| Motivation is commonly defined as the "energization" and "direction" of behavior,that is,guiding these activated motives,values,or interests toward pontentially satisfying objects,outcomes,or end states.Since motivation is a more abstract concept,it can be divided into two dimensions,namely approach motivation and avoidance motivation,from a approach-avoidance perspective.Approach motivation may be defined as the energization of behavior by,or the direction of behavior toward,positive stimuli(objects,events,possibilities),whereas avoidance motivation may be defined as the energization of behavior by,or the direction of behavior away from,negative stimuli(objects,events,possibilities).Previous researches showed that approach motivation,to some extent,can boost individuals' behavioral performance.For example,when task performance are reward-oriented,participants performed higher task accuracy,greater response inhibition,and better working memory capacity.Besides,avoidance motivation improve participants' behavioral performance,too.When punishment manifested appropriately,subjects did work assignments better,showed advanced time management strategies,and performed greater cooperation tendency.Though both approach and avoidance motivation significantly affect people's behavior,due to loss aversion,a default mode rooted in human's mental world that emerges when facing potential punishments or losses,avoidance motivation influences people's judgment and decision-making more strongly.Loss aversion refers to a ubiquitous psychological phenomenon that losses loom larger than equivalent gains.As the underlying mechanism of avoidance motivation,loss aversion effect exists in many behavioral decisions,including economic decisions,politics,traveling policies and sports,et al.Previous studies revealed that loss aversion can be modulated by some factors,such as cognitive appraisal and construal level.Specifically speaking,more construal level leads to fewer loss aversion,more concrete construal level leads to stronger loss aversion.Besides,when regulate emotion via cognitive appraisal,experiences loss aversion can be weakened efficiently.Human aggression is any behavior directed toward another individual that is carried out with the proximate(immediate)intent to cause them.Additionally,the perpetrator must believe that the behavior will harm the target,and that target is motivated to avoid the behavior.From a motivational perspective,human aggression can be divided into two dimensions,namely hostile aggression and instremental aggression.There are some features of hostile aggression,such as:impulsive,provoking,targeting victims directly,dominated by angry.The characteristics of instrumental behavior are as followings:thoughtful thinking,planning,organizational,deliberative.Unlike hostile aggression,the ultimate purpose of instrumental aggression is not harm others but gain interests for perpetrators themselves.Though widely used,some limitations still exist in current aggression paradigms.It cannot disentangle different types of aggression.In order to measure instrumental aggression exclusively,we revised the classical competitve reaction time task in the following three aspects:(1)Task performance is reward-orienting and aggression is the only means to gain money.Via this alteration,to subjects,aggression is not the ultimate purpose but the money.(2)The feedback segment was canceled in this new task,which guaranteed that participants' aggression is not due to revenge or provocation,but caused by deliberately calculating.(3)Each subject was given enough time to make decisions,which avoid impulsive thinking before the enanctment of instrumental aggression.Perspective-taking is the process by which an individual views a situation from another;s point-of-view.Empathy has tight correlations with perspective-taking.Many researches showd that after perspective-taking,individuals ' aggressive behavior decreases more or less,and empathy partly or fully mediates the relationship between perspective-taking and aggression.How do researchers usually manipulate perspective-taking?Generally speaking,subjects were told to read some materials,then imagine they are the character of the story,and then write down their emotions and feelings.Our study aim to investigate some questiones.First,compared with baseline motivation,what will happen under the condition of approach and avoidance motivation?Second,does loss aversion still exist even in the aggression decision-making?Third,can perspective-taking modulate the relationship between avoidance motivation and instrumental aggression?Via two studies,the present research aimed to examine the influence of motivation type(baseline motivation vs approach motivation vs avoidance motivation)on instrumental aggression and the possible moderating role of perspective-taking.In study 1,a scenario study was used to examine the effect of approach-avoidance motivation on individual's instrumental behavior.Motivation level was manipulated by different amount of rewards.The results revealed that comparing to control motivation,participants under approach and avoidance motivation condition performed hihger instrumental aggression.According to the social information processing theory,when situational cues have changed,individual's aggression outcome value changed too,thus,altered their aggression decision-making.In study 2,a scenario study was used to investigate plausible functions of perspective taking in subjects' instrumental aggression.We found an interaction between avoidance motivation and people's perspective taking.Specifically speaking,when participants enancted perspective taking,there was no significant difference on their instrumental aggression.However,when enacted objective taking,participants in avoidance motivation group performed significantly higher instrumental aggression than participants in control motivation group.Conclusion:(1)Approach and avoidance motivation do influence individual's instrumental aggression.Concretely speaking,approach-avoidance motivation can temporarily enhance instrumental aggression,besides,the avoidance motive has a greater impact on the proactive aggression.(2)Results demonstrated that,even if there is a reminder of avoidance motive,the perspective taking can also reduce individual's instrumental aggression efficiently,which means loss aversion is not our human's default mode,but to some extent could be attenuate... |
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