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Extraversion, Threat Categorizations, and Negative Affect: A Reaction Time Approach to Avoidance Motivation
Author(s) -
Robinson Michael D.,
Meier Brian P.,
Vargas Patrick T.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00353.x
Subject(s) - psychology , extraversion and introversion , affect (linguistics) , categorization , extant taxon , social psychology , task (project management) , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , personality , big five personality traits , philosophy , management , communication , epistemology , evolutionary biology , biology , economics
The authors sought to measure a component of the avoidance self‐regulation system, specifically one related to object appraisal functions. Participants performed a choice reaction time task (Studies 1 & 2) or a go/no go task (Study 3) in which they were asked to categorize words (e.g., knife ) as threatening in nature. In a series of three studies involving 236 undergraduates, the authors found that introverts who were skilled at categorizing events as threatening (vs. introverts slow to do so) experienced more negative affect in their daily lives. Among extraverts, threat categorization performance did not predict negative affect. The authors suggest that implicit threat categorizations render individuals vulnerable to negative affect but that high levels of Extraversion are capable of inhibiting such affective consequences. The authors discuss implications of the findings for extant views of Extraversion, avoidance motivation, and self‐regulation.