Conditioned orienting and defensive responses in the developing rat

Infant rats (16, 21, and 26 days old) received 3 days of classical conditioning training to Tone/Shock pairings using heart rate as the index of conditioning. The youngest group (16 days old) showed no evidence of conditioning at any stage of acquisition. In the 21- and 26-day-olds, response to the conditioned stimulus (CS) was a deceleration in heart rate during the first day of training. By day 3, the conditioned response (CR) shifted to cardioacceleration. The data were interpreted as offering strong support for a two-stage model of information processing in the infant rat, comprised of a conditioned orienting response in the first stage and a conditioned defensive response in the second.     

Psychoanalysis and Diplomacy Part II: Large-Group Rituals

This paper focuses on the predominant repetitive activities in which a large group engages to maintain and/or repair its identity. These repetitive activities constitute large-group rituals and can be divided into two general categories: (1) rituals that occur within a society that do not involve an active relationship with a contemporary other large group; and (2) rituals that occur through and depend upon the interaction with an opposing or enemy large group, usually a neighbor. Because others are used as reservoirs for unwanted parts, both at individual and group levels, and are needed to support aspects of identity and a shared sense of sameness, the first type of ritual may also include reference to shared images of others from the large group's past. They therefore may not be strictly domestic or indigenous. Furthermore, the intensity and content of both types of rituals occur across a spectrum depending on whether a large group is at peace, in a hot conflict with an enemy group, or otherwise destabilized due to crises.     

On the Origins of Children's Compliance and Opposition: Family Context, Reinforcement, and Rules

Interactional synchrony and context dependent reinforcement are presented as similar phenomena in this discussion of children's dispositions to comply with or to oppose parental instructions. I argue that consistent and appropriate parental reactions to the full range of a child's response repertoire will establish a family context conducive to positive reinforcement of child compliance. In contrast, inconsistent parental reactions appear to create a chaotic family context conducive to the negative reinforcement of child opposition. Depending on these two forms of context, the parents and children seem to generate distinctive personal rules which outline the functional arrangements of context, behavior and reinforcement. The importance of these personal rules in helping parents and children to improve the lawfulness of family context is highlighted.     

Perceived unpleasantness and facial reactions to auditory stimuli

This study examined whether facial electromyographic (EMG) reactions differentiate between identical tone stimuli which subjects perceive as differently unpleasant. Subjects were repeatedly exposed to a 1000 Hz 75 dB tone stimulus while their facial EMG from the corrugator and zygomatic muscle regions were measured. Skin conductance and heart rate responses were also measured. The subjects rated the unpleasantness of the stimulus and based on these ratings they were divided into two groups, High and Low in perceived unpleasantness. As predicted the facial EMG activity reflected the perceived unpleasantness. That is, the High group but not the Low group reacted with an increased corrugator response. The autonomic data, on the other hand, did not differ between groups. The results are consistent with the proposition that the facial muscles function as a readout system for emotional reactions and that facial muscle activity is intimately related to the experiential level of the emotional response system.     

Rat defensive behavior: burying noxious food.

In Experiment 1, rats living in chambers containing bedding material were injected with a toxicosis-producing dose of lithium chloride shortly after their initial taste of sweetened condensed milk. They consumed no additional milk and used the bedding to bury the spout through which the milk had been delivered, although they did not bury a concurrently available water spout. In another control condition, rats did not bury a spout containing a novel solution (saccharin) not paired with toxicosis. In Experiment 2, rats did not bury a milk spout until milk consumption was followed by toxicosis. In Experiment 3, rats buried a spout containing Tabasco pepper sauce but not a concurrently available water spout. Thus, burying the food source appears to be an integral component of the rat's defensive reaction to noxious food.     

The development and validation of the Privacy and Data Security Concerns Scale (PDSCS)

This study describes the development and validation of the Privacy and Data Security Concerns Scale (PDSCS), designed to assess job applicants’ privacy and data security concerns. Validity evidence for the PDSCS was established with four steps including: item generation and content validation, item reduction, confirmatory factor analysis, and construct and criterion validity. Our findings supported the content and proposed factor structure of the nine‐item PDSCS. Specifically, the proposed three‐factor structure (with the subdimensions: Secure connection, inappropriate use of information, and mistrust in employer security practices) as well as a second‐order factor, (termed privacy and data security concerns) were confirmed. Additionally, evidence is presented for the criterion validity of the PDSCS and its subdimensions.     

Social stimuli increase physiological reactivity but not defensive responses

Emotional reactions are crucial in survival because they provide approach and withdrawal behaviors. However, an unsolved question is whether the social content of the affective stimuli has a specific effect on emotional responses. We studied whether the social content of affective pictures influenced the defensive response and response mobilization. For this purpose, we recorded startle blink reflex (a defensive response) and skin conductance responses (a measure of unspecific physiological reactivity or arousal) in 73 participants while they viewed a series of 81 pictures of varying affective valence and social content. Our results revealed that defense response, as indicated by increases in the magnitude of the startle blink reflex, was mainly dependent on threatening or unpleasant cues, but was unrelated to the social content of the pictures. The social content, however, had an influence on pleasant stimuli, provoking an increase in resource mobilization, as reflected by changes in electrodermal activity. Hence, the social content of the affective stimuli may increase the physiological arousal elicited by pleasant stimuli, and it appears to be unrelated to the defense reactivity provoked by unpleasant stimuli.     

Exploring Correlates of Alcohol-Specific Social Reactions in Alcohol-Involved Sexual Assaults

This exploratory study examined demographic, assault, and disclosure factors as predictors of survivors’ decisions to disclose preassault alcohol use and social reactions to their preassault alcohol use. Of survivors drinking prior to assault, those with more education and greater alcohol impairment or resistance during assault were more likely to disclose preassault drinking. Of women disclosing preassault drinking, those with more education and more violent assaults received more negative social reactions specific to their preassault drinking. Such negative reactions were more common for those telling parents, police, or medical professionals. Women with less education received more positive and negative social reactions specific to their preassault drinking. Disclosing preassault drinking in greater detail was related to positive social reactions specific to preassault drinking and greater alcohol impairment during assault was associated with both positive and negative social reactions specific to preassault drinking. Implications for research and intervention are provided for survivors disclosing alcohol-related sexual assaults.     

Potential negative consequences of mindfulness in the moral domain

Mindfulness is a state of paying conscious and nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experiences. Previous research relates this state to more effective emotion regulation and less emotion reactivity. We therefore hypothesized an attenuating effect of a mindfulness exercise on moral reactions that usually results from a bad conscience when having caused harm. Across five studies, we experimentally induced mindfulness via a short breathing exercise and then assessed harm-based moral reactions. As hypothesized, participants in the mindfulness (vs. control) exercise condition showed (i) attenuated repair intentions after having read a scenario in which participants caused harm to a friend (Study 3) and (ii) attenuated intentions to change harm-causing eating habits (Study 4). Results of Studies 1, 2 and 5 did not provide evidence for our hypothesis. A following meta-analysis across all five studies yielded an overall significant effect of mindfulness in the harm-condition, providing preliminary evidence for a potential downside to mindfulness.     

The relation between infant freezing and the development of internalizing symptoms in adolescence: A prospective longitudinal study

Given the long‐lasting detrimental effects of internalizing symptoms, there is great need for detecting early risk markers. One promising marker is freezing behavior. Whereas initial freezing reactions are essential for coping with threat, prolonged freezing has been associated with internalizing psychopathology. However, it remains unknown whether early life alterations in freezing reactions predict changes in internalizing symptoms during adolescent development. In a longitudinal study (N = 116), we tested prospectively whether observed freezing in infancy predicted the development of internalizing symptoms from childhood through late adolescence (until age 17). Both longer and absent infant freezing behavior during a standard challenge (robot‐confrontation task) were associated with internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Specifically, absent infant freezing predicted a relative increase in internalizing symptoms consistently across development from relatively low symptom levels in childhood to relatively high levels in late adolescence. Longer infant freezing also predicted a relative increase in internalizing symptoms, but only up until early adolescence. This latter effect was moderated by peer stress and was followed by a later decrease in internalizing symptoms. The findings suggest that early deviations in defensive freezing responses signal risk for internalizing symptoms and may constitute important markers in future stress vulnerability and resilience studies.