Sequence and priming in 15 month‐olds' reactions to brief arm restraint: evidence for a hierarchy of anger responses

Abstract

Brief, gentle arm restraint is widely used in experimental studies of children's anger, but the pattern of responses generated by such restraint has been incompletely described. We now describe a hierarchy of responses within trials as well as an escalation across trials that have both methodological and theoretical significance. Mothers of 87 15-month olds prevented them from playing with a toy by restraining their arms on two consecutive 30 sec trials. Physical struggling was the first and most frequent response; children who struggled were significantly more likely to vocalize, and those who vocalized were significantly more likely to show facial expressions of anger. The children's responses became more probable, rapid, and intense during Trial 2 restraint. Overall, the hierarchy was orderly enough to meet criteria for Guttman scalability. The particular sequence observed suggests situational, as opposed to bio-energetic, ordering of responses. Methodologically, the two trial paradigm is a simple, ecologically valid model for studying anger escalation that parallels the "attack priming" of aggression in other species. The magnitude and persistence of anger priming may provide novel measures of anger regulation. Theoretically, the existence of an orderly response hierarchy is consistent with previous observations suggesting that, within a situational context, the sequential appearance of specific behaviors may indicate progressive increases in anger intensity.

Mineralocorticoid receptor blockade during a rat’s first violent encounter inhibits its subsequent propensity for violence.

“…First offenders cannot be completely certain of victory, and the behavioral and metabolic costs of fighting are high. Priming effects of aggressive conflicts with longer lasting consequences for the offender have been observed in hamsters, rats, and humans (Hebert, Potegal, & Meyerhoff, 1994; Potegal, 1992; Potegal, Robison, Anderson, Jordan, & Shapiro, 2007). The data here presented suggest that an MR-mediated signal of corticosterone during a first conflict probably initializes a neuronal circuit enabling a long-lasting facilitation of aggression in subsequent conflicts (see Figures 3 and 5).…”

Let Me Go: The Influences of Crawling Experience and Temperament on the Development of Anger Expression

“…To assess child anger in a context‐relevant manner, the current study used the Arm Restraint procedure (Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1996; Stenberg & Campos, 1990), an ecologically and cross‐culturally valid measure for evoking anger in infants (Bennett, Bendersky, & Lewis, 2002; Buss & Goldsmith, 1998; Camras, Oster, Campos, Miyake, & Bradshaw, 1992; Camras et al., 1998; Moscardino & Axia, 2006; Potegal, Robison, Anderson, Jordan, & Shapiro, 2007; Stenberg & Campos, 1990; Stifter & Spinrad, 2002). We expected to see an increase in frequency of anger in response to restrictions of movement and removal of toy when infants were seated in a chair because the infants’ goals of playing with a toy and of moving their arms freely were blocked.…”

Approach‐related emotion, toddlers' persistence, and negative reactions to failure

“…Behaviorally, tantrums are comprised of rapid-rising, intense anger followed by less intense, slower-fading distress. The anger component of tantrums has an organized, hierarchical pattern of increased activation and escalating vocal behavior to blocked play, empirically observable by 15 months of age (Potegal, Robison, Anderson, Jordan, & Shapiro, 2007). The organization of tantrums as a dynamic, bi-phasic process suggests that the initial anger of tantrums may be goal-focused.…”