Language Selection at the Time of Processing Anger: A Case Study of Turkish-Persian Bilinguals

Recent research declares the influence of bilingualism on many cognitive and emotional processes. The aim of the present study is investigating the role of bilingualism in processing anger in Turkish-Persian bilinguals’ first (L1) and second (L2) language. To achieve this goal, 18 Turkish-Persian sequential bilinguals (with an average age of 26) who were students of Tehran universities were selected using targeted sampling, and participated in this quasi-experimental research. In addition to language history, General Health, and Positive and Negative affect schedule questionnaires, participants responded to a computerized task designed to induce anger and determined the meaningfulness of Turkish and Persian words and non-words. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that individuals significantly spent more time on determining the meaningfulness of words in anger inducing condition comparing to the normal one. Also, they were significantly slower in selecting the Turkish words compared to Persian ones. Additionally, regarding the comparison of two languages in both conditions separately, paired comparison results demonstrated that participants’ reaction time to Turkish words in anger inducing condition was significantly longer (Ps<0/05). As a result, it can be proposed that Turkish-Persian bilinguals are more involved with their first language in emotional states, specially anger state, and that Turkish has more and deeper emotional associations for them, and their emotional involvement is stronger for their native language than for their L2.