Context Inappropriate Anger And Salivary Cortisol

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Children’s Context Inappropriate Anger and Salivary Cortisol Robin L. Locke, of the University of Massachusetts, and Richard J. Davidson, Ned H. Kalin, and H. Hill Goldsmith, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, designed a study to determine the correlation between context inappropriate behavior (particularly inappropriately angry behavior) and the amounts of salivary cortisol in children. The study, aptly titled “Children’s Context inappropriate Anger and Salivary Cortisol,” measured the salivary cortisol in about 360 children, in order to test the hypothesis: whether context inappropriate anger would lead to lower levels of salivary cortisol. Salivary cortisol is an indicator hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. If their hypothesis is correct, studying the behavior of children across varying contexts should enable broader and more accurate insight into their affective styles. Their hypothesis seems to be supported by their finding that out of 360 children, 23% of children (from ages 6-10 years, primarily 7-8) showed one expression of context inappropriate anger. Less common (4%) was the expression of anger across two positive assessments. Inappropriate anger predicted the hypothesized lower levels of cortisol beyond that attributed to context appropriate anger. Results suggest that this approach to studying a child’s emotions with varying contexts can provide a lot of insight into affective style. The first most significant and relevant question is does CI (context-inappropriate) anger predict differences in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, as manifest in salivary cortisol? The second most significant and relevant question is does studying children’s emotion across varying contexts provide insight into affective style? What insights does the data of this experiment provide? The first question was chosen because this is the essential
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