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The Default Response to Uncertainty and the Importance of Perceived Safety in Anxiety and Stress: An Evolution-theoretical Perspective
... IU and the Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress. Contemporary with Carleton's (2016) review of theories of uncertainty was the first of a series of articles by Brosschot et al. (2016) on the Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress. The theory is wide ranging in its implications and has changed our own understanding of IU in a fundamental way. ...
... In the context of uncertainty, negative appraisals labelling the sensations as uncomfortable, disliked or aversive, may be directly linked to intolerance of uncertainty expressed as attempts to shut it down and so prevent sense-making of it as an interoceptive experience. By definition uncertain situations, even those presenting with the promise of an unknown positive outcome (Brosschot et al., 2016;Freeston et al., 2020), challenge predictability (Grupe & Nitschke, 2013), and hence the felt sense of safety. ...
... From our standpoint, the implications of IU as an absence of safety are several and have guided our collective thinking over the last seven years (and especially during the pandemic) about the nature of uncertainty, the effects of uncertainty, individual differences in one's relationship with uncertainty, and about how safety may be re-established alongside developing tolerance of uncertainty. Extrapolating from our reading of Brosschot and colleagues (Brosschot et al., 2016;Van den Bergh, Brosschot, Critchley, Thayer, & Ottaviani, 2021), further influenced by the work of others, and now informed by the somatic error theory of intolerance of uncertainty proposed here, we consider some clinical implications. Other theoretical frameworks may lead to similar conclusions, but the following are proposed from the current uncertainty perspective. ...
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has gained widespread interest as a construct of broad interest from both transdiagnostic and trans-situational perspectives. We have approached this article inspired by the curiosity, clinical observation, consideration of different theoretical perspectives, speculation, optimism and indeed fun that can be seen in S. J. Rachman's work. We address some of what we know about IU before considering one way of conceptualizing IU from the standpoint of a felt sense or embodied experience.
In the first part, we start with Woody and Rachman's (1994) observations of people with GAD. Second, we consider some key findings from the literature. Third, we consider two important perspectives on uncertainty, namely, Brosschot et al.’s (2016, 2018) influential Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress and uncertainty as an emotion.
In the second part, backing our clinical hunch about the importance of the felt sense of uncertainty, we consider IU from the perspective of interoception and the somatic error theory of anxiety (Khalsa & Feinstein, 2018). We propose the somatic error theory of intolerance of uncertainty, which places the experience of uncertainty at the heart of our understanding of intolerance of uncertainty. This is followed by predictions, unresolved questions, and potential clinical implications.
Finally, we revisit Woody and Rachman's (1994) suggestions for treatment as internalizing “a sense of safety in a range of circumstances (p. 750)” and update this from the perspective of the felt sense of uncertainty. We finish by suggesting that uncertainty can be tolerated, perhaps accepted, and even embraced.
... At the behavioral level, chronic stress was associated with intolerance to uncertainty. In fact, uncertainty was recently conceptualized as the essence of stress, such that allostatic load stems from chronic inability to reduce uncertainty [15][16][17] . Indeed, intolerance to uncertainty, much like chronic stress, has been associated with reduced HRV 18,19 . ...
... Chronic stress has been associated with profound physiological and behavioral alternations including reduced tonic HRV and elevated intolerance to uncertainty [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] . Our results in a sample of healthy adults that exhibit various levels of perceived chronic stress support and replicate these findings. ...
... Furthermore, the negative association between perceived chronic stress and HRV and the positive association between ambiguity avoidance and HRV together supported a mediation model in which resting-state HRV fully mediates the association between perceived chronic stress and ambiguity avoidance. Previous studies that demonstrated associations between chronic stress and intolerance to uncertainty led to the conceptualization of uncertainty as the essence of stress [15][16][17] . This notion is supported by evidence that high intolerance to uncertainty manifests as the interpretation of ambiguous information as threatening, and hence uncertain situations may trigger the stress response, particularly among individuals who are intolerant of uncertainty [20][21][22][23] . ...
Chronic stress is associated with profound behavioral and physiological alterations, including intolerance to uncertainty and reduced resting-state heart-rate-variability (HRV). Critically, uncertainty may arise in situations with known probabilities (risk) or unknown probabilities (ambiguity). Whether associations between chronic stress and decision-making under uncertainty are dependent on the specific type of uncertain decisions, and whether physiological alterations play a role in these putative associations is not yet clear. Here, ninety-two healthy adults that exhibit various levels of perceived chronic stress underwent resting-state HRV recording before completing a behavioral task that involves decision-making under either risk or ambiguity. Computational modelling quantified participants’ behavioral attitudes of approach and avoidance separately for risk and ambiguity. Results indicate, as expected, that perceived chronic stress is positively associated with intolerance to uncertainty and negatively associated with resting-state HRV. Contrary to expectations, behavioral attitudes towards risk and ambiguity were not directly associated with perceived chronic stress, yet HRV fully mediated the association between chronic stress and ambiguity avoidance. Taken together and given the direction of the associations, elevated HRV despite chronic stress may foster adaptive behavior in the form of avoiding ambiguous situations, and hence contribute to reduced exposure to uncertainty and to lower levels of allostatic load.
... Such an increased need for evidence and the resulting excessive information-seeking behavior suggests that high IU individuals develop and maintain high levels of anxiety because of deficits in learning that a given situation is safean idea proposed by the generalized unsafety theory of stress (GUTS; Brosschot et al., 2016). Much research supports this theory. ...
... In contrast, we expected that participants high in trait prospective IU would seek equivalent amounts of information regardless of the test's supposed relevance. That is, consistent with the GUTS framework (Brosschot et al., 2016), we expected that those high in trait prospective IU would disregard the safety signal provided by the low relevance condition and evidence similar levels of information-seeking behavior across the conditions. This hypothesis is also consistent with Mogg and Bradley's (1998) position that individuals high in trait anxiety demonstrate a bias in appraising irrelevant, innocuous stimuli as more threatening. ...
... Lastly, previous research manipulated uncertainty by varying the probability of a given negative event, whereas our novel approach was to manipulate the information about the relevance of the uncertain situation. Providing participants with such qualitatively different information allowed us to test the premises of the GUTS framework (Brosschot et al., 2016). The framework proposes that individuals high in IU evidence deficits in learning that a situation poses no actual or relevant threat. ...
Prospective intolerance of uncertainty (IU) involves fear and anxiety in anticipation of future uncertainty and is especially related to worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Individuals high in IU appraise uncertain situations as threatening and thus may engage in excessive information-seeking behavior to decrease uncertainty. This study aimed to examine the links between prospective IU and information-seeking. Participants (N = 174) high and low in prospective IU completed an ostensible aptitude test (threat stimulus), which was supposedly either excellent (high relevance condition) or poor (low relevance condition) at predicting future outcomes. Thus, the test itself presented an immediate threat, and the awaited test results generated uncertainty. Following the relevance manipulation, participants were given the opportunity to engage in information-seeking behavior by asking questions about the ostensible test and by requesting feedback about the test results. Results indicated that in the high-relevance condition, individuals high and low in IU evidenced similar levels of information-seeking behavior. Conversely, in the low-relevance condition, individuals low in IU evidenced less information-seeking than did individuals high in IU. Furthermore, cognitive appraisals of ambiguous situations were associated with the extent of information-seeking behavior. The implications of these findings for the treatment of GAD are discussed.
... A possible mechanism for emotional outbursts in the Perceived Safety cluster may be related to the generalized unsafety theory of stress, which posits that when perceived safety is low, individuals exhibit a default stress response driven by the intolerance of uncertainty about safety, even in the absence of explicit stressors 57 . When perceived safety is high, the theory suggests that top-down control is exerted to efficiently inhibit this default stress response 57 . ...
... A possible mechanism for emotional outbursts in the Perceived Safety cluster may be related to the generalized unsafety theory of stress, which posits that when perceived safety is low, individuals exhibit a default stress response driven by the intolerance of uncertainty about safety, even in the absence of explicit stressors 57 . When perceived safety is high, the theory suggests that top-down control is exerted to efficiently inhibit this default stress response 57 . Individuals in the Perceived Safety cluster may perceive environments as less safe and therefore experience more distress in these environments. ...
... However, from a functional perspective, one might expect these items to feature more prominently within the Perceived Unsafety cluster. In contrast, the pattern of relevant contexts for individuals in the Perceived Unsafety cluster appears to be consistent with the generalized unsafety theory of stress as described above 57 . It is possible that due to differences in safety perception or inhibition of the default stress response, young people in this cluster may be more intolerant of uncertainty about safety and perceive more environments as unsafe. ...
Emotional outbursts or temper outbursts are challenging behaviours commonly experienced by people with neurodevelopmental disorders and people who have experienced childhood adversity, which can negatively impact individuals and their families. Emotional outbursts may manifest in different situations via unique pathways distinguished by context-specific differences in the regulation and expression of emotions. Caregivers (N = 268) of young people (6–25 years) with emotional outbursts completed a bespoke caregiver-report questionnaire. Potential pathways were identified by examining the patterns of antecedents and setting events related to outbursts through factor and cluster analyses. Six contextual factors were derived from the Emotional Outburst Questionnaire. Based on these factors, the responses were classified into three clusters, which may represent potential pathways of emotional outbursts. The three clusters were characterized by the increased likelihood of outbursts: (1) across all setting events and triggers; (2) in safe setting events; (3) in unsafe setting events. These potential pathways may be related to: (1) differences in sensory processing; (2) masking of emotions in unsafe environments; (3) differences in safety perception. This framework supports a transdiagnostic account of emotional outbursts and may facilitate the development of pathway-specific intervention strategies.
... Other theories causally relate CVC to self-regulation processes (Brosschot, Verkuil, & Thayer, 2016, 2018Grossman & Taylor, 2007;Laborde, Mosley, & Mertgen, 2018;Lehrer, 2013;McCraty & Childre, 2010). For instance, the generalized unsafety theory of stress (Brosschot et al., 2016(Brosschot et al., , 2018 proposes that low resting HRV is an index of the chronically disinhibited default stress response: (i) as long as safety is perceived, the default stress response is under tonic prefrontal inhibition, reflected by high resting HRV, (ii) low resting HRV is sufficient for not recognizing safety. ...
... Other theories causally relate CVC to self-regulation processes (Brosschot, Verkuil, & Thayer, 2016, 2018Grossman & Taylor, 2007;Laborde, Mosley, & Mertgen, 2018;Lehrer, 2013;McCraty & Childre, 2010). For instance, the generalized unsafety theory of stress (Brosschot et al., 2016(Brosschot et al., , 2018 proposes that low resting HRV is an index of the chronically disinhibited default stress response: (i) as long as safety is perceived, the default stress response is under tonic prefrontal inhibition, reflected by high resting HRV, (ii) low resting HRV is sufficient for not recognizing safety. Consistently, studies found that low HRV is associated with deficient safety learning (Pappens et al., 2014;Wendt, Neubert, Koenig, Thayer, & Hamm, 2015) and increased contextual fear conditioning (Melzig, Weike, Hamm, & Thayer, 2009). ...
... We can assume that participants with lower CVC are more likely to attend to and recall threat-related stimuli because of lower prefrontal inhibitory control over sympatho-excitatory subcortical circuits (e.g., Park & Thayer, 2014). This is in line with the generalized unsafety theory of stress (Brosschot et al., 2016(Brosschot et al., , 2018 which states that (i) the default stress response is under tonic prefrontal inhibition as long as safety is perceived, (ii) safety signals are learned, (iii) dampened CVC could be responsible for deficient safety learning (e.g., Pappens et al., 2014;Wendt et al., 2015). We can also conceive that participants with lower CVC expressed stronger negative evaluations because of stronger emotional responses to threat-related cues. ...
Dans ce travail, nous avons souhaité explorer la dimension émotionnelle du conditionnement évaluatif. Nous postulons que celui-ci provient d’un processus de double évaluation, d’une part émotionnelle et d’autre part cognitive. Nous nous sommes focalisés sur l’étude des processus émotionnels à travers la régulation émotionnelle. Pour cela nous avons réalisé trois séries d’études. Dans la première, nous avons mis en évidence que la dérégulation émotionnelle diminuait le conditionnement positif. Dans deux autres études visant à explorer les stratégies de régulation, nous avons observé qu’un mésusage des stratégies engendrait un conditionnement négatif plus fort et un conditionnement positif plus faible. Ces premiers résultats sont appuyés par deux études utilisant la variabilité de la fréquence cardiaque comme indicateur des capacités d’autorégulation. Le conditionnement évaluatif paraît associé à la dérégulation émotionnelle à travers des difficultés d’adaptation durant le stress et de récupération post-stress. Enfin, deux études ont essayé d’observer les effets d’un prédicteur de la régulation émotionnelle : la pleine conscience. Dans aucune des deux études nous n’avons trouvé de lien entre la pleine conscience et le conditionnement évaluatif. Nous avons donc pu observer à travers différentes méthodes un lien entre le conditionnement évaluatif et la régulation émotionnelle. Celui-ci est discuté et des pistes de recherches sont envisagées.
... Both animals and humans are driven to minimise uncertainty, in order to conserve energy and accurately estimate the occurrence of motivationally relevant events (i.e., avoidance of predation, receiving comfort from conspecifics) (Hirsh et al., 2012;Peters et al., 2017). Current theoretical models posit that uncertainty is aversive in and of itself and is consequently more likely to engage the behavioural inhibition system responsible for stress and associated negative emotional states, particularly anxiety and fear (Gray, 1990;Hirsh et al., 2012;Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016). Because of this theoretical stance, previous research has predominantly focused on uncertainty in relation to anxiety and fear, rather than other negative (i.e., frustration, anger, and sadness) or positive (i.e., surprise and excitement) emotional states (Anderson et al., 2019). ...
... As hypothesised, uncertainty in general and uncertainty when anticipating a negative outcome was found to primarily evoke fear/anxiety, followed by other negative emotional states (i.e., sadness/upset, anger/frustration, and confusion). These findings are in line with prior theoretical models (Gray, 1990;Hirsh et al., 2012;Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016) and empirical research from the appraisal literature (Roseman, 1984;Smith and Ellsworth, 1985) suggesting that uncertainty is aversive in and of itself and engages the behavioural inhibition system responsible for stress and associated negative emotional states. Notably, the findings from this study suggest that the aversive reaction to uncertainty is most commonly expressed as anxiety and fear. ...
... While the findings from this study support current theoretical positions that uncertainty is aversive (Gray, 1990;Hirsh et al., 2012;Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016;Peters et al., 2017), it also points to a much-needed expansion of our conceptualisation of uncertainty, in order to account for how uncertainty impacts a wider spectrum of negative and positive emotional states (Anderson et al., 2019;Morriss et al., 2019). The development of a working model of uncertainty that encompasses a broader range of negative and positive emotional states will be particularly informative for understanding how uncertainty and emotion interact in psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. ...
Uncertainty and emotion are an inevitable part of everyday life and play a vital role in mental health. Yet, our understanding of how uncertainty and emotion interact is limited. Here, an online survey was conducted (n = 231) to examine whether uncertainty evokes and modulates a range of negative and positive emotions. The data show that uncertainty is predominantly associated with negative emotional states such as fear/anxiety. However, uncertainty was also found to modulate a variety of other negative (i.e., sadness/upset, anger/frustration, and confusion) and positive (i.e., surprise/interest and excited/enthusiastic) emotional states, depending on the valence of an anticipated outcome (i.e., negative and positive) and the sub parameter of uncertainty (i.e., risk and ambiguity). Uncertainty increased the intensity of negative emotional states and decreased the intensity of positive emotional states. These findings support prior research suggesting that uncertainty is aversive and associated with negative emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, the findings also revealed that uncertainty is involved in eliciting and modulating a wide array of emotional phenomena beyond fear and anxiety. This study highlights an opportunity for further study of how uncertainty and emotion interactions are conceptualised generally and in relation to mental health.
... Perceived safety is a term, which is commonly used in different fields including tourism (Rittichainuwat, 2013), healthcare services (Bradshaw et al., 2014), urban and environmental studies (Ramírez et al., 2021), clinical psychology (Brosschot et al., 2016), robotics (Bartneck et al., 2009), and autonomous systems (Kong et al., 2018;Xu et al., 2018). However, perceived safety is not limited to these fields, a basic search in Web of Science results in more than one hundred categories. ...
... For example, in a tourism study, Rittichainuwat (Rittichainuwat, 2013) explained the safety concern, as an affective experience that is an overlapping emotion of worry, fear, and anxiety that emerges from a nervous situation. In a similar vein, a clinical psychology study, Brosschot et al. (2016) stated that the lack of perceived safety triggers chronic anxiety and stress. For living organisms, unpredictable and uncertain situations are always perceived as unsafe even if there is no threat (Brosschot et al., 2016). ...
... In a similar vein, a clinical psychology study, Brosschot et al. (2016) stated that the lack of perceived safety triggers chronic anxiety and stress. For living organisms, unpredictable and uncertain situations are always perceived as unsafe even if there is no threat (Brosschot et al., 2016). A recent study of urban space safety (Ramírez et al., 2021) reported that in a survey of perception of public spaces, characteristics of the respondents such as gender, mobility pattern, and income affected their perceived safety. ...
Safety in human-robot interaction can be divided into physical safety and perceived safety, where the latter is still under-addressed in the literature. Investigating perceived safety in human-robot interaction requires a multidisciplinary perspective. Indeed, perceived safety is often considered as being associated with several common factors studied in other disciplines, i.e., comfort, predictability, sense of control, and trust. In this paper, we investigated the relationship between these factors and perceived safety in human-robot interaction using subjective and objective measures. We conducted a two-by-five mixed-subjects design experiment. There were two between-subjects conditions: the faulty robot was experienced at the beginning or the end of the interaction. The five within-subjects conditions correspond to (1) baseline, and the manipulations of robot behaviors to stimulate: (2) discomfort, (3) decreased perceived safety, (4) decreased sense of control and (5) distrust. The idea of triggering a deprivation of these factors was motivated by the definition of safety in the literature where safety is often defined by the absence of it. Twenty-seven young adult participants took part in the experiments. Participants were asked to answer questionnaires that measure the manipulated factors after within-subjects conditions. Besides questionnaire data, we collected objective measures such as videos and physiological data. The questionnaire results show a correlation between comfort, sense of control, trust, and perceived safety. Since these factors are the main factors that influence perceived safety, they should be considered in human-robot interaction design decisions. We also discuss the effect of individual human characteristics (such as personality and gender) that they could be predictors of perceived safety. We used the physiological signal data and facial affect from videos for estimating perceived safety where participants’ subjective ratings were utilized as labels. The data from objective measures revealed that the prediction rate was higher from physiological signal data. This paper can play an important role in the goal of better understanding perceived safety in human-robot interaction.
... Perspective have healthy individuals. The Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress postulates that the interaction of three domains -bodily state, social context and stress-related contexts -could lead to a generalized perception of unsafety, which activates the default stress response 28,29 . All three of these domains are operative in fibromyalgia. ...
... Adverse early-life experiences, especially when recurrent, can hamper safety learning, thus fostering a threat bias [101][102][103] . Later in life, the presence of actual threat will no longer be requiredthe mere lack of an effective safety system suffices to trigger threat perception and prompt the associated responses 9,28,29 . This activation can be unconscious, invoking a chronic activation of the stress response even when people are unable to identify a specific stressor 29,104 . ...
Fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances and other symptoms, and has a substantial socioeconomic impact. Current biomedical and psychosocial treatments are unsatisfactory for many patients, and treatment progress has been hindered by the lack of a clear understanding of the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia. We present here a model of fibromyalgia that integrates current psychosocial and neurophysiological observations. We propose that an imbalance in emotion regulation, reflected by an overactive ‘threat’ system and underactive ‘soothing’ system, might keep the ‘salience network’ (also known as the midcingulo-insular network) in continuous alert mode, and this hyperactivation, in conjunction with other mechanisms, contributes to fibromyalgia. This proposed integrative model, which we term the Fibromyalgia: Imbalance of Threat and Soothing Systems (FITSS) model, should be viewed as a working hypothesis with limited supporting evidence available. We hope, however, that this model will shed new light on existing psychosocial and biological observations, and inspire future research to address the many gaps in our knowledge about fibromyalgia, ultimately stimulating the development of novel therapeutic interventions. In this Perspective, the authors propose a model in which an imbalance of threat and soothing systems leads to hyperactivation of the brain’s salience network, which, in conjunction with other mechanisms, contributes to fibromyalgia.
... Further, as with our third hypothesis, perceived protection and perceived controllability mediated the association between social support and stress at both Times 1 and 2. Previous research has suggested that support from the government, family, and friends influences people's perceived risk and health-seeking behaviors (35). Concurrently, a higher level of perceived safety and sense of control consequently alleviates stress responses (36,37). Equally important, social support indirectly influenced COVID-19 related stress through the perceived threat of COVID-19 during the outbreak. ...
... Noticeably, perceived threat acted as a suppressor of the mediating effect of social support on stress. In line with these results, social support may not always be coping mechanism for distress (37). In a distressing environment, people may not want to be exposed to greater concerns or unwanted information from social contacts, which can lead to uncertainty and anxiety (38). ...
Introduction
COVID-19 related stress might vary with the pandemic changes, as well as other associated factors. This study aimed to compare the stress level during the first wave of the pandemic outbreak and 1 year later in China, and to explore the differential roles of social support and perceptions of this disease in affecting pandemic-related stress over time.
Methods
COVID-19 related stress, social support, and perceptions of the pandemic (perceived threat, perceived protection, and perceived controllability) were measured using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised for COVID-19, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and the Self-Compiled Scale of COVID-19 Related Perception, respectively. Using an online survey, two independent samples were collected during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak (Time 1: March 2020, N = 430) and 1 year later (Time 2: April 2021, N = 512).
Results
Levels of COVID-19 related stress and social support were lower at Time 2. Furthermore, at both Time 1 and Time 2, more social support was associated with less stress. Perceived protection and controllability of COVID-19 also mediated the relationship between social support and COVID-19 at both time points. However, the perceived threat of COVID-19 only served as a mediator at Time 1.
Conclusion
These results indicate that Chinese people might experience lower COVID-19 related stress as the pandemic progresses. The perceived threat of COVID-19 played a more critical role in stress experienced at Time 1. These findings not only underscore the importance of social support under the context of Chinese society, but also have implications for developing specific interventions targeting different perceptions of COVID-19 to reduce pandemic-related stress during the different waves of this pandemic.
... avoidance of threat, achieving reward, or safety) (Cockburn et al., 2022;Peters et al., 2017). Current theoretical models and a wealth of empirical research suggests that uncertainty is aversive in and of itself, and thus engages the behavioural inhibition system (Gray, 1976) responsible for negative emotional states such as fear and anxiety (Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016;Grupe & Nitschke, 2013;Hirsh et al., 2012). Alongside this literature, however, there is also an emerging body of empirical research suggesting that uncertainty may evoke and modulate other negative and positive emotional states as well (Bar-Anan et al., 2009;Fontaine et al., 2007;Morriss et al., 2019;Morriss, Tupitsa, et al., 2022;Van Dijk & Zeelenberg, 2006). ...
... In line with current models of IU (Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016;Hirsh et al., 2012), the findings suggest that individuals with high IU are likely to experience negative emotions such as fear and anxiety under uncertainty. However, the findings here also extend current models, by demonstrating that individuals with high IU may also frequently experience other negative emotions, such as anger and sadness as well (Anderson et al., 2019;Francalanza et al., 2014;Radomsky et al., 2007), and have difficulty experiencing or engaging with positive emotions under uncertainty (Malivoire et al., 2022;Nelson et al., 2014). ...
Individuals high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to view uncertainty as unbearable and stressful. Notably, IU is transdiagnostic, and high levels of IU are observed across many different emotional disorders (e.g. anxiety, depression). Research has primarily focused on how IU evokes and modulates emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, recent research suggests that IU may have relevance for a broader range of emotional states. Here, an online survey was conducted (n = 231) to examine whether IU evokes and modulates a range of negative (e.g. fear/anxiety, sadness/upset, anger/frustration, disgust) and positive (e.g. happiness/joy, excitement/enthusiasm, surprise/interest) emotional states. Findings from the study revealed that individuals with higher levels of IU report: (1) that uncertainty in general and uncertainty under ambiguity are more likely to evoke negative emotional states and less likely to evoke positive emotional states, (2) that uncertainty under risk is less likely to evoke positive emotional states, and (3) that uncertainty heightens existing negative emotional states and dampens existing positive emotional states. Importantly, these IU-related findings remained when controlling for current experiences of general distress, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression. Taken together, these findings suggest that IU is involved in evoking and modulating a wide array of emotional phenomena, which likely has relevance for transdiagnostic models and treatment plans for emotional disorders.
... Moreover, the prolonged restriction measures, isolation, and imposed quarantine [15,16], along with the uncertain course of the disease and the economic crisis, generated tremendous distress [11] in the general population and even more in vulnerable groups. Situations perceived as uncertain or threatening represent the core of chronic stress and anxiety, especially when uncertainty regarding safety is perceived [17]. Thus, when another possibility is not accessible to the brain, an automatic perception of danger is generated, which persists unless inhibited. ...
... Thus, when another possibility is not accessible to the brain, an automatic perception of danger is generated, which persists unless inhibited. Although the neurobiological theories argue in favor of default response to stress as a generalized unsafety response [17], psychological theories on resilience suggest that stress response varies according to the strategies developed over time. Therefore, some people use more efficient coping strategies than others when encountering adversity, and several become even more capable of dealing with future stress [18]. ...
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection induces a significant inflammatory response that are amplified by persistent stress. The pathophysiology of mental illnesses is explored in terms of inflammatory processes. Thus, anxious, depressed, or psychotic episodes may occur as a result of metabolic and immunological imbalances, as a direct result of their effect on the central nervous system, or as a side effect of the COVID-19 medication protocols. As such, the primary objective of this research is to establish if the psychological profiles of COVID-19 patients change substantially according to illness severity. The secondary objective is to determine if particular biological inflammatory indicators are associated with anxiety, sadness, psychoticism, and paranoid ideation. A cross-sectional study was performed on 90 hospitalized patients admitted during a 3-month period in the COVID-19 unit. All patients received the COPE-60 and SCL-90R questionnaires. Clinical and paraclinical data were collected and the information was classified according to the severity of COVID-19.The hyper-acute inflammation encountered in patients with severe COVID-19 infection characterized 80.0% of patients using disengagement coping methods, significantly more than patients with mild or moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection severity (p-value = 0.012), respectively, 73.3% severe COVID-19 patients engaging in emotion-focused coping strategies based on the COPE-60 scale (p-value = 0.037). Additionally, it was determined that negative coping mechanisms (disengagement) and emotion-focused methods are independent risk factors for developing psychoticism symptoms following acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, based on the SCL-90 questionnaire (OR = 2.07; CI = 1.44-3.01), respectively (OR = 2.92; CI = 1.44-3.01). Elevated white blood cells and monocytes and inflammatory markers, such as fibrinogen, procalcitonin, IL-6, and D-dimers, were also identified as risk factors for psychoticism symptoms in multivariate analysis. It is particularly important to consider the constant mental-state evaluation in patients with severe COVID-19 that might benefit from early intervention before psychotic symptoms onset.
... The Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress (GUTS) model holds that individuals with a generalized perception of unsafety have increased physiological hyperarousal, even during objectively safe or neutral environments (Brosschot et al., 2017). Thus, generalized perceptions of unsafety should be most apparent during objectively safe, but negatively conditioned contexts (Bouton, 2004;Brosschot et al., 2016Brosschot et al., , 2017. Discriminant conditioning paradigms provide a laboratory assessment by which generalized perceptions of unsafety can be examined as startle response inhibition to "safe" cues (Bouton, 2004;Brosschot et al., 2016Brosschot et al., , 2017. ...
... Thus, generalized perceptions of unsafety should be most apparent during objectively safe, but negatively conditioned contexts (Bouton, 2004;Brosschot et al., 2016Brosschot et al., , 2017. Discriminant conditioning paradigms provide a laboratory assessment by which generalized perceptions of unsafety can be examined as startle response inhibition to "safe" cues (Bouton, 2004;Brosschot et al., 2016Brosschot et al., , 2017. ...
The Generalized Unsafety Theory of Stress posits that low heart rate variability contributes to a perception of “generalized unsafety” (i.e., constantly perceiving oneself to be unsafe), independent of stressful events or stress‐related symptomatology. We tested this claim by examining if resting heart rate variability, trait worry, posttraumatic stress symptoms, trauma history, and age of onset predicted fear inhibition, a measure of generalized unsafety. A Pavlovian discriminant conditioning paradigm was used to assess fear inhibition level by comparing eyeblink startle potentiation to a threat cue (presented with air blast) with startle potentiation to a safety signal (never presented with air blast). Survey and laboratory responses were collected from 42 adults who were 20 years old on average, 86% Women, and 76% White. Heart rate variability did not independently predict variation in fear inhibition, as hypothesized. Rather, higher levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms and greater cumulative interpersonal trauma predicted lower fear inhibition. Individuals reporting childhood trauma had higher trait worry, which predicted more severe posttraumatic stress symptoms. These findings highlight the role of attenuated inhibitory learning in stress‐related symptomatology and developmentally disruptive trauma. Ability to distinguish threat from safety is a plausible biobehavioral mechanism by which adversity impacts development.
... On the other hand, uncertainty refers to the subjective difficulty to predict a future outcome (Grupe & Nitschke, 2013). Several recent models consider uncertainty central in anxiety psychopathology (Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016;Carleton et al., 2012;Grupe & Nitschke, 2013). ...
Fear overgeneralization and perceived uncertainty about future outcomes have been suggested as risk factors for clinical anxiety. However, little is known regarding how they influence each other. In this study, we investigated whether different levels of threat uncertainty influence fear generalization. Three groups of healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning protocol followed by a generalization test. All groups learned to associate one female face (conditioned stimulus, CS+) with a female scream (unconditioned stimulus, US) while the other face (CS-) was not associated with the scream. In order to manipulate threat uncertainty, one group (low uncertainty, n = 26) received 80%, the second group (moderate uncertainty, n = 32) received 60%, and the third group (high uncertainty, n = 30) 40% CS-US contingency. In the generalization test, all groups saw CS+ and CS- again as well as four morphs that varied in similarity with the CS+ in steps of 20%. Subjective (expectancy, valence, and arousal ratings), psychophysiological (skin conductance response, SCR), and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials, ssVEPs) indices of fear were registered. Participants expected the US in accordance with their reinforcement schedules but displayed stronger skin conductance with more uncertainty. However, acquisition of conditioned fear was not evident in ssVEPs. During the generalization test, we found no effect of threat uncertainty in any of the measured variables, but the strength of generalization for threat expectancy ratings was positively correlated with dispositional intolerance of uncertainty. This study suggests that mere threat uncertainty does not modulate fear generalization.
... On the other hand, uncertainty refers to the subjective difficulty to predict a future outcome (Grupe & Nitschke, 2013). Several recent models consider uncertainty central in anxiety psychopathology (Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016;Carleton et al., 2012;Grupe & Nitschke, 2013). ...
Fear overgeneralization and perceived uncertainty about future outcomes have been suggested as risk factors for clinical anxiety. However, little is known regarding how they influence each other. In this study, we investigated whether different levels of threat uncertainty influence fear generalization. Three groups of healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning protocol followed by a generalization test. All groups learned to associate one female face (conditioned stimulus, CS+) with a female scream (unconditioned stimulus, US) while the other face (CS-) was not associated with the scream. In order to manipulate threat uncertainty, one group (low uncertainty, n = 26) received 80%, the second group (moderate uncertainty, n = 32) received 60%, and the third group (high uncertainty, n = 30) 40% CS-US contingency. In the generalization test, all groups saw CS+ and CS- again as well as four morphs that varied in similarity with the CS+ in steps of 20%. Subjective (expectancy, valence, and arousal ratings), psychophysiological (skin conductance response, SCR), and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials, ssVEPs) indices of fear were registered. Participants expected the US in accordance with their reinforcement schedules but displayed stronger skin conductance with more uncertainty. However, acquisition of conditioned fear was not evident in ssVEPs. During the generalization test, we found no effect of threat uncertainty in any of the measured variables, but the strength of generalization for threat expectancy ratings was positively correlated with dispositional intolerance of uncertainty. This study suggests that mere threat uncertainty does not modulate fear generalization.
... As this special issue clearly indicates, tolerance for uncertainty has been recognised as an important transdiagnostic construct across anxiety disorders and related psychopathologies (Carleton et al., 2012;Gu et al., 2020) and has been argued to have a genetically derived, biological basis (Brosschot et al., 2016;Hirsh et al., 2012). The exact definition of "tolerance of uncertainty" varies, but the main tenet is that people differ in how they respond emotionally and behaviourally to events with a probabilistic outcome, that is, a situation in which an outcome sometimes (but not always) follows from the known antecedent cue that predicts its occurrence. ...
This opinion piece considers the construct of tolerance of uncertainty and suggests that it should be viewed in the context of three psychological factors: uncertainty aversion, uncertainty interpretation, and uncertainty determinability. Uncertainty aversion refers to a dislike of situations in which the outcomes are not deterministic and is similar to conventional conceptions of (in)tolerance of uncertainty. Uncertainty interpretation refers to the extent to which variability in an observed outcome is interpreted as random fluctuation around a relatively stable base-rate versus frequent and rapid changes in the base-rate. Uncertainty determinability refers to the (actual or perceived) capacity of the individual to generate any meaningful expectancy of the uncertain outcome, which may be undeterminable if predictions are updated too quickly. We argue that uncertainty interpretation and determinability are psychological responses to the experience of probabilistic events that vary among individuals and can moderate negative affect experienced in response to uncertainty. We describe how individual differences in basic parameters of associative learning (modelled by a simple learning window) could lead to this variation. To explain these hypotheses, we utilise the distinction between aleatory uncertainty (the inherent unpredictability of individual stochastic events) and epistemic uncertainty (obtainable knowledge that the individual lacks or perceives to be lacking). We argue that when expectancies are updated quickly, epistemic uncertainty will dominate the individual’s representation of the events around them, leading to a subjective experience of the world as one that is volatile and unpredictable.
... The present study did not find evidence that the pathway between parental CPB (both maternal and paternal) and symptoms of GAD or SAD is sequentially mediated by IU and CA, or by either alone. In regards to CPB and IU specifically, a recent insight proposed that the stress response to uncertainty is a default response that is normally under tonic prefrontal inhibition when one's safety is perceived (Brosschot et al., 2016). This default response is now believed to be developed before birth rather than learnt in response to a specific environment (Brosschot et al., 2018). ...
Challenging parenting behaviour (CPB) refers to parental encouragement of behaviours where children push their own limits through engaging them engage in safe risks, such as rough-and-tumble play (Bögels & Phares, 2008). Preliminary evidence suggests that CPB reduces the risk of child anxiety however, little is known about the relationship between CPB and specific forms of anxiety disorders and the factors that influence this relationship. The present study aims to examine current maternal and paternal CPB in relation to symptoms of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in emerging adulthood, and to identify whether intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and cognitive avoidance (CA) sequentially mediate this relationship. A sample of 190 UK-based adults (aged 18–25) completed a battery of online self-report measures. Greater maternal CPB, but not paternal CPB, was found to predict lower symptoms of SAD, but not GAD. IU and CA did not sequentially mediate the relationship between CPB and symptoms of GAD or SAD. This study suggests that CPB may be associated with certain forms of anxiety disorders such as SAD, but further investigation is needed to understand the mechanisms between CPB and anxiety in young people.
... Therefore, when evaluating the psychological impact of the pandemic on individuals, the factor of time must be considered. First, the inclusion of time in the analysis of psychological well-being allows an evaluation of the duration of mental health symptoms, which is a critical criterion for both judging the severity of individuals' psychosocial and physiological impairment and differentiating chronic underlying psychological conditions from acute reactions to the pandemic [5,11,12]. Furthermore, from the perspective of developmental psychopathy [13], several effects are associated with the role of time on mental health during COVID-19, including cumulative risk, which involves the increase in potential risk factors that occur over time, such as parental job loss or conflict in the home. Alternatively, time can also lead to resilience, characterized by coping or adaptation during the pandemic [14]. ...
... Neuroimaging studies support this view, linking the HRV with key brain areas, such as the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which are indeed associated with perceptions of threat or safety (see Thayer et al., 2012, for a meta-analysis). Empirical studies further attest that negative/aversive and ambivalent social relations promote feelings of social insecurity (Gilbert, 1993;Holt-Lunstad & Clark, 2014), which, in turn, triggers the so-called flight-or-fight response and dampens the PFC inhibitory subcortical control, resulting in lower HRV (Brosschot et al., 2016;Roddick & Chen, 2021). In safe social contexts, PFC inhibits threat representations in the amygdala; consequently, HRV is high, and the safety system (Gilbert, 1993) is activated resulting in explorative behavior, positive emotional arousal, and cognitive flexibility (Thayer & Lane, 2000, 2009. ...
The present study explored the association between perceived social support at work (from coworkers and supervisors), and heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of parasympathetic modulation of the heart which is considered an index of the ability to regulate emotional arousal in tune with environmental demands. To test these associations, we used data from 144 workers of various sectors (61.10% women; Mage = 40.45, SDage = 14.17 years). For these workers, HRV was assessed on three principal daily periods for which we computed three different HRV estimates: (a) during the working time, (b) during the pause(s) at work (averaging HRV across different pauses occurring randomly across individuals), and (c) during the evening (after work) till 10.00 p.m. Multilevel model results revealed that workers perceiving more social support by their supervisor showed increased HRV across different phases of the day (i.e., at work, during a work pause, and in the evening). Furthermore, the associations between social support perceived by supervisor
and HRV were moderated by biological sex such that this association was stronger for men compared with women. Altogether, results provided support for the positive role of social interactions at work in fostering workers’ psychophysiological adjustment. Theoretical and practical implications of our results
for individuals and organizations are discussed.
... Несмотря на то, что ригидность мышления и поведения считается специфической чертой аутистического спектра, исследования показывают, что она в разной степени присуща пациентам с другими психиатрическими диагнозами. Согласно одной из гипотез, объясняющих эти факты, нетерпимость к неопределенности может быть универсальной врожденной тенденцией, изначально присущей для всех людей с рождения как проявление базовой потребности в безопасности [15]. По мере накопления позитивного опыта взаимодействия с окружающей средой у человека формируется выученная модель безопасности. ...
p style="text-align: justify;">Individuals with high-functioning autism have difficulties in decision-making in face of incomplete or ambiguous information, particularly in the context of social interaction. Tasks demanding an immediate response or deviation from the usual behavior make them feel excessive anxiety which restricts their social and professional activity. Attempts to camouflage their conservatism to others are one of the risk factors for comorbid depression. Therefore, they avoid new and non-routine situations, thus restricting their own social activity and professional development. On the other hand, insisting on sameness and clarity may give individuals with autism an advantage in long-lasting monotonous tasks. The aim of this review is to consider these symptoms from the perspective of predictive coding. A range of experimental studies has shown that most of the subjects with autism have difficulty in predicting the outcomes based on the cumulative history of interacting with the environment, as well as updating expectations as new evidence becomes available. These peculiarities of the analysis and pragmatic weighting of information may cause the trait intolerance of uncertainty and novelty avoidance of most people with autism.</p
... Our study also found that those in the younger age group of 19-22 years (cut-off point of more than 10 on the GAD-7 scale, N = 72), in particular newly enrolled medical students in Year 1 (N = 38), had significantly higher anxiety level as compared to their seniors. The underlying mechanism may be that anxiety is a response to the uncertainty of changes and stems from the sympathetic fight or flight response when change is imminent and is deemed by the individual to be out of control [36]. They were more likely to be uncertain about their study program, multiple adjustments after joining medical school during the pandemic and lesser maturity and coping abilities to face challenges. ...
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) swept the world by storm and caused a myriad of devastating consequences, particularly disruptions in medical education. This study aims to examine the association between sociodemographic factors, psychological factors, coping strategies and anxiety among medical students, as well as to identify the predictors of anxiety among them. A cross-sectional study design was used. Self-rated Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Scale (Brief COPE), and General Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale (GAD-7) were used. A total of 371 respondents from a tertiary education center were recruited. The prevalence of anxiety was 37% which corresponded to 21.6% and 15.4% for moderate and severe anxiety, respectively. Sociodemographic factors such as age group and academic year were significantly associated with anxiety, while those with higher self-esteem (rs = −0.487), self-competence (rs = −0.407), self-liking (rs = −0.499), and self-efficacy (rs = −0.245) had lower anxiety. Inversely, those who adopted emotion-focused (rs = 0.130) and dysfunctional coping styles (rs = 0.559) showed higher anxiety. The main predictors of anxiety were self-liking as a protective factor (aOR = 0.81) and dysfunctional coping as a risk factor (aOR = 1.16). Therefore, resilience building and inculcating positive coping strategies are imperative in equipping our budding healthcare providers to weather through future unforeseeable disasters.
... The latter is categorized based on the experience of high job demands and low levels of control and is said to promote the development of new adaptive behaviours. Importantly, the model is underpinned by several existing theories within the stress literature (cf., Cohen et al., 2016;Brosschot et al., 2016Brosschot et al., , 2017Brosschot et al., , 2018 informed by the concept of 'allostatic load' (McEwen, 1998); attesting that the wear and tear that the body experiences is due to repeated and long-term exposure to stress. It would therefore follow that actions to meet work demands yield short-term psychological (e.g. ...
Objective:
Job strain has been implicated in a variety of adverse health outcomes, particularly cardiometabolic and inflammatory diseases. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown. One possibility is that the maladaptive coping response to stress, (perseverative cognition (PC); the cognitive representation of past stressful events (rumination) or feared future events (worry)), either in work or more generally, mediates the relationship between job strain and physical disease. The aim of this study was thus to test the potential role of both general, and work- related PC as a mediating, or potentially moderating, mechanism between job strain and ill- health outcomes.Design & Measures:Using an online cross- sectional design, 650 full- time employees completed measures of job strain, general and work- related PC (rumination & worry) and health outcomes (burnout, somatization, health behaviours & sleep quality).
Results:
General and work- related worry and rumination significantly mediated, often independently, the relationship between job strain and burnout, somatization, and sleep quality. No significant mediation effects were observed for health behaviours and no type of PC (general or work- related) moderated job strain- health outcome relations.
Conclusion:
Both general and work- related worry and rumination are likely to play important, and partly independent, roles in understanding the adverse relationships between job strain and various health outcomes.
... On the one hand, scientific literature showed that the impact of traumatic events can be so strong that can have a serious long-term influence on physical health (Sareen et al., 2007) in terms of poor quality of life (QOL), general health symptoms, general medical conditions, pain (e.g., musculoskeletal), cardio-respiratory symptoms, and gastrointestinal health (Brosschot et al., 2016;Yaribeygi et al., 2017;Zhang et al., 2021) -for a review (Pacella et al., 2013). ...
Background
Adverse life events such as life-threatening accidents, domestic and/or sexual violence, organic diseases (i.e., cancer), or COVID-19 can have a strong traumatic impact – generating reactions as intrusive thoughts, hyperarousal, and avoidance. Indeed, the traumatic impact of COVID-19 seems to lead individuals to experience anxiety and depression. However, the Anxiety-Buffer Hypothesis suggests that self-esteem could be considered a shield (buffer) against traumatic experiences and their outcomes (i.e., anxiety and depression). The present study has two objectives. First, to develop a measure of the impact of the traumatic event considering the aforementioned reactions. Second, to test the process – triggered by COVID19-related traumatic experience – in which self-esteem buffers the path that leads to anxiety and depression.
Method
In Study 1 (N = 353), the Post-Traumatic Symptom Questionnaire (PTSQ) was developed and a deep investigation of its psychometric properties was conducted. In Study 2 (N = 445), a structural equation model with latent variables was performed to assess the buffering effect of self-esteem.
Results
The PTSQ has excellent fit indices and psychometric properties. According to the ABH, results confirm the buffering effect of self-esteem in the relationships between traumatic symptoms and both anxiety and depression.
Conclusion
On the one hand, the PTSQ is a solid and reliable instrument. On the other hand, that self-esteem is a protective factor against anxiety and depression related to a traumatic experience – such as COVID-19. Targeted psychological interventions should be implemented to minimize the psychological burden of the illness while promoting adaptation and positive aspects of oneself.
... For example, 黑暗 (darkness) and 黑色 (black) were grouped with 驚 (fear). This is consistent with previous research that proposed fear is an inherent default response to the unknown and the fear response is disinhibited under uncertainties (e.g., dark environment) 46,47 . Besides, the association may reflect evolutionary importance for survival 48 . ...
Emotions are not necessarily universal across different languages and cultures. Mental lexicons of emotions depend strongly on contextual factors, such as language and culture. The Chinese language has unique linguistic properties that are different from other languages. As a main variant of Chinese, Cantonese has some emotional expressions that are only used by Cantonese speakers. Previous work on Chinese emotional vocabularies focused primarily on Mandarin. However, little is known about Cantonese emotion vocabularies. This is important since both language variants might have distinct emotional expressions, despite sharing the same writing system. To explore the structure and organization of Cantonese-label emotion words, we selected 79 highly representative emotion cue words from an ongoing large-scale Cantonese word association study (SWOW-HK). We aimed to identify the categories of these emotion words and non-emotion words that related to emotion concepts. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to generate word clusters and investigate the underlying emotion dimensions. As the cluster quality was low in hierarchical clustering, we further constructed an emotion graph using a network approach to explore how emotions are organized in the Cantonese mental lexicon. With the support of emotion knowledge, the emotion graph defined more distinct emotion categories. The identified network communities covered basic emotions such as love, happiness, and sadness. Our results demonstrate that mental lexicon graphs constructed from free associations of Cantonese emotion-label words can reveal fine categories of emotions and their relevant concepts.
... Further, other proximal factors may have also impaired life quality during this time of uncertainty, such as an individual's anxiety related to the pandemic (Brosschot et al., 2016;Özdin & Bayrak Özdin, 2020), their perceived health risk of COVID-19 infection (Chua et al., 2021), and their current health status (Dennison et al., 2022). For example, a study of Greek adults with chronic disease showed they reported significantly higher levels of distress during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to individuals without a chronic disease (Louvardi et al., 2020). ...
Many aspects of society changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many individuals experienced the introduction of travel bans and restrictions, COVID-19 related anxiety, greater risk to their health and an increased need for adaptive coping. Research has shown health-related quality of life was negatively affected during the time. However, the influence that these restrictions and experiences had on other various quality of life domains (physical, psychological, environmental, and social) is not yet known. Therefore, we aimed to examine the relationships between COVID-19-related variables, health variables, psychological variables and five domains of quality of life in Australian adults. Data was collected via cross-sectional online surveys from 264 Australian participants ( M age = 29.76 years, SD = 12.40). Five hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. The findings showed better adaptive coping, decreased COVID-19 anxiety, and lower perceived health risk were all associated with better quality of life during this time. Neither having travel plans during 2020–2021 nor engaging in compensatory behaviours were associated with quality of life. During times of uncertainty, such as pandemics, natural disasters or war, providing anxiety-reducing coping strategies may be beneficial for reducing the negative impacts on quality of life. In line with these findings and similar research, we have provided several directions and recommendations for governments and media organisations for when future events, similar to COVID-19, occur.
... When assessing the psychological impact of COVID-19, the duration of symptoms should be taken into consideration. From an evolutionary perspective, psychological responses to traumatic and stressful events can be protective (Brosschot et al., 2016;Yaribeygi et al., 2017). However, persistent stressors could result in chronic PTSD symptoms and may pose a long-term threat to individuals and their intimate partners which could last years (Kessler et al., 1995). ...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health concern, with increasing rates of IPV being seen around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research has linked the perpetration of IPV and other forms of sexual violence to aspects of romantic attachment psychology, with insecure anxious/preoccupied attachment most often linked to higher rates of IPV. Stressful events typically activate the attachment system and may either aggravate or disrupt its regulatory functioning. In the present study, we investigated whether COVID-related PTSD and depressive symptoms were associated with increased IPV perpetration and whether this relationship was moderated by levels of attachment security. Our findings indicated that higher COVID-related PTSD was significantly associated with increased IPV perpetration in securely attached individuals, whereas depressive symptoms was significantly associated with decreased IPV perpetration in securely attached individuals. IPV perpetration by insecure individuals was consistently high regardless of COVID-related PTSD or depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that COVID-related PTSD may erode adaptive attachment functioning, particularly among the previously secure, which can have important consequences for secure individuals and their intimate partners. The present findings may explain some of the recent increase in IPV cases worldwide and serve to raise awareness and motivate clinical interventions to more efficiently help both victims and perpetrators of IPV stay safe while staying home.
... In addition to that, individuals complain of diabetes, thyroid problems, and a majority suffer from symptoms of skin disorders and migraines, and tension-related headaches (Ganster & Rosen, 2013;Kivimäki & Kawachi, 2015;McCraty et al., 2003). Certain studies have shown the emotional consequences of workplace stress (Brosschot et al., 2016). ...
... While generic stress regulatory processes tend to direct humans toward handling stimuli as threats as the "default" mode [16], protective systems function to modulate this primary stress response by mitigating or augmenting it. Protective systems are, therefore, automatically engaged and then regulated in a more or less adapted manner. ...
Mistrust in COVID-19 vaccines may hinder vaccination campaigns. We looked at cognitive determinants of vaccination intentions against COVID-19. We were interested in (i) the effects of stress and (ii) the effects of self-protection systems on attitudes and intentions to get COVID-19 vaccines. We conducted an online observational pilot study with 203 participants and used self-report questionnaires to assess perceived stress and vulnerability to disease, beliefs about a dangerous world, pandemic-related stressors, living conditions, attitudes and intentions toward the vaccines and trust in government management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants reporting high levels of trust in government and high levels of stress were more likely to have positive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines, although these two effects are at least partially independent of each other. We discuss how to improve the communication around COVID-19 vaccine policies.
... All mammals experience anxiety and demonstrate anxietydriven behaviours in response to an unknown potential threat (Steimer, 2011). The anxiety-driven response of an animal to a stressful situation is conserved evolutionary (Bracha, 2006;Brosschot et al., 2016;Willers et al., 2013) and affects general locomotor activity and specific behaviours like exploration or attention in an integral way (Milner & Crabbe, 2008). An impact of anxiety on animal's behavioural performance varies between subjects substantially and cannot be distinguished easily from other changes in activities detected in the standard behavioural assays like the open-field test (Ennaceur, 2014;Milner & Crabbe, 2008;Treit, 1985). ...
In mammals, a persistent increase in anxiety affects animal’s behavioral activities in adulthood consistently and might be “programmed” by early-life adverse events permanently. The “programming” of anxiety in adult subjects by severe neonatal events like cerebral hypoxia-ischemia or prolonged maternal separation is well established. By contrast, the age of onset of anxiety-related behavioral changes triggered by neonatal events of marginal intensity such as mild anoxia or a short-term exposure to glucocorticoids remains elusive to date. Here we studied anxiety-driven behaviors demonstrated in the elevated plus maze (EPM), in the marble burying (MB) and in the light–dark box (LDB) tests in adolescent and adult rats pre-exposed to an acute anoxic event and/or a single injection of synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone on postnatal day 2. Adult rats pre-exposed neonatally to hypoxia and dexamethasone demonstrated decreased activities either in the EPM or in the MB tests. Both exposures influenced anxiety-related activities as independent factors of similar strength, with additive impact on behaviors. In adolescent animals, the earliest behavioral changes detected after neonatal exposure to anoxia and glucocorticoids were found in the MB test at the age of one month. The findings evidenced that neonatal events of marginal intensity are capable of triggering a subsequent persistent increase in anxiety-driven behaviours in mammals, which might be detected in the adolescent age already. The identified within-generation early-life «programming» of mammalian anxiety by stress hormones and hypoxia might be considered as a possible product of prolonged predator-driven evolution and depicted like a signal-detection-theory payoff matrix.
Graphic Abstract
... In the context of actual danger, this reduction in vagal tone is useful in facilitating adaptive stress responses (e.g., fight or flight) (Maier & Watkins, 1998). Several studies, for example, have found short-term links between situational changes in perceptions of threat vs. safety and corresponding short-term changes in vagal tone (Brosschot et al., 2016(Brosschot et al., , 2017Smith et al., 2020). Social baseline theory suggests that the absence of supportive others violates the default expectations of the brain, and is thus likely to create at least a mild degree of heightened experience of threat (Coan & Sbarra, 2015). ...
Understanding whether and how the absence of positive relationships may predict longer-term physical health outcomes is central to building a working conceptual model of the interplay of social and physical development across the lifespan. This study sought to examine the extent to which difficulties establishing positive social relationships from adolescence onward serve as long-term predictors of low adult vagal tone, which in turn has been linked to numerous long-term health problems. A diverse community sample of 141 individuals was followed via multiple methods and reporters from age 13 to 29. Across this span, social relationship quality was assessed via close friend and peer reports, observations of romantic interactions, and self-reported romantic relationship satisfaction. A range of potential personality and functional covariates was also considered. Vagal tone while at rest was assessed at age 29. Adult vagal tone was predicted across periods as long as 16 years by: adolescents’ difficulty establishing themselves as desirable companions among peers; early adults’ inability to establish strong close friendships; and lack of warmth in romantic relationships as an adult. Poor early adult friendship quality statistically mediated the link from adolescent peer difficulties to adult vagal tone. A range of potential confounding factors was examined but was not linked to vagal tone. Within the limits of the correlational design of the study, robust connections between adult vagal tone and social relationship quality from adolescence onward suggest at least a possible mechanism by which relationship difficulties may get ‘under the skin’ to influence future physiological functioning.
... Uncertainty about changes in contingency from threat to safety may delay threat extinction learning and retention (e.g. the reduction of anxious responses to old threat associations) (Bouton, 2002). Notably, uncertainty-related distress plays a fundamental role in anxiety and OCD (Brosschot et al., 2016;Carleton, 2016;Grupe & Nitschke, 2013;Pulcu & Browning, 2019). ...
Uncertainty-related distress is considered a hallmark of anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD). Previous research in community samples has demonstrated that individuals with high Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), the tendency to find uncertainty aversive, display altered threat extinction learning and retention. Here, we conducted an exploratory secondary analysis of an existing dataset (Steinman et al., 2022) to examine the extent to which IU in a clinical sample with anxiety and OCD predicts threat extinction learning and retention. Participants with an anxiety disorder and/or OCD completed a differential threat learning task across two days. SCR was used as an index of conditioned responding. No significant effects of self-reported IU were observed for differential SCR during any of the experimental phases. However, higher self-reported IU, while controlling for trait anxiety, was specifically associated with greater SCR overall during same-day and next-day extinction training. Such findings provide preliminary evidence that higher IU within clinical samples with anxiety and/or OCD may be associated with heightened arousal under uncertainty, and highlight IU as a promising treatment target for anxiety and OCD.
... While generic stress regulatory processes tend to direct humans toward handling stimuli as threats as the "default" mode [17], protective systems function to modulate this primary stress response by mitigating or augmenting it. The stress response is susceptible to be regulated at two points in time from the initial response. ...
Background:Distrust of COVID-19 vaccines may hampervaccination campaigns. Wefocused on the cognitive determinants of intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Wewere interested in (i) the effects of stress, and (ii) the effects of self-protection systems onattitudes and intentions to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.Methods:We conducted an online observational studywith 203 French students (MAge=19, SDAge= 2.52, Women = 173), in which we measured,through self-reportedquestionnaires, their perceived stress and vulnerability to disease, belief in a dangerousworld, pandemic-related stressors living conditions, attitudes and intentions to get vaccinated,and confidence in the government's management of COVID-19. We conducted two multiplelinear mediation analyses.Results:Participants who reported higher trust inthe government and who reported higherstress levels were more likely to have positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine,although both these influences seem to be –at least partially - independent.Conclusions:The factor that most robustly predictedboth attitudes and intentions tovaccinate was confidence in the information provided by the government and its ability tomanage the pandemic in general. Our analyses suggest the existence of two profiles of peoplelikely to have positive attitudes toward vaccination: those who trust the government and arenot stressed by vaccination, and those who do not trust the government but would getvaccinated to reduce their stress. We discuss how to improve the effectiveness of COVID-19vaccine policies through communication.
... Eatough et al. 2016;Gerhardt et al. 2021;Marsland et al. 2017;Wirtz et al. 2013;Rau et al. 2001). Unwinding may be further prolonged by ruminating about the stressful situation (Blanco-Encomienda, García-Cantero, and Latorre-Medina 2020; Brosschot, Verkuil, and Thayer 2016;Firoozabadi, Uitdewilligen, and Zijlstra 2018). In sum, 'when negative activation is high, it is more difficult to gain mental distance to negative events experienced at work' (Sonnentag 2018, 175). ...
This article presents some deliberations on methodological approaches to researching the effects of work-related social stress on performance, with particular consideration being given to machine-induced social stress. The article proposes a broad methodological approach to examine such effects. A particular focus is placed on performance after-effects (e.g. unscheduled probe tasks), extra-role behaviour, and task management behaviour because of conventional performance measures (i.e. scheduled tasks) often being unimpaired by social stressors. The role of the ‘performance protection mode’ as an important concept is discussed. A distinction is made between three facets of after-effects: performance-related, behavioural, and emotional. Unscheduled probe tasks and voluntary tasks are proposed to measure performance-related and behavioural after-effects. Propositions for specific experimental scenarios are made, allowing for sufficiently realistic simulations of social stress at work. The availability of such lab-based simulations of work environments offers good opportunities for this line of experimental research, which is expected to gain in importance since highly automated systems may modify the impact of human-induced social stress or may even represent a social stressor themselves. Finally, the considerations presented in this article are not only of relevance to the domain of social stress but to experimental stress research in general.
... Evolutionary psychology explained that emotions are adaptive mechanisms that help humans to respond to threats (Tooby & Cosmides, 2008). Anxiety, in particular, is an adaptive default emotion that signals the presence of threats and uncertainty, allowing one to act to avoid the impending danger (Brosschot et al., 2016;Buss, 1990). Affect heuristic explains how emotions as heuristic influence an individual's decision-making and proenvironmental behaviour based on previous experience (Pachur et al., 2012). ...
Objective
This study aimed to 1) investigate the psychometric properties of the Climate Change Anxiety Scale or CCAS (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020) and 2) examine the mediating role of climate change anxiety on the link between experience of climate change and behavioural engagement in climate mitigation in Filipino youth.
Method
A total of 452 Filipino adolescents responded to the survey (Mean Age = 19.18, SD = .99).
Results
A modified two-factor model of the CCAS displayed superior fit relative to the other three models tested. Confirmatory factor analysis in Phase 1 yielded a stable two-factor structure with strong factor loadings and good internal consistency. In Phase 2, cognitive-emotional, but not the functional impairment component of climate anxiety, showed a mediating effect on the relationship between experience of climate change and behavioural engagement in climate mitigation.
Conclusions
This study is the first to demonstrate that CCAS subscales have distinct mediating roles in linking Filipino adolescents’ experience of climate change and mitigation behaviours. Further validation of the CCAS is recommended, as well as further research on the factors that can promote environment-friendly behaviours in Filipino youth.
KEY POINTS
What is already known about this topic:
• (1) Only two studies to date examined the psychometric properties of the Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS), which both used samples from WEIRD countries.
• (2) There is a dearth of studies on climate change anxiety in a non-WEIRD country such as the Philippines.
• (3) Those who experienced the consequences of climate change are more likely to engage in actions that help mitigate it.
What this topic adds:
• (1) As a psychometrically sound tool, the Climate Change Anxiety Scale can be used to measure climate anxiety in Filipino youth.
• (2) Psychologists should be prepared to address the negative impacts of the climate crisis on youth mental health.
• (3) The study provides meaningful insights that can be used in educating the younger generations in mitigating climate change.
... Det er lett å undervurdere hvor mye støtte vi får fra de fysiske omgivelsene. Trygge omgivelser kan tilby en form for tilbakekobling som gir oss lavere stressnivå fordi den generelle usikkerheten blir redusert (se Brosschot et al., 2016). Enkelte har hevdet at det er en adaptiv respons til naturomgivelser å tillate kroppen restituering og stressreduksjon (Ulrich, 1993). ...
Background and aim: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how we can use nature cabins and their natural surroundings therapeutically. Method: Published research of relevance for this therapeutic practice is discussed in relation to and informed by experiences from practice, collected through conversations with therapists using the Outdoor care retreat at Rikshospitalet in Norway. Results: The literature review demonstrates how therapy in nature cabins can influence cognitive and emotional processes. All physical environments carry symbolic meanings; therefore, no therapy setting is neutral, and the setting will affect the client and therapist. Place attachment may contribute to create a safe foundation for exploration and self-development. The experiences from practice demonstrate how nature and natural objects are rich in potential for the creative application of symbols in therapy and opens for different stories on growth and development. Conclusions and implications: The evidence-based approach of this article supplies a therapeutic rationale to use cabins in natural surroundings more strategically for positive therapeutic outcomes. Keywords: nature, architecture, therapy settings, hospital environments
... In the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic, uncertainty, unanticipated unemployment, and mandatory isolation caused adverse psychological effects. Given the relevance of psychological responses to traumatic or depressing experiences in evolution and protection (Brosschot et al., 2016), follow-up studies following the pandemic may be required to assess the long-standing mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
This systematic review and meta-analysis generates evidence of the prevalence and associated factors of common mental disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress) related to the pandemic among the Saudi general population. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, a comprehensive literature search was performed in the respective databases (e.g., PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science), from 22 July to 17 August 2021, and identified a total of 220 articles. Adhering to the inclusion criteria (i.e., original research concerning the prevalence and/or associated factors of depression and/or anxiety and/or stress disorders among the general Saudi population, published in English peer-reviewed journals), 15 studies were included in this review which consisted of a total of 262,656 participants. The overall prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress was 30% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22% to 38%, I² = 99.58%), 20% (95% CI: 16% to 24%, I² = 99.32%), and 29% (95% CI: 11% to 47%, I² = 99.76%), respectively. Risk factors of mental health problems were found to be female sex, younger age group, single/divorced marital status, lower education, lower income, non-Saudis, unemployment status, students, being in a small family and living with elderly of the sociodemographic factors. Smokers, less physical activities, lower resilience, reduced immune status, chronic health problems, and psychiatric illness history were associated with a higher degree of mental health problems. In addition, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related risk factors of mental illness included lack of knowledge, fear, worry and concern, family member or friends’ infection or death, lockdown restrictions, quarantine, confirmed or suspected of COVID-19 infection, and even pandemic effects. In conclusion, appropriate mental health preventive approaches for the Saudi general people are highly needed, where this review can be worthy of help by providing in detailed information to the respective authorities.
Despite emphasis on findings suggesting restrained eaters increase food consumption under stress, unrestrained eaters' reduction in intake is more robust. Early proposals asserted unrestrained eaters significantly reduced intake after certain threats due to the hunger-inhibiting effects of autonomic influences, presuming unrestrained eaters are more responsive to these effects and restrained eaters rely less on physiological cues for eating. However, scant empirical evidence has substantiated these claims. This study examined whether a sequence exists whereby stress elicits autonomic activation, autonomic activation impacts hunger, and hunger then impacts eating, with dietary restraint altering the hunger-intake link. It was hypothesized that sympathetic nervous system activation would be greatest when ongoing safety from stress was uncertain, sympathetic activation would be linked to reduced hunger, and lower hunger would be associated with attenuated intake. Restraint, conceptualized via Hagan et al.'s (2017) latent restraint factors, was hypothesized to reduce the association between hunger and intake. Female participants (n = 147) were randomized to a stress + certain safety, stress + uncertain safety, or control condition. Sympathetic nervous system activity was recorded prior to a bogus taste test, which quantified ad libitum consumption of highly-palatable snack foods post-stress. Only the stress + uncertain safety condition exhibited greater sympathetic nervous system activity than the control condition. A significant index of moderated serial mediation emerged for Preoccupation with Dieting and Weight-Focused Restraint in the stress + uncertain safety condition. Though sympathetic activation decreased hunger similarly regardless of dietary restraint, only less restrained individuals significantly decreased intake. More restrained individuals ate more despite experiencing lower hunger. The disconnect between hunger and intake in more restrained eaters suggests that focus on enhancing attunement to hunger may yield greater benefit than enhancing restraint. 281 words.
Link: bit.ly/ritual_anxiety
The near- omnipresence of religious systems across the globe and throughout human history has led researchers to hypothesize that religious systems fulfil important adaptive functions in their specific niches (Lang & Kundt, 2020; Sosis, 2017, 2019).1 Two functions have been of particular interest: promoting group coordination and cooperation and promoting positive effects on individual health and survival while a third major function of religious systems, promotion of reproduction, gradually gains attention (see Van Slyke, ch. 7 this volume; Shaver et al., 2020). Alongside beliefs in various superhuman agents and other components of religious systems, a major role in facilitating these functions appears to be played by ritual behavior, both in its individual and group forms (Purzycki & Arakchaa, 2013; Sosis, 2004; Xygalatas et al., 2019, 2013). In this chapter, we examine whether ritual behavior, in interaction with other evolved cognitive- behavioral systems, positively affects one of the three main outputs of religious systems— the promotion of individual health and survival— and speculate about ritual’s tentative adaptive value.
Objective:
To test whether expectations of respect and appreciation from others, assessed in daily life, are associated with preclinical vascular disease.
Method:
Participants were an urban community sample of 483 employed adults (47% male, 17% Black, mean age = 42.8 years). Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) was measured using B-mode ultrasound. Expectations of being treated with respect and appreciation were measured using the average of hourly assessments over the course of 4 days, and home and work averages were also examined separately.
Results:
Expectations of greater respect and appreciation from others were associated with significantly less carotid IMT even after adjustment for demographic factors, general positivity and negativity of social interactions, neuroticism, optimism, perceived discrimination, and concurrent biological risk factors. This association was similar across social contexts of work and home and also when expectations of respect and appreciation were examined separately. Lower expectations of respect and appreciation and more negative social interactions were both independently associated with greater IMT in fully adjusted models and effect sizes were similar to traditional biological risk factors such as BMI.
Conclusions:
Midlife adults who anticipate greater respect and appreciation from others in everyday life evidence less preclinical vascular disease. Consistent with the literature showing that anticipation of social threats and unfair treatment may increase cardiovascular risk, expectations of being valued and treated with respect by others is associated with decreased risk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
La poliedrica libertà nel proporre temi e approcci di analisi diversi, ha sempre contraddistinto il rapporto profondo e professionale che, in questi anni, ho intrattenuto con Dialoghi Mediterranei. Passando da riflessioni interdisciplinari al confine tra l’antropologia, la storia e la filosofia, a tematiche più strettamente riguardanti la mia
ricerca etnografica, in questo numero di Quaderni si può individuare un sottile fil rouge che lega i contributi qui riuniti, i quali tentano di esplorare, in maniera estremamente eterogenea ma complessivamente coerente, i limiti valoriali dell’epoca storica che stiamo vivendo.
Something fundamental for health lies in the relationship between individuals and their homes, and it is missed by entire populations after destructive natural disasters. Although previous research has verified the importance of home to the psychological and physiological well-being of adults in normal conditions, natural disaster recovery plans still ignore the impact that recreating a sense of home in transitional and permanent relocation environments can have in the relief of stress and depression of the displaced people. This exploratory study draws upon the theory of embodied cognition to explain the interrelationship between home environments and physical and psychological restoration. Through a phenomenologically based analysis of in-depth interviews with five survivors of the 2018 Paradise Camp Fire, a review of the literature on home, and empirical evidence and theory from the cognitive sciences, an enriched definition of home is formulated on the basis that the pleasant feelings of home are a result of the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, a physiological restorative process that is associated with environmental cues and is impaired in no-home environments. The provisional findings of this study suggest that improving access to suitable homes can be an effective non-invasive measure to prevent long-term negative health effects of relocation after a natural disaster, and that displaced individuals should always be involved in the decision-making about relocation and rebuilding. For that purpose, this study proposes a thirteen-topic survey to identify the themes that can provide a sense of home to each individual affected by displacement.
Uncertainty is a core component of threat and associated learning processes. One methodological factor impacting uncertainty in threat learning paradigms is the threat reinforcement rate, which refers to the proportion of times a cue is reinforced with an aversive stimulus. This study tested the effect of partial vs continuous threat reinforcement on threat / safety discrimination learning, as indexed by skin conductance response (SCR). Using a within-participants design, fifty-nine participants completed a task in which three colored shapes were paired with electric shock at reinforcement schedules of 100%, 50% (CS+) and 0% (CS-). In addition, the study examined the relationship between the Intolerance of Uncertainty scale (IU) and two subfactors-inhibitory and prospective IU-with threat discrimination learning. The data show heightened SCR in the continuous vs partial reinforcement condition to all stimuli, but no enhanced discrimination learning. Furthermore, no association was observed between total IU score and threat-safety discrimination. However, using a two-factor model of IU, findings showed higher inhibitory IU and higher prospective IU were associated with diminished and heightened threat discrimination, respectively. These results contribute to a fast-growing literature exploring how the uncertainty inherent to predictors of threat, individual differences in sensitivity to uncertainty, and interactions between these two factors, can shape the acquisition of threat memory.
The proposed model of ecologically motivated relationship safety regulation posits that close relationships offer symbolic safety when natural ecologically-based threats activate the need for self-preservation. The model makes the twin assumptions that (1) natural ecological threats motivate people in unreliable relationships to perceive their relationships as bastions of safety, but (2) that their personal capacities for resilience in the face of threat constrain such motivated perceptions. Two internal meta-analyses of 4 correlational/cross-sectional and 5 experimental studies (Ntotal=5,030) using different methods and conceptualizations of natural ecological threats (acute and chronic pain; pathogenic transmission) supported the hypotheses. People in less satisfying relationships symbolically defended against natural ecological threats by affirming the available safety in their close relationships when they were high in self-esteem (i.e., high in personal resiliency), but not when they were low in self-esteem. However, people in highly satisfying relationships did not defend against natural ecological threats, likely because they already felt safe in their relationships.
Animals have sophisticated mechanisms for coping with danger. Freezing is a unique state that, upon threat detection, allows evidence to be gathered, response possibilities to be previsioned and preparations to be made for worst-case fight or flight. We propose that — rather than reflecting a passive fear state — the particular somatic and cognitive characteristics of freezing help to conceal overt responses, while optimizing sensory processing and action preparation. Critical for these functions are the neurotransmitters noradrenaline and acetylcholine, which modulate neural information processing and also control the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. However, the interactions between autonomic systems and the brain during freezing, and the way in which they jointly coordinate responses, remain incompletely explored. We review the joint actions of these systems and offer a novel computational framework to describe their temporally harmonized integration. This reconceptualization of freezing has implications for its role in decision-making under threat and for psychopathology. When anticipating a threat, many animals ‘freeze’, becoming temporarily immobile. Roelofs and Dayan argue that this response enables the coordination of cognitive and somatic processes that prepare the animal for action and describe how CNS, autonomic and sensorimotor activity must be integrated to regulate freezing.
For over two decades, the minority stress model has guided research on the health of sexually-diverse individuals (those who are not exclusively heterosexual) and gender-diverse individuals (those whose gender identity/expression differs from their birth-assigned sex/gender). According to this model, the cumulative stress caused by stigma and social marginalization fosters stress-related health problems. Yet studies linking minority stress to physical health outcomes have yielded mixed results, suggesting that something is missing from our understanding of stigma and health. Social safety may be the missing piece. Social safety refers to reliable social connection, inclusion, and protection, which are core human needs that are imperiled by stigma. The absence of social safety is just as health-consequential for stigmatized individuals as the presence of minority stress, because the chronic threat-vigilance fostered by insufficient safety has negative long-term effects on cognitive, emotional, and immunological functioning, even when exposure to minority stress is low. We argue that insufficient social safety is a primary cause of stigma-related health disparities and a key target for intervention.
Most people assume studying or working abroad would be stressful - but would one ever think that it could be detrimental to the health? Stress literature relates cross-cultural transactions to the chances of gaining higher levels of chronic stress. This paper reports the results of two studies on international students in Moscow in 2018. Specifically, Study 1 assessed how cross-cultural transactions perceived to affect health state during the first 6 months of their relocation. Study 2 aimed to investigate if the psychological stress linked to relocation to a different country can possibly lead to psychobiological effects of chronic stress. In Study 1, qualitative methods were applied to conduct 21 interviews with international students. In Study 2, a longitudinal pilot study was conducted for 10 foreign students during the first 2-5 (M = 3.6) months of their relocation. Stress related to cross-cultural transactions was expected to affect subjective well-being and health variables. The health state was a relatively silent topic in the interview participants of Study 1. The results of Study 2 showed that the participants had changes in the resting heart rate (RHR) baseline. Perceived chronic stress related to cross-cultural transactions may affect psychophysiological state; however, the affect varies depending on a person. Further research is required for the data consistency and for identifying non-invasive objective risk markers and individual stress pathways, with the goal of identifying at-risk students and providing treatment options before any serious harm is done to their health.
Background: The burden of mental disorders is likely to increase during the Covid-19 pandemic. Knowing the rate of psychological distress and mental disorders, its severity, and factors associated with psychological distress is strategical. Method: We analyzed online cross-sectional data from 164,881 health professionals and from 5,635 participants from the general population in Brazil. The Global Severity Index (GSI) from the Brief Symptom Inventory, self-reported diagnosis of mental disorders, sociodemographic characteristics, and factors related to Covid-19, such as physical health status, diagnosis and contact history, perceptions and concerns, and precautionary measures were compared between samples. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate factors related to GSI scores. Results: Psychological distress was high or very high in 13.4% of health professionals and in 31.4% of the general population. Health professionals reported a lower rate of current or previous history of mental disorders (36%) than participants from the general population (44.7%). Age (younger) and gender (female) predicted higher psychological distress for health professionals and economic class (lower) and household size (more members) for the general population. People with higher GSI scores reported to have experienced more physical symptoms associated with Covid-19, feeling less productive at work, being afraid of transmitting the coronavirus to the family, fear of financial difficulties, and feeling that home relations were worse during the pandemic outbreak. Conclusions: Psychological distress at the first wave of Covid-19 was associated with sociodemographic features and an anxious perception of physical symptoms, virus transmission to loved ones, disruption of family relations, and financial situation.
Smiling has been a topic of interest to psychologists for decades, with a myriad of studies tying this behavior to well-being. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about the nature of the connections between smiling and physical health. We review the literature connecting both naturally occurring smiles and experimentally manipulated smiles to physical health and health-relevant outcomes. This work is discussed in the context of existing affect and health-relevant theoretical models that help explain the connection between smiling and physical health including the facial feedback hypothesis, the undoing hypothesis, the generalized unsafety theory of stress, and polyvagal theory. We also describe a number of plausible pathways, some new and relatively untested, through which smiling may influence physical health such as trait or state positive affect, social relationships, stress buffering, and the oculocardiac reflex. Finally, we provide a discussion of possible future directions, including the importance of cultural variation and replication. Although this field is still in its infancy, the findings from both naturally occurring smile studies and experimentally manipulated smile studies consistently suggest that smiling may have a number of health-relevant benefits including beneficially impacting our physiology during acute stress, improved stress recovery, and reduced illness over time.
Socioeconomic inequities shape physical health and emotional well-being. As such, recent work has examined the neural mechanisms through which socioeconomic position (SEP) may influence health. However, there remain critical gaps in knowledge regarding the relationships between SEP and brain function. These gaps include a lack of research on: (1) the association between SEP and brain functioning in later life, (2) relationships between SEP and functioning of the whole brain beyond specific regions of interest, and (3) how neural responses to positive affective stimuli differ by SEP. The current study addressed these gaps by examining the association between SEP (i.e., education, income) and neural responses to affective stimuli among 122 mid- to late-life adults. During MRI scanning, participants viewed 30 positive, 30 negative, and 30 neutral images; activation and network connectivity analyses explored associations between SEP and neural responses to these affective stimuli. Analyses revealed that those with lower SEP showed greater neural activity to both positive and negative images in regions within the allostatic-interoceptive network, a system of regions implicated in representing and regulating physiological states of the body and the external environment. There were no positive associations between SEP and neural responses to negative or positive images. In addition, graph–theory network analyses showed that individuals with lower SEP demonstrated greater global efficiency within the allostatic-interoceptive network and executive control network, across all task conditions. The findings suggest that lower SEP is associated with enhanced neural sensitivity to affective cues that may be metabolically costly to maintain over time and suggest a mechanism by which SEP might get “under the skull” to influence mental and physical well-being.
The current review and synthesis was designed to provocatively develop and evaluate the proposition that “fear of the unknown may be a, or possibly the, fundamental fear” (Carleton, 2016) underlying anxiety and therein neuroticism. Identifying fundamental transdiagnostic elements is a priority for clinical theory and practice. Historical criteria for identifying fundamental components of anxiety are described and revised criteria are offered. The revised criteria are based on logical rhetorical arguments using a constituent reductionist postpositivist approach supported by the available empirical data. The revised criteria are then used to assess several fears posited as fundamental, including fear of the unknown. The review and synthesis concludes with brief recommendations for future theoretical discourse as well as clinical and non-clinical research.
The current review and synthesis serves to define and contextualize fear of the unknown relative to related constructs, such as intolerance of uncertainty, and contemporary models of emotion, attachment, and neuroticism. The contemporary models appear to share a common core in underscoring the importance of responses to unknowns. A recent surge in published research has explored the transdiagnostic impact of not knowing on anxiety and related pathologies; as such, there appears to be mounting evidence for fear of the unknown as an important core transdiagnostic construct. The result is a robust foundation for transdiagnostic theoretical and empirical explorations into fearing the unknown and intolerance of uncertainty.
A growing body of research has confirmed that workplace bullying is a source of distress and poor mental health. Here we summarize the cross-sectional and longitudinal literature on these associations.
Systematic review and meta-analyses on the relation between workplace bullying and mental health.
The cross-sectional data (65 effect sizes, N = 115.783) showed positive associations between workplace bullying and symptoms of depression (r = .28, 95% CI = .23-.34), anxiety (r = .34, 95% CI = .29-.40) and stress-related psychological complaints (r = .37, 95% CI = .30-.44). Pooling the literature that investigated longitudinal relationships (26 effect sizes, N = 54.450) showed that workplace bullying was related to mental health complaints over time (r = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.13-0.21). Interestingly, baseline mental health problems were associated with subsequent exposure to workplace bullying (r = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.10-0.27; 11 effect sizes, N = 27.028).
All data were self-reported, raising the possibility of reporting- and response set bias.
Workplace bullying is consistently, and in a bi-directional manner, associated with reduced mental health. This may call for intervention strategies against bullying at work.
Many of the body’s adaptive responses, such as pain, fever, and fear, are defenses that remain latent until they are aroused by cues that indicate the presence of a threat. Natural selection should shape regulation mechanisms that express defenses only in situations where their benefits exceed their costs, but defenses are often expressed in situations where they seem unnecessary, with much resulting useless suffering. An explanation emerges from a signal detection analysis of the costs and benefits that shaped defense regulation mechanisms. Quantitative modeling of optimal regulation for all-ornone defenses and for continuously variable defenses leads to several conclusions. First, an optimal system for regulating inexpensive all-or-none defenses against the uncertain presence of large threats will express many false alarms. Second, the optimum level of expression for graded defenses is not at the point where the costs of the defense and the danger are equal, but is instead where the marginal cost of additional defense exceeds the marginal benefit. Third, in the face of uncertainty and skewed payoff functions, the optimal response threshold may not be the point with the lowest cost. Finally, repeated exposures to certain kinds of danger may adaptively lower response thresholds, making systems vulnerable to runaway positive feedback. While we await quantitative data that can refine such models, a general theoretical perspective on the evolution of defense regulation can help to guide research and assist clinical decision making.
We tested the hypothesis that reduced rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC)-subcortical functional connectivity in depressed subjects might account for depression-related autonomic dysregulation.
Ten healthy and ten depressed subjects categorized their immediate subjective emotional responses to picture sets while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging and electrocardiography. Using an rACC cluster commonly activated in both groups by emotion categorization as a seed region, we then performed voxel-wise functional connectivity analyses to examine rACC connectivity across the brain in depressed and control subjects.
rACC had significantly stronger connectivity with a region of the inferior pons in controls than in depressed subjects. Within-subjects differences in rACC-pons connectivity also significantly correlated with measures of both heart rate variability and depression severity.
These findings support the hypothesis that autonomic dysregulation in depression may be associated with a functional disconnection between rACC and autonomic brainstem nuclei.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.
In addition to metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, obesity is associated with adverse cognitive and emotional outcomes. Its growing prevalence during adolescence is particularly alarming since recent evidence indicates that obesity can affect hippocampal function during this developmental period. Adolescence is a decisive period for maturation of the amygdala and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress axis, both required for lifelong cognitive and emotional processing. However, little data are available on the impact of obesity during adolescence on amygdala function. Herein, we therefore evaluate in rats whether juvenile high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity alters amygdala-dependent emotional memory and whether it depends on HPA axis deregulation. Exposure to HFD from weaning to adulthood, i.e., covering adolescence, enhances long-term emotional memories as assessed by odor-malaise and tone-shock associations. Juvenile HFD also enhances emotion-induced neuronal activation of the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA), which correlates with protracted plasma corticosterone release. HFD exposure restricted to adulthood does not modify all these parameters, indicating adolescence is a vulnerable period to the effects of HFD-induced obesity. Finally, exaggerated emotional memory and BLA synaptic plasticity after juvenile HFD are alleviated by a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist. Altogether, our results demonstrate that juvenile HFD alters HPA axis reactivity leading to an enhancement of amygdala-dependent synaptic and memory processes. Adolescence represents a period of increased susceptibility to the effects of diet-induced obesity on amygdala function.
Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/354092-12$15.00/0.
It has been known for many years that the ability to exert behavioral control over an adverse event blunts the behavioral and neurochemical impact of the event. More recently, it has become clear that the experience of behavioral control over adverse events also produces enduring changes that reduce the effects of subsequent negative events, even if they are uncontrollable and quite different from the original event controlled. This review focuses on the mechanism by which control both limits the impact of the stressor being experienced and produces enduring, trans-situational "immunization". The evidence will suggest that control is detected by a corticostriatal circuit involving the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the posterior dorsomedial striatum (DMS). Once control is detected, other mPFC neurons that project to stress-responsive brainstem (dorsal raphe nucleus, DRN) and limbic (amygdala) structures exert top-down inhibitory control over the activation of these structures that is produced by the adverse event. These structures, such as the DRN and amygdala, in turn regulate the proximate mediators of the behavioral and physiological responses produced by adverse events, and so control blunts these responses. Importantly, the joint occurrence of control and adverse events seems to produce enduring plastic changes in the top-down inhibitory mPFC system such that this system is now activated by later adverse events even if they are uncontrollable, thereby reducing the impact of these events. Other issues are discussed that include a) whether other processes such as safety signals and exercise, that lead to resistance/resilience, also use the mPFC circuitry or do so in other ways; b) whether control has similar effects and neural mediation in humans, and c) the relationship of this work to clinical phenomena.
Moods can be regarded as fluctuating dispositions to make positive and negative evaluations. Developing an evolutionary approach to mood as an adaptive process, we consider the structure and function of such states in guiding behavioural decisions regarding the acquisition of resources and the avoidance of harm in different circumstances. We use a drift diffusion model of decision making to consider the information required by individuals to optimise decisions between two alternatives, such as whether to approach or withdraw from a stimulus that may be life enhancing or life threatening. We show that two dimensions of variation (expectation and preparedness) are sufficient for such optimal decisions to be made. These two dispositional dimensions enable individuals to maximize the overall benefits of behavioural decisions by modulating both the choice made (e.g., approach/withdraw) and decision speed. Such a structure is compatible with circumplex models of subjectively experienced mood and core affect, and provides testable hypotheses concerning the relationships that occur between valence and arousal components of mood in differing ecological niches. The paper is therefore a useful step toward being able to predict moods (and the effect of moods) using an optimality approach.
This study aimed to investigate whether interindividual differences in autonomic inhibitory control predict safety learning and fear extinction in an interoceptive fear conditioning paradigm. Data from a previously reported study (N = 40) were extended (N = 17) and re-analyzed to test whether healthy participants' resting heart rate variability (HRV) - a proxy of cardiac vagal tone - predicts learning performance. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was a slight sensation of breathlessness induced by a flow resistor, the unconditioned stimulus (US) was an aversive short-lasting suffocation experience induced by a complete occlusion of the breathing circuitry. During acquisition, the paired group received 6 paired CS-US presentations; the control group received 6 explicitly unpaired CS-US presentations. In the extinction phase, both groups were exposed to 6 CS-only presentations. Measures included startle blink EMG, skin conductance responses (SCR) and US-expectancy ratings. Resting HRV significantly predicted the startle blink EMG learning curves both during acquisition and extinction. In the unpaired group, higher levels of HRV at rest predicted safety learning to the CS during acquisition. In the paired group, higher levels of HRV were associated with better extinction. Our findings suggest that the strength or integrity of prefrontal inhibitory mechanisms involved in safety- and extinction learning can be indexed by HRV at rest.
Background
Research on the biopsychological background of social phobia (SP) is scarce and inconsistent. We investigated endocrine and autonomic markers along with subjective responses to a standardized stress situation (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) in SP patients and healthy controls (HC).
Methods
We examined 88 patients with the primary diagnosis of SP as well as 78 age and sex comparable HCs with the TSST. Blood and saliva samples were obtained before and after the TSST for the assessment of salivary cortisol, plasma cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), and prolactin. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded continuously. Scalp-near hair samples were collected for the assessment of long-term cortisol secretion. The self-reported stress response was measured with different state and trait scales.
Results
While self-reported anxiety was elevated in SP before, during, immediately after, and one week after the TSST, no significant differences in biological stress responses were observed between SP and HC. There was a trend for SP to show higher baseline stress markers. Also long-term cortisol deposition in hair remained unaltered.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that the excessive self-reported stress in SP is not reflected by a respective biological stress response. Patients with SP apparently show neither an extreme form of focused fear reactivity nor excessive defensive impairment.
Social isolation has been recognized as a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality in humans for more than a quarter of a century. Although the focus of research has been on objective social roles and health behavior, the brain is the key organ for forming, monitoring, maintaining, repairing, and replacing salutary connections with others. Accordingly, population-based longitudinal research indicates that perceived social isolation (loneliness) is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality independent of objective social isolation and health behavior. Human and animal investigations of neuroendocrine stress mechanisms that may be involved suggest that (a) chronic social isolation increases the activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical axis, and (b) these effects are more dependent on the disruption of a social bond between a significant pair than objective isolation per se. The relational factors and neuroendocrine, neurobiological, and genetic mechanisms that may contribute to the association between perceived isolation and mortality are reviewed. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 66 is November 30, 2014. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Modern anxiety disorder models implicitly include intolerance of uncertainty (IU) as a critical component for the development and maintenance of these pervasive social and economic concerns. IU represents, at its core, fear of the unknown – a long-recognized, deep-seated fear identified in normative and pathological samples. Indeed, the intrinsic nature of IU can be argued as evolutionarily supported, a notion buttressed by initial biophysiological evidence from uncertainty-related research. Originally thought to be specific to generalized anxiety disorder, recent research has clearly demonstrated that IU is a broad transdiagnostic dispositional risk factor for the development and maintenance of clinically significant anxiety. The available evidence suggests that theorists, researchers and clinicians may benefit from explicitly incorporating IU into models, research designs, case conceptualizations and as a treatment target.
Sublethal injury triggers long-lasting sensitization of defensive responses in most species examined, suggesting the involvement of powerful evolutionary selection pressures [1]. In humans, this persistent nociceptive sensitization is often accompanied by heightened sensations of pain and anxiety [2]. While experimental [3] and clinical [4] evidence support the adaptive value of immediate nociception during injury, no direct evidence exists for adaptive benefits of long-lasting sensitization after injury. Recently, we showed that minor injury produces long-term sensitization of behavioral and neuronal responses in squid, Doryteuthis pealei [5, 6]. Here we tested the adaptive value of this sensitization during encounters between squid and a natural fish predator. Locomotion and other spontaneous behaviors of squid that received distal injury to a single arm (with or without transient anesthesia) showed no measurable impairment 6 hr after the injury. However, black sea bass given access to freely swimming squid oriented toward and pursued injured squid at greater distances than uninjured squid, regardless of previous anesthetic treatment. Once targeted, injured squid began defensive behavioral sequences [7, 8] earlier than uninjured squid. This effect was blocked by brief anesthetic treatment that prevented development of nociceptive sensitization [6, 9]. Importantly, the early anesthetic treatment also reduced the subsequent escape and survival of injured, but not uninjured, squid. Thus, while minor injury increases the risk of predatory attack, it also triggers a sensitized state that promotes enhanced responsiveness to threats, increasing the survival (Darwinian fitness) of injured animals during subsequent predatory encounters.
The ability to recognize and properly respond to instances of protection from impending danger is critical for preventing chronic stress and anxiety-central symptoms of affective disorders afflicting large populations of people. Learned safety encompasses learning processes, which lead to the identification of episodes of security and regulation of fear responses. Based upon insights into the neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms involved in learned safety in mice and humans, we describe learned safety as a tool for understanding neural mechanisms involved in the pathomechanisms of specific affective disorders. This review summarizes current knowledge on the neurobiological underpinnings of learned safety and discusses potential applications in basic and translational neurosciences.Neuropsychopharmacology accepted article preview online, 21 August 2013. doi:10.1038/npp.2013.191.
Perception informs people about the opportunities for action and their associated costs. To this end, explicit awareness of spatial layout varies not only with relevant optical and ocular-motor variables, but also as a function of the costs associated with performing intended actions. Although explicit awareness is mutable in this respect, visually guided actions directed at the immediate environment are not. When the metabolic costs associated with walking an extent increase-perhaps because one is wearing a heavy backpack-hills appear steeper and distances to targets appear greater. When one is standing on a high balcony, the apparent distance to the ground is correlated with one's fear of falling. Perceiving spatial layout combines the geometry of the world with behavioral goals and the costs associated with achieving these goals.
© 2006 Association for Psychological Science.
Results Among women who were married or cohabiting with a male partner (n=187), marital stress was associated with a 2.9-fold (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.3-6.5) increased risk of recurrent events after adjustment for age, estrogen status, education level, smoking, diagnosis at index event, diabetes mellitus, systolic blood pressure, smok- ing, triglyceride level, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, and left ventricular dys- function. Among working women (n=200), work stress did not significantly predict recurrent coronary events (hazard ratio, 1.6; 95% CI, 0.8-3.3).
Uncertainty about a possible future threat disrupts our ability to avoid it or to mitigate its negative impact and thus results in anxiety. Here, we focus the broad literature on the neurobiology of anxiety through the lens of uncertainty. We identify five processes that are essential for adaptive anticipatory responses to future threat uncertainty and propose that alterations in the neural instantiation of these processes result in maladaptive responses to uncertainty in pathological anxiety. This framework has the potential to advance the classification, diagnosis and treatment of clinical anxiety.
Social fear and avoidance of social situations represent the main behavioral symptoms of social anxiety disorder (SAD), a highly prevalent anxiety disorder that is poorly elucidated and has rather unsatisfactory therapeutic options. Therefore, animal models are needed to study the underlying etiology and pathophysiology of SAD and to verify the efficacy of possible novel treatment approaches. In this review, we describe and discuss the most important paradigms that have been shown to induce social avoidance and fear in rodents, including foot shock exposure, restraint stress, social isolation, social instability, social defeat, conditioned defeat, social defeat/overcrowding, chronic subordinate colony housing, chronic mild stress, maternal separation and social fear conditioning. We also describe some of the behavioral paradigms used to assess social avoidance and fear in rodents, including the social interaction test, the social preference-avoidance test, the social approach-avoidance test, the three-chambered social approach test, the partition test and the modified Y-maze test. We focus on the behavioral alterations these paradigms induce, especially on social interaction, general anxiety and depressive-like behavior given that SAD is strongly comorbid with anxiety and affective disorders.
Contexts surround and imbue meaning to events; they are essential for recollecting the past, interpreting the present and anticipating the future. Indeed, the brain's capacity to contextualize information permits enormous cognitive and behavioural flexibility. Studies of Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction in rodents and humans suggest that a neural circuit including the hippocampus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex is involved in the learning and memory processes that enable context-dependent behaviour. Dysfunction in this network may be involved in several forms of psychopathology, including post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders.
review some of the empirically determined characteristics of worry / suggest theoretical perspectives that may account for the functions and origins of this ubiquitous process
nature of worry [conceptual and imaginal cognitive activity, affective experience of worry, attentional activity and memory retrieval, behavioral responding, physiological activity] / functions of worry [cognitive avoidance of threat, inhibition of emotional processing] / origins of chronic worry and [generalized anxiety disorder] GAD [history of trauma, insecure attachment in childhood] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Understanding generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and developing interventions for its amelioration could contribute significantly to the understanding and treatment of all adult emotional disorders. GAD has a fairly high prevalence rate, is often associated with multiple additional Axis I diagnoses, and is a frequent comorbid condition for other anxiety and mood disorders. Moreover, worry is pervasive across all anxiety and depression problems. Learning about worry could teach us a considerable amount about human ways of being. We have been attempting to acquire basic knowledge about GAD and worry, and to develop effective forms of psychological intervention for over two decades. We have added several key components to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) approaches over the years, including teaching clients to focus on the present moment, to value tasks based on their intrinsic value rather than solely their eventual outcomes, and to deepen interpersonal and emotional contact with events. This chapter describes some of our specific interventions. We begin with general comments about the nature of human anxiety, which provide a context relevant to our development of GAD interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Individuals in adult attachment relationships regulate one another via overt emotional and social behavior. Attachment-related styles of utilizing social support moderate these regulatory effects. In recent years, the social and affective neurosciences have begun to clarify how these processes are instantiated in the brain, including the likely neural mechanisms of long-term felt security following past attachment experiences and the neural circuitry supporting the regulation of emotion by relational partners. In this brief review, I describe the neural systems involved in the formation and maintenance of adult attachment relationships and review the small amount of work to date on the neuroscience of adult attachment style. I then offer my own speculations about how adult attachment relationships conserve the brain’s metabolic resources, especially those of the prefrontal cortex.
Many of the body's adaptive responses, such as pain, fever, and fear, are defenses that remain latent until they are aroused by cues that indicate the presence of a threat. Natural selection should shape regulation mechanisms that express defenses only in situations where their benefits exceed their costs, but defenses are often expressed in situations where they seem unnecessary, with much resulting useless suffering. An explanation emerges from a signal detection analysis of the costs and benefits that shaped defense regulation mechanisms. Quantitative modeling of optimal regulation for all-or-none defenses and for continuously variable defenses leads to several conclusions. First, an optimal system for regulating inexpensive all-or-none defenses against the uncertain presence of large threats will express many false alarms. Second, the optimum level of expression for graded defenses is not at the point where the costs of the defense and the danger are equal, but is instead where the marginal cost of additional defense exceeds the marginal benefit. Third, in the face of uncertainty and skewed payoff functions, the optimal response threshold may not be the point with the lowest cost. Finally, repeated exposures to certain kinds of danger may adaptively lower response thresholds, making systems vulnerable to runaway positive feedback. While we await quantitative data that can refine such models, a general theoretical perspective on the evolution of defense regulation can help to guide research and assist clinical decision making.
Prospect theory scholars have identified important human decision-making biases, but they have been conspicuously silent on the question of the origin of these biases. Here we create a model that shows preferences consistent with prospect theory may have an origin in evolutionary psychology. Specifically, we derive a model from risk-sensitive optimal foraging theory to generate an explanation for the origin and function of context-dependent risk aversion and risk seeking behavior. Although this model suggests that human cognitive architecture evolved to solve particular adaptive problems related to finding sufficient food resources to survive, we argue that this same architecture persists and is utilized in other survival-related decisions that are critical to understanding political outcomes. In particular, we identify important departures from standard results when we incorporate prospect theory into theories of spatial voting and legislator behavior, international bargaining and conflict, and economic development and reform.
This review evaluates evidence of attentional biases in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depressive disorder from studies using modified Stroop and visual probe tasks. There appears to be fairly consistent evidence for an attentional bias for external negative cues in GAD, and for the involvement of non-conscious processes in this bias. By contrast, in clinical depression, the evidence for an attentional bias is less robust, despite depressive disorder being commonly associated with high levels of co-morbid anxiety. Where an attentional bias has been found in depressed patients, it seems to occur mainly for self-relevant negative information which is presented under conditions that allow or encourage elaborative processing. Possible explanations for this discrepant pattern of results, and their theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.
Experiential factors shape the neural circuits underlying social and emotional behavior from the prenatal period to the end of life. These factors include both incidental influences, such as early adversity, and intentional influences that can be produced in humans through specific interventions designed to promote prosocial behavior and well-being. Here we review important extant evidence in animal models and humans. Although the precise mechanisms of plasticity are still not fully understood, moderate to severe stress appears to increase the growth of several sectors of the amygdala, whereas the effects in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex tend to be opposite. Structural and functional changes in the brain have been observed with cognitive therapy and certain forms of meditation and lead to the suggestion that well-being and other prosocial characteristics might be enhanced through training.
Chronic stress has been linked to hypertension, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly specified. We suggest that chronic stress poses a risk for hypertension through repeated occurrence of acute stressors (often stemming from the chronic stress context) that cause activation of stress-mediating physiological systems. Previous models have often focused on the magnitude of the acute physiological response as a risk factor; we attempt to extend this to address the issue of duration of exposure. Key to our model is the notion that these acute stressors can emerge not only in response to stressors present in the environment, but also to mental representations of those (or other) stressors. Consequently, although the experience of any given stressor may be brief, a stressor often results in a constellation of negative cognitions and emotions that form a mental representation of the stressor. Ruminating about this mental representation of the stressful event can cause autonomic activation similar to that observed in response to the original incident, and may occur and persist long after the event itself has ended. Thus, rumination helps explain how chronic stress causes repeated (acute) activation of one's stress-mediating physiological systems, the effects of which accumulate over time, resulting in hypertension risk.
Rumination about the past and worries about the future (perseverative cognition) are extremely common, although pervasive and distressing, dysfunctional cognitive processes. Perseverative cognition is not only implicated in psychological health, contributing to mood worsening and psychopathology but, due to its ability to elicit prolonged physiological activity, is also considered to play a role in somatic health. Although there is emerging evidence that such negative and persistent thoughts have consequences on the body, this association has not yet been quantified. The aim of this study was to meta-analyze available studies on the physiological concomitants of perseverative cognition in healthy subjects. Separate meta-analyses were performed on each examined physiological parameter. Sixty studies were eligible for the analyses. Associations emerged between perseverative cognition and higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) (g = .45) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (g = .51) in experimental studies, and higher heart rate (HR) (g = .28 and g = .20) and cortisol (g = .36 and g = .32), and lower heart rate variability (HRV) (g = .15 and g = .27) in experimental and correlational