Editing Fight-or-flight response (section)

==Cognitive components==

===Content specificity===
The specific components of cognitions in the fight or flight response seem to be largely negative. These negative cognitions may be characterised by: attention to negative stimuli, the perception of ambiguous situations as negative, and the recurrence of recalling negative words.<ref name="Content specificity - Reid">{{cite journal|last1=Reid|first1=Sophie C.|last2=Salmon|first2=Karen|author3=Peter F. Lovibond|title=Cognitive Biases in Childhood Anxiety, Depression, and Aggression: Are They Pervasive or Specific?|journal=Cognitive Therapy and Research|date=October 2006|volume=30|issue=5|pages=531–549|doi=10.1007/s10608-006-9077-y|s2cid=28911747}}</ref> There also may be specific negative thoughts associated with emotions commonly seen in the reaction.<ref name="Content Specificity - Beck">{{cite book|last=Beck|first=Aaron|title=Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders|year=1979|publisher=Penguin Books|location=United States}}</ref>

===Perception of control===
{{See also|Control (psychology)}}
[[Perceived control]] relates to an individual's thoughts about control over situations and events.<ref name="Perceived Control - Weems">{{cite journal|last=Weems|first=CF|author2=Silverman, WK|title=An integrative model of control: implications for understanding emotion regulation and dysregulation in childhood anxiety|journal=Journal of Affective Disorders|date=April 2006|volume=91|issue=2|pages=113–124|doi=10.1016/j.jad.2006.01.009|pmid=16487599}}</ref> Perceived control should be differentiated from actual control because an individual's beliefs about their abilities may not reflect their actual abilities. Therefore, overestimation or underestimation of perceived control can lead to anxiety and aggression.<ref name="Perceived Control - Brendgen">{{cite journal|last=Brendgen|first=M|author2=Vitaro F |author3=Turgeon L |author4=Poulin F |author5=Wanner B |title=Is there a dark side of positive illusions? Overestimation of social competence and subsequent adjustment in aggressive and nonaggressive children|journal=Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology|date=June 2004|volume=32|issue=3|pages=305–320|doi=10.1023/B:JACP.0000026144.08470.cd|pmid=15228179|s2cid=11239252}}</ref>

===Social information processing===
{{See also|Social information processing (cognition)}}
The social information processing model proposes a variety of factors that determine behavior in the context of social situations and preexisting thoughts.<ref name="Social Information Processing - Crick">{{cite journal|last=Crick|first=Nicki|author2=Dodge, Kenneth|title=A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children's social adjustment|journal=Psychological Bulletin|date=January 1994|volume=115|issue=1|pages=74–101|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.115.1.74}}</ref> The attribution of hostility, especially in ambiguous situations, seems to be one of the most important cognitive factors associated with the fight or flight response because of its implications towards aggression.<ref name="Social Information Processing - Dodge">{{cite journal|last=Dodge|first=Kenneth|title=Social cognition and children's aggressive behavior|journal=Journal of Child Development|date=March 1980|volume=51|issue=1|pages=162–170|doi=10.2307/1129603|jstor=1129603|pmid=7363732 }}</ref>