Kuhbandner Christof, Vogel Carina M, Lichtenfeld Stephanie
a Department of Psychology , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
Cogn Emot. 2015;29(7):1168-84. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2014.969197. Epub 2014 Oct 17.
A fundamental property of emotional responses is a change in action tendencies that allow the individual to cope with the situation. Most basically, there are two types of behaviour one can switch to when responding emotionally: approach or withdrawal. The present study examined whether the ability to switch to approach or withdrawal depends on the type of behaviour shown before. Using familiar (Experiment 1) and unfamiliar (Experiment 2) neutral stimuli, we first show that switching from approach to withdrawal is generally easier than vice versa. In Experiment 3, we demonstrate that this holds true even when participants respond to emotional stimuli that typically elicit strong approach or withdrawal tendencies. These results indicate that there is a fundamental asymmetry in the ability to switch from approach to withdrawal or vice versa. As shown in Experiment 3, this asymmetry may represent a serious confound in many previous studies examining the link between stimulus valence and associated action tendencies, suggesting that the link between positive stimuli and approach tendencies may be stronger, and the link between negative stimuli and withdrawal tendencies weaker, than previously believed.
情绪反应的一个基本特性是行动倾向的改变，这种改变能让个体应对相应情境。最基本的是，个体在情绪反应时有两种行为可以切换：趋近或回避。本研究探讨了切换到趋近或回避的能力是否取决于之前所表现出的行为类型。使用熟悉的（实验1）和不熟悉的（实验2）中性刺激，我们首先表明，从趋近切换到回避通常比反过来更容易。在实验3中，我们证明，即使参与者对通常引发强烈趋近或回避倾向的情绪刺激做出反应，情况依然如此。这些结果表明，在从趋近切换到回避或反之的能力上存在根本的不对称性。如实验3所示，这种不对称性可能在许多先前研究刺激效价与相关行动倾向之间联系的研究中构成严重干扰，这表明积极刺激与趋近倾向之间的联系可能比之前认为的更强，而消极刺激与回避倾向之间的联系则较弱。
