When Thoughts Turn Toward Nuclear War: Stress Responses,Coping Strategies,and the Importance of Trait Anxiety in Moderating Effects on “Mental Health”1

The present investigation attempted to link the concept of Nuclear Anxiety (NA) to theory and research on stress and coping, which would predict that person variables would be extremely important in determining the amount of anxiety precipitated by the hypothetical and ambiguous nature of nuclear war. In Part I of this study, 356 undergraduates were divided into high and low NA groups on the basis of state anxiety experienced while thinking about the threat of nuclear war. Groups were compared on five personality traits (trait anxiety, death anxiety, and three locus of control variables), two “mental health” indices (psychological well-being and expectancy for future goal attainment), five nuclear war-related attitudinal measures, nine nuclear threat orientations, nine strategies for coping with the threat, and a single behavioral measure of approach toward information about nuclear war. In Part II, the relationships between key explanatory variables were explored, and a preliminary model of Nuclear Anxiety was developed. Results revealed that the two NA groups differed on 22 of the 32 dependent measures, and that four variables (i.e., sustained [nuclear] concern, death anxiety, trait anxiety, and psychological well-being) were the best group discriminators. More importantly, path analysis revealed that trait anxiety rather than nuclear anxiety was the variable primarily controlling “mental health” status. Results are discussed with regard to the resiliency and adaptability of young people in dealing with the threat of nuclear war, intergroup differences in coping styles, and questions in need of further empirical attention.     

Effects of musically evoked affect on women's interpersonal attraction toward and perceptual judgments of physical attractiveness of men

In a between-subjects design, female subjects evaluated photographs of attractive and unattractive stimulus males while listening to positive affect-evoking rock music, negative affect-evoking avant-garde music, or no music at all. Consistent with previous research, subjects evaluated attractive stimulus males more positively than unattractive males on a variety of interpersonal judgment dimensions. Furthermore, subjects responded with more positive evaluations of personal character of, and attraction toward, stimulus persons in the rock music as compared to the avant-garde music condition. Finally, assessments of physical attractiveness were influenced by the music conditions, with stimulus persons judged of greater physical attractiveness in the rock as compared with the avant-garde music condition. The results are discussed in terms of extending the Byrne-Clore reinforcement-affect model of interpersonal attraction.     

In the Eye of the Beholder: Accounting for Variability in Attitudes and Cognitive/Affective Reactions Toward the Threat of Nuclear War1

The present study was designed to evaluate four characteristics of subjects [i.e., generation (students vs. parents), gender, nuclear threat orientation, and political affiliation] in terms of potential differences in attitudes and cognitive/affective reactions toward the threat of nuclear war. Subjects were 297 college students and their parents (n= 546), who completed a multifaceted questionnaire concerning nuclear-related thoughts, feelings, opinions, and predictions. Multivariate analyses suggested that college students were more distressed than parents about the threat of nuclear war, that men were less anxious than women and more supportive of a “peace through strength” perspective, that individuals endorsing the Disarmist orientation were more worried about nuclear war yet more optimistic than other groups concerning their ability to help reduce the nuclear threat, and that Republicans and Democrats were split along party lines in terms of their attitudes and cognitive/affective responses. Results are discussed with regard to the potential influence of sex-role socialization processes and the importance of optimism in a nuclear world.     

Differential effects of muscarinic receptor blockade in prelimbic cortex on acquisition and memory formation of an odor-reward task

The present experiments determined the consequences of blocking muscarinic cholinergic receptors of the prelimbic (PL) cortex in the acquisition and retention of an odor-reward associative task. Rats underwent a training test (five trials) and a 24-h retention test (two retention trials and two relearning trials). In the first experiment, rats were bilaterally infused with scopolamine (20 or 5 microg/site) prior to training. Although scopolamine rats showed acquisition equivalent to PBS-injected controls, they exhibited weakened performance in the 24-h retention test measured by number of errors. In the second experiment, rats were injected with scopolamine (20 microg/site) immediately or 1 h after training and tested 24 h later. Scopolamine rats injected immediately showed severe amnesia detected in two performance measures (errors and latencies), demonstrating deficits in retention and relearning, whereas those injected 1 h later showed good 24-h test performance, similar to controls. These results suggest that muscarinic transmission in the PL cortex is essential for early memory formation, but not for acquisition, of a rapidly learned odor discrimination task. Findings corroborate the role of acetylcholine in consolidation processes and the participation of muscarinic receptors in olfactory associative tasks.