Mindfulness Training Reduces Reactive Aggression

Reactive aggression refers to impulsive and retaliatory behavior to others driven by anger after being provoked.Statistics show that crimes of passion driven by bad emotions account for as much as 33% of the criminal cases in recent years,and about 60% of the homicides are caused by strong emotions.How to prevent and contain reactive attack has become a major problem to be solved in today’s society.Mindfulness is a state or ability to be aware of present experiences without judgmental acceptance,and this state or ability can be improved through mindfulness training.Previous studies have shown that mindfulness training can effectively reduce reactive aggression.However,these studies does not provide sufficient empirical support for the reasons why mindfulness training reduces reactive aggression,and the internal mechanism between mindfulness and reactive aggression is still unclear.Based on I3 Aggression Theory and MAT Theory,this study investigated the relationship between mindfulness and reactive aggression as well as its internal mechanism.On the basis of determining whether mindfulness training can reduce aggressive behavior,the study focused on the core elements of mindfulness--awareness and acceptance.To explore whether Impelling forces(anger)and Inhibition(inhibitory control)of aggressive behavior are important reasons for reducing reactive aggression in mindfulness training.The study consists of the following four parts:In the first study,a single-factor within-subjects design(intervention: mindfulness training group,awareness training group,relaxation training group,and control group)was used to investigate whether a single short session of mindfulness training could reduce reactive aggression and the effects of awareness and acceptance on reactive aggression.A total of 189 participants were randomly assigned to standard mindfulness training group,awareness training group,relaxation training group and control group.State awareness and state acceptance were measured before and after the intervention,and reactive aggression was measured using Taylor aggression paradigm.The results showed that,firstly,a single short session of mindfulness training was effective in improving the level of mindfulness.Compared with the other three groups,the acceptance level of the mindfulness group after intervention was significantly improved.Compared with the relaxation training group and the control group,the awareness level of the mindfulness group and the awareness group increased significantly after the intervention.Secondly,the levels of anger and reactive aggression in the mindfulness group with acceptance training after intervention were significantly lower than those in the other three groups,while the levels of anger and reactive aggression in the awareness group,the relaxation group and the control group were not significantly different,indicating that the improvement of acceptance is a necessary factor for the reduction of reactive aggression in the mindfulness training.Thirdly,the intervention modulates the relationship between anger and reactive aggression.Anger in the control group can significantly predict reactive aggression,while anger in the mindfulness group can no longer predict reactive aggression,suggesting that mindfulness training can not only reduce anger and aggression,but also reduce the association between anger and reactive aggression.On the basis of study 1,study 2 studied the role of anger played in the process that mindfulness training reduced aggression.A mixed experimental design of 2(training method:mindfulness training group,control group)X 2(time: pre-test and post-test)was adopted in this study.Sixty-four subjects were randomly assigned to the mindfulness training group and the control group to receive three days of mindfulness audio intervention and science knowledge intervention respectively.The results showed that compared with the control group,three days of short mindfulness training significantly reduced the anger and reactive aggression levels of the individuals in the Taylor aggression paradigm.Secondly,the mediating analysis showed that the change of anger in the mindfulness group played a complete mediating role between the change of acceptance and the change of reactive aggression,and a partial mediating role between the change of perception and the change of aggression.The results suggest that the increase in acceptance induced by three days of short mindfulness training reduces reactive aggression by reducing anger,that is,reducing impelling factor.There may be other factors in the relationship between awareness and reactive aggression,another dimension of mindfulness,besides reducing anger.After identifying the driving force of mindfulness training to reduce reactive aggression,the third study explored the role of inhibitory control between mindfulness and reactive aggression from the perspective of inhibitory control(inhibitory control),which affects the generation of aggressive behavior.Studies have shown that anger can weaken the inhibitory control performance of individuals and thus affect the inhibitory effect on aggressive impulse,namely the anger-inhibitory control weakening effect.The third study first focused on the relationship between individual mindfulness traits and the weakening effect of anger-inhibition control.In the third study,we used one factor(situation: irritable state,calm state)within-subjects design to investigate the relationship between individual mindfulness traits and inhibitory control function under irritable/calm state.Eighty-nine subjects were recruited.The results showed that trait acceptance was positively correlated with inhibitory control in calm state,and trait awareness was positively correlated with inhibitory control in anger state.Secondly,only trait perception was negatively correlated with the anger-inhibitory control weakening effect(i.e.the change of inhibitory control ability in irritable and calm states),and the change value of inhibitory control in high-trait perceiver was significantly smaller than that in low-trait perceiver.The results suggested that awareness was related to the stability of inhibitory control.Anger emotion had little influence on inhibitory control of high awareness individuals,and high awareness individuals were more likely to stabilize their inhibitory control ability and successfully inhibit the aggression impulse under the condition of anger.Study 4 explored the effect of the improvement of inhibitory control induced by mindfulness training on the reduction of reactive aggression,using a 2(training method:mindfulness training group,control group)X 2(time: pre-test,post-test)mixed experimental design.Fifty-nine effective subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to the mindfulness group and the control group.Both groups received a 15-minute audio intervention every day for five days,using the same training method as the second study.Inhibition control and reactive aggression were measured using the GO/No-GO task Taylor attack paradigm before and after intervention.The results showed that compared with the control group,the mindfulness training effectively improved the inhibitory control performance in the irritable and angry situations,and reduced the reactive aggression and anger emotions of individuals.Secondly,the level of post-test awareness in the mindfulness g moderating role between the changes in partial anger and reactive aggression.The study drew the following conclusions:Mindfulness training can affect reactive aggression in two ways:(1)Mindfulness training can further reduce reactive aggression by reducing anger,and acceptance plays an important role in this pathway.(2)Mindfulness training can improve the inhibitory control ability,the inhibitory factor in the process of aggressive behavior,and the improvement of inhibitory control is closely related to the improvement of awareness,and inhibitory control plays a moderating role between awareness and reactive aggression.