Threat Interpretation Research Articles

Symptom monitoring and the uncertain threat of disease recurrence: A deductive thematic analysis with adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors.

147 Background: Symptom monitoring plays an important role in both the physical and psychological challenges of surviving cancer. Anecdotally, cancer survival is characterized by uncertainty, symptom-related fear, and the interpretation of normal bodily sensations as symptomatic of cancer recurrence. This fear may lead to over-vigilance of benign bodily sensations, increasing anxiety and decreasing quality of life. Yet, there are few studies investigating how cancer survivors interpret and make sense of post-cancer symptoms. These studies are needed to guide considerations for clinical practice and the development of supportive interventions. Methods: We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 AYA cancer survivors about how they interpret, manage, and respond to physical symptoms during survivorship. Participants were 15-25 years old. The sample was diverse in terms of disease history, ethnicity (8 Hispanic), and gender (9 females, 1 nonbinary). We conducted thematic analysis using a deductive coding scheme that was developed using our Cancer Threat Interpretation (CTI) theoretical model of cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes in post-cancer symptom perception. Results: AYA cancer survivors reported experiencing anxiety in the face of common physical sensations. These sensations were often interpreted as potential signs of recurrence or as late effects of treatment. Survivors most commonly reported worries about pain and fatigue, but also other sensations such as breathlessness. We coded participant transcripts into the following themes: biased attending towards symptoms, biased interpretations of symptoms as threatening, fear and worry about symptoms, and behavioral response to symptoms. In addition, we generated a new theme that was not previously captured in the CTI model: trust in the body. Conclusions: Knowing how to appraise and respond to symptoms such as pain is a challenge for AYA cancer survivors. This rich qualitative data provides support for the CTI model and suggests future directions. The results of this study can inform how clinicians talk to their patients about symptom monitoring after treatment ends.

Interpreting strategic issues: Effects of differentiation strategies and resource configurations on corporate entrepreneurship

Differentiation strategy represents the shared belief about the market and provides the lens through which executives filter external information. Based on the relevant information peculiar to the strategy and resource configurations in the firm, executives develop opportunity or threat interpretations and take responsive actions. Using the two-wave survey data from 294 CEOs in China during the 2008 macro crisis, we find that the configuration of differentiation, financial slack, and technological capabilities affects corporate entrepreneurship through opportunity interpretations.

Visual attention to pain cues for impending touch versus impending pain: An eye tracking study.

In this eye tracking study, we evaluated pain-related biases in orienting and maintenance of gaze within impending touch versus impending pain tasks and examined features of pain resilience as individual difference influences on potential biases. Gaze preferences of healthy adults (25 women and 39 men) were assessed during standardized pain-neutral (P-N) image pair presentations (2,000ms) of an impending touch task versus an impending pain task whereby image pair offsets were followed by potential non-painful touch and potential pain stimulation, respectively. Within each task, participants were significantly more likely to fixate first upon pain images in P-N pairs and maintain gaze on these images for longer overall durations during trials. Between task comparisons indicated pain-related biases in orienting and maintenance were significantly stronger when image pairs signalled potential pain rather than impending touch. Finally, within the impending pain task, higher scores on the behaviour perseverance dimension of pain resilience were related to shorter first fixation durations and overall gaze durations towards pain images. Supporting specific threat interpretation model premises, comparatively more threatening external pain cues for impending pain were characterized by gaze biases reflecting pronounced early attentional capture and subsequent prolonged vigilance. However, elevations in self-reported behavioural perseverance in spite of pain corresponded to an increased capacity to disengage from pain images that signalled potential pain. Gaze biases were assessed within a comparatively benign "impending touch" paradigm versus a higher threat, impending pain task. Early capture and maintenance of gaze towards pain images were more pronounced on the latter task, although pain resilient participants were able to disengage more easily from pain images signalling possible pain.

Age-related changes in cognitive biases during adolescence

IntroductionAge has been found to moderate the relation between cognitive biases and psychopathology, yet little is known about normative age-related change in these biases during adolescence. Adolescence might be a key developmental period for changes in negatively biased information-processing, and understanding the trajectories of these processes in a typically developing population is a pre-requisite for further comprehending their association with psychopathology. MethodsThis study explores the effect of age on seven cognitive biases in a diverse community sample from the United Kingdom (N = 540) aged 10–17 years (309 were female) using self-report measures. ResultsAge demonstrated a positive linear association with three biases: threat interpretation, negative attributions and overgeneralizing scores. ConclusionsImportant changes take place during adolescence that may increase young people's negative cognitive biases. Empirical data on normative age-related changes in cognitive biases should be integrated into theoretical models of biased information-processing and psychopathology.

Power, perception and foreign policymaking: US and EU responses to the rise of China

Handling the rise of China has not always been at the top of American or European policy agendas, but it probably marks the most strategic interstate issue the US and the EU have faced since the end of the Cold War. To date, most of the attempts to explain or assess the extent of China's rise had the intention of informing or influencing policy-making rather than examining the conclusions policy-makers themselves have drawn. Scott Brown's Power, perception and foreign policymaking therefore offers an important addition to the literature by engaging in an in-depth study of the ways in which policy-makers have evaluated and responded to China's rise. Brown's focus on perceptions is refreshing and responds to the strands of thinking in International Relations which highlight the importance of perceptions and ideas, as opposed to material factors, in the making of foreign policy. Following an introductory chapter which sets out the approach of the book clearly and concisely, chapter two categorizes different interpretations of China's rise by policy-makers in the US and EU. It does so across three factors: military threat or military non-threat; economic threat or economic opportunity; and normative threat or political opportunity. This enables Brown to bring out the differences between the US and EU: military threat interpretations have been a regular feature of policy-thinking in the US, for example, but not in the EU, where interpretations based on economic opportunity or political opportunity have been more common than across the Atlantic.

Intranasal oxytocin modulates higher order social cognition in body dysmorphic disorder.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a psychiatric disorder with specific impairments in social cognition related to excessive concerns about one's appearance. Individuals with BDD have difficulty identifying emotional expressions and attribute internal factors for others' emotional expressions in self-referent (but not other-referent) scenarios. Given the role of oxytocin in regulating social approach behavior and social salience, we hypothesized that oxytocin would improve biases in emotion recognition, attributions, and threat interpretations in individuals with BDD, compared to healthy controls (HCs). This is the first study to examine the effects of oxytocin in people with BDD. Eighteen participants with BDD and 16 HCs received a single dose of 24 international units of intranasal oxytocin (Syntocinon®) or matching placebo in a randomized, placebo-controlled, within-subject crossover design. Participants completed the Emotion Recognition Task and Interpretation Questionnaire 45min after administration. Oxytocin, relative to placebo, did not improve emotion recognition accuracy in either self-referent or other-referent contexts for individuals with BDD. However, oxytocin led to greater internal attributions in other-referent contexts for those with BDD compared to HCs. Rather than reducing self-blame, oxytocin led to other-directed blame. Oxytocin did not impact threat interpretations in BDD. Oxytocin may only impact specific aspects of higher order social cognition in BDD and may have unwanted effects on emotion attributions. Our results caution its clinical use in BDD.

疼痛威胁解释模型的合理性—来自眼动研究结果的验证

疼痛威胁解释模型的合理性—来自眼动研究结果的验证

Negative Illness Perceptions are Associated With a Pronociceptive Modulation Profile and Augmented Pelvic Pain.

A patient's personal interpretations of a health threat or "illness perceptions" (IPs) are associated with their clinical outcomes. This study explored whether IPs are associated with pain severity and ability to modulate pain in women with chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS), as well as the predictive value of IPs on myofascial manual therapy (MMT) success. Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R), mechanical and heat pain thresholds, mechanical temporal summation, and conditioned pain modulation (CPM) were evaluated in CPPS patients (n=39) before, and 3 months after MMT. CPPS severity was obtained by the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI). Stronger perceptions of illness chronicity were correlated with less efficient CPM (r=0.488, P=0.002) and increased mechanical pain intensity (r=0.405, P=0.02). Lower perceptions of control over illness were associated with enhanced mechanical temporal summation (r=0.399, P=0.01). Higher BPI scores were correlated with emotional representations (negative emotional representations) and severe consequences due to CPPS. Regression analyses revealed that negative IPs predict less efficient MMT. Cognitive representations play a unique role in CPPS expression and MMT outcomes. The interplay between negative IPs and a pronociceptive modulation profile, mediated by enhanced facilitatory and reduced inhibitory processes, may be involved in the manifestation of CPPS.

An experimental test of the role of appearance-related safety behaviors in body dysmorphic disorder, social anxiety, and body dissatisfaction.

Individuals with appearance concerns engage in "safety behaviors" (SBs) aimed at checking, hiding, fixing, and reducing threat associated with their perceived flaw in appearance. Appearance-related SBs are important in contemporary accounts of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), though they are also relevant to social anxiety (SAD) and eating disorders. The present study examined the extent to which appearance-related SBs contribute to the development of disorder-specific symptoms and maladaptive cognitions. Female undergraduates without clinically elevated appearance concerns (N = 99) were randomly assigned to 1 week of (a) increasing the frequency and duration of appearance-related SBs (SB+), (b) decreasing these behaviors (SB-), or (c) a control in which they increased their academic studying behaviors. Generally, SB+ participants demonstrated greater BDD symptoms, SAD symptoms, body dissatisfaction, disorder-relevant threat interpretations, beliefs about the importance of appearance, and reactivity to an in vivo appearance-related task following the manipulation, relative to the other groups, with some exceptions. The SB- and control conditions largely did not differ from one another in these outcomes. SB+ participants also reported greater anxiety and depressive symptoms postmanipulation relative to other conditions. Groups no longer differed from one another at a follow-up assessment. Overall, these findings suggest that engagement in appearance-related SBs may play an instrumental role in symptoms and maladaptive cognitions across a range of disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Single or mixture halogenated chemicals? Risk assessment and developmental toxicity prediction on zebrafish embryos based on weighted descriptors approach

Halogenated chemicals including perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) represent an emerging class of endocrine-disrupting pollutants for human populations across the globe. Distress related to their environmental fate and toxicity has initiated several research projects, but the amount of experimental data available for these pollutants is limited. The objective of this study is to assess the toxicity of potentially “safer” alternatives, in relation to their existing counterparts. Developmental toxicity data on zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos of single and tertiary halogenated mixtures were modeled employing quantitative structure-toxicity relationship (QSTR) tool. The computed models are then employed for toxicity prediction of theoretically generated binary and tertiary mixtures (which have no experimental data) to check their possible threshold and mode of toxicity for future risk assessment. Further, for toxicity screening, we have prepared a huge external dataset consists of single (24), binary (276) and tertiary (2024) mixtures of PFASs. It was accomplished by combination method and predicted through developed models for interpretation of toxicity threats for individuals and mixtures along with identification of diverse range and combination of toxicity thresholds. We found that chemicals in mixtures displayed concentration addition of individual chemical suggesting a similar mode of toxic action and non-interaction of chemicals. Not only that, mixtures of halogenated compounds including PFASs showed less toxicity than their single counterparts and the obtained toxicity trend is: Single chemical > Binary mixture > Tertiary mixture.

Training Less Threatening Interpretations Over the Internet: Impact of Priming Anxious Imagery and Using a Neutral Control Condition

Cognitive Bias Modification to reduce threat interpretations (CBM-I) is a computer-based paradigm designed to train a less negative interpretation bias that has shown some success in the lab, but results for web-based CBM-I are often mixed. To test possible explanations for the poorer results online, participants high in social anxiety (N = 379) were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete a single-session, proof-of-principle study to investigate: (1) whether web-based CBM-I can shift interpretations of social situations to be less negative and reduce anticipatory social anxiety, (2) whether a common “control” condition used in CBM-I studies is in fact inert by incorporating an alternate control condition, and (2) whether priming anxious imagery prior to training moderates CBM-I’s effects. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions: all positive, half positive/half negative, or neutral unemotional scenarios. Participants also received an anxious or neutral imagery prime before training. Although results were somewhat mixed across outcome measures, findings generally suggested that participants exhibited less negative interpretations of ambiguous social scenarios following positive training with an anxious imagery prime. There was also some evidence that the neutral training condition was associated with less negative interpretations, and evidence that the half positive/half negative training condition led to the least anticipatory anxiety, especially when paired with anxious imagery. Findings are discussed in light of different training effects for near- and far-transfer outcomes.

Interpretation bias and social anxiety: does interpretation bias mediate the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses?

ABSTRACTTwo studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses, in particular current state anxiety, bodily sensations, and perceived probability and cost of negative evaluation pertaining to a speech task. Study 1 used ambiguous social scenarios and Study 2 used ambiguous facial expressions as stimuli to objectively assess interpretation bias. Undergraduate students with high and low social anxiety completed measures of state anxiety responses at three time points: baseline, after the interpretation bias task, and after the preparation for an impromptu speech. Results showed that high socially anxious individuals were more likely to endorse threat interpretations for ambiguous social scenarios and to interpret ambiguous faces as negative than low socially anxious individuals. Furthermore, negative interpretations mediated the relationship between trait social anxiety and perceived probability of negative evaluation pertaining to the speech task in Study 1 but not Study 2. The present studies provide new insight into the role of interpretation bias in social anxiety.

Effects of an Appearance-Focused Interpretation Training Intervention on Eating Disorder Symptoms.

Previous research suggests that computerized interpretation bias modification (IBM) techniques may be useful for modifying thoughts and behaviours relevant to eating pathology; however, little is known about the utility of IBM for decreasing specific eating disorder (ED) symptoms (e.g. bulimia, drive for thinness). The current study sought to further examine the utility of IBM for ED symptoms via secondary analyses of an examination of IBM for individuals with elevated body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) symptoms (see Summers and Cougle, 2016), as these disorders are both characterized by threat interpretation biases of ambiguous appearance-related information. We recruited 41 participants for a randomized trial comparing four sessions of IBM aimed at modifying problematic social and appearance-related threat interpretation biases with a placebo control training (PC). At 1-week post-treatment, and relative to the PC, the IBM group reported greater reductions in negative/threat interpretations of ambiguous information in favour of positive/benign biases. Furthermore, among individuals with high pre-treatment bulimia symptoms, IBM yielded greater reductions in bulimia symptoms compared with PC at post-treatment. No treatment effects were observed on drive for thinness symptoms. The current study suggests that cognitive interventions for individuals with primary BDD symptoms may improve co-occurring ED symptoms such as bulimia.

Effects of Higher Versus Lower Threat Contexts on Pain-Related Visual Attention Biases: An Eye-Tracking Study of Chronic Pain

In this research, we examined effects of higher versus lower threat contexts on attention biases in more and less pain-fearful chronic pain subgroups via eye-tracking methodology. Within a mixed chronic pain sample (69 women, 29 men), biases in orienting and maintenance of visual attention were assessed during the standardized image pair presentation phase (2,000 ms) of a modified visual dot probe task featuring painful-neutral (P-N) image pairs (lower threat context) and a parallel task in which these P-N pairs cued potential pain (higher threat context). Across both tasks, participants more often oriented toward, gazed longer at, and made more unique fixations upon pain images during P-N pair presentations. Although trait-based fear of pain was not related to any gaze bias index in either task, between task analyses indicated the sample reported more state fear, directed their initial gaze less often, and displayed longer overall gaze durations toward pain images in the higher threat context in which P-N trials signaled potential pain. Results supported the threat interpretation model premise that persons with chronic pain have difficulty disengaging from moderately threatening visual painful cues. PerspectiveThrough integrating dot-probe and impending pain task paradigms, we assessed effects of lower versus higher threat contexts on visual attention biases of persons with chronic pain via eye tracking. Under higher threat conditions featuring possible pain, state fear levels were elevated and maintenance of attention on painful depictions was more prolonged.

Do clinically anxious children cluster according to their expression of factors that maintain child anxiety?

BackgroundCognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for childhood anxiety disorders, yet a significant proportion of children do not benefit from it. CBT for child anxiety disorders typically includes a range of strategies that may not all be applicable for all affected children. This study explored whether there are distinct subgroups of children with anxiety disorders who are characterized by their responses to measures of the key mechanisms that are targeted in CBT (i.e. interpretation bias, perceived control, avoidance, physiological arousal, and social communication). Methods379 clinically anxious children (7–12 years) provided indices of threat interpretation, perceived control, expected negative emotions and avoidance and measures of heart rate recovery following a speech task. Parents also reported on their children's social communication difficulties using the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). ResultsLatent profile analysis identified three groups, reflecting (i) ‘Typically anxious’ (the majority of the sample and more likely to have Generalized anxiety disorder); (ii) ‘social difficulties’ (characterized by high SCQ and more likely to have social anxiety disorder and be male); (iii) ‘Avoidant’ (characterized by low threat interpretation but high avoidance and low perceived control). LimitationsSome measures may have been influenced by confounding variables (e.g. physical variability in heart rate recovery). Sample characteristics of the group may limit the generalizability of the results. ConclusionsClinically anxious children appear to fall in to subgroups that might benefit from more targeted treatments that focus on specific maintenance factors. Treatment studies are now required to establish whether this approach would lead to more effective and efficient treatments.

«Turn to the East» Policy: Expectations and Reality

Macroeconomic dynamics, foreign economic relations, reproduction proportions in the Russian economy and the economy of the Russian Far East are analyzed. The author considers sub-global orientation of state economic policy in Russia after 2010. The changing geographic vector of economic policy is analyzed through a modified geographic structure of the expected increase in the country’s export rent, and also through the shift of the center of concentration of resources, which are necessary to form a new pole of growth in the national economy. The author reviews macroeconomic dynamics and analyzes the factors of the cyclical development of the Russian economy. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the geographical structure of foreign markets. The author’s hypothesis suggests that foreign trade interactions are not sufficiently restructured to reconceive economic policies. For this purpose, the institutional integration within the new integration space is of critical importance. The article considers trends and regularities that explain the equilibrium parameters of the economic system of the Russian Far East, as well as the possibility of transition to new equilibrium levels. The author discusses the ratio of investment and institutional factors of modernization and the formation of stable positive macroeconomic and structural dynamics in the region. Based on Russian and foreign scientific literature, I consider the most common interpretations of threats and opportunities for the economic development of the Russian Far East, including the impact of demographic trends, structural improvement, competitive environment factors, institutional innovations. The study discusses the influence of the Chinese «one belt — one way» project on the prospects for implementing the domestic and foreign eastern economic policy of the Russian Federation.

The role of beliefs and trait aggression in prison bullying among young offenders

This study aimed to explore the characteristics of those involved in bullying, including trait aggression, beliefs, interpretation of potential threat and responses to aggression. Three hundred and thirteen young adult male offenders completed three measures; the Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist, the Aggression Questionnaire, and the Threat Appraisal of Behaviour measure. Pure bullies and bully-victims were predicted to have higher trait aggression scores, and to be more likely to endorse beliefs supportive of aggression than other groups. Bully-victims were predicted to have higher levels of trait hostility and higher levels of fear than pure bullies. The results demonstrated that both bully groups had higher trait aggression scores, with bully-victims having higher scores on the hostility subscale than pure bullies or those not involved. Bully-victims viewed bullying as more of a threat and were more fearful of it than pure bullies and they were also more likely to endorse both aggressive and avoidant coping responses whereas pure bullies were more likely to endorse aggressive responding. Findings highlight differences between the two bully groups and offers an outline of the underpinning causes of bullying for each group.

Effects of Cognitive Bias Modification Training via Smartphones.

Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive biases have been linked to anxiety and mood problems. Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM) paradigms. Despite the therapeutic potential of positive training effects, few studies have explored training paradigms administered via smartphones. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three different types of training programmes (cognitive bias modification-attention, CBM-A; cognitive bias modification-interpretation, CBM-I; attention and interpretation modification, AIM) administered via smart-phones by using a control condition (CC).Methods: Seventy-six undergraduate participants with high social anxiety (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS ≥ 30) were randomly assigned to four groups: CBM-A (n = 20), CBM-I (n = 20), AIM (n = 16), and CC (n = 20).Results: The results showed that the effects of CBM training, CBM-I training, or AIM training vs. CC for attention yielded no significant differences in dot-probe attention bias scores. The CBM-I group showed significantly less threat interpretation and more benign interpretation than the CC group on interpretation bias scores.Conclusions: The present results supported the feasibility of delivering CBM-I via smartphones, but the effectiveness of CBM-A and AIM training via smartphones was limited.

Biased interpretations of ambiguous bodily threat information in adolescents with chronic pain.

Adult patients with chronic pain are consistently shown to interpret ambiguous health and bodily information in a pain-related and threatening way. This interpretation bias may play a role in the development and maintenance of pain and disability. However, no studies have yet investigated the role of interpretation bias in adolescent patients with pain, despite that pain often first becomes chronic in youth. We administered the Adolescent Interpretations of Bodily Threat (AIBT) task to adolescents with chronic pain (N = 66) and adolescents without chronic pain (N = 74). Adolescents were 10 to 18 years old and completed the study procedures either at the clinic (patient group) or at school (control group). We found that adolescents with chronic pain were less likely to endorse benign interpretations of ambiguous pain and bodily threat information than adolescents without chronic pain, particularly when reporting on the strength of belief in those interpretations being true. These differences between patients and controls were not evident for ambiguous social situations, and they could not be explained by differences in anxious or depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this interpretation pattern was associated with increased levels of disability among adolescent patients, even after controlling for severity of chronic pain and pain catastrophizing. The current findings extend our understanding of the role and nature of cognition in adolescent pain, and provide justification for using the AIBT task in longitudinal and training studies to further investigate causal associations between interpretation bias and chronic pain.

Ekstradycyjny charakter przestępstwa

Article is about the nature of the offense in aspect of which extradition is requested. It includes a discussion on the concept of extradition offenses and catalogue of extraditable offenses. It shows occuring doubts in the interpretation of the term criminal threat and representative in this respect the decision of the Supreme Court. It also includes an analysis of used in almost every extradition methods of qualifying offenses underlying the issue of extradition, namely the elimination method, the method of enumeration and mixed method.