Intolerance for approach of ambiguity in social anxiety disorder

Previous research has utilised the approach–avoidance task (AAT) to measure approach and avoidance action tendencies in socially anxious individuals. “Neutral” social stimuli may be perceived as ambiguous and hence threatening to socially anxious individuals, however it is unclear whether this results in difficulty approaching ambiguous (“neutral”) versus unambiguous threat (e.g. disgust) faces (i.e. intolerance of ambiguity). Thirty participants with social anxiety disorder (SADs) and 29 non-anxious controls completed an implicit AAT in which they were instructed to approach or avoid neutral and disgust faces (i.e. pull or push a joystick) based on colour of the picture border. Results indicated that SADs demonstrated greater difficulty approaching neutral relative to disgust faces. Moreover, intolerance for approach of ambiguity predicted social anxiety severity while controlling for the effects of trait anxiety and depression. Our results provide further support for the role of intolerance of ambiguity in SAD.     

“Strength and Safety in Numbers”: A Theoretical Perspective on Group Influences on Approach and Avoidance Motivation

This paper presents a theoretical framework that advances current understanding of motivational and affective causes and consequences of small group processes and behaviors. Theories on the approach and avoidance systems of motivation state that these systems are active in the presence of potential positive or negative outcomes, respectively. In many instances, groups are associated with rewards and are perceived to facilitate positive outcomes (“strength in numbers”), and are a source of security and thought to reduce the occurrence of negative outcomes (“safety in numbers”). Accordingly, group membership and interaction should impact activation of group members’ approach and avoidance motivation systems. Thus, systematic group influences on mood, information processing, perceptions, attention, and behavior should be expected. The integration of approach and avoidance theories with small group research can potentially broaden our knowledge of the group experience, and lead to a theoretical framework for investigations of goal-directed behaviors in group settings.     

Méthode d’évaluation des risques psychosociaux auprès de travailleurs déficients intellectuels

While current regulation imposes to take into account psychosocial risks, their evaluation among workers with intellectual disabilities is still lacking. In order to develop an adapted tool, a language skills test was combined with the perception of work situations. Then, an ergonomic analysis was used to confirm the answers to the questionnaire. In a second phase of the study, the questionnaire was tested among a sample of 85 workers with intellectual disabilities. Data collected attested the relevance of this tool by accurately revealing workers’ feelings about their working environment. This study constitutes a first step in the psychosocial risk assessment process for workers with intellectual disabilities.     

Le fonctionnement optimal psychologique : apports conceptuels et méthodologiques

In this study, we are operationalizing a new construct: the optimal psychological functioning (OPF). The dimensions of the construct are considered from a historical and a conceptual background then a heuristic approach is mobilized based on three precise rules and the tripartite conception of the mind, i.e. cognitive, affective and conative. The sample is made of 1066 French workers of age 18 to 60 originating from a diverse sociocultural and geographic background. The methodology relies on latent variable modeling. The results give rise to a bifactor structural equations modeling (Bi-ESEM) model with six domain-specific factors demonstrating a very good fit and high psychometric properties. Construct validity was tested against Keyes's positive mental health via the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) (Keyes, 2002, 2005) and a construct on psychosocial risks (PSR). The OPF strongly, very significantly, and positively predicts positive mental health, while it negatively predicts absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover intentions.     

Triune ethics: The neurobiological roots of our multiple moralities

Triune Ethics Theory (TET) is a psychological theory developed to meet three goals. First, it attempts to harvest critical findings from neurobiology, affective neuroscience, and cognitive science and to integrate them into moral psychology for the purpose of informing psychological research on the moral life of persons. In contrast to dominant theories that focus on top-down, deliberative reasoning (e.g., Kohlberg), TET is a bottom-up theory that focuses on motivational orientations that are rooted in evolved unconscious emotional systems shaped by experience that predispose one to react to and act on events in particular ways. Second, it seeks to explain differences in moral functioning through a person by context interaction. Individuals differ in early emotional experiences that influence personality formation and behavior in context, while at the same time situations can evoke particular reactions, which vary with personality. Third, it suggests the initial conditions for optimal human moral development.     

Women’s regulation styles for eating behaviors and outcomes: The mediating role of approach and avoidance food planning

The purpose of this article was to examine the role played by different orientations in planning for eating behaviors as mediators of the relationship between regulation styles and eating behaviors. In Study 1, a new scale was developed to assess approach food planning and avoidance food planning. Results from confirmatory analyses (N = 241) supported the two-factor structure of the scale. In Study 2 (N = 202), in agreement with past research on the effects of autonomous and controlled motivation for the regulation of eating behaviors, we found that approach food planning partially mediated the effects of autonomous regulation for eating behaviors on healthy eating behaviors, while avoidance food planning partially mediated the effects of controlled regulation for eating behaviors on dysfunctional eating behaviors. Implications of these results for self-determination theory and for promoting healthy eating behaviors are discussed.

A neurobehavioral investigation into judgmental processes: effect of bilateral motor behaviors

Two experiments were conducted in order to examine how different bilateral motor activations of the approach and avoidance motivational systems influenced participants' evaluations of valenced stimuli (figurative expressions and pictures of everyday situations). The first Study (Study 1) showed that participants judged valenced expressions according to the motor congruence model put forward by Cretenet and Dru (2004). This may depend on the compatibility of the valenced stimuli with the congruency of the bilateral motor behaviors that involved two unilateral motor behaviors that are congruent to each other. These results were duplicated in Study 2 with the use of valenced pictures taken from the International Affective Picture System. The overall results shed new light on the influence of motor behaviors on judgments, by determining the motor system as operative in evaluative mechanisms, and not merely a simple executive function of higher cognitive processes.     

Santé et travail : le cas des facteurs de risque des troubles musculo-squelettiques du membre supérieur

The study proposes us to define and to treat the social questions that the musculoskeletal disorders suppose. Indeed, an optimal prevention is articulated around the two poles of musculoskeletal disorders factors of risk, which are the biomechanics and psychosocial factors of risk. The aim of this article is also to create a collective reaction for mobilise every one which are concerned by this subject. The musculoskeletal disorders are one of the first causes of compensation working disease. The factors of risk in their occurred are mainly the repetitivite gesture, the implementation of the muscular force, the extreme articular amplitudes and also, but in a less proportion, the psychological stress felt by a person during his working time. All these elements will be developing in this study.     

Movement direction or change in distance? Self- and object-related approach-avoidance motions

Based on the conceptualization of approach as a decrease in distance and avoidance as an increase in distance, we predicted that stimuli with positive valence facilitate behavior for either approaching the stimulus (object as reference point) or for bringing the stimulus closer (self as reference point) and that stimuli with negative valence facilitate behavior for withdrawing from the stimulus or for pushing the stimulus away. In Study 1, we found that motions to and from a computer screen where positive and negative words were presented lead to compatibility effects indicative of an object-related frame of reference. In Study 2, we replicated this finding using social stimuli with different evaluative associations (young vs. old persons). Finally, we present evidence that self vs. object reference points can be induced through instruction and thus lead to opposite compatibility effects even when participants make the same objective motion (Study 3).     

When approach motivation and behavioral inhibition collide: Behavior regulation through stimulus devaluation

In the present article a theory is outlined that explains why and when behavioral inhibition alters stimulus evaluations. In addition, some initial evidence is presented that supports the theory. Specifically, results of three experiments show that refraining from responding to stimuli results in devaluation of these stimuli, but only when these stimuli are positive. These findings suggest automatic behavior-regulation, in terms of devaluation of positive stimuli, in situations in which environmental cues triggering approach (because of the positive valence of the stimulus) run counter to situational demands (cues that elicit behavioral inhibition). Relations of the present research to self-perception, cognitive dissonance, and psychological reactance are discussed.