Attachment and trait forgivingness: The mediating role of angry rumination

Integrating theories of attachment and forgiveness, we predicted that secure attachment reduces angry rumination and promotes forgiveness. To examine this prediction, in Study 1 (n = 213), participants completed the Experience in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998) and the Trait Forgiveness Scale (TFS; Berry, Worthington, O’Connor, Parrott, & Wade, 2005). Individuals who were classified as securely attached displayed greater dispositional forgivingness than did insecurely attached individuals. In Study 2 (n = 218) we included the Dissipation-Rumination Scale (DRS; Caprara, 1986). Results from Study 2 replicated the association between attachment security and greater dispositional forgivingness and confirmed the mediating role of angry rumination in the attachment–forgivingness relation.     

Taxometric and factor analytic models of anxiety sensitivity: integrating approaches to latent structural research

This study represents an effort to better understand the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS), as indexed by the 16-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; S. Reiss, R. A. Peterson, M. Gursky, & R. J. McNally, 1986), by using taxometric and factor-analytic approaches in an integrative manner. Taxometric analyses indicated that AS has a taxonic latent class structure (i.e., a dichotomous latent class structure) in a large sample of North American adults (N=2,515). As predicted, confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a multidimensional 3-factor model of AS provided a good fit for the AS complement class (normative or low-risk form) but not the AS taxon class (high-risk form). Exploratory factor analytic results suggested that the AS taxon may demonstrate a unique, unidimensional factor solution, though there are alternative indications that it may be characterized by a 2-factor solution. Findings suggest that the latent structural nature of AS can be conceptualized as a taxonic latent class structure composed of 2 types or forms of AS, each of these forms characterized by its own unique latent continuity and dimensional structure.     

Sex differences in response to an observational fear conditioning procedure

The present study evaluated sex differences in observational fear conditioning using modeled “mock” panic attacks as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Fifty-nine carefully prescreened healthy undergraduate participants (30 women) underwent 3 consecutive differential conditioning phases: habituation, acquisition, and extinction. It was expected that participants watching a confederate display mock panic attacks (UCS) paired with a previously neutral stimulus (CS⁺) would learn to respond fearfully to the CS⁺, but not to the CS⁻ (i.e., a stimulus never associated with displays of panic). Women also were expected to report more distress and ratings of panic to the CS⁺ than the CS⁻ compared to men, but no sex differences were anticipated on autonomic indices of conditioning (i.e., electrodermal responses). Consistent with expectation, aversive conditioning was demonstrated by greater magnitude electrodermal and verbal-evaluative (e.g., subjective units of distress scale, panic ratings) responses to the CS⁺ over the CS⁻, with women reporting more distress to the CS⁺ over the CS⁻, but not greater autonomic conditioning, compared to men. Overall, the results support the notion that modeled panic attacks can serve as a potent UCS for both men and women. Discussion focuses on sex differences in observational fear conditioning and its relation to the clinical presentation of anxiety disorders.     

Observational fear conditioning in the acquisition and extinction of attentional bias for threat: an experimental evaluation

Anxious persons show automatic and strategic attentional biases for threatening information. Yet, the mechanisms and processes that underlie such biases remain unclear. The central aim of the present study was to elucidate the relation between observational threat learning and the acquisition and extinction of biased threat processing by integrating emotional Stroop color naming tasks within an observational differential fear conditioning procedure. Forty-three healthy female participants underwent several consecutive observational fear conditioning phases. During acquisition, participants watched a confederate displaying mock panic attacks (UCS) paired with a verbal stimulus (CS+), but not with a second nonreinforced verbal stimulus (CS-). As expected, participants showed greater magnitude electrodermal and verbal-evaluative (e.g., distress, fear) conditioned responses to the CS+ over the CS- word. Participants also demonstrated slower color-naming latencies to CS+ compared to the CS- word following acquisition and showed attenuation of this preferential processing bias for threat following extinction. Findings are discussed broadly in the context of the interplay between fear learning and processing biases for threat as observed in persons suffering from anxiety disorders.     

Cognition and Emotion,Volume 24, 2010, List of Reviewers

The tendency for anxious individuals to selectively attend to threatening information is believed to cause and exacerbate anxious emotional responding in a self-perpetuating cycle. The present study sought to examine the relation between differential interoceptive conditioning (IC) using carbon dioxide inhalation as a panicogenic unconditioned stimulus (US) and the development of Stroop colour-naming interference to various non-word conditioned stimuli (CSs). Healthy university students (N = 27) underwent the assessment of colour-naming interference to reinforced CS+ and non-reinforced CS? non-words prior to and following differential fear conditioning. Participants showed greater magnitude electrodermal and verbal-evaluative responses to the CS+ over the CS? non-word following IC, and demonstrated the expected slower colour-naming latencies to the CS+ compared to the CS? non-word from baseline to post-conditioning. We discuss the relation between fear learning and the emergence of attentional bias for threat to further understand the maintenance of anxiety disorders.     

Peer-Based Interventions on Academic Integrity: Assessing Immediate and Long Term Learning

The current study extends previous literature regarding the effectiveness of learning about academic integrity through peer instruction by assessing the impact of a peer instructional approach for actual and perceived learning gains over time. One trained residence don provided one interactive 30-min presentation covering four major aspects of academic integrity and misconduct (i.e., definition, detection, consequences, and importance of academic integrity) to groups of undergraduate students. In total, 192 participants attended the workshop and were surveyed for their knowledge of academic integrity immediately before the presentation, immediately after the presentation, and after a four week delay. Perceptions regarding the presentation also were assessed. Consistent with previous literature, results indicate perceived learning gains and preference for having an interactive presentation delivered by a residence don. In addition, actual gains in knowledge were found immediately after the presentation and gains remained evident over a four-week delay. Outcomes suggest that peer instruction is a viable and effective approach for educating students about academic integrity.     

��I��ll Get That for You��: The Relationship Between Benevolent Sexism and Body Self-Perceptions

Benevolent sexism has been shown to have negative consequences for women. In the present study, we investigated whether there were differences in reports of body self-perceptions between 93 college women in the southeastern United States who either witnessed or did not witness a staged act of benevolent sexism. Because we believed that benevolent sexism could make beauty norms more salient, we hypothesized that women who witnessed benevolent sexism would report higher levels of self-objectification, body surveillance, and body shame. Women who witnessed benevolent sexism did report higher levels of surveillance and shame, constructs associated with self-objectification, but not higher general levels of self-objectification. This research provides more evidence of the negative effects benevolent sexism has on women.     

Examining the Impact of Dons Providing Peer Instruction for Academic Integrity: Dons’ and Students’ Perspectives

A peer instruction model was used whereby 78 residence dons (36 males, 42 females) provided instruction regarding academic integrity for 324 students (125 males, 196 females) under their supervision. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to assess survey responses from both the dons and students regarding presentation content, quality, and learning. Overall, dons consistently identified information-based slides about academic integrity as the most important material for the presentations, indicating that fundamental information was needed. Although student ratings of the usefulness of the presentations were middling, students did indicate knowledge gains. Both interest and personal value for academic integrity were highly predictive of positive evaluations of the presentations. Dons and students provided suggestions for improvement and identified more global concerns.     

A meta-analysis of intergroup forgiveness

In the past decade, interest has flourished in the empirical study of forgiveness in the wake of intergroup conflicts. In the current paper, we sought to empirically integrate the diverse predictors of intergroup forgiveness building on a tripartite model that incorporates affective, cognitive, and constraining features. Using a random effects approach, we meta-analyzed (N = 13,371; k = 43) correlates of intergroup forgiveness across diverse conflicts (e.g. 65% intrastate, 35% interstate) and populations (20 different nationalities; 60% female). We tested the effect of nine distinct predictors and investigated study characteristics as moderators of these effects (i.e. sex of victim and conflict type). Collective guilt [r = 0.49] and trust [r = 0.42] emerged as the strongest facilitators, whereas negative emotions [r = ?0.33] and in-group identity [r = ?0.32] emerged as the strongest barriers to intergroup forgiveness. We discuss practical applications of these findings.