33rd Annual Student Research Conference
Revenge, Rumination, and the Big 5
Sotiria Karanikolas*, Kylie R. Anderson, and Julianna M. Hefele
Dr. Yuna L. Ferguson, Faculty Mentor
People often take revenge or ruminate over unfair, negative situations they come across in their everyday life, expecting to improve their mood. A study by Carlsmith et al. has shown that taking revenge has the exact opposite result due to the rumination that usually accompanies taking revenge. Revenge is the act of punishing the transgressor in reaction to a negative event. Past research suggests that rumination, thinking repetitively about one’s negative emotions, predicts revenge motivations (McCullough et al., 1998). Research also shows that tendencies to take revenge positively correlates with Neuroticism and negatively with Agreeableness . This literature review examines the psychological aspects of taking revenge and proposes an experiment further examining how taking revenge and ruminating affects people’s emotional state and whether this behavior correlates with the Big 5 personality traits.
Keywords: Revenge, Rumination, Big 5, Emotional State
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: TBA
Location: TBA
Time: TBA