2000 — 2004 |
Harmon-Jones, Eddie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Action-Based Model of Cognitive Dissonance @ University of Wisconsin-Madison
The theory of cognitive dissonance has been one of the most important and generative theories in social psychology. It has been used to better understand attitude, belief, value, and behavior change. Despite the amount of research on the theory, the mechanisms underlying the production of the cognitive and behavioral changes produced by dissonance are not well understood. Understanding the processes by which cognitive, affective, and behavioral changes result from dissonance and the conditions that intensify such changes should advance theoretical development and be useful to persons attempting to promote change in others in educational, organizational, therapeutic, and community settings. The present proposal presents a model of dissonance - the action-based model - that asserts that dissonance, an aversive motivational state, occurs because a sufficient inconsistency between cognitions (defined broadly as knowledge about one's attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors) has the potential to interfere with effective and unconflicted action. Experiments will test the idea that processes that facilitate goal-directed thinking (which has been found to increase goal-directed action) will increase left frontal cortical brain activity and cognitive discrepancy reduction (i.e., the attitude change that results from dissonance). Left frontal cortical brain activity is predicted to increase because past research has suggested that the left frontal region is involved in self-regulation, planning, and intention. In addition, an experiment will test the hypothesis that the manipulation of the left frontal cortical brain activity -- a proposed mediator of the effects of goal-directed thinking on increased discrepancy reduction -- will increase cognitive discrepancy reduction. Experiments will also test whether increasing the salience of the action implications of cognitions (beliefs or emotions) involved in the cognitive discrepancy will increase the degree to which persons reduce cognitive dissonance. Finally, an experiment will compare predictions derived from self-affirmation theory with those derived from the action-based model. The proposed model and experiments have the potential to assist in understanding the motivation underlying attitude, belief, value, and behavior change, to resolve debates among revisions of dissonance theory, to synthesize dissonance theory with self-regulation and action-control theories, to offer insights into the role of the prefrontal cortex, and to shed light on clinical problems such as depression, at both cognitive and neuroscientific levels of analysis.
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0.939 |
2004 — 2009 |
Harmon-Jones, Eddie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Anger and Approach Motivation @ University of Wisconsin-Madison
Past research has pointed to the importance of the left and right frontal brain regions in emotion and motivation. Research has suggested that left frontal brain activity is associated with positive emotions and approach behavior and right frontal brain activity is associated with negative emotions and withdrawal behavior. This research has created an impression that relatively greater left frontal brain activity is psychologically and physically healthier than relatively less left frontal brain activity. However, recent research has indicated that the findings associating greater left frontal brain activity and positive emotion resulted because the past research confounded approach motivation with positive emotional valence. Approach motivations and behaviors are not always associated positive affective valence and positive outcomes. Anger, greed, lust, and mania are some examples of approach motivations that are negative in valence and may have deleterious consequences. The PI, E. Harmon-Jones, has already conducted preliminary research suggesting that increased left frontal cortical activity is associated with both trait and state anger. In the current grant application, he proposes three experiments that are designed to directly test the relationship between anger and approach motivation and also examine whether manipulation of brain activity will affect anger. Study 1 will examine how individuals who differ in levels of trait approach motivation respond to situations designed to evoke a response of anger or fear. Additionally, approach motivation will be experimentally manipulated by asking some participants to write about a goal they intend to accomplish or about a typical day in their life, to examine if the increase in approach motivation will increase anger responses to the situation designed to evoke anger. Study 2 will manipulate anger by having some participants form facial expressions of anger. Others will form neutral, sad or fearful expressions. The effects of the emotion induced on approach motivation will be examined through persistence on an insolvable puzzle task while brain activity is monitored. Study 3 will manipulate asymmetrical frontal cortical activity using biofeedback, and assess whether this manipulation affects anger and fear responses. All studies will include appropriate comparison conditions (e.g., anger vs. fear) and include multiple assessments of anger (e.g., behavioral, self-reports, brain measures, cardiovascular measures). The proposed research will challenge contemporary views of emotion, which posit not only that greater left frontal activity is beneficial but also posit that approach motivation is involved only in positive emotions/affects. In addition, the proposed research will assist in better understanding anger, an emotion that can have harmful consequences to individuals (e.g., cardiovascular disease, personal relationships) and societies (e.g., aggression). Finally, the proposed research will lead to a better understanding of the emotional and motivational functions of frontal cortical regions, the role of approach motivation in anger and aggression, and brain mechanisms involved in anger and aggression. The proposed research will promote teaching, training, and learning, as undergraduate and graduate students will participate in all portions of the research process. As in his past research, the PI will work closely with students from both underrepresented and well-represented groups. The results of the research are likely to be disseminated widely, as the PI often delivers addresses at conferences and publishes in psychology's most widely-read journals.
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0.939 |
2007 — 2012 |
Harmon-Jones, Eddie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Considering Approach Motivational Intensity Within Positive Affect @ Texas a&M Research Foundation
Most approaches to the study of positive affect imply that there is just one type of positive affect and/or that all types of positive affect produce identical consequences. Summaries of this work have stated, "positive emotions broaden the scopes of attention, cognition, and action, widening the array of percepts, thoughts, and actions presently in mind" (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). And, "one of the most robust and widely confirmed findings in the affect literature is that positive affect increases cognitive flexibility" (Isen, 2002). However, all past research that found positive affect associated with attentional and cognitive broadening evoked positive affects that are associated with low levels of approach motivation, or low levels of an urge to move toward the cause of the positive emotion. Positive affects, however, vary in the degree to which they are associated with approach motivation. Some positive affective states are low in approach motivation (joy after watching a funny film), whereas others are high in approach motivation (enthusiasm while approaching a desirable object). It is hypothesized that, unlike low approach positive affect, high approach positive affect is associated with attentional narrowing, as one eagerly approaches desired goal. Building on research that has examined the organizing utility of motivational direction and intensity within negative affects, the proposed studies will examine positive affects that differ in approach motivational intensity. Six studies will be conducted to assess whether positive affects that differ in approach motivational intensity have different effects on attention, creativity, impression formation, and action urges. Studies will include appropriate comparison conditions, multiple types of manipulations of positive and negative affect and motivation, and multiple assessments of affect and motivation (e.g., behavioral, self-reports, brain measures, facial muscle measures).
The proposed research will extend past work on the motivational direction model to better understand positive affects. Moreover, it will assist in understanding the attentional and cognitive consequences of positive affects that differ in approach motivational intensity. This knowledge may enhance the ability of therapists, educators, and educated lay persons to apply research on positive affect to enhance performance and problem-solving. In addition, the research may shed light on the nature of mania, as it is a psychological disorder associated with periods of intense approach affects, both positive (euphoria) and negative (irritability). In addition to these benefits to society, the proposed research will promote teaching, training, and learning, as undergraduate and graduate students will participate in all portions of the research process. As in his past research, the PI will work closely with students from both underrepresented and well-represented groups. The results of the research will be disseminated widely; the PI often delivers addresses at conferences and publishes in widely-read journals.
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0.909 |
2009 — 2012 |
Harmon-Jones, Eddie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Approach Motivation, Anger & Positive Affects @ Texas a&M Research Foundation
Several existing theories of emotion and motivation assume that positive emotion is consistently associated with approach motivation (the urge to move toward the environment) and that negative emotion is consistently associated with withdrawal motivation (the urge to move away from the environment). Recent research on the negative emotion of anger has revealed that it is associated with approach rather than withdrawal motivation, highlighting the importance of considering motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) as a separate dimension from valence (positive vs. negative). This suggests the possibility that anger, although negative, may have important associations with certain types of positive emotions, because of their underlying associations with approach motivation. The proposed research will investigate how anger and approach-oriented positive emotion influence each other, and specifically test the novel, counterintuitive hypothesis that positive emotion high in approach motivation may increase anger responses. Experiments will be conducted to examine the effect of positive emotions that differ in approach motivational intensity on anger responses. Additional experiments will examine facial/body expressions of approach-oriented positive emotions and how they relate to facial/body expressions of anger. In the proposed experiments, emotions will be evoked in the laboratory and multiple system measurements of the physiological, behavioral, and subjective features of emotion will be taken. The research will extend the understanding of the structure and function of emotions, and provide a more detailed understanding of the interplay between emotion, cognition, and behavior. The results of the proposed research will yield a more complete understanding of how certain positive emotions may increase anger and aggression, whereas other positive emotions may decrease anger and aggression. The increased understanding gained by the proposed research will assist in what therapists, educators, and educated lay persons learn and advise or use when applying research on positive emotions to life tasks and relationships.
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0.909 |
2009 — 2013 |
Harmon-Jones, Eddie Schmeichel, Brandon |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Distinguishing Impulse Strength From Self-Control Strength as Causes of Self-Control Failure @ Texas a&M Research Foundation
This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Self-control is an important key to success in life insofar as individuals who succeed at self-control enjoy more satisfying interpersonal relationships, better physical health, and greater subjective well-being than do people who fail at self-control. Understanding the underpinnings of self-control is therefore crucial for understanding success in life. The purpose of this proposal is to integrate theory and research regarding impulse strength and self-control strength -- two major causes of self-control outcomes that have been conflated or studied in isolation in previous research. The researchers propose that impulse strength (i.e., the motivational force of an impulse) and self-control strength (i.e., the person's capacity to control impulses) are distinct but dynamically-interacting causes of self-control failure. The central hypothesis is that exercising self-control may paradoxically lead to a temporary increase in impulse strength, which in turn may increase the likelihood of self-control failure. In addition to short-term changes in impulse strength, the proposed research will also examine enduring individual differences in impulse strength and self-control strength to differentiate their contributions to failures of self-control. The proposed research features several different manipulations and measures of impulse strength and self-control strength, respectively, including perceptual acuity, attentional breadth, startle responses, impulse control, pain tolerance, participants' self-reports, and brain activity. The use of multiple measures also increases the validity and generality of the research spanning multiple levels of analysis. The intellectual significance of the research and its broader impact both derive from the implications for understanding the causes of self-control failure. For example, ascertaining whether failures of self-control stem mainly from overly strong impulses or weak self-control strength will suggest the most promising routes by which to minimize self-control failure. Self-control failure plays a central role in several undesirable behaviors, from unhealthy eating and profligate spending to violent behavior and drug abuse.
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0.909 |