Defensive Avoidance Research Articles

Pandemics and the great evolutionary mismatch.

Dezecache et al. argue that affiliation and contact-seeking are key responses to danger. These natural social tendencies are likely to hinder the observance of physical distancing during the current pandemic. We need internet access at this time, not only to promote freedom of expression, but also to promote public health.

Public Communication as a Tool to Implement Environmental Policies

AbstractClimate change is one of the greatest challenges of our times. We humans must change our behavior in the short run to mitigate the effects of climate change in the long run. Policymakers develop environmental policies to motivate this behavioral change. However, people may nonetheless fail to change to more sustainable practices, defeating the effectiveness of environmental policies. Public communications, such as mass media campaigns, can enhance compliance with environmental policies, but they have not yet lived up to their potential. In this contribution, I propose that environmental communication would be more effective if public communicators took account of the (often counterintuitive) social and psychological processes that influence sustainable behaviors. I present research evidence of the impact of cognitive biases (discounting, control perceptions, optimism bias, denial, defensive avoidance, and reactance), emotions (fear and hope), and expectations (about the intentions of the communication source and other people's environmental behaviors) on the power of environmental public communication as a tool to promote sustainable behaviors. If social and psychological processes are neglected in the design of environmental public communications, messages can backfire and achieve the opposite of what was intended. To improve environmental communications, I propose three communication design suggestions: keep it simple, balance the message, and provide an action perspective.

Nightmares and flashbacks: The impact of commercial sexual exploitation of children among female adolescents placed in residential care

BackgroundImportant unresolved questions remain concerning the specific vulnerabilities and intervention needs of female adolescents who experience commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), when compared to other highly vulnerable female adolescents. ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess differences in the level of post-traumatic symptoms reported by those who experienced CSEC during adolescence and those who did not. Participants and settingThe study used longitudinal data collected from 125 French-speaking female adolescents who were placed in residential centers between the ages 12 and 17 years. MethodPost-traumatic symptoms were assessed at Time 1 and Time 6, while CSEC involvement was assessed at Times 1-5. One-way ANOVAs were performed to inspect differences in the level of post-traumatic symptoms at Time 6 between the participants who reported CSEC during adolescence (n = 70; 56.0%) and those with no history of CSEC (n = 55; 44.0%). Hierarchical regressions examined the effects of CESC while controlling for age, immigration status, child sexual abuse, and post-traumatic symptoms reported at Time 1. ResultsCSEC during adolescence predicted higher levels of general post-traumatic symptoms, anxious arousal, intrusive experiences, defensive avoidance, and dissociation. ConclusionsCSEC experiences intensify the existing vulnerabilities to traumatic sequelae that characterize female adolescents who are placed in residential care.

Cancer information overload: Discriminant validity and relationship to sun safe behaviors

ObjectivePast research suggests a large number of adults feel overwhelmed by the amount of cancer information – a phenomenon labeled cancer information overload (CIO). The current study examines whether CIO is discriminant from other negative message perceptions (reactance, information avoidance) and related to sun safe behaviors. MethodsU.S. adults (N = 2,219) completed survey questions assessing CIO, dispositional reactance, defensive/information avoidance, sun safe behavior, and knowledge. ResultsThe results demonstrated that CIO was discriminant from dispositional reactance, information avoidance, and defensive avoidance, and individuals with higher overload were more likely to tan, less likely to have an annual checkup with a healthcare provider, and less knowledgeable about sun safe protection. Unexpectedly, individuals with higher CIO were more likely to wear wide-brimmed hats. ConclusionCIO is distinct from reactance and avoidance, and related to performance/knowledge of sun safe behaviors, and receiving annual healthcare checkups. Practice ImplicationsThe correlation between CIO and sun safe behavior differs by behavior; a pattern which suggests practitioners might benefit from adapting their communication strategy based on the target population and behavior.

Triggers of defensive medical behaviours: a cross-sectional study among physicians in the Netherlands

ObjectivesThis study investigated whether the attitudes of physicians towards justified and unjustified litigation, and their perception of patient pressure in demanding care, influence their use of defensive medical behaviours.DesignCross-sectional survey...

Phonological Ambiguity Detection Outside of Consciousness and Its Defensive Avoidance.

Freud proposes that in unconscious processing, logical connections are also (heavily) based upon phonological similarities. Repressed concerns, for example, would also be expressed by way of phonologic ambiguity. In order to investigate a possible unconscious influence of phonological similarity, 31 participants were submitted to a tachistoscopic subliminal priming experiment, with prime and target presented at 1 ms. In the experimental condition, the prime and one of the 2 targets were phonological reversed forms of each other, though graphemically dissimilar (e.g., “nice” and “sign”); in the control condition the targets were pseudo-randomly attributed to primes to which they don't belong. The experimental task was to “blindly” pick the choice most similar to the prime. ERPs were measured with a focus on the N320, which is known to react selectively to phonological mismatch in supraliminal visual word presentations. The N320 amplitude-effects at the electrodes on the midline and at the left of the brain significantly predicted the participants' net behavioral choices more than half a second later, while their subjective experience is one of arbitrariness. Moreover, the social desirability score (SDS) significantly correlates with both the behavioral and the N320 brain responses of the participants. It is proposed that in participants with low SDS the phonological target induces an expected reduction of N320 and this increases their probability to pick this target. In contrast, high defensive participants have a perplexed brain reaction upon the phonological target, with a negatively peaking N320 as compared to control and this leads them to avoid this target more often. Social desirability, which is understood as reflecting defensiveness, might also manifest itself as a defense against the (energy-consuming) ambiguity of language. The specificity of this study is that all of this is happening totally out of awareness and at the level of very elementary linguistic distinctions.

Low Health Literacy and Health Information Avoidance but Not Satisficing Help Explain "Don't Know" Responses to Questions Assessing Perceived Risk.

People who say they don't know (DK) their disease risk are less likely to engage in protective behavior. This study examined possible mechanisms underlying not knowing one's risk for common diseases. Participants were a nationally representative sample of 1005 members of a standing probability-based survey panel who answered questions about their comparative and absolute perceived risk for diabetes and colon cancer, health literacy, risk factor knowledge and health information avoidance, and beliefs about illness unpredictability. Survey satisficing was a composite assessment of not following survey instructions, nondifferentiation of responses, haphazard responding, and speeding. The primary outcomes were whether a person selected DK when asked absolute and comparative risk perception questions about diabetes or colon cancer. Base structural equation modeling path models with pathways from information avoidance and health literacy/knowledge to DK responding for each DK outcome were compared to models that also included pathways from satisficing or unpredictability beliefs. Base models contained significant indirect effects of health literacy (odds ratios [ORs] = 0.94 to 0.97, all P < 0.02) and avoidance (ORs = 1.05 to 1.15, all P < 0.01) on DK responding through risk factor knowledge and a direct effect of avoidance (ORs = 1.21 to 1.28, all P < 0.02). Adding the direct effect for satisficing to models resulted in poor fit (for all outcomes, residual mean square error estimates >0.17, all weighted root mean square residuals >3.2, all Comparative Fit Index <0.47, all Tucker-Lewis Index <0.49), indicating that satisficing was not associated with DK responding. Unpredictability was associated with not knowing one's diabetes risk (OR = 1.01, P < 0.01). The data were cross-sectional; therefore, directionality of the pathways cannot be assumed. DK responders may need more health information, but it needs to be delivered differently. Interventions might include targeting messages for lower health literacy audiences and disrupting defensive avoidance of threatening health information.

Mindfulness and the Evaluative Organization of Self-Knowledge

Individuals differ in the degree to which they organize self-knowledge according to its evaluative meaning. Evaluative self-organization can range from complete compartmentalization of positive and negative self-beliefs to complete integration of these self-beliefs. While much research has focused on how evaluative self-organization is related to well-being, relatively little is known about how it is related to individual difference variables. Compartmentalization has been suggested to reflect defensive avoidance of negative self-beliefs. Based on findings showing that mindfulness reduces defensiveness, the current research examined whether greater mindfulness is related to lower levels of compartmentalization. Participants of two studies (Noverall = 164; 129 female) completed measures of trait mindfulness and a self-description task assessing evaluative self-organization. To test causality, participants of study 2 further completed either a mindfulness exercise or a control exercise before completing the self-description task. Results of both studies showed that trait mindfulness was negatively associated with the tendency to compartmentalize self-knowledge. Both studies also found that trait mindfulness was inversely associated with self-concept negativity; specifically, greater mindfulness was associated with fewer negative self-beliefs, but it was unrelated to the number of positive self-beliefs. Going beyond trait mindfulness, study 2 further found that participants who completed the mindfulness exercise demonstrated less compartmentalization than participants who completed the control exercise. Mindfulness meditation had no effect on the relative amount of participants’ negative self-beliefs. Results are consistent with the assumption that compartmentalization may reflect a form of defensive avoidance and that mindfulness has the potential to reduce compartmentalization.

The Prediction of Colorectal Cancer Screening Based on the Extended Parallel Process Model: Moderating the Role of Health Literacy and Cancer-Related Empowerment

Background: The aim of this study was the prediction of colorectal cancer screening based on the extended parallel processing model regarding the moderating role of cancer-related literacy and cancer-related empowerment. Methods: In a cross sectional survey, 366 participants among individuals who attended to the specialized internal clinics of Semnan, Iran were selected by convenience sampling. The participants completed the assessment of colon cancer literacy, health education impact questionnaire, colorectal cancer screening questionnaire, colorectal cancer screening decision quality instrument, and demographic checklist. Finally, the data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling, using SPSS-20 and LISREL 8.8 software. Results: The final model was approved and the model had a good fitness of the data observed. Perceived susceptibility, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived response efficacy indirectly predicted defensive avoidance through cancer-related literacy (P 0.05) and perceived severity had a direct effect on the defensive avoidance (P < 0.05). Conclusions: It is concluded that designing the tailored health-promoting programs is crucial to improve perceived self-efficacy, perceived response efficacy, cancer-related literacy, and health-related empowerment for engagement to the colorectal cancer screening. In addition, decreasing or controlling the fear of cancer, perceived susceptibility, and perceived severity, as leading causes of defensive avoidance in colorectal cancer screening, is important.

Self-affirmation enhances processing of negative stimuli among threat-prone individuals.

Self-affirmation reduces defensive responding to self-threats. The present study extended beyond self-threats to assess affirmation’s influence on responses to negative emotional pictures as measured by the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential in the encephalogram that reflects motivational significance. Participants completed a trait measure of behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity. Then they affirmed (or did not affirm) a core personal value before viewing a series of emotionally evocative pictures. Affirming a core value increased LPP responses to negative emotional pictures among individuals higher in BIS. Self-affirmation thus appeared to alter the motivational significance of negative pictures among threat-prone individuals, consistent with a reduction in the defensive avoidance of aversive stimuli. These findings suggest that affirming values may influence responses associated with basic (non-self) motivational systems among individuals sensitive to threat.

Lateral and Basal Amygdala Account for Opposite Behavioral Responses during the Long-Term Expression of Fearful Memories

Memories of fearful events can be maintained throughout the lifetime of animals. Here we showed that lesions of the lateral nucleus (LA) performed shortly after training impaired the retention of long-term memories, assessed by the concomitant measurement of two dissociable defensive responses, freezing and avoidance in rats. Strikingly, when LA lesions were performed four weeks after training, rats did not show freezing to a learned threat stimulus, but they were able to direct their responses away from it. Similar results were found when the central nucleus (CeA) was lesioned four weeks after training, whereas lesions of the basal nucleus (BA) suppressed avoidance without affecting freezing. LA and BA receive parallel inputs from the auditory cortex, and optogenetic inhibition of these terminals hampered both freezing and avoidance. We therefore propose that, at variance with the traditional serial flow of information model, long-term fearful memories recruit two parallel circuits in the amygdala, one relying on the LA-to-CeA pathway and the other relying solely on BA, which operate independently and mediate distinct defensive responses.

Altered Cortical Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid in Female Veterans With Suicidal Behavior: Sex Differences and Clinical Correlates

Background Suicide is a public health concern in the civilian and veteran populations. Stressful life events are precipitating factors for suicide. The neurochemical underpinnings of the association between stress/trauma and suicide risk are unclear, especially with regard to sex differences. We hypothesized that gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, may be a neurochemical candidate that is critical in the association between stress and suicide risk in veterans. Methods Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 3.0 Tesla was used to measure in vivo neurochemistry in the anterior cingulate cortex (predominantly the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) of 81 veterans (16 females), including 57 (11 females) who endorsed past suicidal ideation and/or suicide attempt and 24 (5 females) with no history of suicidal ideation and/or suicide attempt. Suicidal behavior (SB) was defined as the presence of suicidal ideation and/or suicide attempt. Results We observed no significant differences in GABA/creatine + phosphocreatine (Cr + PCr) between veterans with SB (SB+) and without SB (SB−). However, the female SB+ group showed significantly reduced GABA/Cr + PCr versus the female SB− group. We observed a trend-level significant negative correlation between GABA/Cr + PCr and the Defensive Avoidance subscale on the Trauma Symptom Inventory in the SB+ group. In contrast, the SB− group exhibited a positive relationship between the two variables. Furthermore, we found significant negative correlations between GABA/Cr + PCr and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores as well as between GABA/Cr + PCr and several subscales of the Trauma Symptom Inventory in female veterans. Conclusions This study suggests that reduced GABA/Cr + PCr ratio in the anterior cingulate cortex, which may be related to altered inhibitory capacity, may underlie suicide risk in female veterans. Further, the negative association between GABA/Cr + PCr and stress symptomatology and depression scores suggests that magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies may shed light on intermediate phenotypes of SB.

Face Perception in Social Anxiety: Visuocortical Dynamics Reveal Propensities for Hypervigilance or Avoidance

BackgroundTheories of aberrant attentional processing in social anxiety, and anxiety disorders more broadly, have postulated an initial hypervigilance or facilitation to clinically relevant threats and consequent defensive avoidance. However, existing objective measurements utilized to explore this phenomenon lack the resolution to elucidate attentional dynamics, particularly covert influences. MethodsWe utilized a continuous measure of visuocortical engagement, the steady-state visual evoked potential in response to naturalistic angry, fearful, happy, and neutral facial expressions. Participants were treatment-seeking patients with principal diagnoses of social anxiety circumscribed to performance situations (n = 21) or generalized across interaction contexts (n = 42), treatment-seeking patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia (n = 25), and 17 healthy participants. ResultsAt the principal disorder level, only circumscribed social anxiety patients showed sustained visuocortical facilitation to aversive facial expressions. Control participants as well as patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia and generalized social anxiety showed no bias. More finely stratifying the sample according to clinical judgment of social anxiety severity and interference revealed a linear increase in visuocortical bias to aversive expressions for all but the most severely impaired patients. This group showed an opposing sustained attentional disengagement. ConclusionsRather than shifts between covert vigilance and avoidance of aversive facial expressions, social anxiety appears to confer a sustained bias for one or the other. While vigilant attention reliably increases with social anxiety severity for the majority of patients, the most impaired patients show an opposing avoidance. These distinct patterns of attentional allocation could provide a powerful means of personalizing neuroscience-based interventions to modify attention bias and related impairment.

Examining Trauma and Readiness to Change among Women in a Community Re-Entry Program

ABSTRACTBackground: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) are common among women who are incarcerated. Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between trauma and readiness to change substance use behaviors. Methods: This study used data from 103 participants enrolled in a residential re-entry program for women with SUDs and trauma history. Women reporting clinically elevated Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) subscale scores were compared to those without elevated scores on the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) readiness to change instrument. Primary analyses included t-tests and ANCOVA to control for age and ethnicity. Results: In general, women with clinically elevated trauma scores also reported greater readiness to change. The analyses revealed significant differences on the URICA Readiness to Change scores between women who had elevated Defensive Avoidance and Impaired Self-Reference according to the TSI. Results approached significance for women who had elevated TSI subscale scores for Sexual Concerns and Dissociation. Conclusions: These results point to a need to further understand links between trauma and readiness to change, particularly, the role of posttraumatic growth and psychological distress. This study has implications for social workers and clinicians delivering evidence-based treatment. Women who had high trauma symptoms were more willing to address change. Findings also suggest a need to tailor interventions to include motivational components that are also trauma-informed.

Pathways from paranoid conviction to distress: exploring the mediator role of Fears of Compassion in a sample of people with psychosis

Fears of Compassion (FOC) relate to experiencing defensive emotions and avoidance reactions when receiving and giving compassion. Three different flows have been identified: giving compassion to others, receiving compassion, and self-compassion. This study sought to explore: FOC within a sample of patients with psychosis; the associations between FOC and paranoia; and the mediator role of FOC in the relationship between paranoid conviction and distress. Seventy-two patients with psychosis (74% diagnosed with schizophrenia), mostly male (85%), with a mean age of 33.46 (SD = 9.43), were recruited and assessed with measures of paranoia (conviction and distress) and FOC. Participants presented significantly higher levels of FOC than non-clinical samples and lower levels than depressed patients. Different flows of FOC were associated with each other and with paranoia-related measures. A mediation effect of FOC from others and fears of self-compassion was found. Results support the relevance of including FOC in formulation and treatment protocols for psychosis.

Persistence of Traumatic Symptoms After Seven Years: Evidence from Young Individuals Exposed to the L’Aquila Earthquake

ABSTRACTIn this article, we investigated the presence of trauma-induced sequelae in a sample of 41 young individuals exposed to the L’Aquila earthquake who did not seek mental help in the aftermath of the disaster or in the ensuing months. We compared this group with 43 individuals, matched for age and education, who had not experienced an earthquake but had moved to and lived in L’Aquila after the earthquake and thus experienced the challenges of living in an earthquake-struck city. This study aimed to show that earthquake-exposed individuals scored significantly higher than nonexposed persons on certain scales of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) seven years after the event. Our results indicated that exposed individuals exhibited higher scores on the dissociation, intrusive experience, and defensive avoidance scales. Furthermore, a correlational analysis between specific conditions detected by the Earthquake Checklist L’Aquila (ECLA) and the TSI identified the influences of specific conditions, such as being trapped or injured under rubble during the earthquake, experiencing a persistent fear of aftershocks or a life-threatening feeling, and witnessing the death of a loved one. All of these experiences resulted in the persistence of trauma-related symptoms. Dissociative experiences during the trauma, cognitive and behavioral avoidance and reexperiencing were associated with negative effects and may hinder the natural process of recovery in trauma-exposed individuals. Knowledge of mid- and long-term psychological difficulties following a traumatic event may be useful for promoting interventions in mental health across exposed populations.

Mechanisms of Change Through the Lens of Two-Polarities Models of Personality Development: State of the Art and New Directions

ABSTRACTThis article reviews moderators and mediators of therapeutic change through the lens of the two-polarities model of personality development. This psychodynamic model of personality development essentially proposes that personality development involves a continuous dialectic interaction between the development of the capacity for relatedness on the one hand and agency and self-definition on the other. Within this model, vulnerability for psychopathology is thought to result from an excessive emphasis on one developmental line and the defensive avoidance of the other. The two-polarities model also proposes a unified, transdiagnostic approach to therapeutic change in that it suggests that effective interventions, regardless of the brand name, lead to a reactivation of the dialectic interaction between the development of relatedness and self-definition through experiences of mutuality and understanding, as well as separation and misunderstanding in the therapeutic relationship, much as in normal personality development. We summarize research relevant to this view, and illustrate how this empirically based model of personality development and the therapeutic process may inform clinical practice. We focus specifically on recent developments within this model, which have led to a major shift in our thinking regarding the role of specific and common factors in explaining therapeutic change. We illustrate this shift in our thinking by way of a discussion of emerging research findings concerning therapeutic change in both brief and longer-term treatments across different therapeutic modalities. Limitations of the model are reviewed, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

From avoidance to approach: The influence of threat-of-shock on reward-based decision making

Potential threat can prime defensive responding and avoidance behavior, which may result in the loss of rewards. When aversive consequences do not occur, avoidance should, thus, be quickly overcome in healthy individuals. This study examined the impact of threat anticipation on reward-based decisions. Sixty-five participants completed a decision-making task in which they had to choose between high- and low-reward options. To model an approach-avoidance conflict, the high-reward option was contingent with a threat-of-shock cue; the low-reward option was contingent with a safety cue. In control trials, decisions were made without threat/safety instructions. Overall, behavioral data documented a typical preference for the profitable option. Importantly, under threat-of-shock, participants initially avoided the profitable option (i.e., safe, but less profitable choices). However, when they experienced that shocks did actually not occur, participants overcame initial avoidance in favor of larger gains. Furthermore, autonomic arousal (skin conductance and heart rate responses) was elevated during threat cues compared to safety and non-threatening control cues. Taken together, threat-of-shock was associated with behavioral consequences: initially, participants avoided threat-related options but made more profitable decisions as they experienced no aversive consequences. Although socially acquired threat contingencies are typically stable, incentives for approach can help to overcome threat-related avoidance.

LMFAO! Humor as a Response to Fear: Decomposing Fear Control within the Extended Parallel Process Model

This study seeks to analyze fear control responses to the 2012 Tips from Former Smokers campaign using the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). The goal is to examine the occurrence of ancillary fear control responses, like humor. In order to explore individuals’ responses in an organic setting, we use Twitter data—tweets—collected via the Firehose. Content analysis of relevant fear control tweets (N = 14,281) validated the existence of boomerang responses within the EPPM: denial, defensive avoidance, and reactance. More importantly, results showed that humor tweets were not only a significant occurrence but constituted the majority of fear control responses.

DECISION MAKING STYLES AND STUDY ORIENTATION

The present study is an attempt to study the relationship of Study Orientation (Study Habits and Attitudes) with decision making styles among higher secondary students. Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA) developed by Brown and Holtzman (1967) and Flinders Decision Making Questionnaires I and II (DMQ-I and DMQ-II) developed by Mann (1982) were used to collect data. As large as 148 Higher Secondary Students pursuing the first year study of Higher Secondary Course (HSC) participated in this study. There were 75 males and 73 females. Results reveal that there is significant positive correlation between study orientation and decision self-esteem of students. Also, there is significant association between students’ study orientation and their decision making styles. This association is reflected only in non-vigilant decisions but not in vigilant decisions. Gender effect in Study Orientation was observed favouring female students. Demographic variables like, course of study (arts/science), family income, number of family members, birth order and their residence do not have any effect on their study orientation. The results are interpreted in terms of the role of schools in teaching good study habits to students thereby enhancing their decision self-esteem and reducing their defensive avoidance, buck passing and procrastinating tendencies. Article visualizations: