The Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab was well-represented at the 2019 American Psychological Association convention in Chicago. Philip Stoner, A.J. Qureshi, and Hailee Buras attended the conference, and Philip and Hailee presented posters based on their research.

Philip’s poster was based on his master’s thesis and described his finding that emotion regulation moderated the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and self-criticism. Hailee’s poster, which also utilized data collected as part of Philip’s thesis project but not used in his thesis, described her finding that anxiety moderated the relationship between peer exclusivity and relational aggression among college students.

Hailee is completing her honor’s thesis in the lab, and this was her first professional conference. She received a Discovery Scholar Research Grant from the Honors College at the University of Southern Mississippi, which supported her travel to Chicago.

Congratulations on a successful conference!

Tags: emotion regulation, relational aggression, anxiety, narcissism

Philip Stoner, a student in the Counseling Psychology doctoral program at the University of Southern Mississippi, successfully defended his master’s thesis this week. Philip’s thesis, Vulnerable narcissism, self-criticism, and self-injurious behavior: Emotion regulation as a moderator, explored the relationship of vulnerable narcissism and difficulties in emotion regulation to self-criticism and self-injurious behavior in a college student sample.

He found that vulnerable narcissism was positively related to both self-injury and self-criticism and that difficulties in emotion regulation moderated the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and self-criticism. Specifically, the relationship between vulnerable narcissism and self-criticism was stronger at higher levels of emotion dysregulation. Although some of Philip’s results were unexpected and may lead us to carry out additional analyses on his data, his thesis should be useful in informing the development of his dissertation. For his dissertation, Philip has expressed interest in studying the constellation of personality traits referred to as the Vulnerable Dark Triad (i.e., borderline personality, vulnerable narcissism, and secondary psychopathy).

Tags: emotion regulation, narcissism, suicide

Skylar Hicks, a third-year student in the Counseling Psychology doctoral program at the University of Southern Mississippi, successfully defended her master’s thesis this week. Skylar’s thesis, The role of emotion regulation in the relationship between trait anger and relational aggression, explored the role of general negative affect, trait anger, and difficulties in emotion regulation in peer relational aggression among college students.

She found that trait anger and difficulties in emotion regulation were positively related to peer relational aggression. That is, students with a higher propensity to experience angry feelings and difficulties regulating their emotions were more likely to report engaging in relationally aggressive behavior in their peer relationships. Contrary to what was expected, difficulties in emotion regulation did not moderate the relationship between trait anger and relational aggression. We will likely conduct additional analyses to determine why this might be the case and how best to incorporate emotion regulation in future studies.

Tags: emotion regulation, relational aggression, trait anger

Philip Stoner, a first-year student in the Counseling Psychology doctoral program at the University of Southern Mississippi, successfully proposed his master’s thesis today. Philip’s thesis will examine the relationship of vulnerable narcissism and emotion dysregulation in self-injurious behavior and self-criticism.

Both vulnerable narcissism and emotion dysregulation have been linked to suicidality in previous studies; however, relatively little is known about the relationship of these factors to self-injurious behavior and self-criticism in non-clinical settings. Philip’s study will use a college student sample and is anticipated to generate some useful information about the important topic of college student mental health.

Congratulations to Philip on the successful proposal!

Tags: suicide, emotion regulation, narcissism

Skylar Hicks successfully proposed her master's thesis yesterday. Skylar's thesis will examine the relationship between trait anger and the perpetration of relational aggression among college students while taking general negative affect into account and testing the potential role of emotion regulation as a moderator of this relationship.

If emotion regulation moderates the relationship between anger and relational aggression, this may have implications for the treatment of relationally aggressive individuals. For example, such findings might indicate that anger management and other interventions aimed at improving emotion regulation could be beneficial for relationally aggressive young adults.

Skylar is a second-year doctoral student working in the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of New Orleans and entered the Counseling Psychology Doctoral Program in the Fall of 2015.

Congratulations to Skylar on the successful proposal!

Tags: relational aggression, emotion regulation

Congratulations to Dr. Emily Prather, an alumna of the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab, who graduated with her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi last week. I last saw Emily when she took a break from her predoctoral internship at Wellspan Behavioral Health in York, PA, to successfully defend her dissertation in April. Emily's dissertation focused on the role of anger, impulsivity, and emotion regulation in binge eating. After completing her internship last summer, she started a post doc position at Wellspan. She is now studying for the EPPP exam for licensure as a psychologist and beginning the job search process where she is interested in both clinical work and teaching.

It is fairly common for current doctoral students to have a hard time imagining that there will be a day when they reach the end of their graduate training. I certainly remember feeling that way. But like Emily just showed us, it really does happen. The classes, examinations, and dissertation writing do not last forever.

It was great to see Emily again for commencement and meet her family. Congratulations to Emily on the completion of her doctorate! Please stay in touch and let us know what is next for you.

Tags: anger expression, emotion regulation, postdoc, alumni

Anger is something with which we are all familiar from our extensive personal experience with it. And yet, anger seems to be a bit more complex and multifaceted than most of us realize. Emotionally, we experience anger as a range of feelings from minor frustration or annoyance to intense rage or fury. This emotional experience is what most readily comes to mind when we reflect on a recent anger episode. Anger also involves characteristic physiological, cognitive, and behavioral components.

At the physiological level, anger involves arousal of the autonomic nervous system. This is typically experienced as a rush of adrenaline, muscle tension, increased heart rate, and other sensations which are part of how our bodies prepare us for action. Some people experience this sort of physiological arousal more intensely than others, and some experience it over a longer period of time than others. This combination of intense and long-lasting arousal can be a risk factor for a number of health problems.

Cognitively, anger often involves the perception of some sort of threat to ourselves, our property, our self-image, or other areas with which we identify. During an angry episode, we are likely to perceive even neutral events as being intentional, unfair, and undeserved. Not surprisingly, this usually has the effect of making us angrier. It turns out that how we think about events in our environment is very important to why we become angry initially and how our anger is maintained over time.

The behavioral component of anger includes the manner in which it is communicated. Some people tend to suppress their anger, holding it inside until they feel like they are going to boil over. This is sometimes described as an “anger-in” style of anger expression. Others express their anger outwardly in uncontrolled displays of yelling, slamming doors, threatening others, or even aggressive behavior (i.e., an “anger-out” approach to anger expression). Both of these anger expression styles can lead to problems, and both can be contrasted with healthy anger control.

At the Anger and Traffic Psychology Lab, we are interested in trait anger (i.e., one’s general propensity to experience angry feelings), anger expression and control, and a number of closely-related topics (e.g., anger rumination, hostility, emotion regulation, aggression). At mild to moderate levels, anger can have a number of beneficial effects; however, anger that is excessive, chronic, or associated with maladaptive behaviors can lead to a number of problems and deserves attention.

Tags: anger expression, emotion regulation, trait anger