DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/EAPF-DE89
Author ORCID Identifier
Defense Date
2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Dr. David S. Chester
Second Advisor
Dr. James Bjork
Third Advisor
Dr. Jeffrey Green
Fourth Advisor
Dr. Jordan Quaglia
Abstract
Interpersonal conflict frequently occurs in daily life, especially within intimate relationship contexts. The strategies people use to respond to conflict can either bring couples together or push them further apart. Furthermore, impulsive traits, such as negative urgency, leave individuals vulnerable to conflict. Individuals high in negative urgency have difficulty regulating their emotional reactions to negative experiences, often failing to employ adaptive interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies. No research to date has examined the link between negative urgency and the use of negative IER. Fifty-four couples completed self-report measures of negative urgency, effective interpersonal regulation of negative affect, and intimate partner aggression. Also, couples completed an emotion regulation task by themselves and with their intimate partner, as well as an in-vivo aggression task. Using an indirect effect approach, I predicted that the effect of negative urgency on greater intimate partner aggression would be explained, in part, by the use of less negative IER. Results suggest that this is only the case for specific self-report measures of intimate partner aggression and is not consistent across self-report and behavioral indices of intimate partner aggression. More research is required to sufficiently understand the role of IER in intimate couples on the negative urgency – intimate partner aggression link. The results show the importance of accurate conceptualizations and measurements of IER, as there is still much debate and little consensus on the psychological and neural basis of interpersonal emotion regulation in the context of intimate partner aggression.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-6-2020