On keeping your enemies close: powerful leaders seek proximity to ingroup power threats

Throughout history, humans have had to detect and deflect myriad threats from their social and physical environment in order to survive and flourish. When people detect a threat, the most common response is avoidance. In the present research, the authors provide evidence that ingroup power threats elicit a very different response. Three experiments supported the hypothesis that dominant leaders seek proximity to ingroup members who pose a threat to their power, as a way to control and downregulate the threat that those members pose. In each experiment, leaders high (but not low) in dominance motivation sought proximity to an ingroup member who threatened their power. Consistent with the hypothesis that increased proximity was designed to help leaders protect their own power, the proximity effect was apparent only under conditions of unstable power (not stable power), only in the absence of intergroup competition (not when a rival outgroup was present), and only toward a threatening group member (not a neutral group member). Moreover, the effect was mediated by perceptions of threat (Experiment 1) and the desire to monitor the threatening group member (Experiment 3). These results shed new light on one key strategy through which dominant leaders try to maintain control over valuable yet potentially threatening group members. Findings have implications for theories of power, leadership, and group behavior.     

Comparing posttraumatic stress disorder's symptom structure between deployed and nondeployed veterans

We tested two empirically validated 4-factor models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms using the PTSD Checklist: King, Leskin, King, and Weathers' (1998) model including reexperiencing, avoidance, emotional numbing, and hyperarousal factors, and Simms, Watson, and Doebbeling's (2002) model including reexperiencing, avoidance, dysphoria, and hyperarousal. Our aim was to determine which fit better in two groups of military veterans: peacekeepers previously deployed to a war zone (deployed group) and those trained for peacekeeping operations who were not deployed (nondeployed group). We compared the groups using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Adequate model fit was demonstrated among the nondeployed group, with no significant difference between King et al.'s (1998) model (separating avoidance and numbing) and Simms et al.'s (2002) similar model involving a dysphoria factor. A better fitting factor structure consistent with Simms et al.'s (2002) model was found in the deployed group. Comprehensive measurement invariance testing demonstrated significant differences between the deployed and nondeployed groups on all structural parameters, except observed variable intercepts (thus indicating similarities only in PTSD item severity). These findings add to researchers' understanding of PTSD's factor structure, given the revision of PTSD that will appear in the forthcoming 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2010)--namely, that the factor structure may be quite different between groups with and without exposure to major traumatic events.     

Assessment of affect integration: validation of the affect consciousness construct

Affect integration, or the capacity to utilize the motivational and signal properties of affect for personal adjustment, is assumed to be an important aspect of psychological health and functioning. Affect integration has been operationalized through the affect consciousness (AC) construct as degrees of awareness, tolerance, nonverbal expression, and conceptual expression of nine discrete affects. A semistructured Affect Consciousness Interview (ACI) and separate Affect Consciousness Scales (ACSs) have been developed to specifically assess these aspects of affect integration. This study explored the construct validity of AC in a Norwegian clinical sample including estimates of reliability and assessment of structure by factor analyses. External validity issues were addressed by examining the relationships between scores on the ACSs and self-rated symptom- and interpersonal problem measures as well as independent, observer-based ratings of personality disorder criteria and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994).     

Recognition of own- and other-race faces in autism spectrum disorders

Empirical data regarding the extent of face recognition abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is inconsistent. Here, 27 ASD and 47 typically developing (TD) children completed an immediate two-alternative forced-choice identity matching task. We contrasted recognition of own- and other-race faces, and, counter to prediction, we found a typical advantage for recognizing own- over other-race faces in both the ASD and TD groups. In addition, ASD and TD groups responded similarly to stimulus manipulations (use of identical or different photographs for identity matching and cropping stimuli to remove hair information). However, age-standardized scores varied widely within the ASD sample, and a subgroup of ASD participants with impaired face recognition did not exhibit a significant own-race recognition advantage. An explanation regarding early experience with faces is considered, and implications for research of individual variation within ASD are discussed.     

Specifying executive representations and processes in number generation tasks

The Interacting Cognitive Subsystems framework, ICS (Barnard, 1985) proposes that central executive phenomena can be accounted for by two autonomous subsystems, which process different forms of meaning: propositional and schematic (implicational) meanings. The apparent supervisory role of the executive arises from limitations on the exchange of information between these and other cognitive subsystems. This general proposal is elaborated in four experiments in which a total of 1,293 participants are asked to spontaneously generate a large verbal number to varying task constraints, with the intention of specifying the representations of number and task that underlie responses. Responses change systematically according to participants' use of explicit propositional information provided by the instructions, and inferred implicational information about what the experimenter is requesting. There was a high error rate (between 6% and 24%), participants producing responses that did not fall within the large range indicated by the instructions. The studies support the distinction between propositional and implicational processing in executive function, and provide a framework for understanding normal executive representations and processes.     

The role of risk avoidance in anxiety

Various forms of disinhibitory psychopathology (e.g., substance use disorder) are characterized by a tendency to make overly risky decisions. The current paper reports on data suggesting that, in contrast, anxiety is associated with an exaggerated tendency to engage in risk-avoidant decision making. In a nonclinical sample of university students, trait anxiety was associated with relatively low willingness to take risks, across a range of behavioral contexts. Trait anxiety was also associated with pessimistic risk appraisals (e.g., heightened perceptions of the likelihood and severity of negative outcomes). Furthermore, these associations were apparent while controlling for depression. Additional findings suggest that heightened perceptions of the severity of negative outcomes might mediate the link between trait anxiety and risk avoidance. This research has implications for understanding the role basic risk decision-making processes may play in the nature and treatment of anxiety.