Verona Edelyn, Kilmer Ashley
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2007 May;116(2):410-21. doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.116.2.410.
To study differences in the effects of stress exposure and affective responding on aggression in men and women, the authors examined the effects of an acute stressor (air blast) on subsequent aggressive behavior, measured as the intensity of shocks men and women delivered to a putative employee. The authors measured participants' affective responding using the startle reflex. Results showed that although men and women did not differ in their startle responses to the actual stressor, high stress led to contrasting patterns of subsequent aggressive behavior. Women under high stress responded with less aggression than women under low stress, whereas men exposed to high stress exhibited increases in aggression relative to those under low stress. Affective responding during the stressor differentially modulated aggression in men and women: Startle responses predicted increasing levels of aggression in men and less aggression in women. These findings suggest that although men and women show similar basic affective processing in response to stressors, the behavioral profiles associated with stress differ in men and women. These findings have implications for understanding gender differences in the prevalence of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.
为研究压力暴露和情感反应对男性和女性攻击性影响的差异，作者考察了急性应激源（气爆）对后续攻击行为的影响，攻击行为通过男性和女性给予假定员工的电击强度来衡量。作者使用惊吓反射来测量参与者的情感反应。结果表明，尽管男性和女性对实际应激源的惊吓反应没有差异，但高压力导致了后续攻击行为的不同模式。高压力下的女性比低压力下的女性攻击性更低，而暴露于高压力下的男性相对于低压力下的男性攻击性增加。应激源期间的情感反应对男性和女性的攻击性有不同的调节作用：惊吓反应预示着男性攻击性水平的增加和女性攻击性的降低。这些发现表明，尽管男性和女性在对应激源的基本情感加工上表现相似，但与压力相关的行为特征在男性和女性中有所不同。这些发现对于理解内化和外化精神病理学患病率中的性别差异具有启示意义。
