Context-specific freezing and associated physiological reactivity as a dysregulated fear response

The putative association between fear-related behaviors and peripheral sympathetic and neuroendocrine reactivity has not been replicated consistently. This inconsistency was addressed in a reexamination of the characterization of children with extreme fearful reactions by focusing on the match between distress behaviors and the eliciting context. Eighty 24-month-old children were observed in 4 mildly threatening contexts, and the relations among different measures of fear-related behaviors, reactive and basal cortisol levels, and baseline cardiac measures of heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and preejection period (PEP) were examined. The hypothesis that only behaviors under the less threatening context would be associated with higher cortisol and sympathetic cardiac activity was confirmed; only task-specific freezing behavior predicted higher reactive and basal cortisol levels and resting PEP measured 1 week later. Implications for the conceptualization of dysregulated fear behaviors in the classification of extremely fearful children are discussed.     

Persönlichkeitsspezifische Komponenten des Entscheidungsverhaltens

Zusammenfassung Es wurden Beziehungen zwischen der Interferenzneigung (Stroop) und dem Entscheidungsverhalten untersucht. 64 Vpn führten 2 Versuche durch, in denen sie Entscheidungen mit Risiko zu treffen hatten. In dem Murmelversuch, der zur Messung von Wahrscheinlichkeitsbevorzugungen diente, entschied der Zufall über den Erfolg. In dem Kugelversuch hing der Erfolg davon ab, ob es der Vp gelang, eine Stahlkugel durch ein Tor zu stoßen. Beim Murmelversuch neigten die hohen Interferenzler (HI) mehr zur Wahl der niedrigen, die niedrigen Interferenzler (NI) mehr zur Wahl der hohen Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeiten. Das haben wir im Sinne der Annahme gedeutet, daß HI long samplers, NI short samplers sind. Long sampling definierten wir als die Neigung, Information aus einem räumlich, zeitlich oder inhaltlich großen Bereich zu berücksichtigen. Nach unserer Auffassung wirkt sich long bzw. short sampling so aus, daß den objektiven Wahrscheinlichkeiten gegenüber die subjektiven Wahrscheinlichkeiten bei HI mehr zur Mitte, bei NI mehr zu den Extremen der Skala hin verschoben sind. Hypothetisch angenommene Werte, die dieser theoretischen Vorstellung entsprechen, wurden in das SEU-Modell des Entscheidungsverhaltens von Edwards eingesetzt. Die Aussagen dieses Modells entsprachen unseren empirischen Ergebnissen. Auch differenzierten HI in geringerem Maße zwischen der Links-Rechtslage der Kugelaufgaben und wiesen weniger Intransitivität bei Entscheidungen auf, die einen stark und einen wenig beachteten Aspekt enthielten. Diese Ergebnisse interpretierten wir ebenfalls mit Hilfe des sampling-Begriffs. Wir konnten zeigen, daß eine Vielzahl von Ergebnissen aus der Literatur des Interferenzphänomens unter dem Gesichtspunkt von long und short sampling in ein theoretisches System gebracht werden kann.

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Personality components of decision makingI. Relationships between decision-making behavior and, interference proneness

Summary Relationships between proneness to perceptual interference (Stroop) and decision-making behavior were investigated. 64 Ss took part in two experiments. In one, designed to measure probability preferences, success was determined by chance. In the other success depended upon skill in hitting a ball between two posts. In the first experiment high interference (HI) Ss chose lower probabilities of success. Interpretation of these results was based on the assumption that HI are long samplers and LI (low interference Ss) short samplers. Long sampling was defined as the tendency to process information from a wide area as regards content, space and time-span. The respective sampling tendencies were held to induce the subjective probabilities of HI to be displaced toward the middle of the scale, those of LI toward the extremes in relation to objective probabilities. Hypothetical values corresponding to this conception were inserted in Edwards' SEU-model. Predictions of the model concurred with our results. Also explainable in terms of sampling were the findings that HI differentiated to a lesser degree between the relative difficulty of the left and right positions in the ball-hitting tasks and demonstrated less intransitivity in decisions containing two aspects of unequal subjective importance. It could be shown that a wide range of results reported in the literature on the interference phenomenon are interpretable on the basis of long and short sampling.

     

Olfactory cuing of autobiographical memory

In Experiment 1, subjects were presented with either the odors or the names of 15 common objects. In Experiment 2, subjects were presented with either the odors, photographs, or names of 16 common objects. All subjects were asked to describe an autobiographical memory evoked by each cue, to date each memory, and to rate each memory on vividness, pleasantness, and the number of times that the memory had been thought of and talked about prior to the experiment. Compared with memories evoked by photographs or names, memories evoked by odors were reported to be thought of and talked about less often prior to the experiment and were more likely to be reported as never having been thought of or talked about prior to the experiment. No other effects were consistently found, though there was a suggestion that odors might evoke more pleasant and emotional memories than other types of cues. The relation of these results to the folklore concerning olfactory cuing is discussed.     

Cancer Victim Identity for Individuals with Histories of Cancer and Childhood Sexual Abuse

Identifying as a ‘cancer victim’ has been linked to adverse psychosocial sequelae in individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer. Being a childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivor may predispose individuals towards a “victim” identity in general. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of identifying as a ‘cancer victim’ among CSA survivors who were diagnosed with cancer as adults, and to explore psychological factors associated with identification as a cancer victim. 105 adults reporting both a history of CSA and of having been diagnosed with cancer as an adult were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Variables assessed included CSA severity, abuse-related powerlessness, general mastery, and cancer victim identity. Fifty-one percent of the sample endorsed a cancer victim identity. Path analysis revealed that abuse-related powerlessness was related to decreased feelings of general mastery, which was in turn associated with cancer victim identification (x ² = .12, DF = 1, p < .73; RMSEA = .00; SRMR = .01: Bentler CFI = 1.0). From a clinical perspective, the results suggest that increasing general mastery in CSA survivors in the cancer setting may be an important mechanism for attenuating the risk for developing a cancer victim identity and, presumably, for downstream adverse psychosocial sequelae.     

Control over grain size in memory reporting--with and without satisfying knowledge

When answering questions from memory, respondents strategically control the precision or coarseness of their answers. This grain control process is guided by 2 countervailing aims: to be informative and to be correct. Previously, M. Goldsmith, A. Koriat, and A. Weinberg Eliezer (2002) proposed a satisfying model in which respondents provide the most precise answer that passes a minimum-confidence report criterion. Pointing to social-pragmatic considerations, the present research shows the need to incorporate a minimum-informativeness criterion as well. Unlike its predecessor, the revised, "dual-criterion" model implies a distinction between 2 theoretical knowledge states: Under moderate-to-high levels of satisfying knowledge, a grain size can be found that jointly satisfies both criteria--confidence and informativeness. In contrast, under lower levels of unsatisfying knowledge, the 2 criteria conflict--one cannot be satisfied without violating the other. In support of the model, respondents often violated the confidence criterion in deference to the informativeness criterion, particularly when answering under low knowledge, despite having full control over grain size. Results also suggest a key role for the "don't know" response which, when available, can be used preferentially to circumvent the criterion conflict.     

Examining the familial link between positive affect and empathy development in the second year

Within a sample of 584 twins aged 12 to 25 months (292 pairs) studied longitudinally, positive affect measured through two laboratory pleasure episodes and maternal report at 12 and 22 months significantly predicted empathy-related helping and hypothesis testing assessed between 19 and 25 months. Girls showed significantly more concern than did boys, whereas boys engaged in hypothesis testing significantly more than did girls. Behavior-genetic analyses indicated substantial shared environmental influences for positive affect and empathy composites of helping and concern. Genetics and the nonshared environment influenced empathy-related hypothesis testing. The best fitting bivariate model included shared and nonshared environmental influences on positive affect and helping, with environment accounting for the covariation between the two traits. The covariation between positive affect and hypothesis testing was genetically influenced.