effects of the ANOVAs and at interactions involving the effect of the Consistency factor
For the six regions ANOVA, we found a significant main effect for Consistency, F(1,31) = 10.23, p < 0.003, indicating that the waveforms were more negative for the for the mismatch condition than for the match condition underlying the presence of the N400
Summary
Severe negative consequences can result from aggressive behaviors and motivate researchers to study the factors that may prevent them Among these factors, components of cognitive control processes are the primary candidates in socio-cognitive models of reactive aggression. Defense mechanisms (DMs) represent the psychological processes that mediate the person’s reaction and have been the subject of empirical studies over the last 50 years While the role they play in modifying certain human behaviors has received little attention from the socio-cognitive literature in the past, there has recently been a growing interest in developing integrative models that connect psychodynamic data and cognitive neuroscience to enrich our understanding of the mind and brain (Axmacher et al, 2014; di Giannantonio et al, 2020)
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