关键词: 反应性攻击, 自我控制资源, 青少年, 事件相关电位

Abstract: Adolescents are prone to have aggressive behavior, especially reactive aggression. There are respectable research findings about the influence factors of adolescents' aggressive behavior at present. As a result of the external factors such as provocation, the aggressive behaviors of adolescent have been greatly increased, and self-control has an important effect on it. Ego depletion as an important manifestation of self-control, has been confirmed that ego depleted participants are more likely to be more aggressive than participants. The present study was based on the perspective of self-control resources to explore the behavior of adolescents’ aggressive behaviors. According to the General Aggression Model (GAM), the impact of individual resources on aggression is reflected in the processes of decision-making and outcome evaluation. These are the critical processes for adolescent to make reactive aggression. Therefore, this study used event–related potentials (ERPs) to explore the effect of self-control resource on the processes of adolescent reactive aggression and outcome evaluation. 40 high school students participated as paid volunteers in this study, randomly assigned to high ego depletion group (N = 20) and low ego depletion group (N = 20), of which 1 were due to artifacts seriously, processing data were excluded, finally we got 39 effective participants (20 boys, average age 15.82±1.36). In the experiment, participants filled in Trait Self-Control Questionnaire and Adolescent Aggression Questionnaire firstly. Then, a congruent or incongruent Stroop task was used to manipulate participants’ self-control resources. The rationale of this task is that people should control the predominant tendency to name the word when they are required to react to the color, which consumes a lot of self-control resources. After completing the Stroop task，participants were required to answer three manipulation checks and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) before working on the competitive reaction time task (CRT),which was to test their reactive aggression. Meanwhile, participants’ EEGs were recorded by 64-channel ERPs equipment while they were carrying out the CRT task. The resulting amplitudes of P2 were entered into 2 condition (high ego depletion group, low ego depletion group) × 3 region (frontal F3, Fz, F4, central C3, Cz, C4, parietal P3, Pz, P4) ANOVAs for repeated measures. FRN amplitude induced by Fz point out, were entered into 2 condition (high ego depletion group, low ego depletion group) × 2 category (win, loss) ANOVAs for repeated measures. The behavior results showed that high ego depletion group showed more aggressive behavior than low ego depletion group. Scalp ERPs analysis revealed that in the time window of P2(180~240ms),there were significant main effects of region F(2,74)＝8.67，p＜.001，η2＝ .59. The parietal region elicited significantly higher P2 than that of frontal and central regions M frontal＝2.72 ± .30μV; M central＝2.50 ± .25μV; M parietal＝3.51 ± .21Μv. Significant condition × region interactions were found, F(2,74)＝2.99，p＜.05，η2＝ .38. The simple effect analysis showed, only in the frontal region, higher P2 was elicited in high ego depletion condition than that in low ego depletion condition. In the time window of FRN(280～320ms),there were significant main effects of category F(1,37)＝11.01，p＜.01，η2＝.52. “Loss” elicited more negative FRN than “win” in CRT task. Significant condition × category interactions were found F(1,37)＝8.61，p＜.01，η2＝.47. The simple effect analysis showed that only in the “loss” feedback condition, more negative FRN was elicited in high ego depletion than that in low ego depletion. These results indicate that ego depletion increases reactive aggression, and affects the processes of decision-making and outcome evaluation. It enriches the research of self-control resources and the processes of adolescent reactive aggression and outcome evaluation as well as providing a new perspective for the educators to prevent the reaction attack of teenagers.

Key words: reactive aggression, self-control resources, adolescents, event related potential