Football hooliganism: comparing self‐awareness and social identity theory explanations

The emergence of research interest in group violence in general and football hooliganism in particular has been explained by various models generally relying on situational or individual differences accounts. Yet, these two research traditions have largely evolved independently, showing little or no interaction. In the present study (N = 109), we integrate measures of these two approaches and the results reveal that social identity was more predictive of self‐reported physical aggression than of loss of private and public self‐awareness. Moreover, attitudes towards violence were the most marked predictor variables of both physical and verbal aggression. In the discussion, the moderator effect of social identity and attitudes about violence on physical aggression is elaborated upon. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does negative mood influence self-report assessment of individual and relational measures? An experimental analysis

The present study was designed to test the influence of negative mood on the self-report of individual and relational correlates of depression and marital distress. The authors applied a combined experimental mood induction procedure, based on music, autobiographical recall, and environmental manipulation. Results showed that the mood manipulation was effective, and the depressed Mood Induction Procedure (MIP) and neutral MIP groups did not differ in their self-rated measures of the above-mentioned variables. In conclusion, the authors argue that these measures are generally insensitive to depressed mood, providing an important contribution to this literature.     

Both exposure to a novel context and associative learning induce an upregulation of AKAP150 protein in mouse hippocampus

A-kinase anchoring protein 150 (AKAP150) is a multi-enzyme signaling complex that coordinates the action of PKA, PKC, and PP2B at neuronal membranes and synapses. We measured levels of AKAP150 protein in the hippocampus 6h after training mice in a contextual fear conditioning paradigm. In contextual fear conditioning mice learn to associate a context with a footshock presentation. Mice were divided in four experimental groups with different training protocols: naive, no footshock exposure, immediate footshock exposure, and footshock 3min after exposure to the context. We found that AKAP150 protein levels were increased upon exposing mice to the novel context independent of the training protocol. However, when the animals were habituated to the experimental context, only mice that learned to associate the context with the footshock showed an upregulation of AKAP150. We suggest that upregulated levels of AKAP150 contribute to processing the exposure to a novel context and associative learning.     

Dissociating affective evaluation and social cognitive processes in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex

In recent studies, various regions of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) have been implicated in at least two potentially different mental functions: reasoning about the minds of other people (social cognition) and processing reward related information (affective evaluation). In this study, we test whether the activation in a specific area of the vmPFC, the para-anterior cingulate cortex (PACC), correlates with the reward value of stimuli in general or is specifically associated with social cognition. Participants performed a time estimation task with trial-to-trial feedback in which reward and social context were manipulated separately. Reward was manipulated by giving either positive or negative feedback in the form of small squirts of fluid delivered orally. Social context was manipulated by instructing participants that positive and negative feedback was determined by another person or a computer. The data demonstrate a main effect of feedback, but not social context, in the PACC, suggesting that this area of the vmPFC serves a general function in evaluating and/or representing reward value. In addition, activity in a more anterior subregion of the vmPFC demonstrated reward-related sensitivity only in the social context. Another area that showed a similar interaction was the subgenual cingulate, but this region was only sensitive to negative feedback in the social condition. These findings suggest that, within the vmPFC, the PACC subserves primarily an affective function, whereas in other regions social context can modulate affective responses.     

Spider fear and covariation bias in children and adolescents

Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people's tendency to overestimate the association between fear-relevant stimuli and negative outcomes. The current article presents two studies that examined this type of cognitive bias in children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Study 1 was concerned with a thought experiment during which youths (N=150) were asked to imagine that they participated in an experiment during which they had to view a series of pictures showing spiders, guns, and flowers, that were occasionally followed by a negative outcome (i.e., a mild electric shock). Participants were asked to estimate the relation between each type of picture and the negative outcome. The results indicated that youths with higher levels of spider fear displayed a specific tendency to relate spider pictures to a negative outcome. In Study 2, youths (N=220) actually participated in a computer game during which they were confronted with pictures of spiders, guns, and flowers, each of which was equally often followed by a negative (i.e., losing candy), positive (i.e., winning candy), or neutral outcome. After the game, participants had to estimate the relation between each type of picture and various outcomes. It was found that youths with higher levels of spider fear estimated more negative and less positive outcomes in relation to spider pictures. Taken together, these findings provide support for a fear-related covariation bias in youths. Further developmental analyses indicated that this type of cognitive bias seems to be more consistently present among adolescents than among children.     

Feeling guilty as a source of information about threat and performance

OCD patients experience increased feelings of guilt, threat and uncertainty about harm prevention. As to the relation between these phenomena, it was hypothesised that the experience of guilt acts as "information" that increases the sense of threat and decreases the sense that preventive action is effective. We tested whether state guilt is used as information about risk and prevention effects and whether people high in trait guilt do so more than others. Participants high and low in trait guilt were included. Three types of affect were experimentally induced: guilt, anxiety and a neutral affect. Then, participants estimated the likelihood and severity of a negative outcome, and the dissatisfaction with preventive performances in two OCD relevant scenarios. Relative to low-trait guilt participants, people high in trait guilt had higher ratings of risk after induction of state guilt. With regards to dissatisfaction with preventive performance, there was only a trend for high-trait guilt participants to respond stronger to state guilt. The results suggest that people with a general inclination to feel guilty use temporary feelings of guilt as information about the threat content of a situation and do so even if the source of state guilt is unrelated to the situation. Implications for the understanding of OCD are discussed.     

The joint effects of personality and workplace social exchange relationships in predicting task performance and citizenship performance

This field study examines the joint effects of social exchange relationships at work (leader-member exchange and team-member exchange) and employee personality (conscientiousness and agreeableness) in predicting task performance and citizenship performance. Consistent with trait activation theory, matched data on 230 employees, their coworkers, and their supervisors demonstrated interactions in which high quality social exchange relationships weakened the positive relationships between personality and performance. Results demonstrate the benefits of consonant predictions in which predictors and outcomes are matched on the basis of specific targets. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

The relationships among asymmetry in task dependence, perceived helping behavior, and trust

Social relations analyses involving 132 working relationships among 60 individuals from 29 teams revealed that an increase in a team member's task dependence on another team member was associated with higher levels of perceived help from and interpersonal trust in that specific team member, provided the other member was highly task dependent on the focal member. The degree to which an actor perceived a relationship with a partner to be helpful partially mediated the relationship between task dependence and trust. These findings highlight the importance of attending to asymmetries in task dependence and provide valuable insights into mechanisms that can explain the development of trust in organizational work teams.     

The tripartite model for assessing symptoms of anxiety and depression: psychometrics of the Dutch version of the mood and anxiety symptoms questionnaire

AIM: The tripartite model conceptualizes symptoms of depression and anxiety in three groups: low positive affect and anhedonia, which is specific to depression, somatic arousal, which is unique to anxiety, and nonspecific general distress. The Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ) was developed to measure these symptom domains. This study reports on the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the MASQ. METHOD: The questionnaire was completed by a population-based sample and by patients with anxiety and/or mood disorders. Scores of these respondent groups were compared to assess the discriminant validity of the MASQ and evaluate the appropriateness of the tripartite model. RESULTS: The psychometric properties of the translated MASQ were highly satisfactory. In accordance with the model, we found the MASQ to comprise three main scales, which discriminate well between subgroups of patients with mood and anxiety disorders. DISCUSSION: Overall, like the English version the Dutch translation of the instrument appears to be a reliable and valid measure of symptoms of depression and anxiety, conceptualized as comprising three groups of symptoms. The Dutch MASQ is better able to distinguish unique aspects of mood and anxiety disorders than other self-report instruments.