青少年应激下皮质醇应答与风险决策相关性的性别差异

本研究旨在探讨中国青少年应激下皮质醇应答和风险决策相关性的性别差异。本研究以健康初中生为被试者, 采用特里尔社会应激测试(Trier Social Stress Test, TSST)诱发机体应激反应, 测试唾液皮质醇在应激前后不同时间段的水平, 并要求被试者在应激状态下完成气球模拟风险决策任务(Balloon Analogue Risk Task, BART)。结果发现, 男性在TSST诱导下皮质醇反应度显著高于女性, 男性中高皮质醇应答者BART表现为更高程度的冒险行为和更低的总奖励金额, 而女性中高皮质醇应答者BART表现为更高的总奖励金额。研究结果提示,中国青少年应激条件下皮质醇应答与风险决策之间的联系存在性别差异, 尤其在男性, 高皮质醇应答者更具有冒险行为。     

Construct Validity of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): Relationship with MDMA Use by Inner-City Drug Users in Residential Treatment

In a program of research assessing the validity of the balloon analogue risk task (BART; C. W. Lejuez et al., 2002) as a measure of risk taking, the BART was administered to a sample of inner-city drug users in residential treatment (n = 76). Construct validity of the BART was evaluated by measuring risk-taking behavior and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) use while controlling for self-reported impulsivity, sensation seeking, polysubstance use, and demographic variables. Supporting the construct validity of the BART, while controlling for interrelated variables in the context of logistic regression analyses, (BART) risk-taking propensity accounted for significant incremental variance in differentiating MDMA users from non-users. BART scores, polysubstance use, and younger age were most associated with MDMA use, and together these variables were associated with 91% classification accuracy in predicting MDMA use.     

Framing alters risk-taking behavior on a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) in a sex-specific manner

Framing uncertain scenarios to emphasize potential positive or negative elements influences decision making and behavior. The current experiment investigated sex differences in framing effects on risk-taking propensity in a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Male and female undergraduates completed questionnaires on sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and risk and benefit perception prior to viewing one of three framing conditions for the BART: (1) positively-framed instructions emphasizing the ability to earn money if balloons were inflated to large size; (2) negatively framed instructions emphasizing the possibility that money could be lost if balloons were inflated to bursting; and (3) completely framed instructions noting both possible outcomes. Results revealed correlations between BART performance and impulsiveness for both sexes. Compared to positive and complete framing, negatively framed instructions decreased balloon inflation time in women but not men, indicating sex differences in response to treatments designed to alter risk-taking behavior.     

风险决策研究中的仿真气球冒险任务

仿真气球冒险任务(The Balloon Analog Risk Task, BART)能在实验室环境下模拟真实世界的风险情境, 具有高生态性, 稳定性和可靠性等优点, 已经成为风险决策研究中最常用的实验范式之一。近年来, 研究者发展了多种BART变体范式, 对发展、健康以及精神病理等多领域的风险决策行为及其神经基础开展了广泛探索。BART任务中的风险决策加工与腹侧纹状体、前扣带皮层、脑岛、中脑及背外侧前额叶等脑区的激活相关。未来研究需要进一步完善BART任务在风险决策认知神经领域的信效度并扩展BART的应用情境。     

Construct validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART): associations with psychopathy and impulsivity

To continue research assessing the validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) as a measure of risk taking, the BART was administered to a nonforensic sample of individuals with varying levels of psychopathic characteristics. Construct validity of the BART was evaluated by measuring risk-taking behavior in relation to self-reported psychopathy, anxiety, psychophysiological data, and demographic variables. Supporting the construct validity of the BART, while controlling for variance accounted for by interrelated variables in the context of hierarchical regression analyses, higher self-reported psychopathy was significantly predictive of increased risk taking on the BART. Findings also revealed interesting gender differences in self-reported psychopathy and a trend for men to engage in riskier behavior. Limitations and research directions are presented.     

Salient Volunteering Behavior Increases Monetary Risk‐taking

Research finds that engaging in prosocial behavior has many positive psychological outcomes (e.g., enhanced well‐being, optimism, perceived control, and a boost in self‐concept), and research on monetary risk‐taking reveals these psychological outcomes are associated with increased risk‐taking. Merging these findings, we propose that when people's volunteering behavior is made salient in their minds, they take more monetary risks. Making research participants’ volunteering behavior salient by having them recall an act of prior volunteering (studies 1 and 3), choosing whether to volunteer (study 2), or choosing one of two volunteering activities (study 4), four experiments (and a fifth reported in the Appendix S2) reveal increased risk‐taking across several monetary‐risk outcomes (incentive‐compatible gambles, allocation of a windfall gain, and a behavioral risk‐taking measure involving escalating risk). Lastly, when the decision maker attributes a decision to volunteer to an external source, the effect of salient volunteering on monetary risk‐taking attenuates.     

Physical risk taking in elementary-school children: Measurement and emotion regulation issues

Children who engage in physical risk taking experience more injuries. In the present study children 7-12 years completed laboratory tasks and standardized questionnaires to explore inter-relations between measures of risk taking and to determine if the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) is a valid index of physical risk taking. Emotion regulation skills also were assessed to determine if poorer skills are associated with greater risk taking, and what measures of risk taking show these relations. Results revealed that general measures of risk taking propensity predicted both BART performance and physical risk taking. Similarly, poorer emotion regulation skills were associated with greater risk taking scores for both the BART and physical risk taking task. Measures of physical risk taking related to one another, however, none of these scores related to performance on the BART. Implications for measuring physical risk taking and exploring emotional links to risk taking in future research are discussed.     

Compensation method affects risk-taking in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

Different participant compensation methods may have discrepant effects on decision-making in behavioral measures of risk-taking. Participants in clinical samples tend to receive session-based payment (often in conjunction with decision-based payment), whereas participants in student samples generally receive decision-based payment or no payment at all. This study examined the effect of different methods of participant payment on a behavioral measure of individual differences in risk-taking. Participants completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) as well as questionnaire measures of sensation-seeking and impulsivity. Participants who received session-based payment engaged in significantly greater risk-taking in the BART compared to those who were paid based on their decisions and those who were not paid at all (i.e., those who were only compensated with course credit). These effects were not influenced by age, gender, sensation-seeking or impulsivity. These findings provide evidence that different compensation methods significantly influence participants’ risk-taking propensity as measured by the BART.     

Risk‐Taking Tendencies in Prisoners and Nonprisoners: Does Gender Matter?

Several investigations have found that prisoners are more likely than nonprisoners to engage in risky behavior, which may contribute to their propensity to commit criminal offenses. However, this research has been limited by an almost exclusive focus on male samples. Given the established link between risk taking and gender, it is thus unclear how findings on the risk‐taking propensities of prisoners also hold in women. The present study uses both a self‐report questionnaire (Domain‐Specific Risk Taking scale, DOSPERT) and a behavioral task (Balloon Analogue Risk Task, BART) to investigate risk‐taking tendencies in a Chinese prisoner group and a nonprisoner control group with balanced gender proportions. Across both genders, prisoners both indicated a higher risk‐taking tendency on the DOSPERT and showed more risk‐taking behavior on the BART than did nonprisoners. Importantly, the differences were considerably more pronounced in women than in men. Relative to nonprisoners, gender differences in risk taking were substantially smaller, or even reversed, in prisoners. Computational modeling of respondents' behavior in the BART revealed that the prisoners had higher reward sensitivity and lower response consistency than the nonprisoners; these differences were again more pronounced among women. Our results suggest that previous studies based primarily on male prisoners may have underestimated differences in risk taking between prisoners and nonprisoners, and that female prisoners may represent an even more extreme subpopulation than male prisoners. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attachment style as a piedictor of sexual attitudes and behavior in late Adolescence

Abstract

This research applied attachment theory to the study of sexual attitudes and behaviors in a sample of late adolescents. Four hundred and seventy heterosexual undergraduate students completed questionnaires assessing attachment (discomfort with closeness; anxiety over relationships). relationship history, communication about sex. sexual self-efficacy and locus of control, and attitudes to condoms. Eight weeks later, participants reported on sexual behaviors occurring during the eight-week interval. and perceived risk of these activities. Both discomfort with closeness and anxiety over relationships were associated with external locus of control for sexual outcomes, and with use of drugs before sexual contact. Anxiety over relationships was linked to unsafe sex and to negative attitudes to condoms, but discomfort with closeness was associated with a more cautious approach to sexual risk-taking. Some results were qualified by gender differences. and by differences between the full sample and those who were sexually active. The findings arc discussed in terms of attachment style and its links with communication and affect regulation.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This study indicates that attachment dimensions are reliably related to many aspects of sexual attitudes and behaviors among late adolescents. Insecure attachment was linked to increased drug use before sexual contact. Anxiety over relationships was also linked to less safe sexual practice, but discomfort with closeness was associated with a tendency for males to be cautious about sexual risk-taking. The results support the utility of the attachment perspective on adolescent sexuality, but also highlight the complex relations between attachment dimensions and sexual outcomes. Future research would benefit from more detailed investigations of the attitudes, emotions, and cognitions which may mediate the link between attachment style and sexual behavior. For example, those who are highly anxious about their relationships may engage in more risky sexual practices because they fear that non-compliance with partners' wishes will jeopardize their relationship; the tendency to engage in drug use before sexual cpntact may reflect their attempts to boost self-confidence or to manage negative mood states. Research into these issues has the potential to explain how attachment insecurity is played out in patterns of sexual activity.     

Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

The present study (N = 86) sought to evaluate a laboratory-based behavioral measure of risk taking (the Balloon Analogue Risk Task; BART) and to test associations between this measure and self-report measures of risk-related constructs as well as self-reported real-world risk behaviors. The BART evidenced sound experimental properties, and riskiness on the BART was correlated with scores on measures of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and deficiencies in behavioral constraint. Also, riskiness on the BART was correlated with the self-reported occurrence of addictive, health, and safety risk behaviors, with the task accounting for variance in these behaviors beyond that accounted for by demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs. These results indicate that the BART may be a useful tool in the assessment of risk taking.     

Bursting with anxiety: adult social referencing in an interpersonal balloon analogue risk task (BART)

This study developed an interpersonal modification of the balloon analogue risk task (BART) to assess effects of a friend's real-time facial expressions on coparticipants' risk-taking. Twenty pairs of male friends and 20 pairs of female friends completed two counterbalanced versions of BART, one framed in terms of monetary gain, and the other framed in terms of avoiding loss. Each pair included a player who performed the task across both trials and a reference person in a separate cubicle connected via a soundless video link. In the suppression condition, reference persons were told to minimize facial expressions of anxiety as balloons inflated. In the expression condition, they were told to freely express anxiety. As predicted, players took greater risks and burst more balloons in the suppression condition, but only under the gain frame. Players' BART scores across both frames were also significantly negatively correlated with reference persons' scores on a questionnaire measure of dispositional expressivity (BEQ), confirming that other people's expressions can moderate one's own risk-taking.     

越老越风险规避吗？——年龄对冲动性预测决策行为的调节效应

年老化伴随着风险承担倾向的改变,而决策行为受冲动性的影响是否受到年龄的调节尚不清楚。研究采用两种不同类型的决策任务以及Barratt冲动性量表,考察老年人风险承担在自我报告和决策行为上的改变。结果显示老年人在剑桥博弈任务中更加风险寻求而在模拟充气球任务中更加风险规避。同时冲动性可以显著预测模拟充气球的行为,且该预测受到年龄的调节。研究结果提示,老年人并不是单一的更加风险规避或者风险寻求,而是与任务特异性相关。同时,冲动性可以较好的预测年轻人的决策行为,而对老年人的决策行为没有预测作用。     

Connections Between Violent Television Exposure and Adolescent Risk Taking

This study utilized a survey to assess television viewing and risk-taking behavior in 717 adolescents (age 11-22). Results indicated that, among adolescents, there is a link between exposure to violent television in the form of violent drama, realistic crime shows and contact sports and participation in various forms of risk taking: problem drinking, drinking and driving, delinquency (vandalizing, trespassing, truancy), reckless driving, and drug use. However, the relationship between exposure to various forms of violent television content and risk-taking behavior varies somewhat. Specifically, exposure to realistic crime shows and exposure to contact sports is positively related to risk taking; whereas, exposure to violent drama is negatively related to risk-taking behavior Predictions are made and findings discussed in terms of problem behavior theory. Implications for health messages targeting adolescents are discussed.     

Personality and sexual risk taking: a quantitative review

Findings from a quantitative review of the empirical research literature on normal personality and sexual risk taking are reported. The review focuses on domains identified in major models of normal personality representing the psychobiological and taxonomic perspectives. Focal sexual risk-taking behaviors were number of partners, unprotected sex, and high-risk sexual encounters (e.g., sex with a stranger). A comprehensive search produced 53 studies relevant to the review. A striking feature of the results is the paucity of research on domains of normal personality and sexual risk taking for all domains other than sensation seeking, which accounted for 64% of the effect sizes. The preponderance of studies (81%) took the psychobiological perspective and were published since 1990 (75%). Among the substantive findings were effects for sensation seeking, impulsivity, and agreeableness on all sexual risk-taking behaviors considered. Additionally, there were effects on specific behaviors for neuroticism and conscientiousness. The implications of these findings for future research on normal personality and sexual risk taking are discussed.     

Cursing as a Form of Risk-Taking

The research investigated the relationships among cursing, risk-taking (i.e., drinking, smoking, using illegal drugs, and engaging in risky sexual behavior), and personality variables that have been shown to be related to risk-taking (i.e., sensation-seeking and Big-Five personality factors). In a study with 360 participants, the results showed that for both men and women, those who took more risks in daily life also reported cursing more than others. Men and women who scored higher on disinhibition and experience-seeking reported taking more risks and cursing more than others. Men and women who scored higher in conscientiousness reported taking fewer risks and reported cursing less than others. The results of a multiple regression analyses showed that frequency of curse word usage was predicted by disinhibition and risk-taking, and cursing behavior was predicted by disinhibition, risk-taking, and emotional stability. Overall men reported taking more risks and cursing more often than women; however, in the multiple regression analyses, participant sex was not among the significant predictors. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

拿破仑情结的进化：相对身高劣势和求偶动机对男性冒险行为的影响

研究以性选择理论为基础, 探讨了与同性竞争者的相对身高劣势和求偶动机对男性冒险行为的影响。4个研究一致显示, 与同性竞争者存在的身高劣势会导致男性提高自身冒险性; 且高求偶动机水平的男性, 会更多地表现出这种补偿性行为。这些结果提示, 拿破仑情结具有进化的基础, 男性在自身身高与竞争者相比处于劣势时, 采用冒险行为进行补偿是男性用以解决性内竞争和性间竞争问题的一种适应器。     

The Role of Family Affect in Juvenile Drug Court Offenders’ Substance Use and HIV Risk

Family-based interventions targeting parenting factors, such as parental monitoring and parent–child communication, have been successful in reducing adolescent offenders’ substance use and delinquency. This pilot, exploratory study focuses on family and parenting factors that may be relevant in reducing juvenile offenders’ substance use and sexual risk taking behavior, and in particular examines the role of family emotional involvement and responsiveness in young offenders’ risk-taking behaviors. Participants included 53 juvenile drug court offenders and their parents. Results indicate that poor parent–child communication is associated with marijuana use and unprotected sexual activity for young offenders; however, family affective responsiveness is also a significant unique predictor of unprotected sexual activity for these youth. Findings suggest that interventions focused on improving parent–child communication may reduce both marijuana use and risky sexual behavior among court-involved youth, but a specific intervention focused on improving parents and young offenders’ ability to connect with and respond to one another emotionally may provide a novel means of reducing unprotected sexual risk behaviors.     

Behavioral Approach System Sensitivity and Risk Taking Interact to Predict Left-Frontal EEG Asymmetry

The Behavioral Approach System (BAS) hypersensitivity theory of bipolar disorder (BD; Alloy & Abramson, 2010; Depue & Iacono, 1989) suggests that hyperreactivity in the BAS results in the extreme fluctuations of mood characteristic of BD. In addition to risk conferred by BAS hypersensitivity, cognitive and personality variables may play a role in determining risk. We evaluated relationships among BAS sensitivity, risk taking, and an electrophysiological correlate of approach motivation, relative left-frontal electroencephalography (EEG) asymmetry. BAS sensitivity moderated the relationship between risk taking and EEG asymmetry. More specifically, individuals who were high in BAS sensitivity showed left-frontal EEG asymmetry regardless of their level of risk-taking behavior. However, among individuals who were moderate in BAS sensitivity, risk taking was positively associated with asymmetry. These findings suggest that cognitive and personality correlates of bipolar risk may evidence unique contributions to a neural measure of trait-approach motivation. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Sex Differences in Risk Taking: Repeated Sessions on a Computer-Simulated Task

Two experiments were conducted to investigate sex differences in risktaking behavior on a computer-generated and controlled task. Male and female subjects faced a video display of simulated mine fields with varying numbers and patterns of dots representing mines in the fields. In Experiment 1, they estimated the probability that a tank might successfully cross 100 mine fields when starting from an unknown point below each field. This was followed by the risk-taking task in which they decided whether to send a tank across each of the fields. The participants were tested on the risk-taking task once in Experiment 1 and over four separate sessions in Experiment 2. Scores, based on decision outcomes, and decision latencies were recorded. No significant sex differences were found in the participants' ability to estimate probabilities or in their total scores for decisions made on the risk-taking task. In low probability-of-success situations, women initially took greater risks than men but took longer to make their decisions; in all subsequent sessions, this pattern was reversed, with men taking greater risks and a longer time to make decisions. The findings support the growing body of evidence that men are more inclined to take risks than women in a variety of situations, indicate the importance of obtaining data over repeated sessions when investigating sex differences in risk taking, and demonstrate that computer-simulated tasks can provide a valid means for laboratory studies of sex differences in risk taking.