Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Subtypes Of Attentional Bias Within Social Anxiety Disorder: Evaluating Changes Following Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Martha R. Calamaras, Erin Tone, Page L. Anderson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Prominent theories of social anxiety disorder (SAD) describe the role of attentional bias in the disorder's etiology and maintenance; some models implicate bias toward social threats (e.g., Rapee

& Heimberg, 1997) and others implicate bias to avoid them (e.g., Clark & Wells, 1995). The present

investigation examined: 1) whether a clinical sample of individuals with SAD comprises two distinct groups based on attention bias for social threat (vigilant, avoidant), and 2) group-specific changes in attention bias following cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for SAD. Consistent with predictions, results yielded evidence of two pre-treatment groups (vigilant and avoidant). After eight weeks of …

Reduction In Drinking Days And Binge Drinking Days Among Patients Receiving Screening, Brief Intervention, And Referral To Treatment Services During An Emergency Department Visit: Six-Month Results, Joanna Akin, Aaron Johnson, J. Paul Seale, Gabriel P. Kuperminc

Psychology Faculty Publications

Alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) is effective in many health-care settings. Previous research has shown significant decreases in harmful drinking due to SBI, but many studies, particularly in emergency/trauma settings, did not use a control group. Thus, it is unclear if observed decreases in harmful drinking are due to the intervention or other factors such as the hospital visit, the substance use assessment, or simply regression to the mean. This project assessed the effectiveness of an SBI program implemented at an urban hospital in the US state of Georgia.

Parental Distress, Parenting Practices, And Child Adaptive Outcomes Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Jackie L. Micklewright, Tricia Z. King, Kathleen O'Toole, Christopher C. Henrich, Frank J. Floyd

Psychology Faculty Publications

Moderate and severe pediatric traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are associated with significant familial distress and child adaptive sequelae. Our aim was to examine the relationship between parental psychological distress, parenting practices (authoritarian, permissive, authoritative), and child adaptive functioning 12–36 months following TBI or orthopedic injury (OI). Injury type was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between parental distress and child adaptive functioning, demonstrating a significantly stronger relationship in the TBI relative to OI group. Authoritarian parenting practices were hypothesized to mediate relationship between parental distress and child adaptive functioning across groups. Groups (TBI n=21, OI n=23) did not differ significantly on …

A Psychological Flexibility-Based Intervention For Modulating The Impact Of Stigma And Prejudice: A Descriptive Review Of Empirical Evidence, Akihiko Masuda, Mary L. Hill, Jessica Morgan, Lindsey L. Cohen

Psychology Faculty Publications

In recent years, there have been growing efforts to understand and modulate stigma and prejudice from the standpoint of the psychological flexibility model, a pragmatic model of complex human behavior. The present paper provides an overview of the empirical evidence on the applicability of the psychological flexibility model, and its applied strategy, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), to stigma and prejudice. Preliminary findings suggest that the psychological flexibility model and ACT are promising avenues for reducing stigma and prejudice; however, further investigation and refinement of the model and ACT are crucial for significantly ameliorating human suffering related to stigma and …

Psychological Approaches To Pediatric Pain Relief, Sarah Martin, Lindsey L. Cohen

Psychology Faculty Publications

This chapter details the evidence-based psychological interventions for pediatric procedural pain. At the outset, appropriate assessment of children’s medical anxiety and pain will be briefly discussed. Correlates of children’s pain will be presented to provide some context and nuances to consider when considering preparation and procedural intervention approaches. Subsequently, psychological approaches that focus on pre-procedure preparation are highlighted. Lastly, the focus will turn to the research base of psychological approaches to intervening during children’s medical procedural distress.

Adult Cleaner Wrasse Outperform Capuchin Monkeys, Chimpanzees And Orang-Utans In A Complex Foraging Task Derived From Cleaner – Client Reef Fish Cooperation, Lucie H. Salwiczek, Laurent Pretot, Lanila Demarta, Darby Proctor, Jennifer Essler, Ana I. Pinto, Sharon Wismer, Tara Stoinski, Sarah F. Brosnan, Redouan Bshary

Psychology Faculty Publications

The insight that animals’ cognitive abilities are linked to their evolutionary history, and hence their ecology, provides the framework for the comparative approach. Despite primates renowned dietary complexity and social cognition, including cooperative abilities, we here demonstrate that cleaner wrasse outperform three primate species, capuchin monkeys, chimpanzees and orang-utans, in a foraging task involving a choice between two actions, both of which yield identical immediate rewards, but only one of which yields an additional delayed reward. The foraging task decisions involve partner choice in cleaners: they must service visiting client reef fish before resident clients to access both; otherwise the …

The Endowment Effect In Orangutans, Timothy M. Flemming, Owen D. Jones, Laura Mayo, Tara Stoinski, Sarah F. Brosnan

Psychology Faculty Publications

The endowment effect is the tendency to, seemingly irrationally, immediately value a possessed item more than the opportunity to acquire the identical item when one does not already possess it. Although endowment effects are reported in chimpanzees (Brosnan, Jones, Lambeth, Mareno, Richardson, & Shapiro, 2007) and capuchin monkeys (Lakshminarayanan, Chen, & Santos, 2008), both species share social traits with humans that make convergence as likely an evolutionary mechanism as homology. Orangutans (Pongo spp.) provide a unique insight into the evolution of the endowment effect, along with other apparently irrational behaviors, because their less frequent social interactions and relatively more …

The Role Of Mindfulness And Psychological Flexibility In Somatization, Depression, Anxiety, And General Psychological Distress Of A Non-Clinical College Sample, Akihiko Masuda, Erin C. Tully

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study investigated whether mindfulness and psychological flexibility uniquely and separately accounted for variability in psychological distress (somatization, depression, anxiety, and general psychological distress). An ethnically diverse, non-clinical sample of college undergraduates (N = 494, 76% female) completed a web-based survey that included the self-report measures of interest. Consistent with prior research, psychological flexibility and mindfulness were positively associated with each other, and tested separately, both variables were negatively associated with somatization, depression, anxiety, and general psychological distress. Results also revealed that psychological flexibility and mindfulness accounted for unique variance in all four measures of distress. These findings …

What Has Love Got To Do With It? Sentimental Attachments And Legal Decision-Making, David Markell, Tom Tyler, Sarah F. Brosnan

Psychology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fairness In Animals: Where To From Here?, Sarah F. Brosnan, Frans B.M. De Waal

Psychology Faculty Publications

In the last decade, there has been an explosion of work investigating non-human species’ behavior as it relates to the human sense of fairness and justice. This work has provided a much-needed evolutionary perspective on humans, and highlighted ways in which humans’ behavior is both similar to and different from that of other species. In this concluding paper, we outline the major threads of the work highlighted in this and the previous special issues of Social Justice Research and provide thoughts on future directions for the field. This is a very exciting time in our exploration of the evolution of …

Evolution And The Expression Of Biases: Situational Value Changes The Endowment Effect, Sarah F. Brosnan, Owen D. Jones, Molly Gardner, Susan P. Lambeth, Steven J. Shapiro

Psychology Faculty Publications

Cognitive and behavioral biases, which are widespread among humans, have recently been demonstrated in other primates, suggesting a common origin. Here we examine whether the expression of one shared bias, the endowment effect, varies as a function of context. We tested whether objects lacking inherent value elicited a stronger endowment effect (or preference for keeping the object) in a context in which the objects had immediate instrumental value for obtaining valuable resources (food). Chimpanzee subjects had opportunities to trade tools when food was not present, visible but unobtainable, and obtainable using the tools. We found that the endowment effect for …

Old World Monkeys Are More Similar To Humans Than New World Monkeys When Playing A Coordination Game, Sarah F. Brosnan, Bart J. Wilson, Michael J. Beran

Psychology Faculty Publications

There is much debate about how humans’ decision-making compares to that of other primates. One way to explore this is to compare species’ performance using identical methodologies in games with strategic interactions. We presented a computerized Assurance Game, which was either functionally simultaneous or sequential, to investigate how humans, rhesus monkeys, and capuchin monkeys utilized information in decision-making. All species coordinated via sequential play on the payoff-dominant Nash equilibrium, indicating that information about the partner’s choice improved decisions. Furthermore, some humans and rhesus monkeys found the payoff-dominant Nash equilibrium in the simultaneous game, even when it was the first condition …

Introduction To “Justice In Animals”, Sarah F. Brosnan

Psychology Faculty Publications

Although much is known about humans’ responses to inequity, little is known about similar responses in other species. The goal of these issues is to bring together researchers focusing on both humans and non-humans to provide a synthesis of our knowledge of non-human responses to inequity to date, and what these data tell us about the evolution of humans’ responses. In this Introduction, I provide a brief background, highlighting both areas in which differences among the related literatures emerge and the ways in which the comparative approach can provide insight in to this question. As becomes clear in these issues, …

Attention Bias Toward Threat Is Associated With Exaggerated Fear Expression And Impaired Extinction In Ptsd, Negar Fani, Erin B. Tone, J. Phifer, Seth D. Norrholm, Bekh Bradley, Kerry J. Ressler, Asante R. Kamkwalala, Tanya Jovanovic

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops in a minority of traumatized individuals. Attention biases to threat and abnormalities in fear learning and extinction are processes likely to play a critical role in the creation and/or maintenance of PTSD symptomatology. However, the relationship between these processes has not been established, particularly in highly traumatized populations; understanding their interaction can help inform neural network models and treatments for PTSD.

Method: Attention biases were measured using a dot probe task modified for use with our population; task stimuli included photographs of angry facial expressions, which are emotionally salient threat signals. A fear-potentiated startle …

Paranoid Thinking, Suspicion, And Risk For Aggression: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective, Erin B. Tone, Jennifer S. Davis

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article represents an effort to extend our understanding of paranoia or suspicion and its development by integrating findings across clinical, developmental, and neuroscience literatures. We first define “paranoia” or paranoid thought and examine its prevalence across typically and atypically developing individuals and theoretical perspectives regarding its development and maintenance.We then briefly summarize current ideas regarding the neural correlates of adaptive, appropriately trusting interpersonal perception, social cognition, and behavior across development. Our focus shifts subsequently to examining in normative and atypical developmental contexts the neural correlates of several component cognitive processes thought to contribute to paranoid thinking: (a) attention bias …

To Each According To His Need? Variability In The Responses To Inequity In Nonhuman Primates, Sara A. Price, Sarah F. Brosnan

Psychology Faculty Publications

While it is well established that humans respond to inequity, it remains unclear the extent to which this behavior occurs in our nonhuman primate relatives. By comparing a variety of species, spanning from New World and Old World monkeys to great apes, scientists can begin to answer questions about how the response to inequity evolved, what the function of this response is, and why and how different contexts shape it. In particular, research across nonhuman primate species suggests that the response is quite variable across species, contexts and individuals. In this paper, we aim to review these differences in an …

Help-Seeking Attitudes, Mental Health Stigma, And Self-Concealment Among African American College Students., Akihiko Masuda, P. L. Anderson, J. Edmonds

Psychology Faculty Publications

Stigma has been noted as a major obstacle of mental health service utilization in African Americans. The present study investigated whether mental health stigma and self-concealment were uniquely associated with attitudes toward seeking professional psychological services in African American college students. Data of 163 African American (n_Female = 127; 78% female) were used for present analyses. Results revealed that both mental health stigma and self-concealment were uniquely associated with help-seeking attitudes after controlling for gender, age, and previous experience of seeking professional psychological services.

Psychological Flexibility And Self-Concealment As Predictors Of Disordered Eating Symptoms., Akihiko Masuda, Robert D. Latzman

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present cross-sectional study investigated whether self-concealment and psychological flexibility were uniquely associated with different facets of disordered eating (DE; i.e., dieting, bulimia/food preoccupation, and oral control) and whether these associations varied across gender. Participants included 621 female and 212 male college students, ages 18-24 years old. After controlling for age, ethnicity, and BMI, both self-concealment and psychological flexibility were uniquely related to dieting. Controlling for these demographic variables, psychological flexibility, but not self-concealment, was uniquely associated with bulimia/food preoccupation. Neither self-concealment nor psychological flexibility was uniquely associated with oral control. Finally, gender moderated the association between self-concealment and dieting, …

The Role Of Mindfulness And Psychological Flexibility In Somatization, Depression, Anxiety, And General Psychological Distress Of A Non-Clinical College Sample., Akihiko Masuda, Erin Tully

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study investigated whether mindfulness and psychological flexibility uniquely and separately accounted for variability in psychological distress (somatization, depression, anxiety, and general psychological distress). An ethnically diverse, non-clinical sample of college undergraduates (N = 494, 76% female) completed a web-based survey that included the self-report measures of interest. Consistent with prior research, psychological flexibility and mindfulness were positively associated with each other, and tested separately, both variables were negatively associated with somatization, depression, anxiety, and general psychological distress. Results also revealed that psychological flexibility and mindfulness accounted for unique variance in all four measures of distress. These findings …

Neural Responses To Peer Rejection In Anxious Adolescents: Contributions From The Amygdala-Hippocampal Complex, Jennifer Y.F. Lau, Amanda E. Guyer, Erin Tone, Jessica Jenness, Jessica M. Parrish, Daniel S. Pine, Eric E. Nelson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Peer rejection powerfully predicts adolescent anxiety. While cognitive differences influence anxious responses to social feedback, little is known about neural contributions. Twelve anxious and 12 age-, gender- and IQ-matched, psychiatrically-healthy adolescents received ‘not interested’ and ‘interested’ feedback from unknown peers during a Chatroom task administered in a neuroimaging scanner. No group differences emerged in subjective ratings to peer feedback, but all participants reported more negative emotion at being rejected (than accepted) by peers to whom they had assigned high desirability ratings. Further highlighting the salience of such feedback, all adolescents, independent of anxiety levels, manifested elevated responses in the amygdala-hippocampal …

Father Locus Of Control And Child Emotional And Behavioral Outcomes: A Prospective Study, Erin Tone, Stepanie Goodfellow, Stephen Nowicki Jr.

Psychology Faculty Publications

This prospective longitudinal study examined the associations between parent locus of control of reinforcement (LOCR), measured before the birth of a child, and behavioral/emotional outcomes in that child at age seven years. Three hundred seven couples completed questionnaires regarding their emotional status and LOCR at their first prenatal care appointment. When their children turned seven years old, teachers completed questionnaires regarding each participating child’s behavior. Findings indicate significant associations between fathers’ prenatal LOCR and child outcomes, particularly hyperactivity in sons. Hyperactivity and behavioral/emotional problems in girls, in contrast, were better predicted by maternal prenatal emotional distress. Results provide evidence that …

Neural Correlates Of Attention Bias To Threat In Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Negar Fani, Tanja Jovanovic, Timothy D. Ely, Bekh Bradley, David Gutman, Erin Tone, Kerry J. Ressler

Psychology Faculty Publications

Attention bias has been proposed to contribute to symptom maintenance in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), although the neural correlates of these processes have not been well defined. When engaging in tasks that require attention, individuals with PTSD have demonstrated altered activity in brain regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), and amygdala; however, few PTSD neuroimaging studies have employed tasks that both measure attentional strategies being engaged and included emotionally-salient information, which was the goal of the present study. We administered a modified attention bias task, the dot probe, which is …

Multiple Component Remediation Of Developmental Reading Disabilities: A Controlled Factorial Evaluation Of The Influence Of Iq, Socioeconomic Status, And Race On Outcomes, Robin Morris, Maureen Lovett, Maryanne Wolf, Rose Sevcik, Karen Steinbach, Jan Frijters, Marla B. Shapiro

Psychology Faculty Publications

Results from a controlled evaluation of remedial reading interventions are reported: 279 young disabled readers were randomly assigned to a program according to a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design (IQ, socioeconomic status [SES], and race). The effectiveness of two multiple-component intervention programs for children with reading disabilities (PHAB + RAVE-O; PHAB + WIST) was evaluated against alternate (CSS, MATH) and phonological control programs. Interventions were taught an hour daily for 70 days on a 1:4 ratio at three different sites. Multiple-component programs showed significant improvements relative to control programs on all basic reading skills after 70 hours and …