Whitesell N R, Harter S
University of Denver, USA.
Child Dev. 1996 Aug;67(4):1345-59.
While a great deal of work in recent years has focused on the role of cognitive evaluation of events in the elicitation of anger, little has been said about how the interpersonal context of events colors such evaluation. In this study, we varied critical features of events identified by theorists (provocation, intent, and apology) along with the interpersonal context of the events. We examined the reactions of preadolescent and young adolescent boys and girls to hypothetical situations involving anger-provoking actions by best friends and classmates (casual acquaintances). The situations involving best friends elicited higher ratings of personal violation, more intense and prolonged negative emotion (including sadness and hurt feelings in addition to anger), and more coping attempts geared toward relationship preservation than did the situations involving classmates. Girls seemed to be particularly sensitive to relationship differences, consistently reporting different responses when friends and classmates were involved. Findings associated with the theoretical features of anger elicitation (provocation, intent, and apology), while generally fitting predictions, were less clear and convincing, overall, than the effects of relationship context. Findings related to age were limited but were consistent with research on the changing nature and meaning of friendship as children enter adolescence. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of relationship context as a backdrop against which emotional experience must be viewed.
尽管近年来大量研究聚焦于事件的认知评估在愤怒引发中的作用，但对于事件的人际背景如何影响这种评估却鲜有探讨。在本研究中，我们改变了理论家所确定的事件关键特征（挑衅、意图和道歉）以及事件的人际背景。我们考察了青春期前和青少年早期的男孩和女孩对涉及好友和同学（普通熟人）的激怒行为的假设情境的反应。与涉及同学的情境相比，涉及好友的情境引发了更高的个人受侵犯评分、更强烈和持久的负面情绪（除愤怒外还包括悲伤和受伤情绪）以及更多旨在维护关系的应对尝试。女孩似乎对关系差异特别敏感，当涉及朋友和同学时，她们的反应始终不同。与愤怒引发的理论特征（挑衅、意图和道歉）相关的研究结果虽然总体上符合预测，但总体而言，不如关系背景的影响清晰和有说服力。与年龄相关的研究结果有限，但与关于儿童进入青春期后友谊性质和意义变化的研究一致。总体而言，我们的研究结果强调了关系背景作为情感体验必须被看待的背景的重要性。
