T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Department of Family and Human Development, Arizona State University.
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
Emotion. 2018 Jun;18(4):481-492. doi: 10.1037/emo0000360. Epub 2017 Sep 4.
The current study examined whether an important temperamental characteristic, effortful control (EC), moderates the associations between dispositional anger and sadness, attention biases, and social functioning in a group of preschool-aged children (N = 77). Preschoolers' attentional biases toward angry and sad facial expressions were assessed using eye-tracking, and we obtained teachers' reports of children's temperament and social functioning. Associations of dispositional anger and sadness with time looking at relevant negative emotional stimuli were moderated by children's EC, but relations between time looking at emotional faces and indicators of social functioning, for the most part, were direct and not moderated by EC. In particular, time looking at angry faces (and low EC) predicted high levels of aggressive behaviors, whereas longer time looking at sad faces (and high EC) predicted higher social competence. Finally, latency to detect angry faces predicted aggressive behavior under conditions of average and low levels of EC. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of differentiating between components of attention biases toward distinct negative emotions, and implications for attention training. (PsycINFO Database Record
本研究考察了在一组学龄前儿童（N=77）中，一种重要的气质特征——努力控制（EC）是否能调节气质性愤怒和悲伤、注意偏向与社交功能之间的关系。使用眼动追踪评估了幼儿对愤怒和悲伤面部表情的注意偏向，我们还获得了教师对儿童气质和社交功能的报告。与时间相关的负面情绪刺激的注意偏向与特质性愤怒和悲伤之间的关联受到儿童 EC 的调节，但在大多数情况下，时间与情绪面孔的关系以及社会功能的指标是直接的，不受 EC 的调节。具体而言，对愤怒面孔的注视时间（以及 EC 较低）预示着更高水平的攻击行为，而对悲伤面孔的注视时间较长（以及 EC 较高）预示着更高的社交能力。最后，在 EC 水平处于平均水平和较低水平的情况下，对愤怒面孔的检测潜伏期预测了攻击行为。研究结果从区分对不同负面情绪的注意偏向成分的重要性方面进行了讨论，并对注意训练提出了启示。
