Perceptions of controllability and anticipated anger

The relation between perceived controllability for breaking a social contract and anger was investigated within a role-playing paradigm. Ninety children representing three age groups (M = 5.1,7.3, and 9.8) participated. The children were asked to provide causes for why a social engagement was not kept, and then to rate these causes as well as a standard set of six others on perceived controllability and anticipated anger reactions. All three age groups perceived the controllable causes as more associated with anger than the uncontrollable causes, although a developmental trend documenting this cognition-emotion relation was also displayed.