The Relationship Between Perceived Probability of Personal Harm and Distressful Reactions During the Gulf War

This study investigated the relationship between threat appraisal, distressful reactions, and coping strategies of Israeli civilians under missile attack during the Gulf War. During the war, 66 subjects were asked about their perceived probability of being hurt by the missiles. Additionally, they completed a questionnaire that measured their fears and symptoms during the war, the State Anxiety scale of the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales, and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS, Endler & Parker, 1990). The results showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived probability of being hurt and the anxiety measures. A similar curvilinear relationship was found between perceived probability of being hurt and emotion coping strategy. Furthermore, it was found that those who appraised the possibility of being hurt as very high, more often used avoidance coping. The results are discussed within the framework of stress theories and are related to other inverted U-shape relationships found between threat appraisal and stressful reactions.     

Masculinity, popularity, and self-esteem among Israeli preadolescent girls

This study compared girls who evidence more traditionally masculine characteristics to girls who evidence more traditionally feminine characteristics for popularity and various aspects of self-esteem (general, home and parents, and social). Subjects were 166 Israeli girls aged 9 to 10 years who were categorized into four gender-role orientation groups: feminine, masculine, androgynous, and undifferentiated. They completed a tomboyism questionnaire designed for the study, which included items representing components of gender-stereotypes such as roles, physical appearance and occupation [K. Deaux and L. L. Lewis (1984) “Structure of Gender Stereotypes: Inter-relationships Among Components and Gender Label,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 46, pp. 991–1004]. All subjects completed Version A of the S. Coopersmith Self-Esteem Questionnaire [(1967)The Antecedents of Self-Esteem, San Francisco, Freeman] and their sociometric status was measured. Results indicated that those girls who reported both traits and behaviors considered to be traditionally masculine comprised a unique group. They were less popular, they had lower social self-esteem, and they were less satisfied with their gender.     

Social determinants of health,prenatal maternal stress,and earlier birth during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, pregnant women, especially those from socioeconomically disadvantaged and marginalized groups, experienced unprecedented stress. Prenatal stress and social determinants of health (SDoH) such as lower education and lack of a relationship partner are known to contribute to earlier birth. However, whether SDoH and stress independently contribute or whether the harmful impact of SDoH is mediated by stress is unknown. Moreover, the contributions of these factors has not been investigated in the context of a communal health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. To examine these processes, we used a longitudinal cohort of 2473 women pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic who reported a live birth. We compared structural equation models predicting gestational age at birth from SDoH (race/ethnicity, education, financial security, health insurance, relationship status, and lifetime abuse) and from prenatal maternal stress related and unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate that the association of SDoH with earlier birth was partially mediated by prenatal stress. These findings help uncover mechanisms explaining health disparities in the U.S. and highlight the need to address both SDoH and the stress that these factors produce in under-resourced and marginalized communities.     

Social embodiment in directional stepping behavior

Embodiment theories emphasize the role played by sensory and motor processes in psychological states, such as social information processing. Motivated by this idea, we examined how whole-body postural behaviors couple to social affective cues, viz., pictures of smiling and angry faces. We adopted a Simon-like paradigm, whereby healthy female volunteers were asked to select and initiate a forward or backward step on a force plate in response to the gender of the poser (male/female), regardless of emotion. Detailed analysis of the spatiotemporal unfolding of the body center of pressure during the steps revealed that task-irrelevant emotion had no effect on the initiation times of the steps, i.e., there was no evidence of an affective Simon effect. An unexpected finding was that steps were initiated relatively slow in response to female angry faces. This Stroop-like effect suggests that postural behavior is influenced by whether certain stimulus features match or mismatch.     

Extraversion, trait-anxiety and expression of positive feelings

The present study investigated the relationship between expression of positive feelings and two personality variables: Extraversion-Introversion and trait anxiety. Eighty-eight undergraduates completed the Extraversion Scale (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964), the A-Trait scale (Spielberger, Gorsuch and Lushene, 1970) and the positive assertiveness subscale of the CSES (Galassi and Galassi, 1974). As predicted, a positive relationship was found between extraversion and positive assertiveness and a negative relationship between trait-anxiety and assertiveness.