The primary aim of this investigation was to examine the association between men's level of mindfulness and histories of alcohol consumption and sexual aggression toward intimate partners. Participants were 167 heterosexual drinking males who completed self-report measures of mindfulness, frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption during the past 12 months, and sexual aggression against intimate partners during the past 12 months. Results indicated that a history of consuming larger amounts when drinking was associated with more frequent sexual coercion/aggression among men who reported low, but not high, levels of mindfulness. However, drinking more frequently by itself was not associated with more frequent sexual coercion/ aggression. These results support the attention-allocation model and suggest implications for future intervention research aimed at reducing alcohol-related aggression. KeywordsIntimate Partner Violence; Alcohol Consumption; Attention-Allocation; Mindfulness Evidence for the link between alcohol use and sexual aggression is well-established (for reviews, see Abbey, Zawacki, Buck, Clinton, & McAuslan, 2004;Testa, 2002). However, despite a substantial literature in this area, interventions aimed at reducing alcohol-related aggression have only begun to take shape. Recently, Giancola, Josephs, DeWall, and Gunn (2009) proposed preventative strategies for alcohol-facilitated aggression based upon the attention-allocation model (AAM; Pernanen, 1976;. The AAM is an empirically supported and widely accepted explanation for intoxicated behavior (Giancola & Corman, 2007;Steele & Josephs, 1988;Zeichner, Allen, Giancola, & Lating, 1994). According to the AAM, alcohol intoxication impairs executive cognitive functioning, which then restricts the inebriate's ability to perceive and process instigatory and inhibitory cues. Because in most real-world situations cues that instigate behavior are more salient and easier to process than cues that inhibit behavior, intoxication is likely to produce myopia toward cues that instigate behavior (e.g., desire to have sex). Furthermore, this model is in line with past research demonstrating that alcohol impairs self-awareness processing (Hull, 1981;Hull, Levenson, Young, & Sher, 1983), which may impede a person's capacity to process self-relevant cues that discourage aggressive behavior.2 To whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia, parrott@gsu.edu, NIH Public Access In accordance with these data, Giancola and colleagues (2009) argued that interventions designed to increase mindfulness may serve to decrease aggression in intoxicated individuals by shifting attention back to inhibitory cues (e.g., social norms that proscribe sexual aggression). Indeed, mindfulness is a state, trait, and acquirable skill that has been defined as "the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment...

The present study compared effects of erotic and non-erotic depictions of male-male intimacy on the experience of anger in heterosexual men. Data came from three independent laboratory studies designed to elicit anger in response to erotic or non-erotic depictions of male-male and male-female intimacy. All participants completed a measure of sexual prejudice and anger was assessed before and after viewing the erotic or non-erotic video. Among high-prejudiced men, viewing erotic and non-erotic intimate behavior between two men elicited significant increases in anger relative to viewing comparable behavior between a male-female dyad. In contrast, among low-prejudiced men, viewing erotic, but not non-erotic, intimate behavior between two men elicited significant increases in anger relative to viewing comparable behavior between a male-female dyad. Implications for understanding heterosexual men's anger, and aggression, toward gay men were discussed.

The present research assessed self-reported reactions to participation in a laboratory aggression paradigm immediately postexperiment and at 1-week follow-up. Method: Three hundred nineteen men completed a competitive laboratory aggression task that involved deception and mild electric shocks that were received from, and administered to, a fictitious opponent. Participants' aggressive ideation was assessed immediately after participation, whereas their aggressive ideation and self-reported reactions to experimental procedures were assessed approximately 1 week later. Results: Participation did not increase respondents' self-reported likelihood of engaging in aggressive behavior after completing the aggression task or at 1-week follow-up. The percentage of participants who reported inflicted insight was extremely low (approximately 1%), and this experience was associated with little distress. At 1-week follow-up, 98% of participants reported little or no adverse effects in response to the use of deception and electric shocks. Conclusion: The likelihood of adverse consequences in response to participation in laboratory aggression research is low. Of particular importance, participation is not associated with inflicted insight or an increased likelihood of engaging in aggression following participation. Findings may assist institutional review boards and researchers in making more informed analyses of the risks and benefits of laboratory aggression research.

The ability to regulate mood is a facet of emotional intelligence that may contribute to an individual's physical and mental health. Precisely what is regulated when mood regulation occurs is dependent on what "makes up" mood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether perceived mood regulation ability can predict regulation of affect during task engagement and whether affect regulation is specific to valence or arousal. Measures of positive affect, negative affect, and frontal area sEMG (as a measure of arousal) were obtained from a sample of one hundred twenty-four participants categorized by their self report as possessing low or high mood regulation ability. Modulation of positive affect, but not negative affect, was predicted by perceived mood regulation ability. The results of sEMG were mixed. These data provide some support for the hypothesis that mood regulation ability can predict future efforts to regulate affect, at least in the context of task engagement.

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