Disclosure of anxiety in everyday life: Effects of social anxiety

The current study examined the likelihood of disclosing one’s anxiety to others during anxiety-provoking conversations, as reported by individuals high or low in social anxiety. It investigated to whom these disclosures are made, and the content and intended purposes of these disclosures. Undergraduate students and community members low (n = 79) or high (n = 81) in social anxiety completed the Anxiety Disclosure in Everyday Life questionnaire, as well as several other measures as part of another study. Analyses indicated that individuals high in social anxiety were significantly less likely to disclose their anxiety as compared to individuals low in social anxiety. The likelihood of disclosing one’s anxiety varied significantly depending on to whom one was speaking, with intimate partners being disclosed to the most. The content of the disclosures typically involved stating that one is feeling shy or nervous without offering an explanation, or attributing it to one’s personality traits (e.g., shyness), with the intended purpose often being to elicit assistance or reassurance from their conversation partner or to manage the impressions of others.     

The general factor of personality and humor styles

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between a general factor of personality (GFP) and four humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Participants were 571 same-sex adult twin pairs. Individuals completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and a short form of the NEO personality scale (from which the GFP was extracted). The GFP was found to be heritable with an estimated value of .31. At the phenotypic level, the GFP was found to correlate significantly with the HSQ scales; positively with affiliative and self-enhancing, and negatively with aggressive and self-defeating. Three of the four phenotypic correlations were found to be attributable to correlated genetic factors, suggesting that these dimensions of humor styles and the GFP may have a common genetic factor.     

Family factors in childhood obesity

Abstract

Childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States today. Children become its victims and often carry obesity-producing habits into adulthood. Much research has been reported on obesity, but little has touched on how family dynamics affect childhood obesity. This article explores the family dynamics of childhood obesity, and presents evidence supporting the need for a family-based treatment model.     

Situational Familiarity,Efficacy Expectations,and the Process of Credibility Attribution

Four experiments investigated the influence of situational familiarity within a judgmental context on the process of credibility attribution. We predicted that high familiarity with a situation would lead to higher efficacy expectations for, and a more pronounced use of, verbal information when making judgments of credibility. Under low situational familiarity, judges were expected to experience higher efficacy expectations for, and a more pronounced use of, nonverbal information. In Experiments 1 through 4, participants under low or high situational familiarity saw a film in which nonverbal cues (fidgety vs. calm movements) and verbal content cues (low vs. high plausibility) were manipulated. As predicted, when familiarity was low, only the nonverbal cues influenced participants’ judgments of credibility. In contrast, participants in the high familiarity condition used only the verbal cues. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that efficacy expectations regarding verbal and nonverbal information, but not processing motivation, drive this familiarity effect.     

Contextual Variations of Infrahumanization: The Role of Physical Context and Territoriality

The malleability of the infrahumanization bias was tested varying the physical context in which the ingroup and the outgroup target were assessed. Using a sequential priming paradigm, Study 1 replicated the infrahumanization bias in a neutral context. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that there are contextual variations in infrahumanization. Specifically, Black targets were infrahumanized in a context familiar to White participants, and not in an unfamiliar context. Study 3 revealed that participants’ threat perceptions were reduced when ingroup targets appeared in familiar context, compared to Black targets. Theoretical implications for the infrahumanization bias are discussed.     

Adult Attachment and Exploration: Linking Attachment Style to Motivation and Perceptions of Support in Adult Exploration

Taking an attachment theory perspective, the present studies investigated partner-related motives for exploration and perceptions of romantic partners as persons who might provide support for exploration. We argue, from an attachment theory perspective, that more avoidant persons may use exploration as a way to distance themselves from their partners, whereas more anxious persons may use exploration as a means of getting closer to or depending on their partners. Attachment theory also suggests that more insecure individuals will tend to see their partners as providing less support and less effective support for exploration. Our research found support for both of these hypotheses. In this article we also investigate potential mediating models for linking attachment style to motives for exploration and perceptions of partner support.     

Efectos de anticipación y de stroop en tareas de denominación y categorización de dibujos y de palabras

Resumen

Se llevó a cabo un experimento con vistas a estudiar el procesamiento de dibujos y de palabras en el marco de los paradigmas de Stroop y de anticipación. Las variables de tarea, modalidad y de relación semántica fueron equivalentes en ambos paradigmas. Según el intervalo temporal entre los estímulos se establecieron tres condiciones experimentales: condición previa—anticipación—, condición simultánea—Stroop—, y condición previa y simultánea—Stroop y anticipación—. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la existencia de efectos de facilitación e interferencia de signo opuesto que se atribuyen a la interacción entre la secuencia temporal entre los estímulos componentes, las demandas de las respectivas tareas y la modalidad en la memoria activa. Los resultados se discuten en relación con el diferente procesamiento a que se someten los dibujos y las palabras y la naturaleza del formato de representación.     

Heart Rate and Affective Reactions to State Self-Objectification as a Function of Gender

The purpose of the present study was to examine heart rate (HR) and affective reactions to state self-objectification as a function of gender. We examined negative affect, positive affect, guilt, and HR at 6-second and 5-minute intervals across baseline, control, high objectification, low objectification, and cologne conditions in men (n = 53) and women (n = 57). Mixed factorial MANOVA results indicated a statistically significant Gender × Condition interaction. Both men and women showed a cardiac orienting response to high versus low objectification. Cardiac stress reactions to objectification were higher among women. Negative affective reactions to objectification were more pervasive across conditions among women.