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Personality Emotions And Hostile Cognition

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Introduction
Prior research from Baron, Smith, Butner, Nealey-Moore, Hawkins, and Uchino (2006) used the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, a 29-item questionnaire that assesses four personality components, to measure anger and hostility. The personality components were hostility, anger, physical aggression and verbal aggression. Research suggests that the association between hostility and health may be due to increased physiological reactivity to interpersonal stressors, increased psychosocial vulnerability in the form of increased social conflict and decreased social support, and the transactional process of creating more hostile interpersonal environment (Smith, 1992). Thus meaning that stress may conflict with the way people…show more content…
Researchers found that hostility is closely related to displeasure, high arousal and low dominance ratings. Previous research suggests that people with increased levels of hostility are more negative in perceiving, processing and expressing emotions (Heponiemi, et al., 2007). As compared with others, individuals with elevated levels of hostility evaluate others harsher, make favorable judgments about others more slowly, recall less favorable information about others (Guyll & Madon, 2003) and evaluate people more negatively (Allred & Smith, 1991). The results support that hostility is related to negative emotional reactions and that these reactions seem to be independent of the nature of the stimuli. Individuals with negative or hostile seem to be prone to react negatively regardless of the environment around them (Heponiemi, et al, 2007). The researchers found that the strongest relationship is between hostility and paranoia, negative beliefs about those around you and their negative intentions. Thus meaning if an individual is naturally hostile or aggressive, they will perceive the environment around them as such (2007).
Earlier research focused on the hostility of college students through their matriculation and growth in their University/College. Hostility can be defined as one’s viewpoint that is subjected to the dislike and undesirable assessment (Buss, 1961). There may
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